Various interoperability projects are receiving high praise from ARRL, and Eastern MA amateurs are playing a prominent role in a couple of them.
In his monthly QST column, “It Seems To Us” ARRL Chief Executive Officer Dave Sumner, K1ZZ writes about Amateur Radio’s role in communications interoperability. He describes the progress made in applying advanced technologies to emergency communications, as reported at the Third Global Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Conference (GAREC-07), held in Huntsville on August 16-17.
Sumner cites the success of the VoIP Hurricane Net. “It was a pleasure to hear how the VoIP Hurricane Net (…) is utilizing both EchoLink and IRLP to provide ‘ground truth’ reports to the National Hurricane Center.”
A lot of the success for this program can be credited to Eastern Massachusetts amateur Rob Macedo, KD1CY. Macedo serves as Director of Operations for the VoIP Hurricane Net. He also serves as the Eastern MA Section Emergency Coordinator and is an ARRL Assistant Section Manager.
The VoIP Hurricane Net web site is hosted by another active Eastern MA amateur, Phil McNamara, N1XTB. McNamara built the web reporting form and linked database for the web-based reports.
Coincidentally, N1XTB is also a prominent player in another interoperability area mentioned in Sumner’s editorial: increased collaboration in linking the digital networks among the Army, Air Force and Navy-Marine Corps MARS organizations.
[See also: MARS to Assist TSA “When All Else Fails”]Sumner’s column can be found at: http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2007/10/01/1/.