January 31, 2006
SuitSat to "Launch" Feb 3
Did you ever want to participate in a International Space Station mission? Starting Friday, February 3rd, you may get your chance. An old, used Russian spacesuit has been transformed into a most unusual earth orbit satellite. Just add one Kenwood TH-K2AT handi-talkie transceiver, a battery pack, a sensor for temperature readings, a compact voice synthesizer and telemetry device and a small helmet-mounted antenna and you are good to go.
The modified spacesuit will be thrust out of the space station into orbit and will begin broadcasting voice messages and slow scan television on 145.990 MHz FM in the two-meter amateur band. The Kenwood HT produces 5 watts RF output. Discover the time of fly-by using NASA's fascinating J-Pass program available at: http://science.nasa.gov/RealTime/JPass/25/JPass.asp. Enter your Zip Code and you'll instantly know when the next show begins. Aim your Yagis toward the proper position in the sky! You may hear Suit Sat's 30-second message of greetings, followed by a burst of telemetry. Transmission of a slow scan TV picture ends the sequence.
Mission Specialists at NASA have especially encouraged schools to participate in listening for Suit Sat and reporting receptions to the project's website suitsat.org. Awards will be issued to groups that copy Suit Sat's message. Extra credit is given to those who can capture the slow scan TV picture!
Running only on internal batteries within the spacesuit, SuitSat will have a limited, but interesting lifetime beaming down special messages and an SSTV image as it floats in space. Having no external thrust to adjust its orbit after it is hand-deployed during the EVA, SuitSat will be in a free-floating, but decaying orbit around Earth. It is expected to remain in orbit up to 6 weeks after being deployed.
The ARISS-Russia team headed by Sergei Samburov, RV3DR, first came up with the idea for SuitSat. The project--called Radioskaf or Radio Sputnik was led by project manager A. P. Alexandrov and Deputy Project Manager A. Poleshuk from RSC Energia. On the US side, AMSAT Board member Lou McFadin, W5DID headed up the hardware project development. The SuitSat electronics were built and tested in Phoenix, AZ by a team lead by Steve Bible, N7HPR.
SuitSat's transmissions will include special international voice messages, spacesuit telemetry, and a pre-programmed SSTV picture on its 145.990 MHz FM downlink. If you have already received the packet station or heard the ISS crew on 2-meter voice, then you already have most of what you need. Amateur radio signals from the ISS can be received with a 2 meter vertical antenna so an elaborate tracking system is not necessary. The SSTV signal can be decoded with personal computer SSTV software after you connect your computer to the speaker output of your radio.
The image above shows SuitSat in it's flight configuration. You can see the electronics control panel on the top of the helmet along with the SuitSat antenna. A new handle has been added around the midsection of the suit (black stripes). The handle is an important addition that will allow the astro/cosmonaut launching the suit to move it safely.
January 18, 2006
Firefighters' Families Can't Sue Over Faulty Radios
Families of New York firefighters killed at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, failed Tuesday to persuade the Supreme Court to allow them to go forward with a lawsuit against New York City and Motorola for supplying the rescuers with faulty radios.
The high court let stand a decision by a lower appellate court that dismissed the lawsuit, which had blamed the city and Motorola for supplying firefighters with handheld communications devices that prevented them from hearing evacuation orders while they were in the north tower trying to rescue people.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said the families had waived their right to sue when they accepted money from the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund.
The fund was created when Congress passed the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act, which was designed to keep airlines from being ruined financially and sending the nation's economy into further chaos.
The firefighters' families argued that the lower courts had misinterpreted the law and Congress' intent.
The families accused New York and Motorola of entering into a fraudulent, no-bid contract that supplied firefighters with ineffective radios that city and company officials knew for years did not work in high-rise buildings.
The Sept. 11 Commission, created by Congress to investigate the government's performance leading up to the attacks, devoted a portion of its report to the communications problems.
The equipment carried by firefighters on Sept. 11 was the same model that had been used by rescuers during the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. It didn't work then, the commission said, and it didn't work on Sept. 11.
In court filings, Motorola didn't address the complaints about the radios but argued that Congress had given the families a choice of filing a lawsuit or accepting money from the fund. By opting for compensation from the fund, the company said, the families "waived their right" to sue.
New York's Fire Department lost 343 members on Sept. 11.
The case is Virgilio v. New York and Motorola, 05-488.
Source:
By Toni Locy
ASSOCIATED PRESS
8:20 a.m. January 17, 2006
The high court let stand a decision by a lower appellate court that dismissed the lawsuit, which had blamed the city and Motorola for supplying firefighters with handheld communications devices that prevented them from hearing evacuation orders while they were in the north tower trying to rescue people.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said the families had waived their right to sue when they accepted money from the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund.
The fund was created when Congress passed the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act, which was designed to keep airlines from being ruined financially and sending the nation's economy into further chaos.
The firefighters' families argued that the lower courts had misinterpreted the law and Congress' intent.
The families accused New York and Motorola of entering into a fraudulent, no-bid contract that supplied firefighters with ineffective radios that city and company officials knew for years did not work in high-rise buildings.
The Sept. 11 Commission, created by Congress to investigate the government's performance leading up to the attacks, devoted a portion of its report to the communications problems.
The equipment carried by firefighters on Sept. 11 was the same model that had been used by rescuers during the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. It didn't work then, the commission said, and it didn't work on Sept. 11.
In court filings, Motorola didn't address the complaints about the radios but argued that Congress had given the families a choice of filing a lawsuit or accepting money from the fund. By opting for compensation from the fund, the company said, the families "waived their right" to sue.
New York's Fire Department lost 343 members on Sept. 11.
The case is Virgilio v. New York and Motorola, 05-488.
Source:
By Toni Locy
ASSOCIATED PRESS
8:20 a.m. January 17, 2006
City Can't Bar Cell Towers on Looks Only, Court Says
Cellphone towers may be ugly, but that's not reason enough for cities to block their construction, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
In the nation's first appellate ruling on an increasingly contentious local issue, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down parts of a La Cañada Flintridge law that had allowed the city to withhold building permits on public rights of way for purely aesthetic reasons.
Similar ordinances in cities across California and the nation have slowed efforts by wireless companies to offer better coverage and advanced services they say their 200 million customers demand. Municipal officials counter that they have a responsibility to protect their residents from a proliferation of unsightly infrastructure.
Unlike telephone or cable lines, cellphone transmitters can't be buried underground and need to be high enough to relay signals without obstruction. And they're seemingly everywhere. By June, service providers had installed 178,025 cell sites nationwide — adding more than 15,000 a year for the last four years.
"Would you want these things in your backyard?" said La Cañada Flintridge's appellate lawyer, Scott J. Grossberg.
"The residents didn't want them. The city didn't want them. I wouldn't want them in my backyard."
La Cañada Flintridge officials have not decided whether they will ask the Supreme Court to review the case, which echoes past efforts of municipalities to regulate other urban eyesores such as tall pole-mounted signs one wag dubbed "litter on a stick."
The wireless industry cheered the three-judge panel's unanimous decision, saying it should make it easier for service providers to expand their networks at a time when growth in the number of new cellphone subscribers is slowing. To win customers, cellular companies pitch better reception and new services, such as video and e-mail, which require more towers and antennas.
Cities nationwide have been rejecting tower permits based on aesthetics, prompting some providers to dress up their gear as giant trees or hide them in church steeples to pass visual muster.
The appearance of cellular transmitters varies widely. Some are little more than antennas on top of buildings. Others are massive free-standing poles topped with an array of gear.
Last fall, some residents in the village of Cayuga Heights, N.Y., near Ithaca, formally objected to plans by Verizon Wireless to build a tower, saying the views from their homes would be ruined. In the farmlands northeast of Minneapolis-St. Paul, neighbors of dairy farmer Jeff Vollrath are objecting to a deal he made with Sprint Nextel Corp. to erect a 199-foot tower, complaining about the "ugliness" and the threat to property values as urban sprawl creeps out to them. And in Delaware, residents in Glasgow are fighting a plan to build a 150-foot tower, disguised as a giant cross, at the Good Shepherd Baptist Church.
"Cities are very demonstrative in wanting sites hidden. And minimizing the aesthetic effects is a company goal as well," said John J. Flynn III, who represented Sprint against La Cañada Flintridge before the appeals court.
"This has been an issue of great importance and intense feelings."
California, the nation's biggest telecommunications market, has been particularly problematic for wireless companies, said John Walls, a spokesman for the industry trade group Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Assn.
"We've had significant problems with getting towers along major highways in California," Walls said. "That resistance has been legally diminished by this decision."
The case began in 2001, when Sprint wanted to upgrade equipment installed on two existing power poles on busy residential streets. La Cañada Flintridge officials approved Sprint permits at two other locations, but the city and the company couldn't find a compromise on the residential sites.
Cities and wireless providers watched the La Cañada Flintridge case as a test of municipal power.
"Ultimately, cities and service providers knew the courts were going to have to intervene," Flynn said.
Sprint sued, arguing that state law gave it the right to install its equipment on public rights of way as long as it didn't affect public use of roads. The city countered that state law granted it the power to regulate the time, place and manner — essentially the aesthetics — of such improvements and that it had a right to ensure public safety.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter said the city failed to make its case on public safety grounds, but he agreed that La Cañada Flintridge was within its rights to deny Sprint's permits for aesthetic reasons.
The appellate court disagreed. The judges held that La Cañada Flintridge's ordinance conflicted with sections of the California Utilities Code, which the court said gave companies "broad authority to construct telephone lines and other fixtures" along public rights of way.
Said La Cañada Flintridge Mayor Anthony Portantino: "This is a pretty important decision on land use and local control. We thought this was a place for reasonable controls."
Many states have similar utilities laws. Although the decision applies only to California law, lawyers said other courts nationwide would give it weight when considering similar cases.
That, wireless advocates and foes agreed, would probably mean more towers.
Cingular Wireless, Verizon Wireless and Sprint are rushing to install high-speed gear in their networks. And T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest provider, committed itself last year to an aggressive plan for building its system.
"This is a situation where it really is: When is enough enough?" Grossberg said. "Does everyone have the right to come in and upgrade just because there's new technology? When will all this stop?"
Source: Los Angeles Times Article By James S. Granelli
In the nation's first appellate ruling on an increasingly contentious local issue, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down parts of a La Cañada Flintridge law that had allowed the city to withhold building permits on public rights of way for purely aesthetic reasons.
Similar ordinances in cities across California and the nation have slowed efforts by wireless companies to offer better coverage and advanced services they say their 200 million customers demand. Municipal officials counter that they have a responsibility to protect their residents from a proliferation of unsightly infrastructure.
Unlike telephone or cable lines, cellphone transmitters can't be buried underground and need to be high enough to relay signals without obstruction. And they're seemingly everywhere. By June, service providers had installed 178,025 cell sites nationwide — adding more than 15,000 a year for the last four years.
"Would you want these things in your backyard?" said La Cañada Flintridge's appellate lawyer, Scott J. Grossberg.
"The residents didn't want them. The city didn't want them. I wouldn't want them in my backyard."
La Cañada Flintridge officials have not decided whether they will ask the Supreme Court to review the case, which echoes past efforts of municipalities to regulate other urban eyesores such as tall pole-mounted signs one wag dubbed "litter on a stick."
The wireless industry cheered the three-judge panel's unanimous decision, saying it should make it easier for service providers to expand their networks at a time when growth in the number of new cellphone subscribers is slowing. To win customers, cellular companies pitch better reception and new services, such as video and e-mail, which require more towers and antennas.
Cities nationwide have been rejecting tower permits based on aesthetics, prompting some providers to dress up their gear as giant trees or hide them in church steeples to pass visual muster.
The appearance of cellular transmitters varies widely. Some are little more than antennas on top of buildings. Others are massive free-standing poles topped with an array of gear.
Last fall, some residents in the village of Cayuga Heights, N.Y., near Ithaca, formally objected to plans by Verizon Wireless to build a tower, saying the views from their homes would be ruined. In the farmlands northeast of Minneapolis-St. Paul, neighbors of dairy farmer Jeff Vollrath are objecting to a deal he made with Sprint Nextel Corp. to erect a 199-foot tower, complaining about the "ugliness" and the threat to property values as urban sprawl creeps out to them. And in Delaware, residents in Glasgow are fighting a plan to build a 150-foot tower, disguised as a giant cross, at the Good Shepherd Baptist Church.
"Cities are very demonstrative in wanting sites hidden. And minimizing the aesthetic effects is a company goal as well," said John J. Flynn III, who represented Sprint against La Cañada Flintridge before the appeals court.
"This has been an issue of great importance and intense feelings."
California, the nation's biggest telecommunications market, has been particularly problematic for wireless companies, said John Walls, a spokesman for the industry trade group Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Assn.
"We've had significant problems with getting towers along major highways in California," Walls said. "That resistance has been legally diminished by this decision."
The case began in 2001, when Sprint wanted to upgrade equipment installed on two existing power poles on busy residential streets. La Cañada Flintridge officials approved Sprint permits at two other locations, but the city and the company couldn't find a compromise on the residential sites.
Cities and wireless providers watched the La Cañada Flintridge case as a test of municipal power.
"Ultimately, cities and service providers knew the courts were going to have to intervene," Flynn said.
Sprint sued, arguing that state law gave it the right to install its equipment on public rights of way as long as it didn't affect public use of roads. The city countered that state law granted it the power to regulate the time, place and manner — essentially the aesthetics — of such improvements and that it had a right to ensure public safety.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter said the city failed to make its case on public safety grounds, but he agreed that La Cañada Flintridge was within its rights to deny Sprint's permits for aesthetic reasons.
The appellate court disagreed. The judges held that La Cañada Flintridge's ordinance conflicted with sections of the California Utilities Code, which the court said gave companies "broad authority to construct telephone lines and other fixtures" along public rights of way.
Said La Cañada Flintridge Mayor Anthony Portantino: "This is a pretty important decision on land use and local control. We thought this was a place for reasonable controls."
Many states have similar utilities laws. Although the decision applies only to California law, lawyers said other courts nationwide would give it weight when considering similar cases.
That, wireless advocates and foes agreed, would probably mean more towers.
Cingular Wireless, Verizon Wireless and Sprint are rushing to install high-speed gear in their networks. And T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest provider, committed itself last year to an aggressive plan for building its system.
"This is a situation where it really is: When is enough enough?" Grossberg said. "Does everyone have the right to come in and upgrade just because there's new technology? When will all this stop?"
Source: Los Angeles Times Article By James S. Granelli
Swap of 800 MHz Airwaves Encounters Snags
A long-awaited swap of airwaves aimed at eliminating cellphone interference with emergency-service radios across the USA is in turmoil, prolonging communications problems and risking public safety, law enforcement officials say.
Public-safety officials and consultants largely blame cost disputes with Sprint Nextel, which is bankrolling the $2.8 billion project. They fear the spectrum transfer, which began in July and is to be completed by mid-2008, could be delayed or done improperly, further hindering communications.
Sprint Nextel says the disputes were to be expected.
"We have significant concerns that the process has been stalled," says Robert Gurss of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, which last week voiced its concerns to the Federal Communications Commission. "Interference could endanger lives."
Since the mid-1990s, Nextel cellphones have disrupted public-safety radio systems in hundreds of cities, including Seattle, Miami and Denver. The reason: Frequencies used by public safety and Nextel are interlaced. The problem sometimes hampers emergency response, such as when firefighters at a 2004 Elks Lodge blaze in Mesquite, Texas, could not use their walkie-talkies.
That year, the FCC approved a plan to move Nextel and public safety to separate blocks of spectrum. Sprint Nextel, which acquired Nextel last year, will get prime airwaves valued at $4.8 billion. In exchange, it must give up airwaves worth $2 billion and pay for retuning radios, estimated to cost $2.8 billion. But if retuning costs more, Sprint Nextel must pay up, even if it loses money.
That caveat has prompted the company to dispute nearly all of the dozens of funding requests public-safety agencies have made and to not even respond to many of them, say emergency responders and their biggest adviser, RCC Consultants. Unresolved feuds are being reviewed by a mediator whose decision can be appealed to the FCC.
Sprint Nextel "is arguing over every cent," says RCC chief Mike Hunter. For instance, he says, the company disputed the $14,000 that Manasass, Va., schools seek to retune radios for their buses, saying $8,000 should be sufficient.
Sprint Nextel denies pinching pennies. "We are committed to spend whatever it takes" but want to "make sure costs are appropriate," says company executive Geoffrey Stearn.
Public-safety agencies and RCC also assail the project's managers, led by BearingPoint. Despite netting more than $20 million in fees so far, the managers haven't closely monitored negotiations or prodded Sprint Nextel to be more responsive, they say.
BearingPoint's Brett Haan, who's overseeing the swap, said the managers "take the concerns of public safety very seriously" and are working "to make sure the (project) is fast, fair and efficient."
The FCC is "looking into these issues," said spokesman David Fiske.
Source: USA Today article by Paul Davidson
Public-safety officials and consultants largely blame cost disputes with Sprint Nextel, which is bankrolling the $2.8 billion project. They fear the spectrum transfer, which began in July and is to be completed by mid-2008, could be delayed or done improperly, further hindering communications.
Sprint Nextel says the disputes were to be expected.
"We have significant concerns that the process has been stalled," says Robert Gurss of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, which last week voiced its concerns to the Federal Communications Commission. "Interference could endanger lives."
Since the mid-1990s, Nextel cellphones have disrupted public-safety radio systems in hundreds of cities, including Seattle, Miami and Denver. The reason: Frequencies used by public safety and Nextel are interlaced. The problem sometimes hampers emergency response, such as when firefighters at a 2004 Elks Lodge blaze in Mesquite, Texas, could not use their walkie-talkies.
That year, the FCC approved a plan to move Nextel and public safety to separate blocks of spectrum. Sprint Nextel, which acquired Nextel last year, will get prime airwaves valued at $4.8 billion. In exchange, it must give up airwaves worth $2 billion and pay for retuning radios, estimated to cost $2.8 billion. But if retuning costs more, Sprint Nextel must pay up, even if it loses money.
That caveat has prompted the company to dispute nearly all of the dozens of funding requests public-safety agencies have made and to not even respond to many of them, say emergency responders and their biggest adviser, RCC Consultants. Unresolved feuds are being reviewed by a mediator whose decision can be appealed to the FCC.
Sprint Nextel "is arguing over every cent," says RCC chief Mike Hunter. For instance, he says, the company disputed the $14,000 that Manasass, Va., schools seek to retune radios for their buses, saying $8,000 should be sufficient.
Sprint Nextel denies pinching pennies. "We are committed to spend whatever it takes" but want to "make sure costs are appropriate," says company executive Geoffrey Stearn.
Public-safety agencies and RCC also assail the project's managers, led by BearingPoint. Despite netting more than $20 million in fees so far, the managers haven't closely monitored negotiations or prodded Sprint Nextel to be more responsive, they say.
BearingPoint's Brett Haan, who's overseeing the swap, said the managers "take the concerns of public safety very seriously" and are working "to make sure the (project) is fast, fair and efficient."
The FCC is "looking into these issues," said spokesman David Fiske.
Source: USA Today article by Paul Davidson
January 13, 2006
Hawthorne Police Chopper's Wings are Clipped
One of the most sophisticated crime fighters in a city battling vice and violence has been called off the chase and sent to wait in a plain Hawthorne hangar.
Police call it Air Five-Five, a sleek helicopter that can race to the scene at 140 mph and spot suspects hiding in shrubs or shadows. It has a Hawthorne badge painted on its fuselage, but it answers calls across the South Bay.
Hawthorne has grounded the helicopter in recent days in an effort to save money and shore up its budget. The city has no immediate plans to send the chopper back up, despite an internal police report detailing its value and a new willingness by other cities to help pay for it.
Crew chief Mark Galoustian learned over the weekend that the helicopter had been sidelined. The night before, it had thundered over the San Diego (405) Freeway in pursuit of a fleeing car.
"We were heroes. I mean, that's what this helicopter's for," Galoustian said. "And then, the next morning, they told us we were shut down."
Hawthorne bought the helicopter for $450,000 in 2001. It has since loaded tens of thousands of dollars in mapping and recording systems, searchlights and radios on board with the help of federal grants.
The chopper answered nearly 1,000 calls last year, swooping over parties that had spun out of control or watching for drunken drivers from 700 feet above. Police attributed 99 arrests to the helicopter in 2005, according to department statistics.
Air Five-Five remains the only helicopter dedicated to the South Bay. Not long ago, it helped find kayakers lost off the coast of Manhattan Beach, according to an internal police report sent to the city manager. It answered a robbery call at a Torrance restaurant fast enough to catch the suspect walking out the front door.
The helicopter has contributed to an 8 percent drop in serious crime in Hawthorne since 2004, according to the police report. "It would seem shortsighted to dismantle a valuable program," the report concluded.
The chopper "is worth its weight in gold," Lt. Tom Jester said. "It will immediately be missed. Immediately."
Other South Bay cities have been reluctant in the past to help Hawthorne pay the cost of keeping the helicopter in the air. But that has changed in the past few months.
The cities of Manhattan Beach, El Segundo and Torrance have agreed to contribute $10,000 a year toward the helicopter program, according to the police report. The city of Inglewood has talked about doing the same.
South Bay cities will have to rely more on helicopter coverage from other agencies, such as the Los Angeles police and the sheriff's office, as long as Hawthorne's chopper stays on the ground.
That helicopter would "constantly help us locate suspects and vehicles," said Sgt. Steve Tobias of Manhattan Beach. "(It's) been extremely useful."
But Hawthorne is struggling to keep its budget in balance. City leaders talked last year about grounding the helicopter program and putting its roughly $246,000 annual cost to another use but decided to keep it aloft.
At the time, though, they committed to only six months of flights, said City Manager Richard Prentice, himself a retired police captain. Those six months have come and gone, he said, and the city still needs to find money to balance its main budget. The soaring cost of the helicopter's jet fuel hasn't helped.
Prentice said he made the call to park the helicopter based on those earlier city discussions. The City Council has taken no public votes in recent weeks to ground the helicopter.
"We're trying to tighten up the budget, to make sure it balances for the year," Prentice said. City leaders have talked about selling the helicopter, he said, but "that's not something for right now."
For right now, the helicopter sits on a wooden platform in its hangar at Hawthorne's municipal airport. It will remain on the ground indefinitely, Prentice said.
A white sign hangs in one of the chopper's bubble windows: "Out of Service."
From Doug Irving, Daily Breeze
Police call it Air Five-Five, a sleek helicopter that can race to the scene at 140 mph and spot suspects hiding in shrubs or shadows. It has a Hawthorne badge painted on its fuselage, but it answers calls across the South Bay.
Hawthorne has grounded the helicopter in recent days in an effort to save money and shore up its budget. The city has no immediate plans to send the chopper back up, despite an internal police report detailing its value and a new willingness by other cities to help pay for it.
Crew chief Mark Galoustian learned over the weekend that the helicopter had been sidelined. The night before, it had thundered over the San Diego (405) Freeway in pursuit of a fleeing car.
"We were heroes. I mean, that's what this helicopter's for," Galoustian said. "And then, the next morning, they told us we were shut down."
Hawthorne bought the helicopter for $450,000 in 2001. It has since loaded tens of thousands of dollars in mapping and recording systems, searchlights and radios on board with the help of federal grants.
The chopper answered nearly 1,000 calls last year, swooping over parties that had spun out of control or watching for drunken drivers from 700 feet above. Police attributed 99 arrests to the helicopter in 2005, according to department statistics.
Air Five-Five remains the only helicopter dedicated to the South Bay. Not long ago, it helped find kayakers lost off the coast of Manhattan Beach, according to an internal police report sent to the city manager. It answered a robbery call at a Torrance restaurant fast enough to catch the suspect walking out the front door.
The helicopter has contributed to an 8 percent drop in serious crime in Hawthorne since 2004, according to the police report. "It would seem shortsighted to dismantle a valuable program," the report concluded.
The chopper "is worth its weight in gold," Lt. Tom Jester said. "It will immediately be missed. Immediately."
Other South Bay cities have been reluctant in the past to help Hawthorne pay the cost of keeping the helicopter in the air. But that has changed in the past few months.
The cities of Manhattan Beach, El Segundo and Torrance have agreed to contribute $10,000 a year toward the helicopter program, according to the police report. The city of Inglewood has talked about doing the same.
South Bay cities will have to rely more on helicopter coverage from other agencies, such as the Los Angeles police and the sheriff's office, as long as Hawthorne's chopper stays on the ground.
That helicopter would "constantly help us locate suspects and vehicles," said Sgt. Steve Tobias of Manhattan Beach. "(It's) been extremely useful."
But Hawthorne is struggling to keep its budget in balance. City leaders talked last year about grounding the helicopter program and putting its roughly $246,000 annual cost to another use but decided to keep it aloft.
At the time, though, they committed to only six months of flights, said City Manager Richard Prentice, himself a retired police captain. Those six months have come and gone, he said, and the city still needs to find money to balance its main budget. The soaring cost of the helicopter's jet fuel hasn't helped.
Prentice said he made the call to park the helicopter based on those earlier city discussions. The City Council has taken no public votes in recent weeks to ground the helicopter.
"We're trying to tighten up the budget, to make sure it balances for the year," Prentice said. City leaders have talked about selling the helicopter, he said, but "that's not something for right now."
For right now, the helicopter sits on a wooden platform in its hangar at Hawthorne's municipal airport. It will remain on the ground indefinitely, Prentice said.
A white sign hangs in one of the chopper's bubble windows: "Out of Service."
From Doug Irving, Daily Breeze
LAPD Starts Receiving Cell Phone Calls
Thanks to "Radio Lady" on the SoCalScan Yahoo! Group who wrote the following:
Today (1/12/06) at 0900, LAPD Communications will begin taking cellular 9-1-1 calls, beginning with Verizon cell sectors in Central Division. If all goes well, Cingular will go live next week. Central Div was chosen because it is surrounded by LAPD Areas (no outside agencies border) and has the I-5, I-10, US-101, and the "SR-110 / I-110" freeway combination running through it. Calls through any cell sector that contains a freeway will still be routed to CHP.
Verizon only has eight sectors in Central that don't have a freeway through them, so they aren't expecting a giant leap in call load until Cingular comes on line with their 135 cell towers (most with three sectors) in the Central Area. The sectors were tested yesterday morning and we passed with flying colors (the County and State 9-1-1 Coordinators were observing).
At each of the Comm Div consoles, a fifth monitor has been added and is dedicated to map displays of the city. The mapping software plots every 9-1-1 call, both cell and landline, and shows the location of the caller, the RD of the call, any duplicate calls and, if the caller is moving, can track the caller's movements. The Metro Center downtown is ready to start today. We will begin "migrating" the Valley on the 23rd with an expected cutover on the 26th (and by then, three Wireless Service Providers (WSP) will have been cutover from CHP to LAPD). Once we have all of cell sectors in Central cut-over and ringing in VCDC and MCDC, we will next bring up West Valley Division (one WSP at a time).
We will continue like this over about a one-year period, adding new providers until all five that serve Los Angeles are on line, in all 19 geographic Areas.
We currently receive approx. 10,000 "screened" calls from CHP each month. Other agencies that have taken over wireless 9-1-1 calls directly from the public have reported a 4-5 times increase in calls, so we can expect as many as 50,000 more calls a month citywide. We are taking the slow incremental approach so we can evaluate and adjust our staffing needs whether through rescheduling or with new hires. It's conceivable that the department will need to hire a significant number of new PSRs in the next year, perhaps into triple-digit numbers.
There will likely be media attention to this today, check them out for further info. This is all the info I have on it.
More info at: http://www2.dailynews.com/news/ci_3397216
(Thanks to Harry Marnell SCMA-902 for the link)
Today (1/12/06) at 0900, LAPD Communications will begin taking cellular 9-1-1 calls, beginning with Verizon cell sectors in Central Division. If all goes well, Cingular will go live next week. Central Div was chosen because it is surrounded by LAPD Areas (no outside agencies border) and has the I-5, I-10, US-101, and the "SR-110 / I-110" freeway combination running through it. Calls through any cell sector that contains a freeway will still be routed to CHP.
Verizon only has eight sectors in Central that don't have a freeway through them, so they aren't expecting a giant leap in call load until Cingular comes on line with their 135 cell towers (most with three sectors) in the Central Area. The sectors were tested yesterday morning and we passed with flying colors (the County and State 9-1-1 Coordinators were observing).
At each of the Comm Div consoles, a fifth monitor has been added and is dedicated to map displays of the city. The mapping software plots every 9-1-1 call, both cell and landline, and shows the location of the caller, the RD of the call, any duplicate calls and, if the caller is moving, can track the caller's movements. The Metro Center downtown is ready to start today. We will begin "migrating" the Valley on the 23rd with an expected cutover on the 26th (and by then, three Wireless Service Providers (WSP) will have been cutover from CHP to LAPD). Once we have all of cell sectors in Central cut-over and ringing in VCDC and MCDC, we will next bring up West Valley Division (one WSP at a time).
We will continue like this over about a one-year period, adding new providers until all five that serve Los Angeles are on line, in all 19 geographic Areas.
We currently receive approx. 10,000 "screened" calls from CHP each month. Other agencies that have taken over wireless 9-1-1 calls directly from the public have reported a 4-5 times increase in calls, so we can expect as many as 50,000 more calls a month citywide. We are taking the slow incremental approach so we can evaluate and adjust our staffing needs whether through rescheduling or with new hires. It's conceivable that the department will need to hire a significant number of new PSRs in the next year, perhaps into triple-digit numbers.
There will likely be media attention to this today, check them out for further info. This is all the info I have on it.
More info at: http://www2.dailynews.com/news/ci_3397216
(Thanks to Harry Marnell SCMA-902 for the link)
January 11, 2006
Divers Find Explosives in Hunnington Beach Harbour
Commercial-grade explosives discovered on the ocean floor south of Los Angeles prompted authorities to ban cell phone use Wednesday to prevent accidental detonation. Environmental divers hired to check on algae growth in the Huntington Beach Harbour found the cigarette-sized blasting caps late Tuesday. 
At least eight of the volatile explosives, which often are used to trigger larger explosions, were intentionally placed beneath nine to 15 feet of water near the shore, said Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
There was no evidence of explosives stronger than the caps, which could cause an explosion equivalent to a hand grenade, Amormino said. Cell phones were banned for several hundred feet surrounding the shoreline because their signals could detonate caps, he said.
"They are very unstable in salt water. They do pose a threat to the divers, any swimmers, any boaters in the area," Amormino said. Nearby homes and large yachts docked in the exclusive area were not threatened, he said.
At least four of the blasting caps had been removed by Wednesday afternoon. Authorities did not immediately known why the explosives had been placed there but said terrorism was not suspected.
Corrosion on brightly colored wires attached to the explosives led investigators to believe they had been placed there sometime in the previous two days, Amormino said. A diver would have been able to see the wires from a distance, he added.
Officials think it's unlikely the explosives are from the nearby Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station.
Wild LAPD Chase in Van Nuys
A police cruiser crashed into a tree in Van Nuys while pursuing a stolen pickup truck, injuring an officer, authorities said today. The police vehicle slammed into a tree at Hayvenhurst Avenue and Sherman Way just before midnight last night, said Sgt. Robert Marino of the Los Angeles Police Department's Van Nuys Station.
Two men in the stolen pickup truck were later arrested, Marino said.
The officer driving the police car was not injured, but the officer in the passenger seat may have suffered a broken leg because she was on the side of the vehicle that hit the tree, said an officer at the LAPD's Mission Station.
Officers from the LAPD's Mission Station initiated the pursuit, which eventually led into Van Nuys on the San Diego (405) Freeway, the officer said.
Two men in the stolen pickup truck were later arrested, Marino said.
The officer driving the police car was not injured, but the officer in the passenger seat may have suffered a broken leg because she was on the side of the vehicle that hit the tree, said an officer at the LAPD's Mission Station.
Officers from the LAPD's Mission Station initiated the pursuit, which eventually led into Van Nuys on the San Diego (405) Freeway, the officer said.
