Friday fragments — critical comms snippets for 24 July 2015

A round-up of the week's critical communications and public safety radio news for Friday, 24 July 2015.

Comms Connect Brisbane, 30 July. It’s not too late to book in for Comms Connect Brisbane. To be held in conjunction with ARCIA, the one-day conference will feature case studies, technical presentations and panel sessions, followed by networking drinks and ARCIA’s industry dinner. There’s a great line-up of speakers from different sectors of the industry, plus special sessions on PTT-over-cellular and public versus private networks. Full details here.

Microsoft releases open-source SDR. Microsoft has announced that its “high-performance software radio project is now open sourced through GitHub. The goal for Microsoft Research Software Radio (Sora) is to develop the most advanced software radio possible, capable of implementing the latest wireless communication technology easily and efficiently.”

Council recognises amateurs. A local council in California has given recognition to a group of seven amateur radio operators who are known as the LASERS — the La Verne Amateur Services Emergency Radio Support. “If anything goes down, call on us,” Jack Swank told the Daily Bulletin. “If all else fails, amateur radio operators can get through during any natural disaster or major emergency.” In addition to the LASERS, the La Verne Police Department has a fully equipped ham-radio operation, and its members are all licensed amateur operators.

Maine’s FirstNet plans. Lisa Leahy is the single point of contact (SPOC) for FirstNet in the US state of Maine. In a Q&A blog post on the FirstNet site, she outlines the state’s FirstNet plans for interoperability and mobile broadband. Meanwhile, one county in Maine is struggling to upgrade its communications abilities.

SF rail radio upgrade. Part of the San Francisco rail network will be shut down nightly later this month to enable its antiquated radio network to be upgraded, as well as the installation of 90 ‘blue light’ emergency phones. Total cost of the project is US$95 million.

Are you paying too much for your satcoms? The US military could be, according to the Government Accountability Office. Most satcoms contracts go through the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), but more and more, sections of the military are contracting directly with external suppliers in order to speed up provision processes. Yet this approach can be more expensive. Of the US$1 billion total spend in 2011, about $280 million was contracted externally; the GAO figures suggest $45 million could have been saved by sticking with DISA.

Harris wins US Army sitcom contract. Coincidentally, US$45 million is the amount Harris Corp will be paid to modernise the US Army’s satcoms through provision of “additional terminals, including large fixed X-/Ka-band terminals and small fixed X-/Ka-band terminals… common electronics equipment, spares and engineering services to support the installation and test of the terminals and operator training”.