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)
           (Language used English, Thai)

What Is WWV and WWVH

DID YOU KNOW? WWV AND WWVH

In the era of internet we don't think this is important anymore......
We are  very sure that the Old Radio Hams should knows what is WWV and WWVH

Radio stations WWV
and WWVH broadcast time and frequency information 24 hours a day, seven days a week to millions of listeners worldwide. On 10.000Mhz and 15.000Mhz

15Mhz TRANSMITTER

The primary functions of WWV and WWVH are to transmit official standard time on highly accurate reference frequencies traceable to the U.S. national standard. Other stations also serve similar functions in other countries.

In addition to those primary functions, these stations serve another important function in providing means to quickly check radio propagation conditions from multiple locations on a variety of widely spaced frequencies. That function is especially important to radio amateurs, shortwave listeners, and others interested in radio propagation. These stations serve that function better than most other shortwave stations, because they transmit constantly from known locations with known power levels using known antenna systems.

The ARRL Letter says that the stations are administered by the National
Institute of Standards and Technology, WWV is located in Fort Collins,
Colorado, about 60 miles north of Denver; WWVH is located on the Island
of Kauai, Hawaii on a 30 acre site near Kekaha at Kokole Point. Both
stations broadcast information that includes time announcements,
standard time intervals, standard frequencies, UT1 time corrections, a
BCD time code, geophysical alerts, marine storm warnings and Global
Positioning System (GPS) status reports.

Atomic Clock

Most hams today think of WWV and WWVH as "time stations." According to
QST Editor Steve Ford, WB8IMY, that's only half-true: they are really
time and frequency stations.
"The time signals that you hear are regulated by an atomic clock that uses
the oscillations of Cesium atoms as its standard;
9,162,361,770 oscillations equal 1 second," wrote Ford in the June 1994
issue of QST.

What Is Hamfest

Hamfest is a short form for Ham Festival...

The original concept of the hamfest was born many years ago by radio amateurs (HAMS). Many of the electronic parts for radio construction were expensive and hard to get. The local radio operators created a once a year get together where fellow hams could buy, sell, and swap equipment and parts among themselves in an effort to avoid high costs and promote the hobby. Today's modern hamfest has undergone quite a transformation. The hamfest or hamvention has evolved into a kind of techfest where people come to buy and sell various technology related items. This can be any form of electronic, optical, or mechanical hardware. Most of the change in hamfests has been brought about by the computer revolution and the fantastic availability of advanced technology government surplus offerings. You will meet everyone from a ham selling 2 meter rigs, HF rigs, antennas,  transmitting tubes, variable capacitors to a surplus dealer with  latest equipments D-Star and so on It is all there ..... Radio is still a big part of any hamfest and remains the very reason for its existence.

73 ????

73... Tujuh Puluh Tiga atau Tujuh Tiga...
Yang mana satu betul ni? Nak tahu ianya datang dari mana
sila rujuk http://www.ac6v.com/73.htm#73

Kita disini bukanya membicarakan soal bahasa...
Kita bukan pakar bahasa.......

Ada setengah dari Radio Amatur mempersoalkan tentang sebutan 73 adakah disebut tujuh puluh tiga atau tujuh tiga sahaja. Kalau kita terjemahkan dari bahasa Inggeris ke Bahasa Malaysia maka yang lebih tepat adalah tujuh puluh tiga. Namun disini kita harus melihat dari segi tafsir nya bukan terjemahan....

Pokoknya disini selagi semua orang faham 73 maka kedua-dua nya boleh diterima pakai. Pada pendapat penulis kedua-duanya boleh diterima... Adakah menjadi satu kesalahan besar jika sebutan nya tidak tepat...adakah kita boleh di bawa kemuka pengadilan? dipenjarakan?...

Bagi penulis isu ini adalah isu remeh temeh ... Penulis telah membicarakan mengenai isu yang besar2 yang perlu di ketengahkan...sedikit masa lalu.
Contohnya...mengapa perlu kita bayar RM60.00 untuk setiap kali memperbahrui AA dan mengapa AA Kelas A di kenakan RM36.00 dan mengapa AA Kelas B di kenakan RM24 Kenapa AA semua kelas di Amerika dan UK free tak payah bayar satu sen pun...Kenapa isu-isu saperti ini tidak dibincangkan dan di ketengahkan? Adakah kita sudah boleh berbangga dengan tahap atau mutu Ham Radio masa kini.

Jika kita lihat jiran kita di Thailand disana adalah lebih 200,000 pemilik AA dan mengapa kita baru ada 10,000 pemilik AA, sedangkan kita sudah lama ujud sejak tahun 1928 sedangkan Thailand mula berikan AA pada orang awam pada tahun 1984.....???

Seperkara lagi kenapa kita perlu bayar RM60.00 untuk mendapatkan AP bagi alat transceiver yang tersenarai dalam list Sirim dan kenapa kita perlu bayar RM150.00- RM180.00 untuk AP bagi alat yang tidak tersenarai dalam list tersebut. Sedangkan pada tahun 1997 untuk mendapat AP kita hanya perlu membayar kos borang Kastam sebanyak RM1.00 itu sahaja....

Mengapa kita tidak bincang isu saperti ini?????
Bagi penulis adalah lebih baik kita membincangkan sesuatu yang konkrit dan produktif ini bagi kesejahteraan semua golongan masyarakat......

40 Meter Band

I am not a good writter but i will try my best to explian whats 40M (7 Mhz) all about .
Most of Hams knows that in Region 1 & 3 ,,,,40Meter Band covers from 7.000Mhz – 7.100Mhz. and for Region 2 covers from 7.000Mhz to 7.300Mhz

During WRC03 ITU have agreed that for region 3 by March 2009 all broadcast station have to move away freq. 7.100 to 7.200Mhz. All country members agreed  and the change will take effect on 29 March 2009. By end of 2009 most of the broadcaster have move to 7.200Mhz and above.

In January this year (2010) 9M2RS wrote an email to Ir Mohd Aris Barnawi of MCMC. He responded to 9M2RS ……………….."We have cleared 7100 to 7200 KHz from any broadcasting services since last year. The remaining station at 7199 KHz has also been cleared. All amateur radio operator is free to use this band now. Other broadcasting transmitter from neighbouring is taking their time to clear the band. You are cordially requested to use only part of the band whenever there is no such broadcasting service on the air.

Ir Mohd Aris Bernawi
Senior Director
Resource Assignment and Management Division
Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission

Tel : +60 3 8688 81 81

Now if anyone have doubt about this please call MCMC and please talk to the right person.

Now we heard that a few 9Ms AND 9Ws question why 9Ms transmit on 7.100Mhz and above? To those who don’t want to come on 7.100 and above fine…maybe they have their own reason. But please don’t stop others from transmit on 7.100Mhz and above….

Now let’s see this….

The IARU groups of peoples have work hard to ask for wider spectrum way back before 2003. The reason why they request 7.000 – 7.200 in region 1 and 3 is because to harmonise the frequency where by in region 2 have wider spectrum on 40m band they have been granted 7.000 – 7.300Mhz long time ago.

Now lets look at the latest Region 3 Band Plan on 7Mhz please go to…..www.iaru-r3.org/r3bandplan.doc what does its say. We are not blind...

Report for IARU Region 3 Member Societies:
The World Radiocommunication Conference 2003 (WRC-03)

June 9 - July 4, 2003

Compiled by the Directors, IARU Region 3

IARU WRC-03 Final Report from Geneva

The big news for radio amateurs is that there will be a dramatic improvement in the 40-meter band! After weeks of debate and efforts to resolve great differences between numerous proposals, including strong positions for no change, the conference agreed to shift broadcasting stations in Regions 1 and 3 out of the 7100-7200 kHz band and to reallocate the band to the amateur service in those two regions. The allocation in Region 2 of 7000-7300 kHz remains exclusively amateur. The broadcasting band in Regions 1 and 3 will become 7200-7450 kHz and in Region 2, 7300-7400 kHz. The change will take effect on 29 March 2009, less than six years from now -- a relatively short time by ITU standards.
In Regions 1 and 3 the 7100-7200 kHz band will become exclusively amateur on that date. A footnote containing the names of countries that are mainly in Region 3 and the Arab States makes the band also available to the fixed and mobile services in those countries on a primary basis.

7 Reason why 9Ms Transmit 7.000 – 7.200Mhz

1. The emails from the MCMC … we treat this as a directive.
2. WRC 03 – “ITU” Directive
3. “IARU” Final Reports on WRC 03 (as above)
4. The freq. on upper portion less noise compare to 7.000 -7.100Mhz
5. We need to occupy the Freq. otherwise the upper portion will
    be occupy  by  other station from the neighbouring country.
6. IARU Region 3 Latest Band Plan
    www.iaru-r3.org/r3bandplan.doc
7. An Information Paper by the IARU Amateur Service Spectrum 
    Requirements 7Mhz.. http://www.iaru.org/7-MHz-Spectrum.pdf
8.  MCMC Spectrum Plan 2011… we treat this as a directive.

Furthermore if we look at the new draft of the spectrum plan made by the MCMC it shows that Class B have more spectrum which covers also 7.000 – 7.200Mhz.
Question why did the MCMC wrote 7.000 – 7.200Mhz ? Why don’t they just wrote 7.000 – 7.100 Mhz?

The IARU have been working very hard on this subject but sad to see some of us here still thinking backwards…………. Some might ask this question…the Frequency is not stated in the AA. …..Now let see in 1997 our Radio Communication Licence does not write any frequency at all its only wrote “THE LICENSEE IS AUTHORIZED TO OPERATE IN FREQUENCY BANDS USING POWER LIMITATION AND CLASSES OF EMISSION AS SPECIFIED BY THE LICENSING AUTHORITY FOR FURTHER DETAILS OF THESE PARAMETERS CONTACT. JABATAN TELEKOM MALAYSIA.
So in those days the frequency is not printed in our licence so we can't even transmit in any frequency? Come on....we are now living in the era of technology ..peoples can comunicate from any part of the world through internet and satellite communication..

If anyone have question regarding 7.100 - 7.200Mhz please contact the right person in MCMC please don't talk to any Tom Dick and Harry...by right there is no issue anymore regarding the above subjects...it had been clearly stated in the WRC03 and we should thankfull to the group of peoples in the IARU level who have done excelent job in the WRC 03. Credit also goes to Ir. Mohd Aris Barnawi
Senior Director
Resource Assignment and Management Division
Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission
Who have granted us to use the freq. 7.100 - 7.200Mhz
Opsss dont forget we should thankful to HJ Rashid...9M2RS for his job....

The funny things here those hams who are not active on 40M they are the one who make the big noise.......
Yesterday i heard someone said on 40m band... "...those up there who stop us from transmitting on 7.100 - 7.200 ask them to go and fly kites !!!..." My dear brothers  we are not born yesterday......