On Monday, 4 September a group of CCARC members and a few guests supported the Southern MD Century 100 mile bike ride in Indian Head, MD. I would like to thank the following people for showing up to support:
Rest Stop #1, Smallwood State Park: Les, KH6CUJ & Jim K3UGA
Rest Stop #2, Oak Grove Baptist Church: Jeff (KB3SPH) & Pam (KB3SWS)
Rest Stop #3, Durham Church: Paul, KB3YXS
Rest Stop #4, St. Ignatius: Joe, KB3HNP
Rest Stop #5, Thomas Stone: Craig, KB3YQG
I arrived at the start/finish line 0630 to a parking lot almost full with bike riders. Net control was setup and on the air using the Northern Neck Amateur Radio Club’s W4KGC VHF repeater. All stations on the net were up and operational by mid-morning. We couldn’t have asked for better weather with no clouds and cool temperatures. The rider estimate that I received had the approximate count at 1,000 riders, that’s a lot!
We ran the normal traffic calls for supplies between the rest stops and the occasional call for SAG support. We were paid a visit from three young men from Explorer Post 60; Jake, Jacob and Ted along with Mom’s Kelly and Lisa who all came by to observe and help out. Honorable mention to Bob, KB3KOW for lining up the scout visit. We sat at Net Control for a few hours and chatted about radio and Scouting and I was able to get one of them on the air for a bit. Robert, KB3WJM also came by as a new member of the club and fairly new to ham radio. We chatted during the day about antenna and radio options for his QTH and for portable operation such as the bike ride. I enjoyed the conversation and the ability to help get a new ham spun up and on the air. As a side note, Robert is a former Navy CW communicator so his main interest in HF is to get on CW and make some contacts.
We shut down the net at 1500 with roughly 90% of the riders through the course. Another great event supported by the club and another excellent chance for us to take our portable stations out to the field, make sure all the equipment/batteries still work and become proficient in their operation. We will post this report along with pictures from the event on the club website in the near future, I’ll send out a notice when that is completed.
73, Rob – N2OMC
