hpwren
HPWREN News

December 28, 2010

Rainbow Conservation Camp and SDCFA Station 58 are now connected to HPWREN

By Marc Hafner, CAL FIRE San Diego Unit, Battalion Chief - B3318, Ramona Battalion

Rainbow Conservation Camp (left) and San Diego County Fire Authority Station 58 in Ranchita (top)



Rainbow Conservation Camp is now connected to HPWREN

On December 9th a combined team of HPWREN and CAL FIRE Staff Successfully installed HPWREN at Rainbow Conservation Camp, in the rural North San Diego County. The Camp serves 120 female inmates supported by 30 CAL FIRE and Department of Corrections staff. Although the Inmate population will not have access to the HPWREN, the daily operation of the camp will benefit dramatically from the access to High Speed Data. The Camp is a potential site for Base Camp operations for major wild fires. It has been used in the past, but has been prevented from full base camp build out because of the lack of reliable high speed data connectivity. CDCR will now have quicker access to database information on inmate issues, reducing the amount of time officers spend in the office, allowing them to spend more time patrolling the yard.

The San Diego County Fire Authority has HPWREN installed at Station 58 in Ranchita

On December 20th the HPWREN team installed a link to the backbone site at the Palomar Observatory to provide connectivity to the Ranchita Volunteer Fire Station. This Fire Station is now staffed by San Diego County Fire Authority Staff on a 24 hour basis. This vital data connection was made possible due to the generosity of Glen Offield, who provided the loan of the 2.4GHz link. It was a fortuitous introduction when Hans-Werner introduced CAL FIRE Battalion Chief Marc Hafner to Glen at the HPWREN Sustainability meeting and the two discovered that the Fire Station is directly in line with one of Offield's research sites. The HPWREN Team of Hans-Werner Braun, Jim Hale, and Pablo Bryant, and CAL FIRE Battalion Chief Marc Hafner installed and aligned of the antenna early on a cold, and rainy day. Conditions made this install a bit more challenging but the team was successful. Now the Fire Station Staff have ready access to Fire preparedness data, training material, and critical information.

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