Yesterday turned out to be a
remarkable day. Our local forecasters had done
their level best to scare the "baajeepers"
out of us with threats of freezing temperatures,
1500 foot snow levels, icy roads and heavy winds. 
What
they ended up delivering were just cold
temperatures and strong winds. I did leave the
house in a freezer bag though, but took it off once
we began to setup net control on Sand Hill road
where Sandy and Warren met me with smiles and hugs.
Before
long we had the antenna setup, the generator
running and fat-pills in our mouth. Warren
delivered 2-boxes of those and they certainly came
in handy.
Before
long the 25k & 50k courses were wrung out and
coverage on those courses with 5-watts into a good
mobile antenna are all that will be required.
While
Sandy KG6HHP and I worked the coverage for the two
shorter courses, Don Weber KA7QQV lead the rest of
the team in the cold storage area at the
intersection of Tunitas Creek Road, Skyline
Boulevard & King Mountain Road. From there he
worked with Warren K6PHW, Frank KG6ELK, J.P. NQ6T,
John KJ9U, Brian KE6ZOY and Andy KD6HWU as they
tried to find the magic spot along Tunitas Creek
that would hear the entire course.
With
the shorter courses complete and net control back
into the van, thanks to Sandy, I headed up into
sub-artic temperatures on the hill to find 7-hams
chattering in various stages of freezing. Before
long David arrived after escaping from an equipment
disaster at his bar with his "Ray Davis"
fishing pole. We were a little too far from the
ocean to catch much so we just harassed him about
what aircraft he might have hit on the way over.
With almost everyone getting needled about
something, it was time to reveal the stash of
fat-pills hidden by Warren and a picnic basket full
of coffee from Sandy. Once the boxes were open it
was like bees to honey as they quickly sucked on
the revealed contents.
Conspicuously
missing from the cold hams was Larry. It had been a
while since we heard from him and we began to
wonder why he hadn't called in, or showed up. Last
known position was along Pescadero road and his
ability to reach the repeater had gone in the tank.
Cell phones haven't been introduced into that part
of the world yet, so if the radio doesn't work,
nothing else will either.
Not
knowing his condition, status, or location, the
concerns of everyone were rising and it was decided
we would launch three search teams on the three
roads leading to where he was last heard. Shortly
after all teams were in motion heading toward
Larry's last location, we heard a faint voice on
the repeater. It was Larry telling us he is headed
toward our last position on Skyline Drive.
Larry's
message turned most of the teams around and we
waited for him near Alice's Restaurant to hear his
story and check his condition. It seems he had a
bolt in his floorboard shear-off and needed to make
"Harley" type repairs with bailing wire
to keep the floorboard from becoming an accident on
a right hand turn.
Larry
also filled us in on what he experienced with
communication coverage, and the picture wasn't
pretty. Clearly, we needed to spend more time on
that side of the course and find the sweet spot
where we could keep communications to net control
alive during the event.
Before
long the topographical maps were out with the
course reports in hand, we decided to have Warren
go to what we thought would be a high point along
the route and to let us know when he arrived. We
also positioned Brian and Andy at another known
good radiolocation and would release John from
Pescadero's holding pattern once the relays were in
position. Our blue-turning bikers, Larry K6ACE and
David K1DRS, were sent back down into the valley
to thaw-out while the rest of us in warm cages
finished the last part of the course.
Warren
soon gave us the "in-position" call and
John began making tracks up Pescadero road towards
Don and I in separate mobiles. Clearly the position
Warren was in was hearing the two important
repeaters plus MARC simplex without any problems.
Don and I traveled towards Warren thinking John
would stop when he saw Warren, and we would arrive
shortly after. Imagine my surprise when John passes
me going the other way and says, "I haven't
seen Warren." Clearly Warren is hiding in the
woods with the bears because he wasn't visible from
the road.
Not
so, as it turns out. Warren found a better position
and we were all confused. Knowing that Warren
wasn't were we were going, it became clear we need
to change were we were going and made the
obligatory biker's u-turn as we headed back up the
hill towards Skyline Drive.
Warren
had local knowledge of a place on Alpine that could
see the ocean not far from the top of Skyline. With
this information in hand, he landed his Lincoln
Town Car in a comfortable roadside nook and waited
for the troops to arrive. For sure Warren had found
the sweet spot for that side of the course and
Brian and Andy quickly marked it with their GPS so
we could come back to it during the event.
Finding
the Alpine Road sweet spot was all we had the
energy for on Saturday. Time was getting old and
the Sun seemed near the horizon when all of us
said, "enough for today." We knew we
needed to do more testing on the Tunitas Creek
section, but said, "that was for another
weekend," and there are plenty between now the
event day.
Sunday
was a good day for resting and that was how I
planned on spending it. Not so for Warren, he
wasn't ready to go home after breakfast with fellow
bikers on Sunday so he headed back up into the
Tunitas Creek section in unusually strong winds and
large rain hoping to score again on Sunday. As was
the case on Saturday, Warren knew of another road
he could try. His goal was to see where it put him
in regards to hearing the main repeaters near the
Tunitas Creek canyons. Warren's second location is
now marked on a Garmin map and we'll need to have
someone stationed there while a motorcycle, or low
powered mobile, travels Tunitas Creek. If we can
hear the traveling station from the new relay
position, we should consider we now have radio
coverage for the entire 100k course.
This
was a fun project and I think many of the hams
learned a lot about how to supply coverage to
difficult terrain areas. For me, the people
involved made for a fun and lively day with a lot
of humor while we put this difficult task to bed.
More
importantly, doing a coverage map for a course in
difficult terrain can make the difference between
success and failure when an emergency arises.
Motors and SAGS working a route don't have time to
be checking all available options to find something
that works when time is critical. On two of the
major legs of this course, there are large sections
where nothing will work without well-placed relay
station capable of filling in where civilization
left off. If we were going to commit to supporting
the bicyclist for American Diabetes Association
event, we needed to understand our problems before
we were in the heat of the battle.
When
all the details of this radio survey are complete,
we will be able to use this information in
subsequent years and not worry about doing more
than a simple route check to be sure of handling
the event's communications needs.
Thanks
to all who helped, and wanted to help, but
couldn't. Our group seems to get better each time
we do something like this, and this time was no
exception. Best of all, we met two new hams, Andrew
and Brian and Andrew KD6HWU & his wife Sara
KF6NHF have already joined MARC.
Roger...
W1RDR
https://ba-marc.org/
mailto:[email protected]
