NIHRAC at Capital Shield 2011

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.