Great Falls Triathlon - 7 August 2016

[KA2ODP/7]

The Great Falls Area Amateur Radio Club, in conjunction with the North Central Montana Emergency Communications Group (ARES), will be providing radio communications support for the Great Falls Triathlon on Sunday, 7 August 2016.

The triathlon consists of three parts: swimming, bicycling, and running. Participants will start with the swim segment at the Electric City water park swimming pool. They will then exit the pool and go out to the parking lot and get on their bikes for the cycling segment. Upon returning from the bicycle course, they will switch to the running course.

We are helping out with the bicycling portion due to the distance it covers. The other two portions of the triathlon take place within the city limits, but the bicycling course extends far outside the city along county roads. This year a 12-mile Olympic bicycle course is being offered, in addition to the standard 6-mile course. The route goes out of Great Falls along the Lower River Road, and continues on as the road eventually becomes Eden road.

Amateur Radio operators are needed at various locations along the bicycle course. We will act as safety observers in case any participant needs medical assistance or has a flat tire. Our Communications Trailer will be set up in the parking lot near the bicycle racks. Ham's along the bicycle course will relay requests for assistance to the Communications Trailer. The radio operator in the Communications Trailer will contact the appropriate people depending on the situation. The event organizers have arranged for two "support" vehicles to operate along the bicycle course to render assistance. Our job is to simply get the word out via ham radio that assistance is needed at a certain location along the course.

The event starts at 7:00 AM Sunday morning. Once the last participant has finished the bicycle course and moved on to the running segment, we are done. We are only needed for the bicycling portion, which should wrap up by 11:00 AM as the last participant parks his bike and switches to running.

Radio equipment needed will consist of a 5-watt HT with a good antenna, and/or a 50-watt mobile radio. Radio operators along the bicycle course outside of Great Falls will typically find a spot alongside the road where they can park their vehicle and watch the cyclists go by. This means you can operate from your vehicle using your 2-meter mobile radio. Radio operators positioned inside the city limits will probably find that a 5-watt HT will work fine. We will be using the 147.300 MHz repeater (+600 kHz offset, 100.0 Hz sub-audible tone), which has been relocated to a much higher site just outside of Great Falls along the Bootlegger Trail.

If you are interested in helping out, please contact me! I will be announcing the event on the Thursday evening ARES net (7:00 PM on the 146.740 MHz repeater). A sign-up list will also be passed around at the next GFAARC club meeting on Monday, 11 July 2016. See you there!

[KA2ODP/7]

Thanks to everyone who helped out during the Great Falls Triathlon event! Everything went smoothly with no medical issues and only a few mechanical problems that were quickly resolved by the riders themselves. In spite of the addition of an Olympic 24-mile adult bike course that extended out 12-miles south of Great Falls, the event did not take much longer than previous years. The last adult rider finished the bike course at 9:36 AM. We had our hot wash review back at the Communications Trailer and were done by 10:15 AM.

Special thanks to Parrish (AF7BA) and his son Kendon for getting the Communications Trailer in place and set up on Saturday evening. They went on to man the trailer during the event, and then hauled it home when everything was finished. Thanks for the extra effort!