Mission/Communications Vehicles

[WICAPMOM]

I can only speak to the emotional side of the comments made by Eclipse.  Regarding the technical, all I know is that for the most part the location and time spent at it were all done in following orders.  We did have other teams prepared to depart to the area when Orca was ordered to return home.  That is why only there 1 week.

Regarding the monies spent it was granted for a specific purpose so there was no choice on spending it on some thing else.

I am sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with the attempt to visit Orca.

Personally, and maybe I will get in trouble for this, I can only guess who opened the door when you knocked.  It was probably your bad luck that of all of  the crew that went down with orca you got the one who is the least personable, sorry.  Most of them are very friendly.  While all are intelligent and well trained.

Unfortunately the generators are required to remain running while in use.

Regarding the antenna light for airport use, I will see that your suggestion is forwarded on, it is a very valid point.

I hope you get another chance to visit it, someday, of course under better conditions.  And not under such circumstances.

[Matt]

Okie Dokie, got to thinking about 4 this mornin', and Julie (Maj. Sorenson for those who have split personality beliefs), you may be able to correct me when you get in today.

According to the (now) former NHQ-VC, the unit, after all the money and almost a year, did not arrive turn-key, and took several days to get any use out of it (no evidence, just hearsay).

I was going to be coming down as the second crew, I had plotted out the route via Street Atlas and TopoUSA, the trek itself takes about 14 hours of straight driving, give/take in IDEAL conditions.  Now, that is idealy with no stops, which they did stop in Memphis where they were orginally assigned if my memory serves correctly.  Also, I'm fairly sure even though they didn't HAVE to, they did stop for gas.  You can have a nice sitdown meal in the time it takes to fill the 100 Gal. Tank on that beast.

If you're speaking of a couple day setup, well then I have no defense for that.  From experience, setup only takes but 15 minutes, 20 minutes tops.

The fancy mast was deployed on an AIRPORT, right near the runways and does not have a strobe - duh. Got the pics.

That one you'd have to goto the NOC for.  They're they one's who knew all about it.  However, I will support that complaint.  My first training on Orca was at an airshow up here and we were about oh, 250-500' off the runway and had the mast up, it is rather stupid not to have one, but we're still tweaking it (event hough that SHOULD have been an initial concern).  I will again re-submit that on my list to the Project Officer.

Orca was parked behind MS HQ, basically in a valley, I've got some pics, but if you don't believe me, check a topo map of Jackson Airport where wing HQ is.  This resulted in only a 10-ft real gain over the roof of the building - you couldn't even see the antenna from the front of the building. And then they wondered why they couldn't talk to Stennis most of the time. 

Again, not our fault mate, that was NOC.  They simply assigned the whale to where it was.  Not much one can do.  However, I do concur, it was pretty stupid to park it directly behind a building.  We typically do that to prevent wind shears on it, but if it was interfering with comms, it should have been moved.

Last - and this is the pissed off part, we rolled up in the mid-evening, and one of our people saw the fancy vacation bus and knocked on the door.

Somebody answered

"nice rig, can I have a look inside?"

"I don't think we'll be open again before you guys leave in the morning."

"Huh?"

"We're closed."  Door shuts.

Nice.

But what was the kicker was that the occupants slept in the wagon all night in the comfort of airconditioning, while those of us camping outside got to listen to their [darn] generator all night. 

Thanks for the welcome, guys.

For our use these buses are a waste of money, for the rumored $250K they spent on the thing, they could have bought a fleet of mid-sized SUV's w/ 12 or 14 ft trailers.

Way more effective, but not nearly as sexy.

The part was covered by WICAPMOM.

[JaL5597]

Orca was parked behind MS HQ, basically in a valley, I've got some pics, but if you don't believe me, check a topo map of Jackson Airport where wing HQ is.  This resulted in only a 10-ft real gain over the roof of the building - you couldn't even see the antenna from the front of the building. And then they wondered why they couldn't talk to Stennis most of the time. 

Again, not our fault mate, that was NOC.  They simply assigned the whale to where it was.  Not much one can do.  However, I do concur, it was pretty stupid to park it directly behind a building.  We typically do that to prevent wind shears on it, but if it was interfering with comms, it should have been moved.

Why would the NOC have any imput where the commo vehicle is parked at the mission base in Jackson Missippi?

I am sure the IC Staff had a say in it but not the NOC.  They had more important things to worry about.

[Eclipse]

Frankly I wouldn't be suprised for 1 minute if I found out the NOC was directing where individual packets of sugar were deployed from each MRE.

As it was they were at times hand-holding each >SORTIE<. 

Nothing I heard, however, indicated that positioning the van was anything but a local decision.
I'll admit that if it was my choice, behind the building would be my first choice, as it would be better protected and hidden, but it should have been moved after the problems were discovered.

[WICAPMOM]

Regardless of where the order came from, the individuals with in orca were not in charge.

[SARPilotNY]

Our Unit's comm/SAR vehicle is a 1995 GMC van that is equipped with
all HF and FEMA frequencies, VHF, Aircraft monitor with public service scanning ability, l'il Elper, Doppler DF (looks like an FCC vehicle ). tools, safety and ground team euipment. Not a elaborate as some, I suppose, but is fully equipped to meet any SAR or disaster deployment. It is about time to trade it, and, I suppose, we could get a new one. But it only has 50,000 miles, we got it new, and it is still one of the best cared-for and good-looking vans in the Wing! (Why, of COURSE, I'm biased )   We haven't considered applying to replace it because of all the radios and such that have to be transferred ("I'm too lazy ) .....................................and we're afraid
that

we might


get stuck with


a





FORD! (bad)








or a DODGE (worse!)


And if you haven't figured out that a lot of this post is tongue-in-cheek, then shame on you!!)



Jerry

Has anyone seen one of the FCC vehicles?  One showed up to meet with our team that located a 121.5 carrier only comming from a pinball machine at a bar.  Really cool 4x4.  BTW, we turned off the pinball machine and the signal was still being picked up by the SARSAT.  It was found later at an airport 7 miles from the SARSAT merge.