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
- 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.
- 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.
