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Winter 2007 Issue |
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Hams
Help with 2006 |
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The Wild Ride ham command
post with an HSMM internet bridge mounted on the back. From left to right:
Stan Liljeckvist, |
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The 2006 Wild Ride bike rally was held on May 20, 2006 to benefit the Richardson (Texas) Regional Cancer Center. More than 1300 riders participated in the rally, completing courses of 11, 16, 40 or 64 miles. Routes started at Gallatyn Park in Richardson, and the longest one passed through Plano, Murphy, Wylie, Garland, Lavon, Nevada, and Josephine, with five rest stops that were manned by volunteers. Ham radio operators provided communications support for logistics and operations during the rally. Thirty-eight hams worked various positions during the rally. In addition to the use of 2-meter and 440-MHz repeaters for voice communications, the rally provided an opportunity to try out new digital capabilities to simulate EMCOMM conditions. Four rest stops were connected to the internet, allowing the transmission of digital photos taken during the rally. The photos may be viewed online at <http://www.k5rwk. org/wr>. Net control for the event was located in an air-conditioned fifth-wheel trailer owned by the communications coordinator, Doug Kilgore, KD5OUG. The trailer was situated in the Start/Finish area with 120-VAC power provided by a 4-KW generator furnished by Jay Pinkerton, KE5FMS. Net control operators were Stan Liljekvist, K5SRL, and John Galvin, N5TIM. The goal of the digital operations in this event was to exercise capabilities that would be useful in an EMCOMM situation. Rest stops numbers 1 through 4 were connected to the internet to allow sending and receiving e-mail messages and sending digital still pictures to a website that could be viewed by net control and anyone on the internet. An internet feed to the net control trailer was provided by the City of Richardson (COR). Kevin Sims, KD5YVL, who is the COR network manager, activated an 802.11b access point that was installed by hams last year at the Eisemann Center. The 2.4-GHz signal only had to travel 1/2 mile, but the trailer location was not in line-of-sight. Therefore, a battery-operated 802.11b bridge provided by John Beadles, N5OOM, was placed on a tripod out in a field in line-of-sight of Eisemann Center to relay the digital signals to the trailer. The internet feed allowed net control operators full high-speed access to send and receive e-mails and pictures from the rest stops. Rest stop number 1 was located in a cul-de-sac in a residential area in Wylie. The connection to the internet was made with the use of a Sprint PCS Broadband card installed in a laptop computer. While its speed was not as fast as an 802.11b connection, the card allowed Kevin Sims, Jr., KD5PQA, to use this arrangement to upload digital still pictures. Rest stop number 2, at Lake Lavon, was a challenge. Its location near the lake level was not line-of-sight to the local Wireless Independent Service Provider (WISP) in Lavon. Last year an 802.11b bridge installed on a 160-foot Corps of Engineers tower located at the dam was used to send the signal to the rest stop. The tower is now leased by the City of Wylie for their communications purposes and was unavailable. |
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