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A look back at EMCOMM in 1972

From the February 29, 1972 Anchorage ARC Newsletter

By: Wilse Morgan, W6PVF/KL7, 344-1257

The result for service to link-up the repeater here on Ft. Rich and the repeater at Pedro Dome (Fairbanks) was submitted by Civil Air Patrol to Alaska Communications Region.  There were seven endorsements to the letter from the Air force, Army and the State of Alaska.  This link will be a real help for our amateur activities and should prove a real benefit for public service.

The Civil Air Patrol will be having its National Communications exercise on March 11th starting at 1600 Z and lasting for four hours.  We will be using the repeater to pass traffic from Wing Headquarters on Elmendorf to my place up on the mountain behind Bunny River.  The anchor man on Elmendorf will be KL7GMP, Pat McDaniel.

The traffic comes from Hamilton AFB, near San Francisco, via 11.120 mc SSB to Elmendorf.  It will then be sent to my QTH both by the repeater KL7USA and by VHF link 148.15 mc.  It is then sent to the CAP stations throughout Alaska on 4585.0 kc SSB.

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Fast forward to 2021:  Wow!  How some things change and how some stay the same!  We’re still using SSB on HF, FM simplex and repeaters on VHF, but have added VHF, UHF, and HF digital modes (packet, Winlink, Pactor, MT63, etc.), MESH networking, APRS, satellite comms, and much more.  We not only use amateur communications, but now also support the State of Alaska Emergency Operations Center as their SHARES station.  We still need volunteers at served agencies, need to improve our infrastructure, and need to practice our traffic-handling skills. 

If you’d like to get involved in our local EMCOMM effort, drop a note to info@kl7aa.org!  We can use your help!