Separate SATERN Nets Now Operational

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Separate SATERN Nets Now Operational

The Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN) launched a new SATERN International SSB Net on 2nd June 2021 on 14.325 MHz. Net sessions will take place Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 11 AM Central Daylight Time, in cooperation with the Hurricane Watch Net (HWN), which has used 14.325 MHz for many years during its own activations. Just down the band, another net sporting the same SATERN acronym — the Strategic Auxiliary Team Emergency Readiness Net — has established itself on SATERN’s former frequency of 14.265 MHz. The latter net was organized by Lee Glassman, WA5LEE, a former manager of the original SATERN. The Salvation Army made the distinction clear in its announcement launching the new SSB net on 20 meters.

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UK Hamfest Cancelled 2021

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It is with much regret that the organisers of the National Hamfest have decided to postpone the event planned for 24 and 25 September 2021 until September 2022.

A number of factors have made the organisation of the event impossible to predict this year.

At this point the organisers cannot reliably commit to successfully and safely holding an event that takes upwards of three months continuous effort to organise.

The organisers not only wish to act in a responsible way towards the large team of volunteers who staff the event and make it possible every year, but also the visitors and the partner organisations, all of whom make the event such a success each year.

The organisers are looking forward to more certainty in 2022 and welcoming you to the event in September next year.

Motorola Expects U.K. Government to Extend Airwave Contract

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Motorola Solutions CEO Greg Brown said the company expects that the U.K. government will extend its contract for the Airwave network that currently provides critical communications to U.K. first responders.

The U.K. Home Office is working on a replacement LTE network, called the Emergency Services Network (ESN), for the Airwave LMR network but that work has been delayed multiple times over the last few years.

“I’m not going to speak for the customer, but they have said publicly they want to extend Airwave again. They’ve gone through one extension. Originally, when we bought it … we contemplated the terms and conditions around an extension and the construct of those conditions for those extensions.”
— Greg Brown - J.P. Morgan’s Technology Media and Communications Conference 25th May 2021

In September, during a hearing before the U.K. Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, representatives of the Home Office said that the Airwave network would likely operate until 2024 due to the ESN delays.

Earlier in his talk at the conference, Brown said that many Motorola customers, in the U.S. and elsewhere, are not moving entirely to LTE from LMR and are instead looking to continue upgrading their LMR systems or supplement it with LTE.

“Now, I know that the U.K. Home Office aspires ESN to do more, and we support that. We will obviously fuel and work with them closely to enable ESN, but by the customer’s own omission, I think Airwave and ESN, much like here in the states with LTE and LMR, will continue to coexist.”
— Greg Brown

He also touted the performance of the Airwave network over the past several years.

“Again, Airwave has proven to be fantastic. It’s got about 350,000 subscribers, users, police and fire. And, again this is a network that has been optimized. It has 99% coverage, so when you think about a network to contemplate replacing an LMR network, the requirements for performance are breathtakingly stringent.”
— Greg Brown

Brown said that he did not know how long the contract would be extended if is extended, but the contract must be extended by the extended by the end of the year under its terms.

“It would my anticipation that Airwave gets extended. How long, we’ll see. But, it has clearly proven to be absolutely mission critical and if you talk to users, you will hear that as well.”
— Greg Brown