Important Announcements

Important Announcements

Important Announcements
Meet “Emmy”, our new (well, new-to-us) Emergency Communications (EmComm) Vehicle.

Well, it's "O-Fish-Al" - while far fewer votes were cast than desired, the final result of our naming pole has our EmComm Van to be named "Emmy". For final results, go to the “EmComm Van Name Voting Page” before to see the breakdown of votes.

This 1985 Ford Type-III ambulance was donated in 2008 by Tillamook County to the Sunset Empire Amateur Radio Club for use by ARES as an Emergency Communications Vehicle, to replace our worn-out 1970's "Crummy" bus that had been being used for the same purpose since the beginning of the last epoch (reaching back to when the earth's crust was still cooling). It was delivered to us in mid-late 2008, and it took some time to get registration and other DMV paperwork straightened out, mainly because the paperwork which came with it did not match the actual vehicle VIN, nor did the license plate match either the VIN or the paperwork. It took until late December to get all that sorted out and our club plates, "W7BU" legally assigned to the vehicle.

At that time, we were able to get the vehicle operational, but not up to the standards we intended for it - in other words, it could be driven somewhere and used, but it was still a mess inside, and nothing was permanently affixed.

The Early Days Of Renovation

Initial work included removing the light bar and siren, removing the previous decals, swapping out all possible incandescent lights to LED lights (to save huge amounts of power consumption when operational only on batteries), and general wiring and planning Here, we have some pictures here on how it looked when we first got it and some of the exterior changes made immediately

Since that time, several work parties have been organized to move it towards completion:

The Floor Replacement

One of the highest priorities was replacement of the floor. We knew that the floor was soft under the vinyl, but it wasn't until we actually broke through the vinyl one day with the chair wheels and practically fell through the bottom of the ambulance that we realized it was that big of a problem. And we even that didn't give us the whole idea - it was much worse than just a couple of soft spots. For more details, here is a bunch of pictures from the removal and replacement of the entire interior floor.

You may download a current status sheet on the repairs, upgrades, and installs to the Comm Vehicle >Here<. (Latest Update on this sheet is 1/21/08, [per WA7TEM])

Work will continue on the vehicle as quickly as possible to complete the long list of equipment repairs, installs, upgrades, and testing, as well as useful features put forth for the eventual inclusion in the vehicle

Important Announcements

Important Announcements
Important Announcements