|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
| 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
|
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
