Field Day 2017

2015 Pony Express Reride

June 25 2015

Everyone in the United States at some point in their schooling learned about the Pony Express. Before the telegraph came to prominence the Pony Express, from 1860 to 1861, was the way to transport mail from Missouri to California. You can learn much more about it with a little googling.

Since 1990? the NPEA has been recreating the great ride across the united states. As part of the ride local HAM radio groups help support the effort. HAMs are present at all most all handoffs of the mochia. HAMs may be present in a caravan following the riders. HAMS also run a net control through which all information flows.

My involvement with the Pony Express Reride started with the local HAM radio group at my workplace. One of the senior HAMs in my company has worked the reride for many years and talked it up. I decided to give it a try

I volunteered to help at some late night or early morning stations since I work a normal 8-5 job and the ride was on a wed/thurs. I ended up being assigned the Hangtown Chamber of Commerce at 2 AM and the Shingle Springs Coral at 3:45 AM. 

As the ride approached some emails were received from the HAMS organizing the effort, but as the ride approached the inf

General

It has been a while since I have posted here. A few interesting things that have happened since last year.

1. I passed the general exam

2. Volunteered at the Pony Express Ride

3. Installed a mobile rig in my vehicle

Gold Country Fondo

First post to the ham radio blog. Not that I will actually continue to update this, but I figured I'd at least capture a few thoughts as I have them.

I volunteered this weekend as a ham operator at the Gold Country Fondo bike ride in northern California.

Before the ride I made sure to program the primary and secondary repeaters into my radio via the programming software and cable. I also added the local fire, sheriff, and NOAA channels.

I also ordered an additional battery for my radio. I charged up all batteries and prepared my gear for the morning.

Summary of gear:

• FT60R
• FT60R chargers (car, rapid)
• Folding chair
• water
• subway sandwich
• rain gear
• warm clothes
• leatherman
• Ear piece mic
• Frequency/call sign list
• radio user guide

I was stationed at rest stop # 4 on Rock Creek road. We arrived around 10:30 for an 11-5 PM shift.  The station was being setup by some volunteers. They were setting up tents and preparing food. I arrived an introduced myself. The volunteers were surprised at the small size of my FT-60R radio.

I checked in via the repeater with my handset and had pretty good signal for sending and receiving.

There were ~5 hams working total:

• ham at start/end
• ham in SAG wagon
• ham on a bike pariticapting
• another SAG ham
• myself at rest station

Through out the day I handled traffic on:

• Changing route - it was raining cats and dogs. There were multiple routes. The longest route was deemed unsafe and the riders switched to the medium route. I relayed that message and we stopped several riders for taking the closed path.
• Car Accident - There was a car accident between two of the rest stops. There was a request for us to relay to riders that the accident may have debris in the road. 
• Rider Location - We were asked to look out for a specific rider who had past medical issues.
• Ride updates - General updates on the number of riders coming through, the last riders.
• Checking out - closing down the rest area and checking out with the net control. 

Things I noticed:

• Ear piece is key - at the rest stop it got pretty loud including music being played. At first I used the radio without the ear piece but once the volume kicked up I had to switch to the earpiece
• Gratitude - I must have been thanked by 3-4 people volunteering as well multiple times. There was a genuine sense of gratitude expressed by others for the hams being out there and helping keep the communication flowing. Quite honestly it made me proud to be there.
• Mic fright gone - part of the reason I volunteered was to help get over my mic fright. Once I checked in and communication was flowing that fright was gone.
• Repeater usage - We had permission from the repeater owners to use the repeater that day. We still had random users on the repeater, but it didn't seem to affect us at all.   
• Chest rig - I didn't have a chest rig to hold my radio but I sure could have. I needed constant access to the radio and with the rain gear it was difficult I have since ordered one.

Over all I had a great time. I look forward to volunteering again.