Mounted search and rescue

["IRVIN LICHTENSTEIN" <ilichten1@verizon.net>]

We utilize the county radio system as practical. It is 800 MHz with 95/95
coverage, meaning the design is for a handheld on the hip, under turnout
gear to be usable 95% of the time in 95% of the county plus a few miles
across the border (in building coverage is poor due to 800 MHz)  There are
common channels with other jurisdictions.  Tactically we still use 150MHz
simplex because the PA DCNR still does in most state forests and parks.
There are also DCNR fixed repeaters at many locations. The county still
monitors two high band channels used for voice dispatch as well.  

For a routine search the network should support your operations.  A fixed
repeater depends on you being in line of sight to the machine and it being
up.  If your local public safety network is repeatered they obviously have a
hole in their coverage they should look into.  Routine patrol operations are
endangered if there is not coverage. We do have some areas where VHF
portable to portable does not work and we use either a park base station or
a 35 Watt mobile we are converting to a portabase-- we have 12VDC and 120VAC
power supplies and we are hoping to obtain a marine no ground plane antenna
for it.  All our gear is either field programmable or clonable from 148-174
MHz.  The county has at least communication vans with powered towers,
lights, and even a PA.  There is also a data link and satellite facilities.
The best part is that come with two staffers, or a full tactical dispatch
team, and there is no chargeback to the requesting agency. There is also a
county level IST made up of senior volunteer fire officers to staff a large
operation or event.  

I know there are some organizations that live on amateur radio but our
experience has been that unless they are committed searchers first they fail
to respond to our tactical needs and we have had to fire some operators for
failing to handle message traffic properly as we do things the way the
public safety community does around here.  Also, there is little tactical
use of amateur and this has led to lack of vehicle mounted command post
facilities. If you need a fixed repeater a government agency is often the
best source of the site and equipment.  It must also be hardened against
failure from any cause which many amateur installations are not. Even with
redundant power, electronics, and control systems we have failures on the
new 800 MHz sites and one township is not yet covered (the 5%) adequately
due to a rocky river valley.  It will probably require a site about 1200
feet up a commercial broadcast tower to pick up a few per cent of coverage
and the rest is in building problems which may not be solvable.   


Irv Lichtenstein 
-----Original Message-----
From: msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of
pennbo@verizon.net
Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2008 11:55 AM
To: Mounted search and rescue
Subject: [MSAR] Search Report