Guest Article
By Mary Sheldon, N1RKO
NCS for the 2010 Mt Washington Road Race
For several years, I have been working communications for the Mt Washington Road Race, a 7.6 mile foot race to the top of Mt Washington. Due to the varying weather conditions that can occur on this mountain and the potential severity of the weather above treeline, as well as the steepness of the course, and all the normal communication difficulties experienced in the mountains, plus the complications added with all the antennas on the summit, the Auto Road personnel have requested Amateur Radio assistance. CNHARC has been providing this assistance for over 10 years and now, in additon to CNHARC, amateur radio operators are coming from other areas of New Hampshire, as well as Maine and Vermont to help. On the mountain, I have worked communications from several of the safety checkpoints along the Auto Road, both above and below treeline, including the finish line, and have run sweep (staying behind the last athlete). These positions help to track the locations of all participants and to monitor their health and safety. They are each vital to the success of an event. This year, Cliff Dickenson, N1RCQ, the coordinator of the radio operators for this event, asked me to help with the Net Control Station (NCS). While I have worked NCS before, this was my first time for the rockpile as the locals affectionally call Mt Washington.
As NCS, I worked with Dave, KB1VJU, an experienced NCS for this event and other events on the mountain. We operated out of the Auto Road workshop, located just off the Auto Road and before the toll booth, using CNHARC’s go kit and vertical antenna. We had another radio with a mag mount and three hand helds available for use. And we had one of the Auto Road radios set with their frequency. For this event, we were set up with three simplex frequencies, but only used the primary. The other two were reserved for backup and emergency use.
10 minutes before the start, Dave closed the frequency to casual talk, passed on some last minute information and ran a role call to be sure everyone was in place and could be heard. The race started at 10:00 am with the sound of a very loud cannon – booooom and with a cloud of smoke the race was on. While Dave manned the radio, I ran out and took some photos. Working up on the mountain, the runners come in dribs and drabs, especially after the first couple of checkpoints. But here at NCS, I saw all 1000 runners take off en masse. Wow! Such a burst of explosive energy! It took some time for them all to pass me, but I was impressed with the sight of the road width’s line of athletes snaking it’s way up the first incline off in the distance and then following the road as it makes it’s first of many twists and turns. It’s a sea of colors coming from the jerseys and shorts of runners full of hope and determination to make it to the top.
The runners were preceded by three stage vans and a photographer who rides backwards in an open bed vehicle capturing the lead runners. One of our jobs is to keep track of the first five male and female runners and to be able to tell the finish line who is in front and their location. So the radio became very busy as the athletes made their way up the course and each of the 15 or so checkpoints called in their data. Dave and I took turns answering the calls while the other recorded the data on a sheet. Sounds easy and simple, but race personnel kept coming in and out asking questions and periodically stations needed to speak to other stations and then there was the occasional minor emergency. As NCS working a directed net such as this one, we control all the radio traffic, as well as gather whatever information is asked of us, get answers from questions posed by our operators and race officials, and handle emergencies, both minor and major. For instance, we were asked to call up to a checkpoint where someone was supposed to be and find out if he had the key to the cooler. Except it wasn’t him, it was his son we needed to locate. Turned out no one had the key to the cooler. This required several transmissions back and forth, all the while trying to work the checkpoints with their runner data.
On another instance, we started a role call of the operators still remaining on the mountain, only to be interrupted with an emergency. That takes priority. We never did finish the role call.
Now, I haven’t mentioned that it was motorcycle week. The Auto Road was closed until one PM, but there was a barrage of motorcycles (wroom, wroom, wroom) just outside our door going to the toll booth, only to be told to turn around and come back at 1:00. As noon was approaching the motorcycle activity picked up (there were cars as well, but they were quiet). The noise got so loud it was difficult to hear the transmissions from the checkpoints and we had to close the door, not desirable on this hot Saturday midday.
A first this year was Doug’s (sorry, I don’t know his call sign) kind generosity in the use of his ATV as a sweep vehicle. He outfitted it with a radio and antenna and offered it to Cliff to ride. And from all reports, it went very well. So that was another job for NCS – keeping track of the sweep and the last runner. No checkpoint can be secured until the last runner and sweep vehicle have gone by. Most of the time, sweep could hear us, but there were a few occasions when he couldn’t. Guess we need to see how we can work that better in the future, because I think Doug is making his ATV available for future events.
It was a hot day. Though the weather was otherwise good, we did have to be concerned with heat related issues with the runners. Several were called in with cramps and as NCS it was our job to keep track of where the EMTs were, and to send them off where needed. And then there are the drop outs. As they got called in we needed to write their bib numbers down and towards the end of the race, relay that info to the summit (there are two operators at the top, one at the finish line and the other at the summit building). At times, we needed to call summit to pass on the name of a driver who would be looking for a runner, who had dropped out down below.
In a little over an hour from the start of the race, once the first runners had reached the top, our radio activity slowed down. Now transmissions were only geared to some minor medical issues and the location of the last runner. The NCS job also included informing all operators when the Auto Road had opened from the top and later from the bottom. What an onslot of motorcycles that rode up to the top once the road opened!!
I enjoyed working NCS and I felt Dave and I worked well together. We bounced back and forth manning the radio and recording the information. It wasn’t a case of this is your job and this is mine. Rather it was, whoever was available did the job. That may not work in all cases, but it did with this one. This event did not give us much down time and it kept us busy throughout the event. But it wasn’t crazily hectic. Keeping communications short and to the point keeps the frequency open and available for the next transmission.
I think it makes one a better contributor to an event if you work all aspects of it. Knowing what it’s like at the various checkpoints and at the finish line, dealing with the weather first hand, working radios under various conditions, what it’s like to be sweep and the problems it imposes, and working NCS, where it all comes together and can get extremely intense, really helps one to understand and appreciate what the rest of the team is up against.
updated July 3, 2010