Intent to Award a Sole Source to Maiden Rock Communication for the development of a Solid State Amplifier System

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), intends to issue a firm-fixed price, sole source purchase order to Maiden Rock for maintenance, repair and continued development of the Solid State Amplification systems used in the NRCS's meteorburst stations. The SNOTEL system is the largest meteor burst remote data collection system in the world, with approximately 670 stations operating throughout the western US. MCC produced the original meteor burst software and the hardware at the master stations and remote stations associated with the ability collect data. The software, which handles the communication between the remote stations and master stations, is proprietary in nature. The Meteorburst transmitters are the primary source for the transmitted SNOTEL and SCAN data which are used in essential engineering research and development projects with field applications throughout the USDA-NRCS. Manufacture and sales of the MCC520X and MRC 520s radio are being transferred from MCC to Maiden Rock. The meteorburst transmitters are the primary source for the transmitted SNOTEL and SCAN data which are used in essential engineering research and development projects with field applications throughout the USDA-NRCS including emergency operations that are mission critical and listed as part of national security. The data are collected at meteorburst remote stations located nationwide. These transmitters require specialized power amplification to operate them at peak performance. The amplifiers currently used a tthese stations are old and will need to be replaced. Currently there are no appropriate products available on market for the type of power amplifier that is need. Because of this need for a new amplifier NRCS would like to contract with Maiden Rock to develop a solid state amplifier that would work with the transmitter at our master stations. The SNOTEL Meteor Burst System, operating since 1976, has always used a tube RF Power Amplifier. Although this amplifier was designed to be capable of producing output power of up to 2,000 watts, it was seldom used for levels exceeding 1500 watts. In fact, SNOTEL is presently operating at a level of around 1000-1200 watts. This means that a 1000 watt solid state amplifier would work. In the early days tube amplifiers were the only way to produce these levels of RF power. In later years it was possible to design and build solid state amplifiers in the 500 to 1000 watt range, but the 1000 watt units were not rugged and reliability was a question. Since the introduction (in 2010) of very rugged highly reliable 50V LDMOS N channel enhancement mode Lateral RF Field Effect Transistors (FET) the 1000 watt solid state amplifier is practical. The amplifier will be designed around the LMOS 50 V power transistor. Several manufactures supply these devices capable of producing 1000 watts of RF power at efficiencies approaching 75%. Power gains of about 23 DB for this one device are typical. An input amplifier with power output of about 5 watts will be required to boost the RF input from the MRC 525 Communications Terminal from 1 milliwatt (0 DBM) to 5 watts. A copper heat spreader and a set of fans will be used to dissipate the heat generated by the amplifier. The design will be similar to that used in the MCC 528 Exciter. The controls from the MRC 525 will be used to key the amplifier on and off as well monitor the operation of the amplifier. A notch filter between the preamplifier and the final amplifier will be used to keep the RF noise density at the receive frequency (1 MHZ from the transmit frequency)about 130 DB below the full power output of the amplifier or -90 DBM/HZ. It may be possible to operate without the large notch filters used at the output of the tube amplifier in the SNOTEL Master Station. Maiden Rock is the sole manufacturer in the world of the meteor-burst equipment and has been awarded the NRCS contract for supplying the radios for meteorburst communications. Maiden Rock Communications LLC, is the only remaining company that is familiar with the meteorburst radio equipment and capable of providing the required support for modifications and upgrades. These radios are used in essential engineering research and development projects with field applications throughout the USDA-NRCS. These projects range from helping to monitor and predict the snowmelt runoff and required reservoir storage to crop water uses. Maiden Rock is the sole producer of meteor burst type communication equipment. The 565 radio is the standard radio for SNOTEL and SCAN data collection stations. N. other radio will work. Work needed: Now that the design of the power amplifier is complete the following needs to be completed to manufacture the product and to fully utilize the new capabilities of the power amplifier. 1 . Production drawings need to be drawn for manufacturing 2. Redesign and prototype for the remote control and monitor. (RCAM) 3. Redesign of coax relay. 4. Redesign of GUI software to monitor meteorburst master station performance. NRCS has invested millions of dollars to procure and maintain its own telemetry network that uses meteorburst technology to transmit data from remote location. The agency currently owns five master stations worth over 2 million dollars in equipment alone. Nearly 1200 remote data collection stations report vital climate data through this network. Up until 2011 NRCS relied upon Meteor Communication Corporation (MCC) as the sole provider for this type of equipment. In 2010 MCC discontinued manufacturing of this equipment. In June 2011 Maiden Rock Communications (MRC) was requested to design and build for testing three next generations meteor burst remote radios that will replace the existing MCC 545B equipment used in SNOTEL and SCAN networks. These replacement radios are required to operate within the current operations of the meteor burst communication architecture. This architecture is proprietary to MeteorComm Corporation, LLC (MCC) and licensed to Maiden Rock Communications (MRC). MRC is uniquely qualified to develop this amplifier at the lowest possible cost because its engineers have experience in developing low band (40-50 MHZ) RF power amplifiers (developed the MCC 528 300 watt Exciter and the MCC 516 500 watt power amplifier)and have been involved with the SNOTEL system since its inception in 1976. In addition they successfully developed the MRC 525 Meteor Burst Communications Terminal for NRCS in 2012. They are intimately familiar with the noise, operating conditions, and interface requirements of this amplifier and its use in the SNOTEL System. These radios are used in essential engineering research and development projects with field applications throughout the USDA-NRCS. These projects range from helping to monitor and predict the snowmelt runoff and required reservoir storage to crop water uses. USDA-NRCS has invested many hours refining the interfacing between the MCC545 and 565 radio and the CRlOOO data logger as well as the programming of the logger to accommodate the customized sensors. All remote stations operate against a proprietary operating system manufactured by Maiden Rock Communications, LLC. To compete this award would create substantial duplication of costs in which the Government is not expected to recover. This amplifier is unique and special in that it must interface with newly designed NRCS equipment and operate in NRCS Meteor Burst Master Station, all of which operate with licensed to Maiden Rock Communications (MRC) and not available for other vendors to access. - The amplifier must interface to and support all functions provide by NRCS's new MRC 525 Meteor Burst Communications Terminal. (Delivered this September) - It must also interface with the NRCS's Master Station Monitoring and Control System (MSMC). - It must operate in a full duplex or half duplex mode transmitting at 40.67 MHZ without degrading the performance of the MRC 525 receiving at 41.61 MHZ. MRC is uniquely qualified to develop this amplifier at the lowest possible cost because its engineers have: - Been involved with the SNOTEL system since its inception in 1976 and are intimately familiar with the noise, operating conditions, and interface requirements of this amplifier and its use in the SNOTEL System Meteor Burst System - Experience in developing low band (40-50 MHZ) RF power amplifiers (developed the MCC 528 300 watt Exciter and the MCC 516 500 watt power amplifier) - Successfully developed the MRC 525 Meteor Burst Communications Terminal for NRCS in 2012. This procurement is being conducted under Simplified Acquisition Procedures in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), Part 13.106-1(b)(1) (i), Soliciting from a single source. This is not a request for Competitive Proposals. No contract will be awarded on the basis of offers received in response to this notice. A determination by the Government not to compete the proposed effort on a full and open competition basis, based upon the responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the Government. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice. This is a notice and a solicitation will not be issued. NRCS will not respond to requests for solicitation copies and will not pay for information received in response to this announcement. No solicitation document is available. The associated North America Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code is 811213 and the Business Size Standard is 500 employees. Any responses or inquires to this notice shall be submitted to Darin Wilson, Contracting Officer at george.wilson@ftw.usda.gov and are due no later than the 3:00pm (Central Standard Time) on October 10, 2015.