As long as others are suggesting options, Vashon should also be considered. VashonBePrepared (.org) is local Citizen Corp Council and a very active coalition of about a dozen disaster preparedness groups. One of our partners, Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (King County Fire District 13) has a nice tower at their station 55 (www.vifr.org, 10020 SW Bank Road, Vashon 98070, 47°26'53.46"N, 122°27'45.98"W), that has battery & generator backup power & *might* have space available for a HamWan node. Station 55 is the main fire station for the island and is where Vashon's EOC (VashonEOC.org) is located. (We're planning a move and redesign of our EOC later this year.) There are an additional 4 fire stations that we'd love to have connections to, but they are less critical. (https://www.google.com/maps/@47.415221,-122.521961,12z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!6m1...) An additional site that is also near the crest of the island is near another partner, Voice of Vashon (VoiceOfVashon.org, 47°25'7.53"N, 122°27'50.65"W). There also a number of commercial broadcast stations on Vashon that might conceivably be approached for antenna space if interference wasn't a problem for us or them. Vashon is connected to the mainland via three fiber optic lines (2 in the same conduit) and much of the island's internet service is on overhead lines that aren't very robust. We'd love to have additional secondary ways to connect to the world after an earthquake. We also have an active HAM club and a system of WinLink stations, but they are low bandwidth unfortunately. If a site on Vashon makes sense to the HamWan community, we can provide limited funding and possibly ongoing volunteer help, depending on what would be helpful. I can set up a meeting or connect you to others here as needed. - John KE7KDQ Deputy EOC Manager & Planning Section Chief, Vashon EOC Board Member, VashonBePrepared 206.567.0010 home 206.914.3050 cell
HamWAN will entertain all offers for free tower space with good line-of-sight coverage. Firstly, have you tried to receive HamWAN signal on Vashon from one of the nearby sites (Gold Mountain, Tiger Mountain, Baldi)? Looks like most of the island should get a good signal from at least one of those sites as long as you can find a clearing through the trees. You could deploy something from our Client Hardware recommendations yourself to get your EOC online: https://hamwan.org/Standards/Component%20Engineering/Client%20Hardware.html Via Street View, I don't see much for tower space at Station 55. How much tower space could they provide for HamWAN above tree level? https://goo.gl/maps/YE827UmUdQK2 Tom On Mon, Mar 27, 2017 at 12:03 PM, John V. Cornelison <john@vashonsoftware.com> wrote:
As long as others are suggesting options, Vashon should also be considered. VashonBePrepared (.org) is local Citizen Corp Council and a very active coalition of about a dozen disaster preparedness groups.
One of our partners, Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (King County Fire District 13) has a nice tower at their station 55 (www.vifr.org, 10020 SW Bank Road, Vashon 98070, 47°26'53.46"N, 122°27'45.98"W), that has battery & generator backup power & *might* have space available for a HamWan node. Station 55 is the main fire station for the island and is where Vashon's EOC (VashonEOC.org) is located. (We're planning a move and redesign of our EOC later this year.) There are an additional 4 fire stations that we'd love to have connections to, but they are less critical. (https://www.google.com/maps/@47.415221,-122.521961,12z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!6m1...)
An additional site that is also near the crest of the island is near another partner, Voice of Vashon (VoiceOfVashon.org, 47°25'7.53"N, 122°27'50.65"W).
There also a number of commercial broadcast stations on Vashon that might conceivably be approached for antenna space if interference wasn't a problem for us or them.
Vashon is connected to the mainland via three fiber optic lines (2 in the same conduit) and much of the island's internet service is on overhead lines that aren't very robust. We'd love to have additional secondary ways to connect to the world after an earthquake. We also have an active HAM club and a system of WinLink stations, but they are low bandwidth unfortunately.
If a site on Vashon makes sense to the HamWan community, we can provide limited funding and possibly ongoing volunteer help, depending on what would be helpful. I can set up a meeting or connect you to others here as needed.
- John KE7KDQ Deputy EOC Manager & Planning Section Chief, Vashon EOC Board Member, VashonBePrepared 206.567.0010 home 206.914.3050 cell
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The perspective of that Street View picture distorts just how tall the 150 foot tower is relative to the surrounding trees. Line-of-sight is clear in all directions. This tower has been used for commercial microwave shots to locations "over town" (what we Vashonites call any land area off of the Island). Both Verizon and AT&T are tenants of this tower. 73, Daniel K7DGL On Mon, Mar 27, 2017 at 12:34 PM, Tom Hayward <tom@tomh.us> wrote:
HamWAN will entertain all offers for free tower space with good line-of-sight coverage.
Firstly, have you tried to receive HamWAN signal on Vashon from one of the nearby sites (Gold Mountain, Tiger Mountain, Baldi)? Looks like most of the island should get a good signal from at least one of those sites as long as you can find a clearing through the trees. You could deploy something from our Client Hardware recommendations yourself to get your EOC online: https://hamwan.org/Standards/Component%20Engineering/ Client%20Hardware.html
Via Street View, I don't see much for tower space at Station 55. How much tower space could they provide for HamWAN above tree level? https://goo.gl/maps/YE827UmUdQK2
Tom
On Mon, Mar 27, 2017 at 12:03 PM, John V. Cornelison <john@vashonsoftware.com> wrote:
As long as others are suggesting options, Vashon should also be considered. VashonBePrepared (.org) is local Citizen Corp Council and a very active coalition of about a dozen disaster preparedness groups.
One of our partners, Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (King County Fire District 13) has a nice tower at their station 55 (www.vifr.org, 10020 SW Bank Road, Vashon 98070, 47°26'53.46"N, 122°27'45.98"W), that has battery & generator backup power & *might* have space available for a HamWan node. Station 55 is the main fire station for the island and is where Vashon's EOC (VashonEOC.org) is located. (We're planning a move and redesign of our EOC later this year.) There are an additional 4 fire stations that we'd love to have connections to, but they are less critical. ( https://www.google.com/maps/@47.415221,-122.521961,12z/ data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!6m1!1s1qs7w_XQAsk9v6hAdSJ4nBk9qj64)
An additional site that is also near the crest of the island is near another partner, Voice of Vashon (VoiceOfVashon.org, 47°25'7.53"N, 122°27'50.65"W).
There also a number of commercial broadcast stations on Vashon that might conceivably be approached for antenna space if interference wasn't a problem for us or them.
Vashon is connected to the mainland via three fiber optic lines (2 in the same conduit) and much of the island's internet service is on overhead lines that aren't very robust. We'd love to have additional secondary ways to connect to the world after an earthquake. We also have an active HAM club and a system of WinLink stations, but they are low bandwidth unfortunately.
If a site on Vashon makes sense to the HamWan community, we can provide limited funding and possibly ongoing volunteer help, depending on what would be helpful. I can set up a meeting or connect you to others here as needed.
- John KE7KDQ Deputy EOC Manager & Planning Section Chief, Vashon EOC Board Member, VashonBePrepared 206.567.0010 home 206.914.3050 cell
_______________________________________________ PSDR mailing list PSDR@hamwan.org http://mail.hamwan.net/mailman/listinfo/psdr
PSDR mailing list PSDR@hamwan.org http://mail.hamwan.net/mailman/listinfo/psdr
-- "Mission is a profound sense of purpose; an anchor in a truth outside oneself which gives substance to the resolve not to quit." --- Viktor Frankl
I stand corrected about the tower height. Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (VIFR) holds a license for a 2 meter system that operates from the top of the tower (KON933). That license states that the tower is 30 meters tall. When it was built in the 90's, Cingular (now AT&T) concurrently stationed a 1900 MHz cell site at the top of the tower. VIFR owns the tower; they deliberately built it with a revenue stream in mind. There is plenty of space on the mast. Other tenants have come and gone (Centurlink, Clearwire). VIFR maintains a close relationship with Vashon Auxiliary Communications Services (VACS). Were solid EMCOMM use cases identified, it would be VACS that would deploy and manage a HamWAN node. Speaking personally, it's the lack of detailed, concrete use cases that are discouraging me from spending my own time and money for a pilot. We could build it, but what would we use it for? 73, Daniel K7DGL Vashon ACS On Mon, Mar 27, 2017 at 12:44 PM, Tom Hayward <tom@tomh.us> wrote:
On Mon, Mar 27, 2017 at 12:41 PM, Daniel Luechtefeld <daniel.luechtefeld@gmail.com> wrote:
Both Verizon and AT&T are tenants of this tower.
Do they have any exclusivity claims to certain parts of the tower? What mounting points would be available to HamWAN?
Tom _______________________________________________ PSDR mailing list PSDR@hamwan.org http://mail.hamwan.net/mailman/listinfo/psdr
-- "Mission is a profound sense of purpose; an anchor in a truth outside oneself which gives substance to the resolve not to quit." --- Viktor Frankl
On Mon, Mar 27, 2017 at 10:41 PM, Daniel Luechtefeld < daniel.luechtefeld@gmail.com> wrote:
Speaking personally, it's the lack of detailed, concrete use cases that are discouraging me from spending my own time and money for a pilot. We could build it, but what would we use it for?
EmComm use cases will depend on the needs of your served agency. What role do you serve for them now? Which of these processes do you think can be improved? What needs are currently unmet? What needs would be unmet if x component in the system were to fail (i.e., fiber to the island)? I volunteer with Pierce County Search and Rescue, so I can answer some of these questions in that context. Search management has largely moved from paper maps and highlighters to computer mapping and document generation. Some software can be served locally, but this is impossible with services like Google Earth (an invaluable resource to the search manager). We have also increasingly been using APRS to track teams, which benefits greatly from data sharing via APRS-IS (our autonomous APRS receiver cannot hear everything). These are the needs of my served agency. To meet these needs, we've subscribed to Verizon hotspot service for our command vehicle. This works great most of the time, and the government plan has reasonably priced unlimited data. But it doesn't work everywhere. And when it doesn't work, there's no way to "ham" our way into creating Verizon service. There is an area we train in frequently that does not have Verizon service. It is tucked in a valley where cell signals don't reach, and there's really no business case for Verizon to expand there. When we are in this area, we still want to use internet mapping data, share data with APRS-IS, and remain in contact with the county DEM duty officer in case we are needed elsewhere. I did some line-of-sight mapping (caltopo.com's viewshed feature is great for this) and found that from a ridge above this valley, you can see the HamWAN Baldi site! The ridge is also accessible by road. I drove up there and set up my portable HamWAN client <http://hamwan.org/index/2013-07-28%2014.04.10.jpg>. Then, I used a second nearly identical setup to relay the signal into the valley and configured the routing on these modems so that the HamWAN network was shared. Back in the valley, I set our command vehicle to associate with the relay station. Now we had ~10 Mbps access to internet mapping resources, HamWAN's on-network APRS-IS systems, and the VoIP app on my phone could receive calls from DEM. EOC operations are undoubtedly different. Rob has been doing some work with the Snohomish County EOC and nearby hospitals. I believe he has installed an autonomous VoIP phone network via HamWAN. He has also experimented with Sahana disaster management software <https://sahanafoundation.org/>. Not being involved with EOC operations, I can't really paint this into a use case. Maybe Rob can fill in. HamWAN is all about sharing data between computers and other network devices like VoIP phones and cameras. Answer my questions from the beginning of this message and think about how computers could be used at an EOC. If they have any need to share or access data outside of the building, I think you'll find your use case for HamWAN. Tom
participants (3)
-
Daniel Luechtefeld -
John V. Cornelison -
Tom Hayward