Hams assist hospital after telephone outage
 ARES/RACES member Dan Blasberg, KA8YPY, staffs an emergency radio station at Prince George's Hospital Center during the telephone outage.
[Kenneth Bannister Photo]
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August 18, 2004 -- Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and Radio Amateur Civil Emergency
Service (RACES) volunteers in Maryland helped bridge a communication gap August
16 after Prince George's Hospital Center in Cheverly--the county's
largest--experienced a near-total telephone outage at around midday.
The 'Prince
Georges County Office of Emergency Management called on ARES-RACES
volunteers, under the direction of Prince George's County Emergency Coordinator
and RACES Officer Jim Cross, WI3N, to supplement the hospital's back-up
telecommunications system. The radio amateurs had support from The Green
Mountain Repeater Association's 146.610 MHz repeater--about 100 yards from the
hospital--and its 146.880 MHz repeater in Greenbelt. ARES-RACES volunteers
deployed to the hospital as well as to the county emergency operations center
and to two other area hospitals--Laurel Regional and Bowie Health Center--to
provide coordination and support.
"Our people showed a level of dedication to be proud of,"
Cross said.
WRC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Washington, DC, reported the
ARES-RACES activation and said the outage may have been due to a computer
system malfunction. The hospital's telephone service was out for about 10
hours.--Murray Green, K3BEQ; NBC4; Chauncy
Bowers, N3XOR
Page last modified: 08:23 AM, 20 Aug 2004 ET
Page author: awextra@arrl.org
Copyright © 2004, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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