The station (in operation 24 x 7) is available to the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and is maintained by the k7if station engineer k7au. The station engineer, Bob Kalkwarf, has created and maintains this Remote Message Server (RMS) called a gateway.
The gateway provides Emergency Communications via Amateur Radio Emergency Services support to the FEMA Command structure which includes Map Your Neighborhood (MYN) and the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) organizations via the ARES network under the direction of the Incident Command system and ARES Radio NET Control. This provides the ability to operate in a complete loss of the GRID, that is the situation where there is no power, no phones, no Internet. Diesel Generator, gasoline powered generator and 12 VDC batteries are the backup methods employed. In normal times it serves as a gateway for regular amateur communications. This regular usage (nearly 25,000 Winlink messages each month) gives us confidence the system is working, and available in the event of an emergency.
A screen shot of the system in operation.
Contacts made through this station.