[FedCom] FW: TACAMO a/c at Homestead

[Robert Wyman]

Was down at a jobsite near Homestead Air Reserve Station (Florida) today and
decided to take a brief drive around the base. For those who don't know,
most of the old base is all open now and the public can drive right in. Not
much to see, of course, since Hurricane Andrew's devastation almost 10 years
ago. What always amazes me are the number of buildings and support
structures that have not been demolished or repaired...they're just rotting
in the sun and have been since August 24th, 1992 (Andrew).

One section of the base has been redeveloped as a U.S. Job Corps residential
campus and training center...frequencies in use are unknown, but I saw some
handhelds that looked like VHF-Hi (antennas)...maybe a FedCom'er can help
with that.

The southern flight line area is the new & downsized HARS, while Florida Air
National Guard has a building on the extreme northern flight line. No
land-mobile radio activity was heard from the USAF or FANG sections while I
was there, but the Tower's (fairly new) simulcast channel of 173.7125 (FM)
came up briefly with departure instructions. I drove over to the closest
publicly-accessible section near the tower and saw a TACAMO on the far side
of the transient parking area. No activity was around it except for a AF
security vehicle parked nearby. Nothing departed while I was there, and no
further activity was heard. I just thought it interesting that a TACAMO was
here.

It's probably NOT related, but we did have two big events and several
smaller ones in Miami this weekend. The Grand Prix of Miami race was held in
Homestead, and the Genuity Championship golf event was at Doral (NW part of
Miami). I don't know if any CAP flights go up for those kinds of things.

Robert Wyman
Miami