Remote Multi-Channel Marine Base Station for the Barbados Coast Guard using a combination of Tait T800II and the TM8000 equipment
The Barbados Coast Guard – is the maritime element of the Barbados Defence Force, with responsibility for patrolling Barbados’ territorial waters. Mobile and Marine Services were asked by the Barbados Coast Guard to design a system to improve their Marine VHF communications range and coverage.
With the coverage of the previous system was limited to approximately 45Km to the west of Barbados which was due to the location of Fort Willoughby, the Coast Guard headquarters in Bridgetown, being located in the south west of Barbados. There was little coverage to the North, East or South of the island.
Using a combination of Tait T800II and Tait TM8000 equipment Mobile and Marine Services has been able to provide a cost effective solution to enhance the communication systems of the Barbados Coast Guard. The radio coverage has now been extended from approximately 45Km to the west of Barbados to a range of approximately 80Km in all directions around Barbados. In addition to the Marine channels other frequencies in the 150-174MHz band have been provided for secure communications, so enhancing the effectiveness of the Barbados Coast Guard in patrolling Barbados’ territorial waters.
The Tait T800II was a logical choice for this system. These modules can be programmed to operate on several channels which can be selected by the Tait T803 remote control unit.
Using the traditional 4-wire leased lines from Fort Willoughby, the Coast Guard headquarters, to the repeater site was not an option, simply as there were no land lines in its vicinity. Installing a full duplex radio link we estimated would have increased the cost by five times!
We used two of the very versatile Tait TM8000 series radios to link the base to a remote repeater site. These radios provide a link for both the channel select tones as well as providing a voice link to ships around Barbados.
At the Coast Guard HQ at Fort Willoughby we used a UHF Tait T8250. Here we interfaced this to a Midian Electronics TRE2 remote tone encoder. The Midian TRE2 is a simple unit that can send (or generate) the channel select tones to change the channel of the Tait T800II at the repeater site. The output from the Midian TRE2 is connected to the Tait TM8250 via the Auxiliary Connector on the rear of the radio.
To Select a Marine Channel the appropriate key on the Midian TRE2 is selected and the programmable function key “F4” on the Tait TM8250 is pressed. This sends the channel select tone to the Repeater site. Here it is received by a Tait T8110. A Tait TMAA01-01 Line Interface Board in the option space of the TM8110 provides a 4 wire interface to pass the channel select tones and voice communication to the Tait T803 channel selector.
The Tait T803 selects the channel of the T800II via the channel select lines. We have also connected these lines to the external BCD Channel Select lines of the TM8115. This causes the radio to switch to a channel which corresponds to the selected marine channel.
We programmed each channel of the TM8110 with a different Transmit SELCALL number. The SELCALL parameters have been set to send the SELCALL on the leading edge of the transmission.
This SELCALL is received by the TM8250 at the Coast Guard control room. Using the address book we linked this received SELCALL to enable the TM8250 to display Marine 06, Marine 12 or which ever channel was selected. This enables the operator to confirm that the required channel was selected.
The radio coverage now extends to a range of approximately 80Km in all directions around Barbados. In addition to the Marine channels other frequencies in the 150-174MHz band are used to provide secure communication.
Another VHF TM8200 installed on the Coast Guard ship HMBS Trident gives access to Marine Channels as well as other channels for secure communication. The built in voice inversion scrambler further enhances the level of security for their operations.
Due to the versatility of the Tait T800II and the Tait TM8000 equipment Mobile and Marine Services has been able to provide a cost effective solution to enhance the communication systems of the Barbados Coast Guard, extending marine radio coverage from just 45Km west of Barbados, to approximately 80Km in all directions around Barbados. In addition to the Marine channels other frequencies in the 150-174MHz band have also been provided for secure communications, so enhancing the effectiveness of the Barbados Coast Guard in patrolling Barbados’ territorial waters.
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Based in Barbados in the West Indies, Mobile and Marine Services are one of the Caribbean’s leading professional private mobile radio communication solution suppliers and radio systems integrators. Mobile and Marine Services are sales, support and service agents for land, air and marine radio solutions from: Icom Radio Communications and Tait Radio Communications. Radio accessories from: Hustler – Antennas, Midian Electronics, Voxtech, W&W, and Zetron. Solar powered: Avlite aviation lighting and Sealite marine navigational aids and lighting. As radio systems integrators we operate throughout the Caribbean (Anguilla, Antigua, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks & Caicos, Virgin Islands plus Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Suriname and Venezuela).
Mobile and Marine Services provide a comprehensive range of professional pmr services and radio systems integration. Backed by more than 40 years of experience enables Mobile and Marine Services to come up with solutions that incorporate 2 or more equipment suppliers in ways that other dealers may not think of. Many of our customers have come to rely on these solutions.
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