Thread: I dips me lid....

Another good point about Ron doing this volley work,he is leavin evrywons spelin and grandmas alone on here
Andrew

Originally Posted by digger

Someone with skills such as yours using them for good instead of evil is brilliant as the
Availability of good comms means a mantle of safety for searchers, real time updates etc

That sort of thing (good comms) can make a search anything up to 50% more effective as you arent chasing your tail. Good on ya mate!

I still feel like a bit of an imposter compared to blokes like you, Nigel. I said much the same to some SES blokes and they everyone has a part to play. That made me feel a little (just a little) better.

The SES and RFS had their own comms systems, as did the police. WICEN is part of the VRA.

The acronyms are greek to me Ron but you should do what you do best and by the sound of things, possibly better than most. You gave up your time, provided your equipment and transported it. You might be OK at what the rest of them were doing or you might be a liability. I have no idea. The fact that you were there means that your skills were needed, so take the pats on the back you deserve them.

By the way. Since I've just been so nice to you, I won't cop any corrections.

Ron, comms are as important as feet on the ground, concentrate resources and save man(and woman)power. A result is achieved in a much shorter time and increases the chance of a positive result.

Ron.
I will tell you about bad comms.
At the Boddington fire my boss was on leave,so not only was I responsible for myself,but the whole crew.His ute had the ONLY WAERN radio and I couldnt drive it and put fire breaks in with the grader at the same time.Didnt have somebody I could put in my grader to put breaks in whilst I ran the crew from the ute.
Due to budgetory constraints bushfire radio sets are no longer fitted to our equipment,they dropped it when the WAERN system came in,in the past ALL our equipment had the radio gear.
So at the Boddington fire I had a shire provided mobile phone and a 40ch UHF in my grader.I was responsible for another grader,a front end loader,2 water trucks and 4 blokes in lite vehicles looking after traffic control.
Whilst there was phone reception available in the area I was able to phone my workers on their phones to do a welfare check and was in contact with the CEO at the office.
The fires cut power to the mobile ph towers all communication was lost.UHF is great but not in steep terrain.
Fortunately my crew were ok.
I spat it with the Shire,nothing happened.
We had another 2 fires whilst working in a mobile phone black spot.The office or boss couldnt contact me to send water trucks or a grader to the fires.Somebody had to drive out to the site and let me know,20min drive.I spat it AGAIN.
OH WOW I finally got a WEARN set in my grader.
Still have no contact with my crew if we are in tough terrain or the mobiles drop out
Wait until I get my next chance to sort it.It will be no shire worker will be sent to a fire without a WAERN radio set.Ive asked for hand helds to reduce the cost,it hasnt happened.
Andrew

Thanks Andrew - your situation sounds ridiculous, one of those things a coroner would tear to pieces..

What we provided yesterday was a relay.

We had two 2-way Motorola radios connected back to back. One was on VHF, the other on UHF.

The trailer you can see behind my Rangie not only had the two radios but an adjustable height antenna mast with an omni-directional antenna for each radio.

Volunteer Rescue (VRA) teams called in on one radio and their comms were immediately sent through the other radio back to the control centre. We were located at the top of hills where we could connect with crews down in the valleys and also back to control.

We could also talk to both the crews and control.

It would have been impossible for crews to communicate otherwise. Even at the top of the ridge at Point Pilcher I had very scratchy mobile comms and I'm with Telstra. Looking back, I should have taken my Samsung Blue Tick Telstra phone and not my iPhone. I'll try to remember that next time.

We were quickly able to give control sit reps from the crews in the valley.

I only got involved with WICEN http://www.nsw.wicen.org.au/ when I got my Advanced Amateur Radio licence last year. The chap who got me involved has, with his wife, been active in WICEN for quite some time. They have spent a lot of time up at Katoomba in the past 2 weeks with this search.

The biggest problem I had was that I needed long pants for the day - and I couldn't find any in my wardrobe except for my motorcycling pants. I didn't wear them. I do have a pair of long pants, my wife made me buy a pair a couple of years back for a weeding we attended but they weren't suitable for yesterday.

Originally Posted by p38arover

Thanks Andrew - your situation sounds ridiculous, one of those things a coroner would tear to pieces..

What we provided yesterday was a relay.

We had two 2-way Motorola radios connected back to back. One was on VHF, the other on UHF.

The trailer you can see behind my Rangie not only had the two radios but an adjustable height antenna mast with an omni-directional antenna for each radio.

Volunteer Rescue (VRA) teams called in on one radio and their comms were immediately sent through the other radio back to the control centre. We were located at the top of hills where we could connect with crews down in the valleys and also back to control.

We could also talk to both the crews and control.

It would have been impossible for crews to communicate otherwise. Even at the top of the ridge at Point Pilcher I had very scratchy mobile comms and I'm with Telstra. Looking back, I should have taken my Samsung Blue Tick Telstra phone and not my iPhone. I'll try to remember that next time.

We were quickly able to give control sit reps from the crews in the valley.

I only got involved with WICEN | WICEN NSW when I got my Advanced Amateur Radio licence last year. The chap who got me involved has, with his wife, been active in WICEN for quite some time. They have spent a lot of time up at Katoomba in the past 2 weeks with this search.

The biggest problem I had was that I needed long pants for the day - and I couldn't find any in my wardrobe except for my motorcycling pants. I didn't wear them. I do have a pair of long pants, my wife made me buy a pair a couple of years back for a weeding we attended but they weren't suitable for yesterday.

We have a similar set up in our country patrol Fleet which is called link sets turns the car into a relay station at highpoint but to convert from one system to another takes a bit of engineering magic so I would think it would be incredibly important to have your services out there.

More importantly there is something I've picked up on in your answer here that I must know more about?

You have weeding trousers?
I can hear it now I have a painting shirt but I just don't wear any old stuff for wedding!


(yes I know I could've been a nice bloke and just left that minor spelling error alone but we all know that just ain't me! : twisted : )

Originally Posted by digger

You have weeding trousers?
I can hear it now I have a painting shirt but I just don't wear any old stuff for wedding!

You don't have weeding trousers? Oh, you country bumpkins!

My wife won't let me wear any old thing to a wedding, either.