I am putting together a team in response to the ARRL's request for Hams to deploy to Puerto Rico for the express purpose of building an AREDN network in order to restore data and voice communications to shelters, law enforcement, and other emergency service agencies.
I am looking for 4-5 additional hams to assist me with specific experience in deploying wide-area AREDN networks and associated services. This would include:
- Building out of a network backbone - those who have designed and built parts of the federated Southern California network, or similar, would be ideal;
- An expert in setting up and managing VoIP PBXs for use over the mesh
- An expert in running propagation predictions using Radio Mobile - must have a local PC installation (no Internet access available for the web-based version)
I expect we will be provided transportation, lodging, and meals. I am also looking to fill a capital requirement of $30K in equipment which we would need to procure and ship before our departure. While I am hoping to find an agency able and willing to fund this, I am prepared to personally contribute 25% to that requirement. Any well-heeled hams wishing to contribute are welcomed to and will be appreciated. If we are able to obtain local transportation and knowledge of the country's terrain, then I believe we can have the network rolled out in about 3 weeks.
If this sounds like something you are qualified for and you feel a yearning to help the people of Puerto Rico like I do, then please send me an email (callsign@aredn.org) with a summary of your qualifications and you will be considered. While I expect many may feel called, only 4-5 will be chosen.
Thanks and 73,
Andre, K6AH
If this sounds like something you are qualified for and you feel a yearning to help the people of Puerto Rico like I do, then please send me an email (callsign@aredn.org) with a summary of your qualifications and you will be considered. While I expect many may feel called, only 4-5 will be chosen.
Thanks and 73,
Andre, K6AH
Before you start securing funding, or start spending money on equipment, or planning on deploying people to install several pallets of equipment you need to MAP out the project.
Get a map (a Google map will do fine) and put a pin in the map for:
1. Each served agency (shelters, law enforcement, and other emergency service agencies)
2. Each HAM that has a site (or QTH) that is willing to host one or more nodes.
3. Each radio tower site that would be willing to host one or more mesh nodes. This may require site agreements and monthly or annual fees. You can't just show up and start installing equipment without the site owner agreeing beforehand.
Using Radio Mobile or the airLink planning tool or heywhatsthat.com tool is not something you should start using when you get feet on the ground in Puerto Rico, but something you should do long BEFORE you start buying equipment. How many sites you will have is a question you need to answer before you even ask the question of how many nodes (and what kind of nodes) you should buy.
According to QRZ.com, there are 61 HAMs/clubs in Puerto Rico. Here they are:
Print out this list and see how many are HAMs and how many are clubs. There is even a Digital Network 'club?'. What kind of digital network do they already have? It looks like there are about 20 HAMs and 40 HAM clubs/organizations.
How many (clubs/HAMs) would be willing to support the ARDENization of Puerto Rico?
How many of them have repeater sites that could host AREDN backbone nodes?
What funding sources within Puerto Rico are available for this project?
Is power available at all of the proposed sites or do you also need to plan for generator, or solar/battery power?
How soon is this network needed? Is this network needed ASAP as a result of the recent weather event or deploying a system that would survive the next similar weather event?
I would think all of these questions should be answered before a call for volunteers to go to Puerto Rico is made.
You also might consider ordering equipment (once you have a full parts list) and having the equipment shipped to a staging area in Puerto Rico, rather than ordering and having the equipment shipped to, say California, and then have to pay for shipping from California to Puerto Rico.
Who (or what group/organization) in Puerto Rico has requested an outside team from the United States go to Puerto Rico? Are they able to answer the questions I have raised? Have they committed to hosting the team that goes to Puerto Rico?
I appreciate your comments, Don. Puerto Rico has been devastated. Support has become, or soon will be, a matter of life and death for many. Communicaitons and supply lines in and out have left these people cutoff. With 80% of the island without power, the people have been thrust back into the dark ages. Soon, most people will be worrying more about where their next meal or drink of fresh water will come from than how they can help build a data network. The Red Cross has asked the ARRL to supply them 50 radio amateurs who can deploy and help record, enter, and submit disaster-survivor information into the their Safe and Well system [ http://www.arrl.org/news/american-red-cross-asks-arrl-s-assistance-with-puerto-rico-relief-effort ]. Wow, really? Without intending to disparage their effort, I submit the collective talent represented in these forums can do better for Puerto Rico than that.
An AREDN deployment team in this environment will be on-its-own to make it happen. Power will likely be supplied from batteries of cars otherwise destroyed in the disaster. With the limited communications available, the permissions and coordination you propose would take weeks or months to track down and obtain. A likely alternative could soon be Marshall Law... curfews are already in place.
Quoted from an email thread I received, "The Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration in Washington DC (currently the only functioning PR governmental entity) is trying to set up a communications network using ham radios, because Puerto Rico’s phones lines are down (two subsea cables destroyed), no Internet, no communications across the island. They are working with a number of NGOs, who are hoping to airlift (via C-130 etc.) solar panels, radios, antennas, repeaters, and whatever is necessary to activate ham radio amateurs in Puerto Rico so that an island-wide communications network can be put in place to replace the destroyed fire, police, phone communications network."
As for Radio Mobile, the high-level plan is to construct a pre-designed backbone and then locate mid-mile relay nodes based on the demand for these services. Finding these mid-mile locations will be greatly simplified by propagation prediction.
BTW, I will have little time to respond to these posts going forward. There are too many other details to be concerned about. If you feel you have a significant contribution to add to this effort, then I ask that you submit an email with your volunteer credentials. Thank you to those who have already done so.
Thanks,
Andre, K6AH
The FCC shows 4580 active licensed hams in PR.
73,
KE4LWT
Jack Smith, PEM
"US Virgin Islands Section Manager Fred Kleber, K9VV, said the USVI are in much better shape than Puerto Rico. “They really got slammed hard,” he said. Kleber said he still has antennas that were not destroyed by the storm and that he can hit Puerto Rico on 2 meters from his location. He also has announced plans to deploy some 20 mesh wireless network nodes in the US Virgin Islands."
I wish I had thought to look here sooner for such deployment.
I would imagine it's too late, but I'll respond nonetheless.
Our efforts to secure a sponsor for the Puerto Rico deployment have come up short. It has been frustrating... to say the least. There is still a possibility we may have a willing sponsor later in the disaster lifecycle. I have asked the team to stay together until that time. At some point in the future I intend to write-up "lessons learned" for everyone's benefit.
Thank you again to all who have joined or committed support for this effort.
Andre, K6AH
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/09/30/puerto-rico-teamsters-un...
- Stores are opening with more than 60 percent of gas stations operating and providing fuel, and 49 percent of grocery and big box stores on the island now open.
The full picture also would account for these facts in fema Sept ~28th status:
Like our EMCOMM training says, only ~1/3 of our group would be available in an incident to deploy--and hams would have an ability to communicate. It would be lower % for truck drivers (unless their CB radios were still working :) ).
Other relevant facts include the roads still impassable around the island preventing supplies from being delivered by truck:
- https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/images/143781
Still a lot of major roads blocked.
Joe AE6XE
We (amateur radio) need to come up with something deployable in the truest sense that can fill that need.I would envision a cooperative effort with us and someone like ITDRC where we would provide the "last mile" and also the ability to link other facilities into the system. The MERS and ITDRC units are a single location, and do not provide for the fire dept., police dept., etc. to tie in. The Mayor or highest elected official (per NIMS doctrine) decides where it goes, and sometimes that is a difficult choice. Having the ability to branch off is an important consideration. Another key concern in deployability (can it be flown into an area and set up rapidly?), security concerns (cable was being stripped off poles and transformers gutted for copper. Batteries stolen from generators. Fuel from hospitals), and ease of set-up, operation and maintenance.
As a note, during the extremely brief time the "Force of Fifty" were down our way, at least one was using my APRS data to try and determine active coverage areas.
73,
KE4LWT
Jack Smith, PEM
I was there with SHARES for 3 weeks directly after the "Force of Fifty".
I can't really add anything useful, but it was interesting to walk around the roof of the EOC at the Convention Center looking at the various microwave setups. I think I melted a chocolate bar or two. ;)
Should I continue here or start a new thread?
i recommend starting a new post. And I suggest you start by telling everyone your story and why your passionate about this.
Andre, K6AH