The Pikes Peak Regional Office of Emergency Management (PPROEM) Special Communication Unit (SCU) recently added Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) capability into their operations capability. A phased approach was used to test and evaluate the PPROEM SCU DMR capability.
Phase 1 was conducted using the Rocky Mountain Ham Radio (RMHAM) Almagre and Cheyenne Mountain repeaters with PPROEM SCU volunteers at their home locations using their own DMR equipment. The purpose of Phase 1 was to ensure SCU volunteers had their DMR radios properly configured and used appropriately.
Phase 2 used our group’s support to correct codeplugs and ensure proper operation of all brands of DMR equipment on the RMHAM System’s Rocky Mountain Wide (TG 700) and the Southern Colorado Regional Network (TG719).
Phase 3 was a simplex test that was intended to evaluate local Colorado Springs DMR coverage utilizing the PPROEM SCU facility as the operations hub with SCU members at their home locations. The goal was to identify how many SCU members could communicate directly with the PPROEM SCU communications facility from their home locations as well as determining who could successfully communicate peer to peer.
The PPROEM SCU would like to thank Mr. Notbohm, PPROEM Director, and Mr. Evans, PPROEM Emergency Manager, for supporting the PPROEM SCU and providing the resources for the SCU to add DMR to our capability list. We also thank RMHAM for the generous use of their DMR repeater system and the volunteers who helped build and maintain the RMHAM DMR system.