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
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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