[LEARC] Fwd: IESMA SYNTOR-X Packet Program

Thu May 9 11:26:28 EDT 2013

Mark, and McDonough ARES members:

Myself, and Danny Pease ng9r, will be attending this meeting on the 18th, and bring back any and all information concerning these radios. I feel this is a win-win for everyone concerned. The ARES/RACES community will win the most however. As Brad w9fx revealed, they will supply the radio, and we will have to supply everything else. 

I am pleased to see there is still interest in packet around this region 6 area. Once we have our network path in place, emcomm to Springfield, we can branch out to all corners of our region, ensuring emcomm connectivity. Even though packet is painfully slow compared to internet speeds of today- if the internet goes down, packet will be the answer to error free communications. Just another tool in the toolbox, but we must have it in place BEFORE we have a disaster or event. I am sure all of you can think of numerous scenario's that could make use of this mode. 

 Until I know more, I would urge everyone involved, to brain-storm all the logistics for this network. Antenna's, power supplies, coax, LOCATION, and internet connection with dedicated computer for winlink, and packet. I will keep all my EC's in the loop, and they can pass down this info to all their member's.

73,
Gary L. Shanks KA9FAJ
IL ARES District 6 DEC
IL RACES region 6 RO
309.221.7851

>________________________________
> From: Mark A Garrett <MA-Garrett at wiu.edu>
>To: Information of interest to members of the Lamoine Emergency Amateur Radio Club in west central Illinois. <learc at mailman.qth.net> 
>Sent: Thursday, May 9, 2013 9:57 AM
>Subject: [LEARC] Fwd: IESMA SYNTOR-X Packet Program
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>________________________________________
>Next Meeting:
>7:00 pm Tuesday,
>May 14, 2013
>1224 Maple Avenue
>Macomb, IL 61455
>________________________________________
>I thought I would pass this out to our reflector to see if there is any interest in this project and possibly discuss at the next meeting along with Heritage Days Parade. 
>
>Mark Garrett 
>KA9SZX 
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>----- Forwarded Message ----- 
>From: Mark Thompson <wb9qzb_groups at yahoo.com> 
>To: "IllinoisPacketRadio at yahoogroups.com" <IllinoisPacketRadio at yahoogroups.com> 
>Cc: "ILACS-EMERGSVC at yahoogroups.com" <ILACS-EMERGSVC at yahoogroups.com>; "CIARESMAG at yahoogroups.com" <CIARESMAG at yahoogroups.com> 
>Sent: Monday, May 6, 2013 1:20 AM 
>Subject: [IllinoisPacketRadio] Fwd: IESMA SYNTOR-X Packet Program 
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>----- Forwarded Message ----- 
>From: Brad Pioveson W9FX <brad at w9fx.net> 
>To: Illinois_ARES at yahoogroups.com 
>Sent: Sunday, May 5, 2013 6:07 PM 
>Subject: [Illinois_ARES] ARES HF Net Comments 05 MAY 2013 
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>SYNTOR-X Packet Program 
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>As many of you who have connections in or with the public service communications world know, the FCC mandated that all the FM rigs on VHF and UHF channels in the U.S. had to comply with narrowband emission requirements on 01 JAN of this year. Some of the newer radios were capable of being reprogrammed to meet the new deviation and frequency standards. Others, including the Illinois State Police fleet of VHF Motorola Syntor-X transceivers were not, and, they became surplus to the State of Illinois. All of these radios, about 925 of them, were headed for recyclers. I heard about this and started an initiative to get them repurposed for ARES and RACES use. With the help of others, including Jim Pitchford, N9LQF, and Charlie Richey, K9DUE, we have successfully managed to stay the virtual execution of these fine, 110 watt transceivers. There are currently 15 pallets of them at the Illinois’ Central Management System’s warehouse in Springfield. 
>What we’re going to do with these transceivers is to have a team of ISP radio techs – hams, volunteering their expertise and time – modify these rigs to become single channel transceivers. This single channel will be 145.610 MHz, our Illinois Packet Network frequency. The radios will have connections for audio in, audio out, push-to-talk (PTT) and DC power connections. We plan, thru the auspices of the Illinois Emergency Services Management Association (IESMA), to offer two, each, of these transceivers to every emergency management agency in the State of Illinois. That’s all the county EMA’s, and all the home rule community EMA’s. What we will ask in return for the transceivers is an agreement from these EMA’s that they will provide a packet radio 1200 baud TNC, power supply, antenna, feedling, PC and, hopefully, a 24/7 Internet connection, so that these transceivers can become part of a statewide Winlink 2000 VHF packet system. The
 Illinois RACES program (state level) will oversee management of the network. Obviously, each EMA will have to establish a working relationship with local hams in order to legally bring these systems up on amateur radio frequencies. That’s where ARES comes in. Y’all will have an opportunity to have a hand in the building, operation, and, maintenance of this network, and, you will have a ready resource for your ARES (or, RACES) group’s digital communications needs. Running the Winlink Development Teams’ RMS Relay program will allow traffic to continue to flow across the network even when the Internet is not available. 
>I am also going to be contacting the Illinois Dept of Public Health in an effort to initiate a similar Syntor-X radio program for EVERY hospital in Illinois. That is, at this point, however, not something that has been accomplished. 
>More on the Syntor-X Packet radio program as it develops and we get the kinks worked out. Trying to find storage space for 925 radios, plus arranging for transportation and a production line of techs to work on them requires more than a little time and finesse. Stay tuned for more! 
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>Brad Pioveson, W9FX 
>Illinois Emergency Management Agency State RACES Officer 
>ARRL Illinois Section Emergency Coordinator 
>ARRL Emergency Communications Advisory Committee Central Division Representative 
>Hurricane Watch Net, Inc., President and Chairman 
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