My wife (Lena - no call sign), is a Deputy DA for Santa Barbara County.
Her colleagues at the DA's office participate in an annual event called
"Baker to Vegas". As I understand it, this is a relay (foot) race that is
120 miles long, covers about four counties, two states, and 6500 square
miles, and elevations from 470' to 5495'. There is no cell service on
about half of the course.
They have a need for radio communications amongst their five "shuttle
vehicles" and the "follow vehicle", and, ideally, their coordinator (home
base) in Las Vegas at the end of the run.
Communications over this distance is quite a challenge. There are two
closed repeater systems on Potosi (Vegas) and Turquoise (Baker), however,
this still doesn't cover the entire race. I'm told by the frequency
coordinator, Jeff Lee (KF6NXQ), that some
ham clubs and RACES/ACS units use the race as their annual "exercise" so
they get real fancy with equipment, trailers, temporary repeaters, lots of
people, etc.
Is this something anyone in the club has had experience with, and is there
any interest in trying to support our local DA's office? They have to have
their frequency coordination in by February 2 and the race is on March 25
and 26 so this is very last-minute, but I'm interested in seeing if there
is interest, even if not until next year.
Because it is so late, this year they will likely have to rent commercial
radios that use the MRA trunking system that probably cover 70-80% of the
course. The group supplying this system has permanent repeaters on Potosi
and Turquoise and they bring out temporary repeaters at Ibex Pass and at
the California/Nevada state line to support the race. I have no idea how
well this system works, and/or if the hams can do better.
Jeff tells me that San Diego County RACES puts out 30 people and supports
six teams. They use a combination of simplex and repeaters and mostly
50-watt mobile radios.
Here is a link: <http://bakervegas.net/>. I also have a power point that
Jeff put together detailing the various means of radio communications (and
there are a LOT used in the race... also including ham HF, CB, GMRS, MURS,
satellite phones, etc.) which I can supply if anyone wants a copy.
As an aside, they also have a full-blown private APRS system that will be
tracking all of the runners (via the follow vehicles) which will be
displayed on findyou.com. That said, each team has to supply their own
APRS beacons if they want to participate.
Ken Alker
KA6KEN
Folks:
HPWREN has been installing sensors on several peaks in SB County.
This includes cameras and weather instrumentation.
Here is the link to the latest Vaisala station on top Santa Ynez Peak.
This is a quality unit.
http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/Sensors/SYP-WXT520/
Bill Talanian
Pete, N6ZE, plans a daytime 3 grid rove on Saturday, 21January2017, during the ARRL VHF Contest. At 11AM PST, Pete & Woodie, KJ6VZC, plan to begin in Ventura, CA (DM04); travel up US-101 past Santa Barbara to Grid CM94 for some limited operating . CM94 ops will be sometime about noon-time. We then plan to travel on CA-1 (PCH) Southward along the coast to Santa Monica (DM03) & Palos Verdes; and thence back to Ventura & Thousand Oaks by approximately 1800 PST.
We plan to use vertical antennas for (6m) SSB 50.125 /CW/FM 52.525; (2m) SSB 144.200/CW/FM 146.52/146.55; (135cm) 223.5 MHz FM; (70cm) SSB/CW 432.1/446.0 FM; & (33cm) 902.1 & 927.5 MHz FM.
We will try to specifically monitor FM frequencies for minutes 00 - 05 of each hour.
(IF we operate on Sunday, we hope to also use 23 cm from the Thousand Oaks area only)
The weather forecast for Saturday is decent; for Sunday, weather will be unsuitable for much roving!
The contest begins at 1100AM PST, Saturday, and ends at 8:00PM PST, Sunday.
We will occasionally check n6ze(a)aol.com for schedule requests.
Good Luck to al.
bt73
Pete, N6ZE
Bill-
I think I remember that event. Did it go back into the garage space? If so, who has access to that storage. I left before the diagnostics' were completed.
Theo
> On Jan 9, 2017, at 12:00 PM, <sbarc-list-request(a)lists.netlojix.com> <sbarc-list-request(a)lists.netlojix.com> wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
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> 1. Honda generator (Bill Talanian)
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2017 18:06:11 -0800
> From: Bill Talanian <w1uuq(a)cox.net>
> To: sbarc list <sbarc-list(a)lists.netlojix.com>
> Subject: [Sbarc-list] Honda generator
> Message-ID: <7a2c4a6b-ec61-3385-2770-01148fe2561c(a)cox.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed"
>
> BOL
>
> Club Honda generator.
>
> Last seen a couple of years ago at the ARC parking lot. It would not
> run. Then it disappeared. Need it for power at the ARES Van which is
> slated for possible sell-off.
>
> Bill Talanian
>
>
>
BOL
Club Honda generator.
Last seen a couple of years ago at the ARC parking lot. It would not
run. Then it disappeared. Need it for power at the ARES Van which is
slated for possible sell-off.
Bill Talanian
