On Wednesday, Sept 3rd I got to ride in a Mono County Paramedic Unit. This was my second ride in the last ten years. Unfortunately, this time, the ride was not up front, but in the back on a gurney. I had a slow speed fall off my road bicycle when I was turning around on a paved road and ran out of pavement. I had to cross a short section of dirt, which was almost all firm soil, except for a small patch of loose soil that my 110 psi front tire found. The bike came to a complete stop and the front tire scooped out the soft dirt and the bike went out from under me, and went horizontal in mid air. I landed hard on my left hip and fractured the neck of the upper femur, which is located just below the ball of the upper femur.
Mammoth is a great place to break a bone as we have a world class orthopedic practice, an outstanding hospital, and an excellent physical therapy center. I was in surgery six hours after the accident. Three long screws were put into the bone. Recovery is expected to take 12-14 weeks and I will be spending the majority of my time in a hospital bed on the lower floor of our condo.
Having been an EMT on a volunteer fire department ambulance many years ago and being first on scene of many medicals and accidents while working for the Forest Service all the steps taken by the paramedics were very familiar to me. When I was asked the first of the four questions regarding my mental orientation, I was able to say "I'm oriented times four: my name is Fred, it is Wednesday about 1430, I'm on the Sawmill Cutoff Road, and I was riding my bike at the time of my accident". I knew the questions that would follow and pretty much knew how the conversation with the MICN at the hospital would proceed. I had missed the tour of the new portion of our hospital so I hadn't seen the wonderful new emergency room facility or the new operating rooms. I got my tour but know more about the ceilings now, than I do the stuff on the floor. After listening to EMS traffic in Mono County for 27 years it was interesting to hear some radio traffic generated by my "incident."
One thing I did notice was the placement of what looked like rubber duckie antennas mounted upside down in the ceiling in key locations such as hallway intersections and at regular distances down long hallways. Does anyone have any idea what these antennas are used for? The length of these antennas is about 8-10". I wondered if they were a sort of passive repeater for handheld radios and would relay signals from a rooftop antenna down into the inner, and RF shielded portions of the building. The hospital is steel framed, with metal/fiberglass insulation, and has a metal roof so I could not bring up any 2 meter, 1.25 meter, or 70 cm repeaters in the five days I was in the hospital, so I know the construction/materials of the hospital make for a minimum of RF penetration in or out of the building.
Since my "shack" is upstairs and I won't be going up there for 2-3 weeks I have my PRO-96 and my Kenwood TH-F6A next to the bed. I also have a "new" (old) TV which I picked up from a friend who put in two new HD TV's in her house. It has a 25 inch screen and the picture is large enough to see from across the room where my hospital bed is set up. The audio is hooked up to my stereo so I can route the audio into my wireless headphones and don't disturb my wife when I wake up at odd times and want to watch TV. I had just hooked the TV up 2 days before the accident and feel fortunate to have done so now.
I'm going to spend some quality time with my scanner in search mode and try to find new frequencies being used around town. This will also give me the time to finish the 20 V Files I'm writing for my two GRE PSR-600's. I also hope to have many QSO's on the seven amateur repeaters I can reach from my bed confined location.
On the downside I am not able to attend the EMT class I was planning to take at our local community college. This is the first time it has been given at the Mammoth campus, usually is is given at the Bishop campus. It is about time I renew the EMT qualifications I received back in 1980! Of course it would not be a renewal, but there is a lot I remember from that class from way back when!
Mammoth is a great place to break a bone as we have a world class orthopedic practice, an outstanding hospital, and an excellent physical therapy center. I was in surgery six hours after the accident. Three long screws were put into the bone. Recovery is expected to take 12-14 weeks and I will be spending the majority of my time in a hospital bed on the lower floor of our condo.
Having been an EMT on a volunteer fire department ambulance many years ago and being first on scene of many medicals and accidents while working for the Forest Service all the steps taken by the paramedics were very familiar to me. When I was asked the first of the four questions regarding my mental orientation, I was able to say "I'm oriented times four: my name is Fred, it is Wednesday about 1430, I'm on the Sawmill Cutoff Road, and I was riding my bike at the time of my accident". I knew the questions that would follow and pretty much knew how the conversation with the MICN at the hospital would proceed. I had missed the tour of the new portion of our hospital so I hadn't seen the wonderful new emergency room facility or the new operating rooms. I got my tour but know more about the ceilings now, than I do the stuff on the floor. After listening to EMS traffic in Mono County for 27 years it was interesting to hear some radio traffic generated by my "incident."
One thing I did notice was the placement of what looked like rubber duckie antennas mounted upside down in the ceiling in key locations such as hallway intersections and at regular distances down long hallways. Does anyone have any idea what these antennas are used for? The length of these antennas is about 8-10". I wondered if they were a sort of passive repeater for handheld radios and would relay signals from a rooftop antenna down into the inner, and RF shielded portions of the building. The hospital is steel framed, with metal/fiberglass insulation, and has a metal roof so I could not bring up any 2 meter, 1.25 meter, or 70 cm repeaters in the five days I was in the hospital, so I know the construction/materials of the hospital make for a minimum of RF penetration in or out of the building.
Since my "shack" is upstairs and I won't be going up there for 2-3 weeks I have my PRO-96 and my Kenwood TH-F6A next to the bed. I also have a "new" (old) TV which I picked up from a friend who put in two new HD TV's in her house. It has a 25 inch screen and the picture is large enough to see from across the room where my hospital bed is set up. The audio is hooked up to my stereo so I can route the audio into my wireless headphones and don't disturb my wife when I wake up at odd times and want to watch TV. I had just hooked the TV up 2 days before the accident and feel fortunate to have done so now.
I'm going to spend some quality time with my scanner in search mode and try to find new frequencies being used around town. This will also give me the time to finish the 20 V Files I'm writing for my two GRE PSR-600's. I also hope to have many QSO's on the seven amateur repeaters I can reach from my bed confined location.
On the downside I am not able to attend the EMT class I was planning to take at our local community college. This is the first time it has been given at the Mammoth campus, usually is is given at the Bishop campus. It is about time I renew the EMT qualifications I received back in 1980! Of course it would not be a renewal, but there is a lot I remember from that class from way back when!
