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US Sets Up Emergency Multi-Band Radio Project

Posted by samzenpus on from the switch-it-to-channel-danger dept.

coondoggie writes "Looking to help eliminate the dangerous and inefficient hodgepodge of communication and network technology used by emergency response personnel, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today said it had picked 14 groups from across the country to pilot an ambitious Multi-Band Radio project. In 2008, the DHS Science and Technology Directorate awarded a $6.2 million contract to Thales Communications to demonstrate the first-ever portable radio prototype that lets emergency responders — police, firefighters, emergency medical personnel and others — communicate with partner agencies, regardless of the radio band they operate on."

5 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. Waiste Money on what has allready been done by pcjunky · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why don't they ask the group who has been using multiband equipment for several decades. Amateur Radio operators. They have radios that operate from below 1 MHz to over 1GHz. They have been doing (without pay) emergency radio communications for a very long time now.

    1. Re:Waiste Money on what has allready been done by nametaken · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Where's the money in that?

  2. Re:Waiste Money on what has already been done by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why don't they ask the group who has been using multiband equipment for several decades. Amateur Radio operators. They have radios that operate from below 1 MHz to over 1GHz. They have been doing (without pay) emergency radio communications for a very long time now.

    Because it doesn't involve a really bloated government contract with some DoD favorite that has obscenely paid lobbyists, with state-of-the-art equipment that has serious design issues but lots of shiny digital displays and lights and switches, that you can drop 5 stories and it STILL doesn't work right.

    No joke. That's why.

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  3. It can be done, at a cost by DarthBart · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yeah, good luck with that. If it succeeds, it'll be a portable radio that costs $10K. It'll have to license P25 and SmartNet from Motorola, a couple of protocols from EF Johnson, have MPT1324 (The only real open standard in commercial radio), it'll need wide and narrow band coverage of 150, 450, and 800Mhz.

    Sure, it can all be done with a DSP based radio, but someone's gotta pay for the Intellectual Property to make them work.

  4. Re:Really? by Ihmhi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hey, it's only taken, what, eight years after the radio clusterfuck that was 9/11 for this to happen?

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