Shot Show Daily Report - 24 January 2024
Mobile radio survey complete (at the Shot Show)
The Shot Show is bustling for a second day. I thought that maybe the Tuesday evening revelries might dampen morning attendance but that does not appear to be the case.
As you can see from the picture above, the Sawmill’s booth is busy today.
One of the coolest products I saw today was the Labradar LX. See the picture below. This is the smallest chronograph that I have seen. Most shooters would benefit from chronographing their ammunition and understanding the downrange ballistics. If you do not know your muzzle velocity, you do not know your ammunition.
The Labradar LX is about three inches square. It comes with its own tripod and can be gun mounted as well.
FYI: I am not compensated by any manufacturer. I buy my own gear. This is just a fun product.
Radios and Radio Networks For Prepared Civilians
I completed the survey of radio and communications companies at the Shot Show. There are several levels of radio network that can be useful to prepared civilians.
The value of a network, which includes a radio network, increases as the square of the number of connected users on the network (Metcalfe’s law[1]).
It is an engineer’s way of saying that a radio network with one radio is useless and the network becomes much more valuable as the number of radios on the network increases. Engineers are the original Captain Obvious.
The first step in implementing a radio network for your organization or team is to decide what capabilities you need. Here are a few examples out of many. Do you just need voice communications? Do you need situational awareness or team locations? Is your network peer-to-peer or do you have command and control requirements? What are your security requirements? Do you need to link to resources that are outside your network? Thinking through these and other requirements ahead of time will help you implement the radio network that you need.
The simplest radio networks can be done using inexpensive FM radios (Baofeng, Midland, or similar). These are DIY (do-it-yourself) networks meaning you do the work to link and integrate the radios into a network. These networks are mostly used for voice communications but can, with a little ingenuity, be used to transmit data as well. These networks are line of sight and rely on repeaters to extend the range of the network. The repeaters can be built using the same radio’s. DIY radio networks are the least expensive by quite a wide margin.
The next step up in radio networks is to add antennas that function as repeaters and maybe add mesh functionality as well. These antennas are small computers and radios built into an antenna or connected to an antenna. For simplicity, I am going to call the assembly (antenna, radio, and computer) an antenna. You can assemble your own antennas from parts or kits to do this. Complete antennas are also available. The capabilities of these antennas vary a lot.
Mesh functionality means that the antennas link to each other and relay signals that enable cooperation between radios and connected devices.
The next increase in capability comes by adding a communications device that can take advantage of the mesh connectivity. This might be an Android device running TAK (Team Awareness Kit) or it can be other devices.
Finally, if budget is not a consideration, the final step up in radio networks is to implement Internet Protocol (IP) networks across your network. This approach offers the most capabilities but it comes at the highest price. Effectively, you implement a small internet that includes only your team. These networks are often called MANET which stands for Mobile Ad hoc Networks[2].
Radio networks for prepared civilians will grow over the next few years. We will spend more time on this topic in upcoming articles.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe%27s_law
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_ad_hoc_network