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A First Person Perspective
1st Lt Mark Carlson, ND Wing April 6th 2009
We have been a little busy up here in Fargo but now that
things are slowing down a little and we have a little time
to think again I thought I would let you all have an
un-official report on activities. I hope no-one things I'm
stepping on toes by passing this info along anyway.
Comm wise things have gone quite well. We have experienced
the usual VHF range type problems but than we all wish that
the radios would reach 'just one more mile' so it's really
nothing new. We did find a problem the first day of
operations here in Fargo. We had recently updated our HTs
with the interim code plug, for some reason the new code
plug radios had trouble bringing up the repeater like they
used to, and a radio with the old program had no trouble
even when they were both on the same table. Re-loading the
radios with an older version of the code plug and the radios
all worked just fine. I'd guess there was something entered
wrong in the new code plug, Since I'm the one that entered
the data I most likely screwed up somewhere on something,
and will have to start checking into it now that the crunch
is over.
As of yesterday 31 March 2009 the total number of sorties
flown was 42 with just shy of 66 hours flown. I know we had
at least one air crew from SD helping, and at least 3 ground
teams from MN came as well. I understand we have more folks
coming to help with operations in Grand Forks this week.
Some of the early photos are not the best but as the crew
did more they get better. I will say that the data
processing for many of the missions took as long (or longer
when they had to correct mistakes) that the actual flying.
One of the camera operators commented that "it is hard to
tell what is sky, snowy ground or airplane parts since they
are all white." Much learning is going on.
The water here in Fargo is going down for now but we got
12-24 inches of new snow over the upstream basin yesterday
so we have more water coming when it melts. For now the
major activities will shift more to the Grand Forks area at
least until we get the second crest in a week or two.
Also I received this link to a NASA site for a great over
view of the Red River Valley:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=37702
Mark Carlson, 1st Lt CAP
Communications Officer
Red River Senior Squadron
Fargo, ND
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