Photo Gallery -- ECHO

ECHO

ECHO is MESO's newest addition to the fleet. This next-generation mobile lab builds on our original prototype vehicle (now decomissioned), McWAR, and includes more modern equipment and rugged construction. The vehicle that became ECHO is a 1989 Ford Econoline E-350 box-style ambulance donated to MESO by Lifestar Rescue, Inc., to whom we are eternally grateful for not only believing in our cause, but helping us to realize it. The ambulance needed to be gutted and several mechanical and electrical systems needed to be fixed or replaced to suit our custom requirements.

ECHO has been brilliantly engineered and built by John Griswold and Jason Sebastian, and several other members have traveled to its construction site to help in completing the project. It is equipped with a 4kW generator donated by Onan Industries, a 2kW inverter, Motorola 110W VHF radio, Motorola 50W UHF radio, Kenwood 20W 3m radio, Maxon 5W CB radio, Motorola 3W cell phone, and integrated Earthmate GPS tracking and display. In addition, it has a Capricorn 2000 Weather Station donated by Columbia Weather Systems, a rear-vision camera & monitor system donated by Rearview Systems, 10" monitor, 13" color TV, DSS receiver, DVD and VHS players, and for those loooong drives across the desolate Plains, an AM/FM/CD stereo with 300W amplifier. The computers have high-resolution mapping software, Digital Atmosphere, SwiftWX, RadarLab, and other relevant software packages installed.

When not out chasing storms with us, it will be used by other groups such as fire departments, emergency management, storm spotters, and it will be available for demonstrations at schools and anyone else who might have an interest in such a tool.

John Griswold signs the final papers to accept the donation of the ambulance from Lifestar Rescue.	Insides of the truck after gutting the "extras". It was stripped down even further than this eventually.	John prepares to dig into the immense task of custom wiring the entire vehicle.
ECHO in its infancy waits in the driveway.	MESO members gather in OH for a work weekend to help with the project.	Lower console in the main cabin. Laptop shows GPS position with maps, inset monitor shows choice of displays from the rear work areas.
Overhead console in the main cabin. Here are the weather station controls/display and radio settings.	ECHO just prior to Chase 2003.	Nancy Bose connecting to the internet on one of ECHO's computers during Chase 2003.
ECHO's front with lights.	ECHO getting cleaned out after an active day.	Kids get to learn about ECHO at "Touch a Truck" in Fort Thomas, KY.

For more images, go to our Sony ImageStation Album and use "mesomomma" as the Member Name and "twister" as the Password.

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