Helicopter MAST radios

[somedic]

I have come in possession of two old Motorola radios used by the MAST (military assistance to safety and transportation) in our state. For those of you that are too young to know any better: MAST was a program where Army medevac helicopters transported civilian patients mostly from MVAs. The radios I have allowed a flight medic to contact any hospital in the state on a frequency we called "The State Wide" 155.340. What is interesting to me is that the radios have a rotary dial encoder mounted on the side. Its cool to have two pieces of EMS history. Anyone else out there remember the MAST program and these radios?

Somedic

[Just Plain Ruff]

you betcha we called it the HEAR radio Hospital Emergency Area Radio or something like that. in order to get to a specific hospital you had to dial in their number. consider it one of the first rotary dial cell phones.

When they worked they worked well, if you didn't get the dialing right then you did it again and again till you got it right.

[somedic]

Ruff: I forgot about some people calling the radio frequency HEAR. I remember dailing 1-4-4-4-4 to brake into any hospital in the state. These radios are really neat but I cant see how they would connect with the flight crew's ICS.

[Dustdevil]

We had a similar system in North Texas that covered about seven counties with 155.340. A federal grant bought radios for every hospital and almost every EMS ambulance in that region. Instead of the rotary encoder, we utilised the DTMS encoder. However, I went to work for the EMS provider in Arlington in 1978 and they had rotary encoders attached to the radios in the cab that were company purchased. The cab radios had the same frequencies as the grant radio, but also had the dispatch frequencies in it. The dispatch system did NOT utilise the rotary encoders. I asked quite a few people what the rotary encoders were for, but nobody, including the supervisors, had an answer. I never did figure it out.

That's the only place I have ever seen the rotary encoders installed. And I have never seen them actually in use anywhere.

Bit of trivia: The paramedic who set up the foundation to receive and administrate the federal grants for the EMS radio system in North Texas back around 1976 is still in EMS. His name is now Dr. Bryan Bledsoe.

[somedic]

Dust: Thats an intersting story. Does anyone remember wheter the flight crew in MAST took repsonsiblity for the patient or if a certified Paramedic from the requesting agency had to fly with the patient?

I understand that MAST programs are stil operational in some areas. Anyone use them?

Somedic

[Dustdevil]

Although it seems recent to me, the last time I knew for sure that MAST was still operational in San Antonio (Fort Sam/BAMC) was 1989 when I did a TDY there. Fort Sill was still running MAST in Oklahoma when I was there in 1988. Of course, in the last ten years, aeromedical services have exploded across the nation. I know they have at least tripled in Oklahoma, and I would suspect they have done so in San Antonio, as they have in Dallas-Fort Worth. If so, then there is certainly the chance that MAST has shut down in those areas. However, you know how hard government programs die. They may still be hanging in there!

I'd be interested to know if Fort Bliss is running MAST. If any area could use it, it would be El Paso!

[somedic]

Dust: The unit that provided MAST in Texas was the 507th Medical company. The last time I saw them on a MASTmission was some years back when a disturbed person drove their car into a cafeteria in El Paso or Laredo and started shooting people..I cant remember for sure..however UH-1 hueys were landing on the road out side.

507th crews made the news and a spot on that old silly show Rescue 911 for hoist missions during the river flood that killed some people back in the 90s.

Somedic

[ptfd121]

Would you mind emailing me a pictuer of one of these MAST radios? They are a little before my time, but sound really interesting.

[somedic]

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