Maryland Eastern Shore Interoperability Network (MESIN)

The Maryland Eastern Shore Interoperability Network (MESIN) is managed by Worcester County, MD for the Eastern Shore Communications Alliance (ESCA). ESCA and MESIN serve the interoperability needs of the Eastern Shore as CMARC (Central Maryland Area Radio Communications), Southern Maryland Interoperable Emergency Communications (SMIEC) Network), NCR (National Capital Region), and WAGIN (Washington Allegany Garrett Interoperability Network) systems do for the rest of Maryland.

In September 2003 Worcester County was awarded a $5.6 million dollar federal grant to develop an interoperable communications project. After a year and a half MESIN was unveiled at the Maryland State Emergency Operations Center in Reisterstown. MESIN allows public safety agencies in all nine Maryland Eastern Shore Counties, and Ocean City, to communicate with each other through network patches and conventional interoperability channels. MEMA and all the county 911 centers on the Shore have the ability to activate and de-activate a series of repeaters in each county to produce the interoperable link.

Repeaters currently exist throughout the Eastern Shore of Maryland for 8CALL90, 8TAC91, 8TAC92, 8TAC93 and 8TAC94. Additionally; VCALL10, VTAC11, VTAC12, VTAC13, VTAC14, UCALL40, UTAC41, UTAC42 and UTAC43 are available at select sites. 8CALL90 is voted and monitored 24/7 by the Maryland Emergency Management Agency as well as most Eastern Shore 9-1-1 centers. MEMA coordinates use of all interoperability channels within the state to eliminate interferance.

The system consists of a Harris Network First platform and all RF sites are Harris Mastr III repeaters.

The Eastern Shore Communications Alliance has produced a video to assist first responders with understanding interoperability and the network.