Grant: Ventura County, California Ham Radio Network Expansion/Upgrade

Date: March 2022
Amount: $154,000

The Pleasant Valley ARC, funded by the Pleasant Valley Telecommunications Advisory Council (PVTAC), installs and maintains both an analog FM repeater system and an amateur radio digital network that currently encompasses about 600 square miles in Ventura County, western Los Angeles County, and the Santa Clarita Valley in northern L.A. County. In order to support normal and emergency communications for amateurs and the agencies they support, the PVTAC amateur radio network (which utilizes AREDN software) needs to be extended to all of Ventura county and existing sites significantly improved and hardened.

The grant will support efforts to:

  • the build out of four additional mountain top locations, and significant upgrades to the eight current sites
  • backbone sites
  • Up to three high-level user access points at each site, running AREDN software
  • Approximately 30 new ground-level user access points located at hospitals, law enforcement EOCs, Red Cross chapters, etc.
  • Videos for public dissemination that provide unique views of incidents, such as Southern California brush fires
  • Off-network management
  • Spare equipment to cover outages

Learn more at http://pvarc.club.