>see comments
73,
kevin
kc6pob
A few additional tips about meeting/contacting
family.
1) Even is the
voice cell networks crash the SMS text portions of the
network still work. Text uses lots less bandwidth so
communicate with texts
>If the cell sites themselves are not in service/down/damaged, text messaging will not get through, too. Voice and data typically are hosted on the same >antennas and radios that are located on what we call cell towers - often times, buildings and other high structures. Cell site looses power or damaged, no >communications (voice, texting) is possible. The reason for using texting is that it is not real time communications and operates in store and forward mode. >Eventually the message gets through whereas voice transmission can only be done in real time with a fully nailed up circuit. For dataheads, think loosely of >texting as UDP (connectionless) and voice as TCP which requires a circuit/connection to be established for the duration of the call.
2)
agree with family members as to one or two reliable out of
state contacts. Often a local network will crash but long
distance lines survive and keep working. on 9/11/2001 my
cousin and her husband live in midtown New York. My cousin
had an office near midtown with private bank. Her husband,
a bond broker, had offices at the WTC and midtown. Their
boy was in school at St Bernards on East 98th St and the
girl at the Convent School of the Sacred Heart at 91st St
and Fifth Ave. Both parents started walking to the upper
east side and one started for the boys school, the other to
the girls,not by plan but just the way it happened. They
were unble to reach each other on cell phones in NY but each
called my Uncle Matt, her father, in Methuen MA. The
calls to MA went through and they were able to exchange
messages and arrange to meet via message left with Uncle
Matt in Methuen. One good thing was that the husband had
had a meeting scheduled at the WTC office but it had been
cancelled that morning.
>This pretty much holds true as many calls will be inbounds with out of area family and friends will be dialing into the affected area for health and welfare >checks.
3) do not rely on Sat phones. A friend with
Louisisana State Police told me their superior officers had
a good supply of Sat phones. They discovered during
Katrina that there are a limited number of channels to the
birds overhead. When news networks get to a disaster the
first thing they do is call the main news number and then
have a staffer stand their holding the line open for the
newsmen. No open lines were left for public safety.
>This is normally where the plug to become a licensed Amateur Radio operator comes in. This one is not to urge you to get a license but to seek out such >operators to help notifiy others of your situation -
>Amateur radio operators will usually and eventually get into the affected areas to help restore communications or provide food and aid; some even deployed >as Salvation Army members (SATERN) or Red Cross. These people can also help provide health and welfare messages out of the affected areas to friends >and family. Before doing all that, make sure of your immediate safety as well as those around you.
4) public safety agencies
cannot rely on cell phones is they do not coordinate with
other agencies. When the 7/7 bombings hit London the
Metropolitan Police, the large agency that serves most of
London, had carefully compiled list of all the individual
cell phones of all senior officials. Most of these phones
were in the accounts of the individual officers. The City
of London Police that police "The City", i.e. the
financial district, had all officers equipped with
department issued phones. The City police invoked a
protocol that shut off service to all private cell phones
leaving network available only for phones that were i the
name of public safety agencies. This worked well for the
City Police but ended up shutting off most of the phones
held by Met Police officials.
>Allowing certain phone numbers only to transit the mobile phone network only is not a workable solution, in general, as it is a record keeping nightmare for all >the cellular operators. The keys to communications redundancy is to have an alternate radio methods available and to practice and deploy with other >agencies in the area. Having alternate facilities and radios will also allow the ability to communicate should the agency encounter the loss of one or two tower >sites as these are often shared with cell sites. The biggest reason for not allowing cell phones for police and fire communications is that the conversation >cannot be recorded as all radio communications and data transmissions are. This is to allow reconstruction of an event during debrief and to provide record of >events in the case of legal actions against the agency. Yes, even in a disaster, you still have to follow procedures as best as possible.
5) Remember that 911 calls are routed
differently that ordinary cell calls. Ordinarily your
calls go via the provider you subscribe to. 911 calls
are routed via the nearest call tower of any provider to the
state's primary PSAP.
>In Calfornia, the primary PSAP is the CHP but calls may not necessarily be routed there. It may go to the local police agency in the area based on location to >the cell site. Remember, your closest cell site may not be the cell site you are communicating through as the call may not have been handed off to that >tower. Be very explicit about where you are calling from so the call can be (re)routed to the appropriate dispatch center.
------------------------------------
Posted by: kevin asato <kc6pob@yahoo.com>
------------------------------------
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