MEMA Move

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kb5udf

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On July 15th, MEMA officially moved into their new, state of the art facility
near the State Fire Academy, in Pearl. It is truly impressive, and the large 'war room'
should do much to offset the difficulties and overcrowding experienced last year during Katrina Ops. The main gallery has at least two viewing levels (with offices in a hallway behind that), with three main video projectors throwing a two story high image. The building itself looks from the outside like it could survive a nuclear near miss :).

It also includes a very nice hamshack, located on the second floor office hally behind the gallery, so basically right in a good place. We can make noise with our radios if we want to (and not bother anybody) but are close enough to hand pass messages if needed to officials.

At present the MEMA/State EOC hamshack is operational on VHF/UHF. We have some issues with our present HF antenna and/or feedline, but hope to resolve these within a month.

A few months ago, we also completed work/testing of the ham installation on the MEMA motor coach/bus. Again, this is a state of the art setup on the bus. The ham station has two chairs, vhf/uhf radio, and a Kenwood TS-480 for HF. The HF antenna, I think, is a motorized Tarheel vertical. We also have a pc, but I'm unsure about any data connections it may have at this time.

Should we be activated in an emergency, we would primarily use the local ham repeaters on vhf/uhf. Primary HF ops are on 3.862 LSB (MS Phone Net, after 6pm), 3.873 (after 6pm), 7.285 LSB (daytime).

73'

Jean
 
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AC0RV

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From my undeducated brain... Impressive. Lets hope you all will noty need to use the new digs.

Best of Luck to all.
 

nexus

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Hey Jean, are you working closely with the MEMA up there?

Would it be possible to take pictures of the mobile command post? I'd love to see some pictures of the setup.
 

kb5udf

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Me and MEMA, PICS

My id says, "S.E.O.C. Staff" (state emergency operations center)
Amateur Radio
R.A.C.E.S. Operator

Or something close to that. So I'm just a humble ham volunteer not an employee.
Our ham activities during normal periods generally involve firing up the radios every couple weeks or so, and manning the ham shack or deploying as requested for disasters.

Hmm I don't have any pics. I'll have to check and see if they don't mind. Oddly enough
I didn't see any on the website.

There may be some tours in the offering for small groups of hams in the next few months. If possible, I will ask to get that extended to members of this forum.

Jean B.

P.S. I guess I was a little vague about what we do in a disaster. The MEMA/SEOC hamshack is often a clearinghouse
for incoming emergency (ie, rescue me, or send x,y,z ugently needed supplies, to my county) from other hams. Though
we sometimes take such emergency traffic directly. The traffic is then passed to the appropriate MEMA personnel, or during
Katrina, sometimes directly to the USCG liason if it was a rescue.
 
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kb5udf

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Mobile Comm Post from Memory

My visual memory isn't the best, but from what I recall, going from the front to the back
of the bus.

___________
|D E|
|K H|
|B H|
|S R|
|O O|
|O O|
---------------

D= Driver
E= Exit
K= Kitchenette
H= Ham Operator
B= Bathroom
S = Storage
R = Radios VHF/UHF/800, AM AIR, and Marine (about 25), with operator facing the rear
O = Mema Ops, basically desk facing wall, with PC and sat phone/mema satcomm

I forget if their is a meeting room at the rear.

Jean
 
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