Fire Camp Radios and Communication Equipment

May 05, 2005

Headquarters (Victoria) Radio Operations Staff recently returned from Prince George where they installed new radio equipment in two Fire Camp Office trailers as well as  crank-up extendable antenna towers.  The two Victoria Tech's were assisted by the Staff members of the Prince George Radio Shop and a Radio Tech from Smithers. Their assistance was greatly appreciated and made the installation run smoothly.  To facilitate the installation, in Prince George, the cabinets were loaded and wired and the tower mounting was designed and fabricated by Headquarters staff in our Victoria Radio Operations shop.  The battery box was fabricated by International Truck Body in Surrey, B.C.

 The mobile radios were mounted in recycled equipment cabinets and secured to the trailer floor at the back of the communications room.  The antenna coax cables were run along the side wall near the floor, up under the work station table, out through a port in the back wall and then onto the tower.

The cabinets contain 3 VHF radios on Forest Service Channels and one Aviation Band Radio for contacting Air Tankers and helicopters.  The radios are powered by the camp diesel generator but can be supplied by batteries in a box under the floor outside, in the event of a power failure..

A 6 channel consol is located at each of the two Dispatch work stations.  All 4 radios can be controlled by each consol.  In this picture Barry Cowan function tests the consol.

The crank-up tower is from the same Florida, USA company that manufactured "Petunia's" aluminum tower (see the index page for Petunia.)  It was our biggest engineering challenge because of the highway height restriction and no holes could be drilled in the trailers membrane roof.  We ended up fabricating a roof rack in our Victoria shop that the tower is strapped to for transport.  

For deployment, the tower is pushed over a roller at the back edge of the roof and sits on a bracket bolted to the trailer chassis.  It was suggested that we install a safety line to prevent the tower hitting the ground.  A cargo strap secures the tower to roller roof rack assembly about two feet down from the top.  After mounting the antennae and coax to the tower, it is cranked up to it's full height of 32 feet using its hand operated winch.

An antenna can be mounted on an aluminum tube that extends from the tower top.   By having vertical separation between the antennae interference between the radios is minimized.

For transport to a new site, the antennae are removed, the tower is retracted and then pulled up onto the roof and secured with cargo straps.

The tower is locked between to angle pieces bolted to the forward u channel and the roller guides at the rear.  The cargo straps prevent any movement.

In this picture the battery box is shown behind the rear wheel and the tower is strapped down for transport.  We are ready for deployment to a forest fire.