QSO Today - Ep 22 - April Moell WA6OPS - Expert hams serving hospitals

In 1980, when the hospital where she worked had a phone system failure, April Moell, WA6OPS, gave a call to local hams to come provide support. She discovered that hospitals in every community frequently have communications failures that risk the lives and safety of patients. Thirty years after founding the Hospital Disaster Support Communications System, April and her group now provide emergency communications to over 34 hospitals in her area. Join Eric, 4Z1UG, in his QSO Today with WA6OPS.

Show Notes: http://www.qsotoday.com/podcasts/wa6ops
Podcast Link:http://goo.gl/YfDsCE
iTunes Store: http://goo.gl/CvLNmV
Stitcher: http://goo.gl/uhf1XZ

 

If somebody could do that on accident, imagine what somebody could do intentionally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py2xWU0nm54

 

This group provides a great service in southern California, and has for many years.
They use my clubs repeater (Catalina Amateur Repeater Assn.) quite frequently, and they do a great job,

73,
Bill

 

This group absolutely has the best well thought out plans. Their ideas about what works are top notch. KUDOS!

 

If you think they have a good system .....look up SCHEARTS in South Carolina .......73 wa4ukx

 

wb3r

We have 17 hospitals around Va. in a system which has repeaters for voice and packet in which most are finished and up and running...the repeaters are vhf and uhf, the freq. which are 147.24, located in South Hill,...147.39 in Petersburg, 147.18 in Richmond (which is to be the center of the hub) and a backup of 147.18 located at St. Francis,...all of which have a tone of 74.4 and under the call-sign of KK4QAK,..except for the back-up...most vhf voice machines are up and running and can be used by public except in emergencies while the uhf is to be used for hospital talk-around....packet should all be up and running shortly,...could use more licensed operators for stand-by at the hospitals ....wb3r....wb3r@yahoo.com

 

OK, I'm going to expand what I like about the HDSCS. Read their documentation.

1) They have NO equipment installed other than an antenna at the hospital. Why do I like that? Because hams know how to take care of equipment. If a computer is involved, it will be updated and ready to go. I've seen hospital installed station that go months with nothing done to them. Throwing money at a situation to resolve it doesn't work.

2) Their training. It is based on exactly what they are doing, not some generalized ham sponsored stuff. It is precise, to the point, and as far as I can tell, free to the volunteer putting in the time.

My two cents.