Notice of Intent to Sole Source - RAWS Portable Weather Station Upgrades for Hoosier National Forest

In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (RFO) 13.101(b), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, Hoosier National Forest, intends to award a sole-source, firm-fixed-price purchase order to FTS (Forest Technology Systems), an AEM Subsidiary, located at 1065 Henry Eng Place, Langford, BC Canada, V9B 6B2. The total estimated contract value is $16,900.00.

This procurement is for a critical hardware and structural upgrade for two (2) active Remote Automatic Weather Stations (RAWS) Portables utilized for fire management operations:

• IIC NORTH PORTABLE (NESDIS ID: FC101320)


• IIC SOUTH PORTABLE (NESDIS ID: FC100056)

The upgrade involves procuring proprietary Quick Deploy (QD2) structural enclosures, tripod legs, 20W solar panels, mounting brackets, and SDI-WS-RMY-QD wind speed/direction sensors. This action is required to prevent water intrusion into internal electronics due to cracked enclosures and to ensure data stream accuracy for decision support during prescribed fires and wildfire response.

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

An audit of the active Wildland Fire Management Information (WFMI) Weather system database confirms that the current field assets operate entirely on the proprietary FTS F6 Data Collection Platform (DCP) infrastructure and G6 QD transmitters. FTS is the sole designer, manufacturer, and distributor of the QD2 ecosystem components. No other meteorological equipment manufacturer produces structural enclosures, mounting bars, or sensor couplings that are physically or technologically compatible with this specific hardware architecture. Introducing third-party equipment would cause severe physical mismatching, fail to protect internal electronics, compromise data transmission integrity required for fire modeling, and void the existing hardware configuration.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

This notice is NOT a request for competitive quotes/proposals. No solicitation package will be issued. However, any interested parties who believe they possess the expertise and authorized capability to provide exact-match, fully compatible component parts matching the existing FTS F6/G6 system architecture may submit a capability statement within fifteen (15) of this notice. Capability statements must include company details, UEI number, business size status, and explicit technical evidence of system compatibility. Submissions must be sent via email directly to the Points of Contact listed in this notice. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed action based upon responses received is solely within the discretion of the Government.