DPA South Africa KwaNdebele Radio Communication and Telemetry




	DELPORT DU PREEZ AND ASSOCIATES CONSULTING ENGINEERS AND PROJECT MANAGERS KWANDEBELE HEALTH AND WATER COMMUNICATION NETWORKS


	Index: Introduction, Scope of the works, Main functions and facilities, Radio Telephone Network, Radio Telemetry System, Contractors.

INTRODUCTION

In the 1980's the Authorities invested a lot of funds into creating and improving infrastructure in the area then known as the KwaNdebele Homeland. Emphasis was placed on the development of water distribution, electrification and health facilities.

DPA was as consultants tasked with the creation of a radio telephone network for the Health Services and a Telemetry network for the Water Affairs Department.

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SCOPE OF THE WORKS

The network for the Health department was primarily intended to provide a communication channel between the various clinics, hospitals and ambulances. The network consisted of a number of base stations, mobile stations and a repeater station.

The network for the water department provided telemetry from all the mayor water retaining structures to the control room, from where the flow of water is controlled and coordinated.

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MAIN FUNCTIONS AND FACILITIES

Radio Telephone Network for the Health Services.

The Health communication network consisted of 46 base stations located at the Community Clinics, linked to the 2 base stations located at the 2 Hospitals in the area and to the ambulance dispatch centre. Ambulances were equipped with mobile radio stations and the doctors were provided with portable stations. All stations operated with a selective calling system with keypad activation and each station in the


	network was given it's own unique code. Any station operator could also access the Telkom network via the base station at the administration office. The telephone patch was pass code protected to prevent unauthorised use.

The ambulance dispatch centre was equipped with a computer operated control and logging system, recording all calls between stations in the network. It was particularly important to log all calls to and from ambulances to ensure prompt response.

A communication monitor at the Administration Offices recorded all communication on the network, so that movement of ambulances and actions of Health personnel could be analysed after emergencies to identify shortcomings and to ensure that the coordination of services could be improved.

A single repeater station provided area wide coverage for the radio telephone network.

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Radio Telemetry System for the Water Affairs Department

The radio telemetry system for the Water department shared the repeater station site with the Health Services but operated on different frequency channels.

A total of 42 telemetry stations provided monitoring of the water levels and inflow/outflow data at 36 reservoir sites and 6 pump stations.

Control and coordination was carried out from a network of three master stations, located respectively at the Administration control office, the water treatment plant and the planning office.

The system provided daily reports of reservoir status, accumulated flow into the villages and a total water balance in the system. With this system mayor water leaks or imbalances can quickly be identified and corrective steps taken to limit losses.

The outstations were equipped with microprocessors and real time clock facilities. Data collected was stored complete with time tagging and transfer to the master station was on demand or change in status triggered. The outstation was further equipped with enough memory to allow for the storage of data for a period of up to 14 days during failure of the radio channel to ensure that no data was lost. Data could also be extracted using a laptop facility.

The master stations contained a data storage system to allow for the storage of the data collected during the last 30 day cycle. The operator could recall any data to analyse trends, calculate water movement, identify problem areas and generally plan for the efficient distribution of resources.

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CONTRACTORS.

Telephone Network: Communication Data Systems (Pty) Ltd.

Telemetry Network: Prodesign (Pty) Ltd.

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Page prepared by: P. du Preez.


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