Salt Lake County ARES

On September 24, 2026, Salt Lake County ARES® conducted a brief exercise to show the Salt Lake County Health Department our ability to transmit hospital facility status reports in a disaster which might cause conventional phone and data networks to fail. The PDF is 2.7 MB, and embedded below:

We had challenges, and ultimately prevailed, but we really need to find a way to more reliably deploy Winlink when it’s needed. Taking a go-kit to a location for the first time, and sharing one radio between voice and data when we arrive, seem to be the most frequent culprits in tempting Murphy’s Law.

At the August meeting of Salt Lake County ARES®, Russ, KK7QQO showed us the AIOC, short for “All-in-One Cable,” which easily and inexpensively adapts any low-cost radio with a Kenwood-style two-pin connector for use as a dedicated data radio. This is a nicely made interface for both digital modes and radio programming (CHIRP, etc.) made by NA6D:

Russ suggests, and I concur, that simply having a hardware setup which never has to switch between voice and data modes could probably eliminate most common field failures. At worst, you might need a quick way, such as a coax switch or BNC patch, to switch a single antenna cable between your dedicated voice and data radios.

If you already have a Windows laptop and a Baofeng, Quansheng or equivalent radio, the bare interface is $33, a 3D-printed protective case (red option shown in the photo) is $4, and a well-shielded, right-angle USB cable with ferrites is $10. So for just about $50 including shipping, this could solve a bunch of frustration.

I ordered two of these interfaces to try with cheap handhelds. We’re going to try it out during the county’s weekly EOC net, and see if operation is as plug-&-play as this looks. If you’d be interested in this solution, we may be able to put together a group order. Make your wishes known at the next meeting on October 28th.

Making a solution like this could be made to work in P2P mode, eliminating reliance on RMS and the internet, if you are within simplex range of the destination station. But the real magic would be access to a handfull of reliable RMS nodes in a few spots around the valley, so that a Winlink messages could be sent at any time convenient for the sender, and delivery later at the convenience of the recipient.

What are your thoughts? Let us know by reply here on the list, or perhaps we can discuss the idea on the SLCo ARES® Weekly Net Wednesday at 2030.