Posted: 4/7/2008 3:13:22 PM EDT
Went to the Communications Academy this weekend. Will post my impressions, and excerpts from my notes, later (when I get said notes organized), but here are some pics to keep you interested...  Winner of the Comms Box Contest:  Second place, a piece entry: Radios in rolling underseat suitcase, antenna, folding chair and table, and other supplies in hardsided golf club case:  Pics of a very clean rig in a Craftsman toolbox:  I've seen this converted school bus at a couple of events, have not had a chance to talk to owner to find out whether it's personal or a club (R-32? CavVet? Anyone?):  University of Washington's Special Events Mobile Operations Center. A converted King County Metro Transit articulated bus; the accordion-like affair at the mid point allows the extra-long bus to take standard corners. I'll have more pics of the interior later.  I'll see about uploading larger pics, too, didn't realize I had saved them in small format. 
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Apparently not. Must be because I'm using Picasa. Screw it, here is the link to that album on Picasa: Communications Academy Photos Many of these pics were taken with my cell phone--the wining entry, for example, they were at some event on Day 2, so the only pic I got was with the cell. Hmm, I should post them in my blog, activate Adsense, and then sit back and watch the money roll in... Some of the photos are now posted to my blog. |
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I could not go, but I know my group sent their Rig's. What I get out of the AAR, is that the event was too much talking, and no real time to let people go through the rigs that did come to the event. I hear that our guys will most likely not attend next year. Still wish I could have gone though. |
That's a shame. I did wish there was more time to go through the rigs, admire the gear, etc., but every session I went to was useful in some way. A few of them directly impact my job in some way, and I was able to do some networking that will be invaluable. It's impossible to do these things to satisfy everyone, of course. I wonder if your guys felt they already know what was gone over. Myself, I was agonizing in a few cases over which seminar to attend--but I haven't been doing this for a long time. In the event, the "Lessons Learned" for the winter just past turned out to be short enough to allow networking with other agencies and crawling through the UW SEMOC vehicle. Every session was scheduled to run one hour and fifteen minutes, with 15 minutes between; perhaps your colleagues should advocate for more "networking time". At the risk of offending your colleagues, cold they have been expecting more of a Hamfest than an educational weekend aimed specifically at emergency communications?
I am already planing going next year. If you check out the website, the presentations for past years are available for download, and this year's should be soon. So you can judge for yourself whether you will get anything out of it. |
I just checked my notes, and I'll have to change the captions, the tool box install placed second, not the suitcase/golf club case combo.  It placed a whole tenth of a point behind the Pelican setup.Entries were judged on five criteria:
for a maximum of 10 points in each category. ETA: Blog and captions on my Picasa page updated. |
My colleagues were some of the invited speakers, and have been in the past aswell. We are talking pretty high up in the food chain for the Ecomm's coordination at the state level. Hamfests are not their thing. I think the biggest gripe was dont invite them to speak, tell them to bring all of their toys, and then not let people have a chance to see it shown off.... That and I think something pissed them off about the lunch.  When the fair comes around let me know if you would like, I will sneak you out to see the two rigs that your FEMA grants paid for. UNFREAKINGREAL at what those two are able to do. Now to get away from that... I really dig the toolbox! 
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Communicatins Academy 2008? |
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www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=10&f=22&t=608725 Talked about it on other threads, including at least one of the Comms Box threads. Just sort of ass-u-me'd that everyone caught the reference.  |