Phantom,
It changes with the season and especially with the staffing levels. I was reserve this past summer and ended up wasting alot of money on a crash pad (used it 3 times in 5 months). Now with the combination of better staffing & reduced winter flying, you would definately want to have one (average pad up there is appx. $250 a month and hotel is appx $100 a night). I'm holding a line now but not by much, so I'm holding on to my pad because even as a bootom line holder you don't have much control over your trips. You can end up with back to back trips and depending on your commute, it may be more trouble than it's worth to run home for the night. Matter of fact, with no 30 in 7, you could do back to back to back to back. Pretty unlikely, but could happen.
Having said that, after holding a line for 3 months now, I've been to my pad only once in that time frame. ($750 vs. $100) so I don't know how long I can continue to stomach that. My advice would be if you're going to stay up there, get a pad and play the game for a while and see how it plays out.
Oh, as far as short call. Never saw it in the summer. We were just to busy with not enough bodies so you were always working. When things are slow and/or staffing is better, different story. They'll use it to the max 8 times they're contractually allowed and they'll back to back it. You'll be on short call from today at 1300 till tomorrow at 1300. Tonight at about 2000 they'll call you and say that you are released at 0200 and start another short call tomorrow at 1300. Rinse...repeat....rinse...repeat...etc.
Welcome to NY