The MST Team's continuing mission is to provide communications support to the major hospital systems in Western Washington when all other forms of communications fail, via the analog and digital forms of the Amateur Radio Bands. Learn more on our About page.
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See our Events page for information about scheduled training and supported events.
We entered the hospitals and ran through a training scenario:
EXERCISE EXERCISE EXERCISE: There has been a bioweapon drone-attack on the Seattle waterfront. King County has activated the DMCC to coordinate a regional response the mass casualty incident (MCI). Normal communication infrastructure remains intact, however, it is severely overloaded. Compounding the incident, many emergency responders are finding that they are not proficient in using provided emergency communications tools (e.g. 800MHz, PSERN, etc.).
The NWHRN has activated WWMSEC to maintain vital hospital communications needed to coordinate a regional medical response.
We had a solid turnout and shook out the hospital gear. Thanks everyone for participating!
Thank you to the MST Technical Committee for their efforts today toward repairing the VA Hospital HF antenna. This roof does not have guard rails, so we were required to work harnessed and tethered to roof mounts. On the roof we have Nick N7QOR, Robert KK7QML, Walt KK7KAS, and myself (taking the photo).
Inside the building, the EQ crew helped ferry the unending needs of the roof crew. Tools up, garbage and antenna mounts down. Thank you Charles KJ7GKQ and David K7YFM (I took a photo but it looked awful).
Special thanks to Jeff WB7AHT and Frank K7RSD for providing historical guidance and EQ assistance. While the system was battered and weathered, it was obvious that substantial effort had been put into the original install which had provided many years of service.
As expected, we found the support poles to be heavily weathered and in need of a reapplication of UV protectant. The poles were taken down and transported to my home for cleaning and painting.
An inspection of the feed line found insulation damage. The Tech Committee will remediate the feedline on a return visit. At that time, we will install and tune an all new antenna.
We took many photographs of the installation for future reference and look forward to returning to complete the repair.