Ham Radio support of Bicycle events
Skip La Fetra, AA6WK
mailto:Skip@LaFetra.com url: http://www.LaFetra.com/Skip/AA6WK/
Purpose
To outline the duties and pleasure of working Ham-radio support of bicycle events.
I am a longtime (30-year) bicyclist and a relatively new (10-year) ham.
Much has been written about ham radio support of bicycle events (usually in a ham-radio
publication -- very rarely in a bicycling publication). Although I should put many
of these links here, I haven't done so yet (room for improvement!).
Specific Intent
This page was written specifically to describe the duties and pleasure of working
Ham-radio support of the (25th?) annual Sequoia Century bicycle tour, held
in the foothills above Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Sequoia
Century is sponsored by the Western Wheelers
Bicycle Club.
Duties and Objectives
Ham radio is a public service, intended in events such as this to promote general
safety and welfare. This is a pretty broad charter -- the possibility of (remote)
road accidents, rider fatigue, advisories about food & water situations, etc. -- all
provide a wealth of information which is directly related to "public safety and
welfare".
A bicycle event is also excellent practice for ARES, RACES, and other
situation-readiness groups. Bicycle events can be fast-paced and involve a lot of
radio traffic (sometimes priority/emergency information such as an injured rider or at
times a helicopter airlift). At the same time, bicycle events are typically very
well-planned and provide a lot of support for both the novice and experienced ham.
In short, they are fun events which hold a lot of training potential and provide a
truely-valuable service as well.
Equipment
Equipment needs can vary from simple HTs to high-powered mobile rigs. In one
extreme case, we set up a 6-element beam pointed up a remote canyon road and had solid HT
copy where even the "big gun" mobile rigs had never gotten a signal out.
The one thing to remember is batteries -- lots of them. You don't want to be halfway
into a 10-hour event and find that you are out of "talk time".
Net Control should have a strong, clear signal into the repeater or simplex coverage
area. If you have only one really good radio, give it to Net Control.
For the Sequoia, most SAG vehicles use a mobile rig (25 to 35 watts) and a mag-mount
antenna. Often an HT will also work well, provided that you use a better antenna
than the stock rubber duck. The "Hot Rod" halfwave from AEA is very
successful (but it is hard to use from inside a moving car).
For a rest- or water-stop, you can use either an HT with a good antenna or the mobile
rig in your parked car. For a "shadow" position there is no choice -- you
must use an HT (but for a "shadow", it is especially necessary to have an
earphone both because of ambient noise and the need not to distract your shadow).
My personal equipment is simple -- I use a dual-band HT (5 watts) and an external
dual-band amplifier (35 watts), with a "Y" cigarette adapter to power the radio
and amplifier at the same time. I use a speaker-mike with attached earphone (but
seldom use the earphone). I then carry two spare HT battey packs as well as a second
HT -- I now have backups for almost anything that can fail.
The Sequoia Century
The Sequoia Century is an annual event held by the Western Wheelers Bicycle Club.
It has been held annually in the San Francisco Bay Area since the early 1970s.
In fact, it is due to working with hams supporting the Sequoia that I (AA6WK)
decided to get my ham license.
The Sequoia typically has several routes available (typically 25 miles, 50 miles, 100
km=66 miles, 100 miles, and 200 km=126 miles). Because the longer routes traverse
the Santa Cruz mountains (often several times), these longer routes have a reputation for
being "strenuous" rides. These same mountain routes make communications a
challenge -- radio coverage is generally good, but there are locations which are true
"radio holes", and cell-telephone coverage is spotty at best in the mountain
areas. This is where hams really shine!
Typical Needs
Each organized ride is different, and requires a different level and number of hams for
support. For the Sequoia Century, a typical ham support team includes:
| Position |
Quantity |
Hours |
| Net Control |
2 hams (may be 3-4 done in half-day shifts)
Radio equipment is provided |
Full event (e.g., 7:30am through 7:30pm) |
SAG communications
(ride with support vehicles to direct them to stranded riders, areas not covered,
or exchange riders being transported back to the start) |
6-8 hams full-day, plus
6-8 hams half-day
HT with external antenna usually okay
25- or 30-watt mobile rig is useful
bring lots of batteries or car adaptor |
Full-day is 8-12 hours
Half-day is morning or afternoon
(typically more morning shifts are needed than afternoon) |
| Rest and/or Water Stops |
4-6 hams
HT with external antenna usually okay
25- or 30-watt mobile rig is useful
bring lots of batteries or car adaptor |
Half-day is typical. Hours vary widely depending on the
exact situation. |
Event leader "Shadows"
(a "shadow" is a communications person assigned to an event leader to
manage inbound and outbound communications with that person.) |
0-4 hams
(the Sequoia typically does not use "shadows")
HT with external antenna usually okay
earphone often a necessity
bring lots of batteries |
Full event |
Thanks for reading this far. Now comes the sales pitch.
For this year's Sequoia (1999), we will need about two dozen hams to help on the event
day (Sunday, June 6th, 1999). We will
need about a dozen hams to work all-day, and about a dozen for a half-day shift.
If you are a ham who also bicycles, your participation allows you to ride the Worker's
Ride -- a special repeat of the Century which is put on at no cost so that the workers can
enjoy the bicycling aspects of the event as well. (At this writing, theWorker's Ride
has not been scheduled -- it is typically held in the two-week period before or after the
main event. This page will be updated when the Worker's Ride date is set.)
Volunteer! Contact us!
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