posted Nov 1, 2011 2:16 PM by Victor Cid
The three BHEPP hospitals--Suburban-John Hopkins Hospital, the NIH Clinical Center and the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center--particiated in an emergency drill on October 19th. NIHRAC members, were joined by MARS and additional volunteer hams to provide emergency communications support during this successful event. Hams provided Suburban Hospital and NIH Clinical Center with information about the arrival of patient transports (buses and helicopters) to the Incident Command Centers, and assisted Suburban in their use of the "BHEPP MARS/Winlink2000 Emergency Radio System" (BMERS, an emergency communications system developed in collaboration with the National Library of Medicine). The BMERS base station at the NIHRAC Emergency Communications Centers in the NIH campus, was efficiently operated by a MARS team.
Our thanks to those who participated on this event: Bill Hook (W3QBC), Ralph Johnson (WB0JKV), Andy Mitz (WA3LTJ), Tom Horne (W3TDH), Victor Cid (W3CID), and specially to the MARS team: Tony (KF3AK/AAT3FG) and Dave Smith (AAR3DL/AAM3MD).
Some related pictures have been added to our picture gallery. |
posted Sep 29, 2011 7:45 PM by Victor Cid
The Bethesda Hospitals' Emergency Preparedness Partnership ( http://www.bhepp.org) will participate in the Capital Shield 2011 Exercise in October 19th. Ham radio volunteers will be needed to assist this event by operating the BHEPP MARS Winlink2000 radio station and help with local communications during inter-hospital patient exchange exercises. The activities will take place mainly at the Suburban-John Hopkins Hospital and NIH Clinical Center. NIHRAC members who wish to help, please contact Victor (W3CID). |
posted Aug 27, 2011 12:37 AM by Victor Cid
As hurricane Irene threatens the Eastern seaboard, NIHRAC members are preparing to offer volunteer emergency communications servcies to NIH and the Bethesda Hospitals' Emergency Preparedness Partnership (BHEPP) if required during the aftermath of of the storm. Several club members are registered in a call-out list of volunteer radio operators willing to support NIH's or BHEPP's emergency response and recovery. If you are en experienced ham radio operator and would like to be added to this call-out list, please contact one of the club officers. |
posted Aug 26, 2011 11:41 PM by Victor Cid
The September 2011 issue of the ARRL QST magazine features an article by two NIHRAC members, W3CID and WA3LTJ. The article, titled "Optimizing Amateur Radio Resources for Major Disasters", describes the development of the first version of an emergency digital radio system based on the Winlink 2000 system. An enhanced and expanded version of the system is being currently developed. The work is funded by the National Library of Medicine ( NLM) for the Bethesda Hospitals' Emergency Preparedness Partnership ( BHEPP), and developed through a contract with Aquilent, inc. with contributions from NLM, NIHRAC, Army-MARS, and other hams. |
posted Aug 26, 2011 9:18 PM by Victor Cid
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updated Aug 26, 2011 10:19 PM
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The NIHRAC participated in the Maryland-DC QSO Party on August 13 and 14, 2011. Club members gathered at W2CDO's home and took turns to operate his remarkable HF station as W3NIH. The radio competition was a lot of fun, and so was the gathering itself. The Club claimed over 20,000 points, making 207 contacts in 6 MDC counties and cities, 36 states and provinces, and 10 DX countries. For complete details, you can download our QSO Party Summary Sheet or full QSO Party log. Kudos to the excellent host, and to AI4SV for organizing the Club's participation in this event! |
posted Aug 9, 2011 6:12 PM by Victor Cid
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updated Aug 9, 2011 6:23 PM
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The Bethesda Hospitals' Emergency Preparedness Partnership (BHEPP) has cancelled their event at the Marriot Headquarters grounds in September 9th, 2011. Other National Preparedness Month activities will take place across the country during that month. For other event participation activities, visit the National Preparedness Month Coalition Website or the Ready.gov Website. |
posted Aug 8, 2011 5:53 PM by Victor Cid
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updated Aug 8, 2011 6:47 PM
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In case you haven't seen it yet, Kirk Lattner (KB3UQF) created a useful ham radio operation cheat sheet that new and even some experienced operators may find extremely handy. It includes useful VHF/UHF frequencies in the MD/DC area, phonetic characters, and Q-codes, among other ham radio operation information. The document comes in the form of an Excel spreadsheet that can be downloaded from our Resources page, or directly from this link: http://www.nihrac.org/Resources/HamRadioCheatSheet_Generic.xlsx?attredirects=0&d=1. |
posted Aug 5, 2011 9:38 AM by Victor Cid
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updated Aug 5, 2011 10:03 AM
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AMSAT reported that the ARISSat-1 satellite was successfully launched from
the International Space Station on Thursday Aug 4th. Initially there were some deployment delays due to questions about the condition of the satellite's 70 cm antenna, but the satellite is now in orbit and operating as designed.Satellite images and other transmissions are already being captured and reported by satellite communications enthusiasts around the world. Visit the AMSAT website (AMSAT website: http://www.amsat.org) for information about the project, instructions about how to work the ARISSat-1 satellite, and view telemetry data and receiving reports, including some amazing SSTV images.
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posted Aug 2, 2011 7:32 PM by Victor Cid
A number of activities are planned for the National Preparedness Month 2011 in September. Club members and Army-MARS will participate in an event in the grounds of the Marriot Hotel Head Quarters in Bethesda. Several emergency response organizations will exhibit their emergency capabilities, including the Bethesda Hospitals' Emergency Preparedness Partnership (BHEPP). The National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) plans to display their field hospital. NIHRAC members and Army-MARS will demonstrate and advanced Winlink 2000 portable radio station capable of providing emergency communications to a complete EOC. For more information about the National Preparedness Month 2011, see http://www.ready.gov/america/about/pressreleases/release_110720.html. |
posted Aug 2, 2011 7:14 PM by Victor Cid
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updated Aug 2, 2011 7:23 PM
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The Club will participate in the Maryland-DC QSO Party August 13-14, 2011. More information about this event at http://mdcqsoparty.w3vpr.org/. If you are a ham in the MD-DC region, want to participate, and don't know how, contact us (see our Contact Us page). |
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