I participated with
San Jose RACES
(Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services)
in support of the Lance Armstrong Foundation's
"LiveStrong Challenge",
a bike race that raises money for cancer research and treatment and a
very worthy cause.
I was the radio operator for SAG 3. SAG means "Support and Gear" - they're
vans that drive the course bringing supplies like water or tire tubes.
If necessary, we can bring a rider back to the start point if they can't
continue.
The riders will tell you they don't want to "SAG out" of the race.
But if needed, we're there to help.
Amateur Radio Support
The radio operators in the SAG wagons, at the rest stops and at the
start/finish line were from San Jose RACES, and from other Silicon Valley
cities and Santa Clara County by mutual aid.
(Even though the acronym may sound like it, RACES is not about racing.
It's all about emergency communications.)
These are the FCC-licensed
Amateur Radio operators who volunteer to augment city/county communications
capacity in case of an emergency or disaster. Helping at events like this
serves as communications training/practice. We treated this like an
activation of our emergency services. San Jose's Chief Radio Officer
Chris Swartout N6WCP acted as the Incident Commander (IC) for SJ RACES.
So many times when Ham Radio operators help with communications at public
events, we're often in places where most of the people don't see us.
As usual, I was satisfied with this experience just knowing I had provided
real and needed help. But in this case it was also very visible help.
It was heartwarming to hear all the cyclists thanking and complimenting
us through the day even if they didn't need any help. They had seen us
helping others, and knew we were ready if they had needed it.
One thing that worked very well on the radio was the APRS tracking.
(APRS is the Automatic Position Reporting System, a Ham Radio data
protocol for sharing GPS-based position reports with each other.)
Every SAG vehicle had a data transmitter sending its GPS position at
regular intervals. So the central Net Control stations had a lot less
workload trying to figure out where all of us were. And we didn't have
to take time telling them where we were. It brought order where there
is usually some degree of chaos.
It worked so well that the LiveStrong Challenge organizers want San Jose
to show the other cities where the challenge is held how we did it.
Though everyone had a part by properly using the equipment, a lot of the
credit for that success goes to Craig Anderson N6YXK for spearheading the
effort to get APRS tracking equipment in every vehicle. He even installed
a digipeater (digital repeater) at the 4000' peak of Loma Prieta so there
would be coverage of the whole course. That turned out to be a key to the
success.
SAG 3's Work
The thing we did by far the most throughout the day was hand out bottles
of water.
And not just for the cyclists - we also handed them to the LiveStrong
Challenge volunteers and San Jose Police officers at various places along
the route.
We did have a few riders we had to take back to the start point.
We had one rider asked us on the 50-mile course if he had made a wrong turn
for the 100-mile course. Indeed he had. With a look at the map, I determined
we could take him to Rest Stop 3 and he would be about the same number of
miles onto the 100-mile course since the wrong turn.
The rider and some others thought this was an extraordinarily nice thing
to do. But really, what alternative was there? One choice was that he was
done and we'd take him back to the start, which wasn't acceptable since he
and his bike were doing fine. But we couldn't make him ride back to the
100-mile course without help. He'd have had to go across or around the
Santa Teresa Hills in places no one would know to look for him. We can't
allow ourselves to lose track of riders on a race like this.
So if you still think that's extraordinary, then just make sure everyone
knows San Jose was a good host for the event! We want it to keep coming
back here.
After we were done bringing another rider back when his bike broke down
near the top of the Metcalfe grade (the point where the 100-mile route
is basically all downhill after that) we were asked to check up on a rider
on the 50-mile course who was on a hand-powered recumbent trike. We found
him a little ways into the Bernal grade. He needed a ride past the mountains.
And no one could blame him - a paraplegic who had gotten 35 miles on the
power of his arms.
In his circumstances, that was already a heroic effort.
As the navigator for SAG 3, I picked a spot to drop him off after the
mountainous section where he could continue.
Two LiveStrong Challenge crew members who had been removing race signs,
helped to lift him off his bike into the van, and then back onto his bike
at the drop-off point. He's a nice guy who made it fun to help him, though
we would have anyway. We followed him into downtown San Jose with our
hazard lights on since his recumbent trike is wider than a bike. Then
we pulled off to the side before the finish line and ran with our cameras
to see him cross. It was a very satisfying experience to have helped there.
A Successful Event
Even though there were more than twice as many riders in this year's race,
(about 3600 I heard) there seemed to be fewer injuries.
Actually, on SAG 3 we weren't called upon for any injuries this year -
but I heard two ambulances summoned on the radio.
(Both if I heard correctly were out of an abundance of caution since
the riders' helmets were damaged. Both were expected at the time to be
cases where the helmets successfully prevented a head injury. But that's
for a doctor to determine.)
Most other injuries that we heard of along the route were scrapes that are
unavoidable in large cycling races.
The low number of injuries just adds up to calling this year's
LiveStrong Challenge in San Jose an unqualified success from my point of view.
But I also heard it was extremely successful in raising money for
cancer related charities. So much the better.
I hope everyone who came to San Jose found us to be good hosts for the event.
We want it to keep coming back here each year.
