Elaine's (WA6UBE's) Emergency
Comvan:
This vehicle is a 1954, Military Dodge Powerwagon (photos are
below). It is
also known as an M37. Originally, it was used by the Army Security
Agency
(ASA) and contained a ground-version of the AN/APR-9 radar intercept
and
analysis set. The ground version was referred to as the AN/MLQ-24.
This vehicle came with all of the original equipment, however it
required 24
Volts DC, 110 Volts AC @ 60 Hz, and 110 Volts AC @ 400 Hz in order to
power the intercept equipment. As a result, the intercept equipment
was
removed and donated to the Perham Foundation Electronics Museum at
Foothill Community College in Los Altos Hills, California.
This vehicle is now set up as a privately-owned Civilian
Mutual-Aid Asset in
support of disaster communications work. While wearing my volunteer
hat,
I am the Engineering Officer with our City of San Jose's Office of
Emergency
Services in our RACES Program.
It must be noted here that all of the labor in restoring this M37
weapons
carrier, and the installation of all of the equipment was done
without benefit
of any paid labor, and all the work was done ourselves. The two
exceptions
were the conversion of the engine to a dual-exhaust system, and also
the
driver's seat was re-upholstered in real leather via a commercial
upholstery
shop.
All communications equipment was purchased with our own funds, and
even
though this vehicle is for mutual-aid and disaster operations, no
public funds
were used in this project.
In addition to providing support for our City of San Jose's Office
of Emergency
Services, additional equipment has been added in order to participate
on the
Statewide "STACOM" net which is managed by the Governor's
Office of
Emergency Services. "STACOM", previously known as
"Operation Secure"
is an ALE-based network that operates in the HF radio spectrum on
channels
between 2.0 and 9.0 MHz. This network provides back-up communications
support for State Agencies, and Counties within the State.
In this specific case, this comvan can pass traffic on behalf of
the County of
Santa Clara Office of Emergency Services as their Emergency
Operations
Center does not currently have this advanced capability.
This vehicle is the culmination of several years of work between
1989 and
1994, which my partner Carla and I, spent on outfitting it with an
S144 commo
shelter, matching M101-A1 Trailer with generator, and literally tens
of
thousands of dollars of communications equipment. The Generator
capability
has been further enhanced via my membership in ARMY MARS in that I've
been assigned a 10KW diesel genset which is on its own mobilizer
unit.
This vehicle has two crank-up towers with HAM-IV
rotators. The shelter has a
heater, air-conditioner, and all the comforts that an ASA
"Old-Crow" would
know and love:
Below is an updated photo of the interior of the commo shelter which was
taken
in September 2006. The PRC-77, and the AN/GRA-39 remote unit was
added at
that time.
The HF manual-tuner unit is a Harris RF302, which is used to manually tune a
50-foot
wire antenna, and is a back-up in case the Motorola Autocoupler were to fail.
Below the manual tuner is a Panasonic CF-25 "Toughbook" ruggedized PC.
which is in a shock-mount. To the left of the laptop
is a
Stat-Power, 1500Watt Inverter.
(I don't recommend this inverter due to the broad-band
RF-hash).
For HF digital messaging purposes, note that the small white box located
below
the MICOM-2R is a "point of sale" receipt printer which uses roll-type paper.
This printer also runs directly off of 12 volts DC,. The one in this vehicle is
a
model DP8340SC and is manufactured by a company called "Star Micronics".
It is available with either a standard parallel printer port
or in an RS-232C serial type interface.
It should be noted that thermal-paper type printers are NOT recommended for
use in a vehicular environment as the thermal paper will turn dark with high
ambient temperature.. The printer shown above uses sprocket-fed paper and
a dot matrix impact printer with a standard, two-color (red/black) ribbon.
Further info on this Star Micronics Printer is available on the following
website:
http://www.starmicronics.com/printers/printers_pages/dot_matrix/DP8340.html
The Photo below is a right-hand view of the interior with a Sunair
GSB-900DX
in a shock-mount on the upper-right, and below it is a Motorola
MICOM-2R.
The MICOM-2R also has the continuous-duty blower kit, and the
companion
auto-tuner which is used to tune either a 12-foot military whip
antenna that is
on the back of the shelter, or to tune a 50-foot wire antenna that is
attached
to the whip antenna base-mount via a specially-made adaptor. Note
that the
Wire
Antenna Adaptor is now available, part # MS542B, @ $20.00 ea +
shipping and is for the AB15, AB652A, AB65, and other
similar types of Whip antenna bases that use the MS116 antenna rod as
the
mating element for the whip antenna base.
In
the center of the upper shelf are three amateur radio transceivers
that are used for voice and packet radio communications.
There is a Yaesu FT4700, dual-band unit which is for 2-meter, and 440
MHz packet radio communications. For 2-meter and 440 MHz voice communications is
an ICOM IC-207H
mobile radio. In addition is a Kenwood 220 MHz transceiver that is currently set
up for voice communications only.
Here are a couple of photo's of my comvan that were taken at
Camp San Luis Obispo in 2000 while at the MRCG
(Military Radio Collector's Group) camp-out and meeting.
This photo also shows the M101A1 Trailer:
Here is the Motorola MICOM-2R in close-up view. It has 1/10th
part-per-million frequency stability, full HF xmit coverage from 1.6
to 30 MHz in 10 Hz steps,
and a continuous-duty blower kit for running HF data modes. The TNC
is a
Kantronics KAM unit that has been painted to loosely resemble
military
equipment:
This photo above is courtesy of Marc Goldman,
WB6DCE
The background music for this page is dedicated to
Ms. Marsha Ann Stevens Lovercamp...
