Presidential Motorcade

[stecle]

In the motorcade there is one SUV that is covered in antennas. I have always wondered what these are for. Besides a cell antenna and a VHF-UHF what else is there? Ham maybe?

 

[NYDutch]

Probably tuned antennas for multiple services on multiple frequencies plus some likely redundancy.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

They are in continuous contact with select services such as local hospitals and the local team.

However other antennas jam frequencies in the immediate area.

Having watched a number of presidential motorcades, it has been a unique experience.

One time I even saw a time when a car pulled on the road behind the motorcade, when it wasn't supposed to. The back of a truck opened up in the motorcade and a guy sitting on a large gun appeared and aimed at the car... the driver quickly pulled off the route... when he did the guy with the gun slid back in the truck and the back door closed again. Wild stuff.

 

[Inclined Orbit]

Besides local Secret Service radios there is a military UHF satcom antenna and other multi service antennas that cover VHF/UHF/700/800Mhz frequencies plus HF, but the HF whip antenna is stowed until needed. These radio trucks are usually referred to as a "Roadrunner" vehicle. The latest version Roadrunner seems to have many Laird WPD136M6C-001 style multiband antennas. If it has a large tall round dome that could be a steerable Ka or Ku band antenna for various types of satellite communications or Internet and I had a conversation a number of years ago with the SS about hardware needed for DirecTV reception in a Roadrunner so they can monitor various news agencies live. Its possible the big dome is now a mobile DirecTV or Dish antenna.

There are other vehicles with large thick antennas with what looks like big heatsinks at the base. That would be a radio frequency jamming vehicle that can respond to remote control IEDs and jam their radio links. And a lot of other stuff.