Wednesday, May 28, 2003

Radio Networks Yesterday, we went up to the top of Ensign Peak to inspect the radio towers that the State maintains on that site.  Utah mountaintops support a wide variety of communications, so that a site like Ensign Peak may support private radio for companies like Questar and Pacificorp, television stations, public safety radio, etc.  The National Weather Service also maintains radio transmitters on many of these same sites.  The State also supports some amateur radio networks that are used for emergency communications by groups like UCARES.  I was surprised how robust the UCARES website was and noticed that they are making extensive use of a variety of open source tools, including PostNuke (a content management system), ADOdb (standardized database connectivity), and PHP. I also ran across the Internet Repeater Linking Project that is using IP to link amateur radio systems over IP without the use of RF links, leased lines, or satellites.  There are currently 948 nodes, 476 of which are in the US.  The Utah VHF Society maintains extensive information on VHF activity and coordination throughout the state.  8:44:06 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 David Fletcher.