US Sets Up Emergency Multi-Band Radio Project

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday July 1, 2009 @10:57AM 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."

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Waiste Money on what has allready been done by pcjunky · 2009-07-01 11:10 · 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.
Re:Really? by Ihmhi · 2009-07-01 12:20 · 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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Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)