We are looking for sag drivers/navigators as well as ham operators to work breakpoints. Sag volunteers we would prefer to be available both Saturday and Sunday. Others could be either or both.
Contact Lee N5NTG info@sanantoniohams.org or MaryAnne N5MYN for link to sign up.
This is the general volunteer link where you can get more info.
https://mssociety.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=cms.page&id=1868&eventID=603
Thanks!
MaryAnne, N5MYN
210-380-6560
As Covid restrictions lighten up, things are beginning to return more back to normal in terms of public service events. All of the events in the month of April are still canceled to the best of my knowledge.
The next big event is going to be the National MS society’s bike ride. Instead of being a two-day event, it’s only going to be a one day event. They will have the usual starting points in Houston, but they’re going to have a starting point in La Grange Texas as well. The destination will be Kyle Stadium in Bryan college Station at the Texas A&M University.
Ham Radio Operators & other volunteers will be used to staff SAG vans, from the San Antonio and Austin area, for the La Grange start.
Volunteers from the Houston area will take care of the three locations in Houston. The three locations in Houston and the one location from LaGrange will eventually merge on the route up closer to Bryan college Station. Houston will not be coming to LaGrange.
There will be new stringent requirements for those driving and riding in SAG vans due to Covid of course. Precautions will include only putting up to three or four riders and a van at a time, having the riders put their own bicycles in the back of the van, instead of the navigator or driver handling them. Everybody being required to wear masks while inside the vehicle. Plus of course the driver navigator having to sanitize the seats and door handles every time they drop off riders.
Ham Radio Operators are also needed for breakpoints. Break points have their own set of special precautions to enforce social distancing and wearing mass when around the riders or other volunteers.
Volunteers driving SAG vans will still pick up their vehicles the Friday before and return them on Sunday after the event is over. My understanding is that San Antonio and Austin will still pick theirs up at our usual locations.
One major change that you can anticipate, is there will probably not be any paid hotel rooms for Friday night or Saturday. Since there is only a one day event and 20/20 was pretty much dead fundraising wise, the association has had to greatly reduce their staff and cut corners to save money. They do not have the budget that is normally available for this ride. Volunteers may have to pay for their own rooms, or make it one hell of a long day. I’m planning to pay for my own hotel room. They’re supposed to be getting this information about some discounts available in the area. Since the number of riders will be down tremendously and LaGrange won’t be swamped with 10 or 15,000 people, the rooms ought to be a lot more reasonable than in previous years.
I am the lead contact person for San Antonio volunteers. If you’ve not been getting the emails from Mike Firenza, and you still want to get involved knowing what I’ve just told you, please contact me. My contact information is the bottom of this website. I do not answer phone calls early in the morning. Email would be the best method, followed by text messaging.
As of April 7th, I’m still needing 4 more SAG Teams (Driver & Navigator) for the La Grange start on May 1st. Please contact me via email, info@sanantoniohams.org, or text message at 210-771-7075. Thanks.
I just received a call earlier today, Wednesday July 22nd, officially informing me that the BikeMS ride, scheduled for the first weekend in October, has been canceled and converted to a “virtual ride” to (hopefully) still raise funds to help find a cure for MS.
This means that every 2020 major bike ride and other public service event in our area has been canceled by this virus crisis.
Looking forward to the remaining October, November, December and January 2021 events, hoping they don’t get canceled also, but I am not holding my breath.
The San Antonio Fiesta Commission announced on March 13th that they were postponing Fiesta until the month of November. Of course that caused the Wildflower bicycle event to get postponed as well.
The rescheduling will possibly cause conflicts with Wurzfest in New Braunfels, but since the Tour de Gruene ride event was cancelled in 2019, it is unlikely to cause problems with the Wildflower ride.
The BikeMS Ride to the River event will be the month before, in October, so there ought not to be much of an affect there either. The Wildflower isn’t a fundraiser ride on the scale of the BikeMS ride, so folks who solicit their friends for the BikeMS BikeMS won’t need to do it again so quickly.
We’re still needing some more ham radio operators to help with the 2-day BikeMS Valero Ride To The River on the first weekend of October, Saturday the 6th and Sunday the 7th. Hours are generally 7am until 6pm, but may vary depending upon your assignment.
The ride on Saturday starts at Rolling Oaks Mall on the Northeast side of SA (1604 & Nacogdoches), then wanders thru the countryside via mostly back roads over to Seguin and back to a finish line at the Comal County Fairgrounds in New Braunfels. (River Road will be involved both days.) The event will finish up Saturday before 7pm, but most rest stops will close before 5pm.
On Sunday, the 2 routes start at, and return to, the Fairgrounds. Both routes include River Road, coming one direction from Sattler. Sunday is shorter due to shorter routes.
We need hams to help in these areas:
* SAG VAN drivers & co-pilots (picking up stranded riders in a rental 15 passenger van or pickup truck)
* Motorcycle Safety Marshals (need to train w group before the actual ride)
* Ham shadows for event officials (ride with them all day, relaying msgs)
* Medical rovers / first responders (EMTs, ham shadows)
* Rest Stop Hams (relaying msgs to/from medical, the Rest Stop captain (supplies), or when a need to have riders picked up)
Background checks are required for some, but not all positions, paid for by National MS Society. Driver DMV checks are required for Van & Truck drivers (also paid for). Some online driver training is required for those driving rental vehicles.
Free t-shirts will be available. All fuel expenses for event provided vehicles and motorcycles are covered without need to pay up front and wait for reimbursement.
A training / briefing meeting is typically held the weekend before the event to cover the routes, assignments, pass out maps & other items (like t-shirts), etc.
* Ham Coordinators are Charlie Land KC5NKK, MaryAnn Horn N5NYM, and myself.
* Motorcycle Safety Marshals are coordinated by Ray McLeaird N5RAM.
* Medical Rovers / First Responders are coordinated by Neil Martin WA5FSR, with an actual doctor in overall charge.
Police coordination with SAPD, Guadalupe Sheriff, Comal Sheriff and New Braunfels police has been arranged. Major intersections will have a police presence.
This would be a great training opportunity for ARES and CERT groups as well, perhaps with several volunteers helping out at one or more rest stops. Hill Country REACT members are involved also.
Note: SAG Van & Pickup Truck assignments are expected to be 2-day assignments, with the vehicles being picked up from designated rental agency location on Friday (before 6pm) and returned either Sunday night or Monday morning.
Rest stops can be assignments for 1 or both days since locations change each day. Hours vary by position relative to start and finish line. We usually have 8 stops on Saturday and 5 stops on Sunday.
While we prefer ham shadows to be a 2-day assignment, we understand that some folks might not br available both days. Preference in assignments is given to those able to do both days of course.
Please contact me for more info. If you email / call / text / or leave voicemail msg, please include your name, callsign and your contact info.
We do have some non-ham positions available, such as being a co-pilot for a SAG ham driver. SAG operators work best as teams, driver & navigator/co-pilot.
Lee Besing, N5NTG
210-771-7075 (cell)
info@sanantoniohams.org
The 2016 BikeMS ride starting from San Antonio on October 1st is less than a month away from us now.
We still need hams on Saturday to fill a few rest stop positions. Help!
Hams are used on this ride for lots of positions. Hams are the glue that holds the event together on the day of event, actually 2 days of the event. If you have APRS capabilities, please plan on using APRS. Frequencies will be all on 2 meter repeaters, other than perhaps medical. SAGs may be using dual band, with the Scooter Net simplex frequency on 440mhz. (Same frequency as prior years, same as used for the BPMS150 ride.)
Hams are used for driving rental SAG Vans and trucks on both days, picking up riders from the side of the road and taking them to the rest stops. SAGs also take riders from rest stops up the line, sometimes to the finish line, if the rider had unrepairable breakdown of their bicycle, or they were just too tired to finish on their own. Although we don’t emphasize it much, we have had some serious accidents or injuries in the past where the ham equipped SAGs and Motorcycle Safety Marshals have saved the day. It’s a serious business, but we try to have fun while doing it. SAG assignments are for a 2 day commitment due to the nature of the rental vehicles.
Hams are needed for Shadow Positions, riding with medical units, police cars, event officials (think Tour Directors, etc.) and for Rest Stop communications. While we prefer 2 day commitments for these positions, we understand that some folks are only available for 1 day at a time.
At present time, Charlie says we mostly need rest stop hams for Saturday, but I think some shadow positions are still available. Enough SAG drivers have been lined up, but backups are always appreciated in the event someone has to drop out suddenly.
The lead volunteer contact is Charlie Land KC5NKK who can be contacted via email at kc5nkk@hillcountryreact.org.
N5NTG | 
ADA Tour de Cure, AERC Heart of the Hills, BikeMS San Antonio, General Ham Radio, La Vernia Wildwest Hammerfest, Public Service | 
08 26th, 2015| 
1 Comment »It’s time to dust off those radios, go-kits, antennas and get signed up to volunteer for the public service events that will be starting up in September and October 2915. I’ll make another post later to cover the events happening in November (Veterans Day Parade, Tour de Gruene) and December (Skywarn
September 12-13th – Central Texas American Diabetes Association’s Tour de Cure (Austin) – This will be a two-day event starting at the Oak Hill Freescale campus on Saturday, overnight at Jellystone near Fredericksburg, then back to Freescale on Sunday. Also on Sunday, there are other lower-mileage rides on Sunday, basically orbiting Freescale. Contact is Jeff Schmidt N5MNW and Lee Besing N5NTG. Repeater and APRS coverage is still be coordinated. More information about the ride can be found online at this site.
September 12th – La Vernia Wildwest Hammerfest – The San Antonio Ham Support Team will NOT be working this ride this year due to a disagreement with event organizers over something that occurred during the 2014 ride. Other hams from Wilson County may be involved, but the usual crew from San Antonio will not be coordinating.
September 13th – HEB 110th Anniversary Bike Fest in Boerne – This is a brand new ride celebrating HEB’s 110th anniversary, benefiting the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation. Lead Ham Club on this event will naturally be Kendall Amateur Radio Society (KARS) since it is their backyard. Looks so far like we’ll need to cover 9 break points and 6 SAG vehicles with ham operators, so KARS needs our support to keep this event safer. Contact David Moore N7RF (KARS) or Mary Anne Horn N5MYN (SARO) to volunteer ASAP.
October 3-4th – Valero BikeMS Ride To The River – This is our annual 2-day event that was changed from the 2nd weekend to the 1st weekend of October this year. On Saturday, the ride goes from the east side of San Antonio (near Houston St and IH-10), out thru Seguin (lunch stop) and back west to New Braunfels, ending at the Comal County Fairgrounds. Route includes an option to tour River Road if the rider gets past the cut-off point prior to 3:30pm. Both of Sunday’s routes will start and ends at the Fairgrounds, with courses remaining in the Canyon Lake area.
It’s now been a couple of weeks since the event was held, but I wanted to write up some sort of “after action” report, complete with photos. This report is from the Ham / SAG van viewpoint, since that’s where I was all weekend. I didn’t take as many photos as I usually like to do, but I received photos from other folks, such as Mike Perez W5ZUP, Joe Plano KA1MZY, and various BikeMS Committee members.
At the almost last moment, Saturday’s start line was moved from the AT&T Center over to the brand new Wheatley Heights Sports Complex on the other side of IH-10, just off Houston St. This resulted in minor route change that subtracted about a mile from the course each day. Riders in my SAG van said they preferred the new location over the AT&T Center, that it felt more like “our event” instead of “just borrowing the parking lot from the AT&T Center.”
(L-R) David KD5MTJ, Charlie KC5NKK, Paul KA5FZU, Joe WA5AUQ)
Our 15 SAG Vans came from Enterprise Rent a Car as usual, but what wasn’t usual was that we had to remove and store our rear bench seats instead of Enterprise doing it for us, as they have done the past 4 years. But Lloyd Hensley (BikeMS Staff) came up with a solution and we had the vans delivered to the BikeMS warehouse on Friday instead of our drivers picking them up directly from Enterprise.
Once the vans arrived, volunteers removed and stored the seats inside the warehouse, while the APRS Crew installed the trackers, applied the numbers to the front & back of the vans, distributed magnetic signs, t-shirts, and of course printed maps, guidelines and a list of where the authorized fuel stations were located.
The Route both days was changed this year to avoid the stretch of FM1346 thru St. Hedwig, where the shoulders on the road had cracks large enough to cause a bike to flip, or to take a short cut to Australia perhaps? After taking FM1346 for 2009-2012, the route committee said “enough is enough” and chance the route. Riders seemed to enjoy the scenery on the new roads better, with less traffic, lower speed limits, but no shoulders. The down side of the new section, was lots of blind curves and low water crossings that would have caused us problems on Sunday when the weather turned off bad.
Saturday’s ride went pretty smoothly, with only a couple reported medical issues from riders having accidents, none really major. It was probably one of our safest years yet for this ride. We had an incident or two, where a SAG van got stuck when backed into a side road waiting for riders to pass, and a police vehicle with a dead battery.
SAG 15 – Rob W07ROB loading bikes into his van. Photo by Joe KA1MZY
Weather was very cooperative both Friday and Saturday, getting a bit warm and humid on Saturday afternoon, which required higher than normal SAG usage, but we (the hams & SAG Teams) were up to the challenge. We’ve had several good feedback reports from riders who felt their SAG driver / team was very helpful, especially on Sunday.
The ride was completely finished shortly after 6pm on Saturday, with no riders needing to be picked up at the last minute as they returned down River Road on the Century Route. Part of the reason for that improvement, was the earlier cut-off time set for riders wishing to take the extra 30 mile trip up River Road and back. By moving the cut-off time forward, we eliminated those last minute riders who weren’t physically up to the challenge of finishing the route by 6pm.
N5NTG | AERC Heart of the Hills, Bandera 100k, BikeMS San Antonio, Emergency Go-Kit, General Ham Radio, Ham Club, JOTA, Parades, Public Service, San Antonio Marathon, Skywarn, Swap Meets, Texas QSO Party, Tour de Gruene | 09 17th, 2013| No Comments »
I know more help is really needed for the two upcoming bike rides on September 21st and October 12-13th. I’m pretty sure that all of the other events will be grateful for some extra ham help as well.
Where available, I have listed email address links for the contact person. If you don’t see a contact link, or are unsuccessful in contacting them, please feel free to contact me direct for more info or help. – Lee N5NTG
Coordinating this year’s event is MaryAnne N5MYN, Charlie KC5NKK, and Lee N5NTG.
C
harlie KC5NKK is the point of contact for ham volunteers and assignments. MaryAnne N5MYN is interfacing with the Tour Director and event staff. Lee N5NTG is coordinating the SAG teams, van pick-up and day of the event assignments.
We know that we need a minimum of 32 amateur licensed volunteers. In addition, we would really like to have co-pilots for the SAGs (amateur license not required).
Below is some information about what we’ll need in order to cover this event “at a minimum.” Obviously, we want to exceed this minimum and be ready to do this ride the right way, the SARO way!
At present time (7/25/2013), we have 29 who have said “yes” plus 4 SAG co-pilots, so we have a lot of recruiting to do yet. We would like to have at least 5 “spares” to cover last minute cancellations. If you have friends or acquaintances (or even people you don’t like) who would consider helping (licensed or not) please contact them and let us know if you get any interest.
There will be some route changes, mostly on Day 1, such as avoiding FM1346 thru St. Hedwig. After many years, and no repairs being made to the large cracks along this stretch of FM1346, some big enough to swallow a rider and his/her bicycle (just kidding), the route committee decided enough was enough.
The new route on Day 1 drops south and goes around St. Hedwig, which forced the one rest stop. In addition. one of the churches we normally used in the past, apparently has a wedding scheduled for that weekend and for some strange reason, the bridal party didn’t think that them working a rest stop would fit into their plans.
We need several things from you. We need a volunteer agreement executed. The strongest preference is to do it on line. Instructions will be emailed to you when you sign up to work this event. This form is required of every volunteer for each event. Even if you helped with the BP ride this Spring, this form needs to be executed again for our ride. The main reason for doing one for each event is this is the way that the MS office knows who you are so they can send you “thank you’s” and appreciation party invitations.
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