Public Works Agency ALERT2 in Ventura County · 2017. 3. 22. · PWA – VCWPD . ALERT2 Repeaters...
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Public Works Agency Ventura County Watershed Protection District April, 2016 Hydrology Section ALERT2 in Ventura County and Southern California’s ALERT2 Status Presented to: The ALERT Users Group 2016 Flood Warning Systems Training Symposium and Preparedness Workshop Fish Camp, California By Ron Marotto P.H.
Transcript of Public Works Agency ALERT2 in Ventura County · 2017. 3. 22. · PWA – VCWPD . ALERT2 Repeaters...
Public Works Agency
Ventura County Watershed
Protection District
April, 2016
Hydrology Section
ALERT2 in Ventura County and
Southern California’s ALERT2 Status
Presented to: The ALERT Users Group
2016 Flood Warning Systems Training Symposium and Preparedness Workshop
Fish Camp, California By
Ron Marotto P.H.
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Southern California
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This is what the backbone of Southern California looked like. We are separating the repeater connections and becoming independent Counties with ALERT2.
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Ventura County
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Ventura has completed their backbone upgrade to ALERT2. I will quickly run you through our upgrade and show you where we are today.
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ALERT2 Receiver/Decoder Main GC Base Station
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Our main base station at the Government Center has been upgraded to ALERT2.
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ALERT2 Receiver/Decoder Saticoy Backup Base Station
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Our backup base station at our Saticoy location has also been upgraded to ALERT2. The two base stations are setup to talk to each other so if there is any data loss the data gaps can be filled. The base stations also have alternating data feeds to our web site so if one base station goes down for some reason the web site will stay up and running without interruption.
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ALERT2 Repeaters Red Mountain
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Once the base stations were in place the focus moved to upgrading the repeater sites. All of Ventura’s repeaters can now receive both ALERT and ALERT2 including the one you see here which is Red Mountain. When Red Mountain was installed originally we didn’t have a pass block list but now we do. So all the repeaters Ventura has are now set with pass lists as this was a critical need in the design of our system. This repeater also has a 1mm rain gage.
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ALERT2 Repeaters Sisar Mountain
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This is our dual repeater system setup on Sisar Mountain. The majority of our stations go through this repeater so we wanted to have it backed up. The original idea was that if one repeater failed we could switch the other one on remotely. What we ended up doing is similar to what we have with the base stations were both these repeaters are on all the time with both of them having their own time slots so if one should fail there will be no data loss or interruption in the data. Both these repeaters also have Digi cell modems for remote access which is great if a need such as changing the pass list should arise.
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Shop Preparation for Additional Repeaters
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My other repeaters are in stand pipes so before heading out I came up with this simple bracket system on top of the can for mounting the antenna splitter, pre-amp and the voltage regulator.
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ALERT2 Repeaters Sandstone Peak
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This is our Sandstone repeater in a stand pipe that also has a Digi cell modem for remote access.
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Upgrading Repeaters Nordhoff Ridge
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This repeater site was added in order to capture a stream gage site that had no other way of getting its transmission out. This will probably allow us to take a few sites off of GOES now and have them come through this repeater. This repeater repeats to our Sisar Mountain repeater and not directly back to the base stations. A little story… After hiking back to this site to add my pass list I found some mountain lion prints on my gage. Mind you there had been no rain so my guess is that he peed and then stepped in it in order to make the muddy prints. I have big hands so this was a decent sized cat. I know what you are thinking… Did I mark the gage to show this mountain lion who's gage it really was… Of course I did.
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Additional ALERT2 Sites
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Here are additional ALERT2 sites we have in. I’m going to start with the gage on the right. This is an ALERT2 rain only gage. The middle is our concentrator with a rain gage along with a temp and RH sensor. This site allowed us to stop using a wireless link at one of the sites. The far left one I got paid through our water quality program as they needed a rainfall trigger switch for the pump station here. So on a certain rainfall threshold the pump switches automatically from discharging directly into the ocean to discharging to the treatment plant. Once it has rained for a certain period followed by a certain time period of dry conditions the pump switches back to the ocean again automatically. One of the things I have done which is a little hard to see in my photos is that I had a bunch of special brackets made for mounting our GPS antennas. Here’s a close-up of the special little bracket.
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Tools to Aid in the Transition to ALERT2
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Having an ALERT2 field decoder is a big help while testing things. While testing stuff at my shop I had to keep dragging stuff outside to get GPS lock and then couldn’t leave it setup there. So what I did was put a radio antenna along with a GPS antenna on the roof and ran those cables into my workshop. Now I can do all the testing I want from my workbench.
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Source Address Management System
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That’s where we are at as far as the hardware goes. As far as our SAMS data got updated with all the correct ID’s. We had made all the changes on a spreadsheet and then sent that to James so he could do it as a bunch change verses us having to go in and individually change each station. That was a huge time savings.
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Phase Two of DWR Grants
The second phase of the DWR Flood Emergency Response grants will help cover the transition of the individual transmitters to ALERT2. Each agency has determined their individual site needs for ALERT2 transition. Will there be a third FERG? That unknown at this time.
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We will have the first grant for the backbone closed out next winter. The second grant or what we call ‘FERG2’ is to continue the transition to ALERT2 by upgrading or installing ALERT2 transmitters at individual sites. Each agency has been working to determine their individual site needs as part of the second grant. This will not cover the full transition to ALERT2 for any Southern California agency so if there is a third grant we will attempt to get more funding for the transition.
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DWR Awards Funds
The second round of the Flood Emergency Response Grant (FERG2) through DWR awarded the Southern California group additional funds to continue the upgrading towards a complete ALERT2 flood warning system.
$780,674
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What did we get with the 2nd DWR FERG? DWR awarded the Southern California group $780,674 to continue the transition to ALERT2. Right now the agreement has been approved by DWR. Ventura’s County Council has approved it and we are scheduled to go to the Board of Supervisors May 3rd . After that the agreement will go around to all the agencies again for signatures. Once all have signed the agreement the purchasing can start. We are anticipating the purchasing to start early July depending on how fast we get the signatures on the agreement.
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Questions
Permanent link to this comic: http://xkcd.com/730/
Ronald Marotto P.H. President of the ALERT Users Group Ventura County Watershed Protection District [email protected]
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So, I was conflicted on what photo to use for my question screen so I decided to just use all three. The ALERT2 schematic… My fully electric Brammo motorcycle… And my KTM enduro photo showing what just a little rain in Southern California can do.
