On a late fall afternoon in 2004 I sat at my desk putting together a proposal
for a potential client.  The local jazz station played on my studio monitors
competing with the activities on 14300 khz. I had a couple of messages pending
to hopefully move on the section traffic net which I'd picked up on the late
session of region five. IN other words, just a normal day.  My phone rings. 
IT's the local emergency management guy from University hospital.  We talk
about a few other things, projects in progress, etc.  Then as a quick aside he
says "I thought we might need to call you guys in this afternoon."  He then
proceeds to tell me about the loss of a crucial link between many elements of
the LSU health services staff, including University and Charity hospitals in
New Orleans.


IT seems that the link to its controlling hardware and software had gone down
for the NExtel system, which was used extensively by their personnel to
communicate among themselves. 

Before Nextel LSU health services utilized many vhf and uhf
frequencies for on the go comms for staff.  As part of helping them plan for
the inevitable big hurricane we'd talked about those frequencies, and their
continued capability to use them.  A good friend of mine with the know-how had
done quite a bit of research in FCC data to find me information on what
systems they had at that hospital. 

Armed with this data, I asked my friend in emergency management at the
hospital if they still had portable equipment to get on those frequencies, and
if they still had the repeaters that some depended on.  His answer was that
when they'd signed the contract putting those little Nextel beep beep push to
talk pcs devices in pockets they'd considered those radios surplus, and no
longer had them.

Some of their potables of course depended on repeaters.  There were numerous
antennas on the Charity hospital campus.  There were some equipment racks
still in a room on the top floor, but my colleague couldn't tell me what was
in them, or whether it even functioned. We planned to work on finding out. 

When Katrina struck, we were ready with fresh batteries in a dozen or so frs
radios to distribute to key staff elements that would need comms once the
internal telephone network went out.    But, supplies  of both alkaline
batteries to replace their soon to be dead nicads was short as well as the
radios themselves.

But, before Nextel every key department had its  dedicated radio frequency,
those that would need them had repeater systems.  Those repeater systems could
have easily been connected to electrical power which automatically switched to
generator as were many other important systems.  They could have been further
backed up by batteries. 

OF course, Nextel didn't fare any better than most communications systems in
New Orleans during Katrina.  The trouble was, too many crucial communication
systems had put all their trust in complex systems easily lost during such an
event.  New Orleans police and fire lost their local trunked system, and by
necessity switched some operations to the state trunked system, which was
already overloaded. 

Meanwhile, according to a guy whose information I trust, these folks still had
conventional repeater systems on tall buildings throughout the city.  These
systems had backup power.  Some of them even retained antennas. 

According to my associate, he did some checking, and found many of these
machines still operational.  So, the next logical question would be why they
didn't switch to them when the trunked system became unavailable.  We know the
answer of course, they didn't have any radios. 

AS I type this, I'm looking at a MOtorolla portable which probably spent a
good part of its life being available for a New Orleans firefighter to use.  I
bought it at a nearby hamfest, because the seller had the programming software
and cable and I could put a rugged radio of this type to good use.  The price
was quite
reasonable. 

These good folks spent a lot of time in the past designing those systems. 
They provided for backup power for the equipment, and no doubt considered the
likelihood of strong winds and the impact those winds would have on these
antennas. 

But, the new technology was attractive, spectrum efficient, and the latest
greatest.  This would surely translate into lower
maintenance costs. 

Back at the hospital campuses, the same applies.  NO need for social services
and maintenance to each have a radio frequency. Program your personal
communicators with one button contact with anybody else in that department. 
Let Nextel handle the maintenance of a system.  Even better, if the department
head went out of town as long as her destination offered Nextel service the
staff could reach her there.  Better than a local repeater, lower maintenance.
Somebody drops their Nextel communicator and doesn't realize it until the
truck has backed over it, no problem.  Go to the store, get another Nextel
handheld communicator device.  They're cheap, and they're around the corner at
the local store. 

Yes they are available, until this cellular system can't
communicate.  Now you're out of touch.  But, with a conventional radio, even
if you normally depend on a repeater system, if you've planned ahead you can
utilize simplex on the repeater's output frequency. 

A lot of our tax money has been spent in just such a manner.  We're told that
our hf circuits are dinosaurs, that all this beautiful technology is so robust
that it's virtually guaranteed not to fail. After all, the sales rep talked
about the generator backups at the tower cites, the multiple cites available
in your area.  HE told you that they've got these systems all over the
country, and they just work. 

I'll grant that folks at various locations within our hospital complexes were
able to take advantage of some band openings to at least send text messages,
and even connect an actual call now and then.  This was especially true for
folks on upper floors. 

Meanwhile we have people rolling the dice, taking a chance on making a
connection when they've got a pressing need for
reliability.  To use the one satellite phone available our
emergency managers at the hospital had to go up onto the damaged roof, and
hope he could get on, as many others were utilizing the available capacity of
the system.  the state trunked system was often loaded to capacity, or
exceeding it as well. 

A lot of your money and mine has been spent for these systems, and perfectly
good equipment and systems have not been properly
retained or maintained to be available when needed. 

Yes, I got a great deal on a Motorolla radio rugged enough to be type accepted
for firefighter duty.  When we lived in center city New Orleans, it got
regular use.  Now I live out in the sticks.  It maybe sees use three or four
days a year now.  I'm sure some rescue worker would have been exceedingly glad
to have it on his belt during the aftermath of Katrina, especially had he
known that there were repeater systems for his agency still functioning. 

I'm also sure that when the critical patient was evacuated from our
institution thanks to hf radio that an emergency room physician breathed a
sigh of relief, and gave prayers of thanks according to the tenets of her
faith.  Many weren't so lucky.

we've allowed our tax dollars to be spent in a similar manner to that which
goes into the pockets of the cocaine dealers.  AT first just a hit or two,
it's "recreational" then it's recreational every weekend, then ...

The salesmen are good at what they do.  Heck we can even get Federal grant
money to hand to the  sales rep.  IT's all great, the portable units aren't
those big bricks of yesterday that weighed down your belt.  NO reason to
worry, the sales rep assured you they've got contingency plans for disasters,
and everything's going to be just fine. 

I'll not argue that there are many benefits to these modern
systems.  However, I will argue until I draw my last breath that failure to
provide real robust communications systems or to plan for the use  of them
when needed is dereliction of duty on the part of our emergency management
professionals.  How many people have to die because of this shortsightedness
before they figure it out? Ask yourself that question, and then, ask them! 
Remind them that they're spending, and have spent your tax dollars!

Failing to plan is planning to fail.  IN this  case, failing to plan to take
advantage of any and all resources is tantamount to going armed with intent. 


Regards,
           Richard
... 10% of everything isn't crap, watch closely or you'll miss it!
--- timEd 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin:  (1:116/901)