Testing CLEAR Inside The San Antonio Emergency Operations Center
We are currently sitting inside the huge San Antonio Emergency Operations Center, posting this article using our CLEAR modem in one of the conference rooms, attending the monthly meeting of the Bexar County ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service), the local emergency ham radio group.
Naturally, we powered up our laptop and plugged in the CLEAR USB modem, testing both the 4G only, and the CLEAR USB 4G+ (combo 4G/3G) modem. We also demonstrated the CLEAR Spot mini-hotspot device as well.
Not the fastest speed we have seen, but considering all the insulation and shielding built into this huge facility, not bad at all. The location of this super secure facility is well known as being on the former Brooks AFB, now called Brooks Citybase, but the exact location is still sort of a loosely held secret and access to the building is restricted those who need to be there.
We had a troop of Boy Scouts tour the facility while we were in our meeting, which gave many of the ham radio operators time to brag about how young they were when they first got their ham radio license. Tonight’s topic was severe weather awareness and the program called Skywarn that organizes reports by ham radio operators and other civilians and forwards them to the local National Weather Service office for action.
