Terrence Nguyen has a neat article in Fleetowner about (old) new technology helping trucking companies help others: HURRICANE IMPACT: How one carrier rode to the rescue by Terrence Nguyen, web editor.
After Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, fleets turned to satellite communication systems as the only reliable means of communication when cellular links and landlines failed. Pelzer, SC-based Owen-Kennedy Specialized Transport sent a 4x4 pickup -- normally used to tow horses to horse shows -- equipped with a Qualcomm OmniTRACS mobile communications system to Bay St. Louis, MS. The pickup was used to find a route for a larger truck, also equipped with the system and hauling a trailer full of supplies, to reach the Bay St. Louis area....
The Owen-Kennedy folks use the venerable OmniTracs product from my friends at Qualcomm. Although the design is dated and the system is expensive the OmniTRACS is what old time bush pilots called "hell for stout" ... they just keep working and producing profit for their users and enhancing safety for their equipped drivers ... and everyone that driver can see and assist.
Friends of mine from a small company here in the Springs, Insite Technologies have been working a pilot program for the American Red Cross using a system similar to OmniTRACS but updated and streamlined for today's market. When the storm hit they packed up some spare truck units, demonstration equipment and some loaners from the manufacturer, EMS Technologies . More than 20 units were installed under field conditions and the Red Cross immediately put the, to work tracking vital post-Katrina relief supplies and personnel.
Then came Rita. Several times Red Cross vehicles were the only source of communicating for a number of towns in the storm's path. Many folks just don't know how devastating the loss of communication in a major storm can be. Naturally, you can forget about wired terrestrial phones ... they stop working for days or weeks until cables and microwave kinks are repaired. The cellular phone system, voice and data actually is just an overlay to the wired phone system and is built even less robustly, so it's either out of service, or in the rare case that a cell site is working, it's overloaded immediately. Even voice satellite phones suffer from extreme weather conditions and often fail to connect in the worst weather. The only reliably means of getting through is a system that uses satellites to send and receive the data and that operates at a frequency which is not severely affected by weather ... here's one example, the MSAT system which orbits continuously in the southern sky over the US. No weather or terrorists events on earth can affect these birds.
If you need to talk about these kind of systems or want to learn more about communications that just won't stop, just give me a shout.
2 comments:
I'm just trying to see why Dave never answers comments?
I do answer, Talar, to receive a cogent answer, you do have to say something, though.
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