[FedCom] National Disaster Medical System FCC Locations & RadioOps?

[Ken]

Hello Bob & the Group:

Well a "source" provided the following information:

Federal Regional Centers (manned by Military & Department of Veteran 
Affairs):
http://mediccom.org/public/tadmat/ndms/fcc.html
http://www.ahrq.gov/research/altsites/altappc.htm
http://www.ndms.chepinc.org/data/files/3/16.pps#13

NDMS DOD instructions:
http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/d601022_012103/d601022p.pdf

NDMS Overall: http://www.oep-ndms.dhhs.gov/

As far as Radio Communications Goes:
Satellite phones from "On Scene" (to include hospitals in the areas 
affected) will be used  -- I'd guess that Iridium is the vendor 
http://www.iridium.com/corp/iri_corp-understand.asp
DMAT teams will use P25/analog mixed mode in the federal UHF Band "On Scene"
Receiving Team (not the proper name) would coordinate with ambulance 
companies via telephone or civilian medical frequencies.
Military Base/Military Units would use their typical frequencies
Receiving hospitals would be using their typical radio systems whether it's 
medical specific (as in ambulances inbound) or business band/wireless used 
for other support functions.

No mention was made about MARS or any other High Frequency SSB support. 
Overall I think that HF/SSB is dead as far as an official communicatiions 
tool is concerned in at least this activity (which was also the case with 
federal government officials in Katrina).  HF/SSB is just too much equipment 
to carry around & set up.  Check out the Iridium website for the size of the 
equipment.

Ken

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rankin, Robert L" <rankin at ku.edu>
To: "Discussion of Federal Government Communications" 
<fedcom at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, September 04, 2006 5:19 PM
Subject: RE: [FedCom] National Disaster Medical System FCC Locations & 
RadioOps?


> See http://oep-ndms.dhhs.gov/fcc.html  This is a very interesting 
> concept!!!

> Does anyone know where the Federal Coordinating Centers are located?

Are these by any chance the same thing as the old "Federal Regional Centers" 
like the big ones in Thomasville, GA (region 4) or Denver, CO (region 8)?? 
Other than that possibility, I don't have any information.

I do know that the Kansas City DMATs plan to use cell phones exclusively 
(that is, unless the cell sites go down as in New Orleans, but of course 
"that couldn't happen here").