Marine Corps Marathon 2019

[K3MRI]

Who is participating? I am. This is my fourth year. It's great opportunity to get involved.

Also, I just received an email from Howard, the lead, telling us that we are short about 20 operators. If you are interested, sign up at https://www.mcmham.org/Volunteer/

 

[KC3LUM]

I am participating! This will be my first year and I am very excited. I have already participated in 4 smaller race events. It is a great way to get out and use your skills to help. 

[K3MRI]

Excellent Josh! So we'll see you at the All Hands meeting. We'll talk, but maybe we can head out there (the meeting) together. It's held at the AFRH. Actually, I better check if we've received a date yet for it... It's coming soon!

[KM4HRR]

I'll be there. Aid 7 providing AREDN & Packet support for MED_Team.

Brendan

KM4HRR

[K3MRI]

18 hours ago, KM4HRR said:

I'll be there. Aid 7 providing AREDN & Packet support for MED_Team.

Brendan

KM4HRR

Great that you're participating Brendan. Packet rocks. I love both packet and winlink.

Will you be going to the All Hands at AFRH? I'm a little frustrated that it's on Columbus Day weekend - I was hoping to go out of town - but I don't make the decisions 🤨

 

[KM4HRR]

I plan on attending the all hands.

[K3MRI]

It was a good meeting. Met some new people, saw some old faces. I'm looking forward to a successful event at net control. In fact, Monday night we'll be testing all the repeaters at every mileage points. Will revert with results.

[K3MRI]

Tomorrow we'll be continuing our Net Control testing of the various repeaters. I'll be going to each mile marker on my motorcycle and reporting back to net control on each of the 11 repeaters. @WA8AHZ and @W4DOI will be helping me out. We'll post the results here next week.

[K3MRI]

Thought I would write up a brief after action report of Net Control at the MCM 2019.

For starters, it rained, rained, rained. To make matters worse, they had ordered a 20 x 50-foot tent and we received a 20 x 30-footer. Oh, did I mention it was leaking? Micro holes everywhere. We spent the early part of the morning taping them up and using this ghastly foam, that smelled horrible and hardly worked. Note for next year: zero tolerance on size of tent and water resistance of the ceiling.

The operation itself went smoothly. Our lead net control did an amazing job. Fred K3CSX was both friendly and firm. He's a pleasure to work with. My own teammate @N6GSE was amazing both in his stamina (together we worked the entire event) and in all of the equipment that he brought. How he put all that gear into his car is something that only other hams can understand. A shout out to Tom W3TDH for everything he brought as well. His masts are essential to the operation.

Injury wise, all was good this year. We had very little medical traffic. We thought that the rain would create more havoc, but it did not. We were also very pleased with our work on the frequencies. Prior to the event, I went out on my motorcycle and with the help of Alan @W4DOI and Mike @WA8AHZ, we tested every mile marker with every repeater. We plan on perfecting the exercise for next year.

That's all for now. And remember, if you're tempted to get involved in a public service effort, do it! It's fun and rewarding.

[KC3LUM]

On 11/3/2019 at 7:23 AM, K3MRI said:

For starters, it rained, rained, rained.

 

Yes there was no shortage of water!!

 

[WZ4K]

You guys in the tents look nice and dry....Tough to complain about the rain when you see the runners at mile 24!...but...it was a wet morning! ☔

Edited February 4, 2020 by WZ4K

[K3MRI]

Yeah, sorry about that Howard. Truth be told, you guys were the real heroes of the ham deployment. But yeah, you're right, we do look kinda cute in our nice dry tent. This said, in our defense, we did have leaks 🥴

Hope you'll come again next year!!

[N4VKF]

I participated a few years back.  I would like to in the future.  

[K3MRI]

We're hoping it'll be on for 2020. So far the official info is that it is, but who knows?