INTEROPERABILITY

VHF Radios Key to Interoperability in Boulder Fire (9/14/10)

By Michelle Zilis

A Boulder County (Colo.) Sheriff’s Office official said its analog conventional VHF radio system allowed responders from local, state and federal agencies to interoperate without problems during the destructive Fourmile Canyon Fire last week.

The fire spread across 6,427 acres and destroyed 169 structures before it was 100 percent contained Monday evening. More than 900 firefighters from at least 35 local, regional and national agencies worked to contain the fire that began Sept. 6, according to the Boulder County Office of Emergency Management website.

Operating on the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office analog conventional VHF radio system, first responders were able to successfully communicate with one another. “We were very pleased with the performance of our VHF radio system,” said Division Chief James Smith, Boulder County Sheriff’s Office. “It worked as expected and as it has worked for us in other major events.”

The VHF system is shared throughout the county and allows fire, law, EMS and public-works responders to talk with each other on the shared channels. The system has been in operation for many years, Smith said.

The county is an associate member/user of the statewide 800 MHz digital trunked public-safety radio system, the Consolidated Communications Network of Colorado (CCNC). However, the statewide network was used only on an interoperable basis. “We’ve found that the 700/800 MHz digital trunked radio system provided insufficient coverage in the area of the fire,” Smith said.

Agencies that responded and primarily operate on CCNC, such as the Colorado State Patrol, were given VHF cache radios from the Boulder network. Many federal agencies responding used field-programmable VHF radios for mutual aid. “We can quickly program all of these radios with shared frequencies,” Smith said.

"Contact.....Contact..."

Baru-baru ini semasa balik bercuti dihari Raya saperti biasa jalan sesak penulis balik bercuti ke utara….pada hari Rabu 8/9/10 jam 5.00pm bertolak dari Bandar Baru Bangi…Dalam perjalanan trafik di KL di Jalan Istana dan Jalan Mahameru terlalu sesak…lebih kurang hampir waktu berbuka kami sampai di R&R Rawang…nak cari tempat letak kereta yang disediakan oleh pihak PLUS memang ada tapi sudah dipenuhi kenderaan lain….jadi terpaksalah letakkan kenderaan berhampiran dengan Station Minyak Petronas…salepas itu kami sekeluarga berbuka puasa di bahu jalan bukan saje kami yang berbuat demikian rupanya ramai yang berbuat demikian.

Selepas berbuka kami meneruskan perjalanan ke utara...kereta banyak di lebih raya namun bergerak lancar alhamdulilah…dalam perjalanan agak mengantuk..lalu penulis berhenti di satu tempat Rehat di Sungkai…dan tidur seketika…lebih kurang 30minit kemudian barulah penulis rasa segar semula…kami meneruskan perjalanan….kami melapasi R&R Tapah…huhhhh disana lagi sesak dengan pemandu yang berehat …. Perjalanan kali ini memakan masa yang lama kerana berhenti di dua tempat iaitu di R&R Rawang dan Sungkai. Sampai di Taiping……jam 12.30am……..!!!!

Ok apa yang ingin penulis ceritakan disini…ialah…pada hari terakhir hendak pulang kembali ke KL pagi2 on kan 2 meter dan monitor di simplex channel…beberapa minit kemudian terdengar seorang …..Bersuara……” Contact….Contact…. dan beberapa kali beliau memanggil Contact…Contact….” Persoalan nya adakah ini cara nya kita membuat panggilan di simplex frequency….mungkin ini cara nya si X membuat panggilan di 2 meter simplex….penulis amat terkejut…kerana ini bukan kali pertama penulis terdengar perkara ini…penulis ingat ianya sudah berubah namun…ianya masih tetap..begini…dan yang pelik nya ianya di lakukan oleh ham yang berpengalaman bukan nya yang baru dapat AA…Kalau baru dapat AA tu mungkin kita boleh terima. Mungkin ada yang berpendapat ini hanyalah hobi…dan mungkin ada yang katakan kenapa tidak di tegur aje….tegur2 di 2 meter ni rasa nya kurang enak..kita pula balik sekali sekala.

Kenapa tidak diberi Callsign…contohnya Ada sesiapa di frequency disini 9M2xxx …..ini tidak….CONTACT…CONTACT……..CONTACT …CONTACT.

Dengan tampa memberi Callsign…sama lah kes nya di 40 meter yang berlaku pada akhir2 ini akan tetapi ianya bukan Ham dari Negara kita tapi dari seberang. Datang ke 40 meter …Satu Dua….Satu Dua….dengan tampa memberi callsign…Walaupun kes ini terpencil namun kita kuatir lama kelamaan ianya  menjadi satu kebiasaan atau di turuti oleh ham2 yang baru. Kita ingin melihat ham yang berkualiti mungkin ini satu kes yang terpencil walaubagaimanapun kita tidak melebelkan semuanya saperti ini. Cuma kita kuatir kelak ianya menjadi ikutan kepada RA yang baru dalam hobi ini.....Akhir kata banyakan "explore" di frequency yang lain dan cuba pelajari sesuatu yang baru dan cuba menjadi pendengar yang bijak....dan cuba dapatkan nasihat dari Ham yang berpengalaman...Hobi ini penuh dengan Ilmu.... 

Updated Malaysian Air Band Freq.

What you can hear, and in turn relate to air craft you see flying overhead, obviosly depends on the position of your location relative to airports and air route. Since VHF radio waves follow approximate messages from it. Transmitter power is also a factor but, generally speaking, high flying aircraft can be received up to 320km away as a rule of a thumb, frequencies below 123 mhz are alocated to tower and approch units and those above 123 mhz to Air Traffic Control Centres (ATCC) although there are exceptions to this.

The majority of air band listener use their radio as a means of logging aircraft registrations but there are others for whom this is of no more than academic interest. Their listening pleasure is derive from learning how aircraft are controlled and the way the ATC system operates. Those in the second category will soon begin to grasp the principles and will want to find out more, whilst those in the first will recodnise that a basic knowledge of them will assist in tracking the aircraft in which they are interest

Freq. Station/ Callsign Status Remarks

118.200 Tower  SUBANG

118.500 Lumpur Tower  KLIA (For Approch   updated 8/12/2011 - ACTIVE)

118.800 Lumpur Tower  KLIA (For Take OFF updated 8/12/2011)

119.450 Lumpur Approch South Active KLIA / SUBANG

121.200

121.250 Lumpur Approch/Airborn  Active 2010 (Replace 124.200 Approch North) NEW

121.650 Lumpur Ground

121.800 Active

121.900 Active

122.150 Lumpur Ground Active KLIA

122.850 Lumpur Ground/Push Back Active

122.270 Lumpur Ground/Push Back Active

123.250 Lumpur Ground Active Active 2010

123.750 Lumpur

124.200 Lumpur Approch North (Backup)

125.100 Lumpur Director New (No more active)

125.200 AF Ground Control Subang Active

125.500

125.800

126.000  Unknown Active 2010

126.100 Lumpur Information  For Low Flying Aircraft

126.500 Simpang Control (Sg Besi) Active Sg. Besi

127.300 Singapore Tower Active

130.000 Unknown Active 16/09/10

131.750 Layang (Engineering) Active

131.900 Layang Penang Active

132.200 Lumpur Control Active

132.600 Control  Sc 3
132.650

132.750 Control

132.800 Active Sc 1
133.700

133.550  New  2010

133.250 Singapore Radar Active

133.400 Control  Sc 4

134.250 Lumpur Control New 2011


126.450 Kuala Lumpur Information ATIS Active (KLIA)

127.600 Subang Terminal Information ATIS Active (SUBANG)

133.300 AF 24/11/06 SUBANG

122.300 Alor Setar App/Twr RWY 22

121.600 Alor Setar Gnd

121.100 Penang Twr RWY 22/ 04

121.600 Penang Gnd

125.800 Butterworth App. RWY 36

118.300 Butterworth Twr.

134.600 Butterworth Gnd

122.100 Ipoh Twr.

121.600 Ipoh Gnd

118.000 Melaka Twr. RWY 21

121.600 Melaka Gnd.

124.700 Johor App. RWY 16

122.500 Johor Tower

122.400 Keluang App

128.300 Keluang Tower

124.700 Johor App.

122.500 Johor Tower

121.800 Ground

123.300 Kerteh Tower

121.800 Kerteh Ground

122.500 Kota Bharu Twr RWY 10

121.600 Kota Bharu Gnd RWY 28

119.100 Kinabalu Twr/App

118.300 Kinabalu Grd

128.300 Kinabalu Control

119.700 Kuantan App.

118.100 Kuantan Tower RWY 36

120.400 Kuantan Gnd

123.600 K. Trengganu Twr

121.900 K. Trengganu Gnd

120.200 Kuching App P134.5/S120.2 RWY 25

118.100 Kuching Tower / 120.2 S

121.900 Kuching Ground

128.400 Kuching ATIS

122.300 Bintulu Twr Rwy 12

119.700 Labuan App RWY 32

118.100 Labuan Twr

119.000 Labuan Gnd

119.400 Langkawi App OR 281.100

118.500 Langkawi Twr

118.000 Melaka Twr. RWY 03

121.600 Melaka Gnd.

119.700 Medan App.

118.100 Medan Twr

126.000 Medan ATIS

128.600 Changi ATIS

120.300 Singapore App.

124.600 Singapore App.

119.300 Singapore Arr.

118.600 Singapore Twr Final App

124.300 Singapore Gnd


HF FREQUENCY

5.670 Mumbai/KL

8.942 Singapore Radio
5.655 Singapore Radio (Secondary Freq.)

10.066 Culcatta Radio

11.285 Bombay/Manila/ Hong Kong/Medan/KL ACTIVE

11.300

11.384 San Francisco

11.387 Wx rpt

11.396 Darwin/Sydney/Perth/Jakarta/Sing ACTIVE

8..894 MAS Long Haul Coms.

6.765  WX Report for South China Sea & Andaman Sea and etc.(For Ship)
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