On Saturday and Sunday, July 24th and 25th seventeen amateur radio operators from the Nittany Amateur Radio Club (NARC) along with operators from the Horseshoe Amateur Radio Club (Altoona, PA) participated in an Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) drill by providing communications assistance for the 2010 Keystone Country Ride of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Keystone Branch.
Thirteen NARC members participated in the actual operations on Saturday and Sunday. Three provided logistics and planning support prior to the ride and one volunteered to standby with a truck for transport if needed.
Saturday and Sunday participants were:
- KR3ORY, Rory
- W3JXP, John
- KB3TBX, Jim
- N3EWR, Paul
- K3ERP, Elaine
- K3OOL, Craig
- W3EDP, Eric
- KB3HQN, Don
- N3LI, Mike
- KR3C, Rick
- K3BOB, Bob
- KA3GBC, Joe
- K3CWP, Carmine
Duties included staffing SAG and Repair wagons, fixed posts along the race rout, net control stations, and liaison with MS officials in the registration areas. Volunteering planning and logistical support prior to and during the weekend were:
- K3YV, Woody
- K3RON, Ron
- KB3ESJ, Dan
- N3DBN, Don
A similar number of amateurs from the Altoona and Huntingdon areas participated but I don’t have a complete listing of their names and calls.
Net control operated out of the Centre Region/Centre County mobile command post. The vehicle was loaned to the operation by the consortium that owns and maintains it; Centre County, State College Borough, Ferguson Township, Patton Township, and the Penn State University. This is the first year the vehicle was used and it proved to be an important resource. Out thanks to the group for their permission to use it and to Dan Tancibok, KB3ESJ and Centre County 9-1-1 Director for delivering it to the Penn Stater on Saturday and taking it back on Sunday.
Centre County EMA director, Randy Rockey, also gave RACES officer Carmine Prestia permission to loan some of the RACES equipment to Centre County amateurs if need be. Two of the support vehicles used these radio/GPS combinations.
The net handled plenty of administrative communications, a number of calls for repair vehicles (for some reason there were a LOT of flat tires this year), a couple medical emergencies, and one motorcycle crash along the course. The last two items required contact with county communications centers to coordinate ambulance response to these incidents.
Although the weather was extremely hot, it didn’t seem to play a significant part in communications until Sunday afternoon when a series of thunderstorms with lightening passed over the Altoona and Hollidaysburg areas. The ride director, Sharon O’Keiff (an MS Society officer), ordered all riders to be held at the New Pig Corporation water stop in Tipton until the storms passed. This required significant coordination with the National Weather Service, the water stop amateur radio operators, and amateurs doing ground observations in Altoona.
The most significant problem for communications was a poor link between Net Control and the Altoona repeater on 146.61-. Experiments on Sunday after Net Control was passed to End Point of the ride in Hollidaysburg revealed that the Penn Stater building, where the command vehicle was parked acted like an RF shield, significantly reducing signal strength on both ends of the path.
For the third year amateurs made increased use of APRS position tracking by following many of the support vehicles, the ride director, and the tail end of the ride on APRS maps. An APRS station at the Penn Stater provided a real time display to any of the MS officials and participants. Net control also tracked the positions in real time using that information for assignment information during the ride. One of the reasons APRS worked so well resulted from the installation of APRS digipeaters by K3ARL, Karl of Centre Communications, throughout the central Pennsylvania area.
In all it was a very successful weekend for amateur radio helping with a significant public service event.
Carmine Prestia, K3CWP