Communication options in the event of a crisis or disaster
In the event of a crisis or disaster, the failure of the usual communication options (mobile/landline telephony) is a not unrealistic scenario. The German Amateur Radio Club (DARC) has developed and already partially implemented an emergency radio concept in order to be able to offer a communication system for the municipal administration and the population in the event of a prolonged outage. A mesh radio network in the gigahertz range (5.8 GHz) is being set up on the basis of radio relay antennas, which can connect stations up to 30 km away from each other − depending on the weather and terrain.
In order to evaluate the overall concept and familiarise other people with the construction and operation of the mesh network, the third training weekend of the DARC's emergency radio department took place from 3 to 6 October 2024 in Witten in the Ruhr area. During the three-day workshop, the approximately 40 participants from all over Germany were first taught the theoretical basics of the mesh network, then the function of an individual node was explained and finally the operation of the entire network was explained. This was followed on Saturday by an exercise on setting up and operating the mesh network across the Ruhr region. During this exercise, nodes were installed on a total of five spoil tips from the mining industry, thus spanning and testing a mesh network over almost the entire area of the Ruhr region.
Prof. Dr. Dirk Koschützki and Dipl.-Ing. Petra Wardzichowski took part in the training weekend to become familiar with the concept and evaluate its integration into the teaching of the Internal link opens in the same window:Security and Safety Engineering bachelor's programme and the Internal link opens in the same window:Risk, Reliability and Safety Engineering master's programme at HFU and received valuable input for student projects and the further development of the courses. They will be happy to answer any questions about the technology used (mesh radio network based on OpenWRT and AREDN), the DARC's emergency radio concept and the topic of amateur radio.
