2008 Baker to 'Vegas Race PIX  Portfolio - Part 1

W6ZE - Orange County Amateur Radio Club

2008 Baker to 'Vegas Race (B2V-2008)

Page 1 of 2

Click on a picture to see it in higher resolution.

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OPD Baker to 'Vegas Race Logo

The combined efforts of Orange County Amateur Radio Club and COAR (City of Orange Amateur Radio) and volunteer hams from the City of Cypress provided over 25 hams to help plan, prepare, and provide the communications for the Police Department team of the City of Orange compete in the 120-mile-long running relay race.  Over 240 different law-enforcement teams participated in this yearly event.

Photo by Kathleen K6IBH

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A map of the 120-mile-long B2V relay race course. It contains 20 individual relay legs and starts outside of Baker, goes through the cities of Shoshone (Calif) and Pahrump (NV), goes over the mountain at Mountain Springs and ends at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. The red circles on the map locate the five COAR Communications Centers.

Double-click on the image above to see a hi-resolution map.

 

Annotated Image by Dieter N6ZKD

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One of several COAR-RACES B2V-Planning-Meetings that were held in the EOC room located at the OPD building to work out locations,  staffing, and frequencies

 

Photo by Ken W6HHC

 

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The pool-side workbench of W6HHC tested out radios, computers, and antennas before the big  race. The Equipment Testing Session really began to look like "Field Day" when some COAR operators from the "Follow Vehicle" showed up. (L-R) Ken-W6HHC, Bob-AF6C, Elmer-WA6PFA, Kathleen-K6IBH, Nicholas-AF6C, and Bruce-KC6DLA

Photo by Ken W6HHC

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The Orange PD team captain, Dave Nichols, gives final instructions to the runners and supporters at a Baker H.S. meeting before the race begins.

 

Photo by Rich - KE6WWK

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The OPD "follow vehicle" traveled along side the runnners during the entire race. This vehicle not only provided drink or food as needed and a back-up runner, but was also equipped with a radio operator. The radio operator could easily reach the closest communications center of COAR to pass information (including running times) to OPD officials. The Follow Vehicle had  three ham antennas. You can notice the installation of the two comm radios (on the floor) is "not too sophisticated", but works. The box under the seat contains the APRS beacon gear.

Photo by Rich - KE6WWK

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The Follow-Vehicle is now fully set-up for communications before the race. If you enlarge this picture, you can see two dual-band 144/440 magnetic mounted antennas for voice and a 2M antenna for APRS Beacon

Standing L-R are Sgt Dave Nichols, Mike-KF6WRM, Kathleen-K6IBH, Chief-of-Police Bob Gustafson, Mike-WA6OUE and Rich-KE6WWK.

 

Photo via Mike KF6WRM

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The first communications center on the route was set up in a four-wheel-drive truck atop Ibex Pass (noted for its scenic beauty).  The ridge blocked some communications south towards Baker, so this location helped in the initial part of the race. This year the wind was quite intense during the race. The operator for this location was Noah-KF6FOJ.

Photo by Rich KE6WWK

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Radio operators from Cypress  manned the communications center in Shoshone. 144 MHz simplex was used as the primary channel for "back bone" communications. A cross-band repeater with 440 MHz that was located in Sandy Valley linked the "OPD back bone" to Las Vegas . Shown is radio op Rich-KR6BA

 

Photo by Rich-KR6BA

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Runners from the Orange PD team could watch progress of the runner on APRS tracking while waiting for their "turn" in Shoshone.

Radio operator Steve-KB6ROL set up the notebook so that along with the follow-vehicle tracking on the right...he could also display the runner and "race leg stats" on the TV.

 

Photo by Rich-KR6BA

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Radio operators from Cypress  manned the communications center in Shoshone. Shoshone is really in a "radio hole". They set up a 440MHz repeater antenna to the rig in the shack (ant is on the mast to left of satellite dish) that linked to a cross-band repeater on top of the hill (the 2M beam is on mast next to the tent on the hill).

 

Photo by Rich-KE6WWK

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Here is the Shoshone remote cross-band repeater on the hill,  The repeater transmitter is in the tent.  The power for the remote repeater is provided by the generator in the foreground. A 2M beam antenna is directed towards the comm station at Sandy Valley Road (located over the top of the ridge).

 

Photo by Rich-KR6BA

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This page last updated on 20 April, 2009
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