Communications
"The Voice of Command"
The
Civil Air Patrol operates one of the largest communications systems in
the country with more than 6,000 fixed land stations and more than 10,000
land and airmobile radios operated by over 20,000 trained communicators.
This system consists of voice and automatic digital communications capabilities
on long and short circuit paths. Hundreds of individual networks are linked
together to form a highly flexible and survivable nationwide traffic handling
system.
The CAP National Digital Radio Network has drawn
particular interest from other organizations such as the Federal Emergency
Management Agency which has joined the network and included it in their
emergency communications planning.
The NDRN consists of more than 2,000 computer
based radio stations which take advantage of leading edge technology to
automatically establish links as necessary and pass error-free message
traffic throughout the system.
Because the system doesn't rely on telephone lines,
it is highly survivable in the event of natural or man-made disasters and--also
because of its radio-based architecture--it is extremely flexible allowing
end-users to "plug" into the system from anywhere within radio
range of one of the 500-plus system nodes across the country.
