N5NTG | 
10 8th, 2008| 
By H. Milton Johnson – N5HMJ
It was hot and windy!
Well the 2008 Bike to the Beach has been come and gone. On the weekend of October 3rd and 4th, over three thousand bicycle riders left the start line at the AT&T Center in San Antonio and started an approximately 160-mile, two day trip to Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi.
Shepherding the riders like guardian angels, was a cadre of volunteers that included sixty-seven of your fellow amateur radio operators. An operation on this scale requires providing the riders with medical teams, safety teams, mechanical repair teams, the pre-positioning of large amounts of food and water, marking 160 miles of course, an army of support and gear vans and a communications system that can function efficiently over the 160 miles.
This is one giant logistical operation and at the heart of logistics is communications. In order to deploy your resources you have to know where your resources are, where they are needed and be able to direct them to the point of need. It is the amateur radio community that provides the communications infrastructure, equipment and man power to make this happen. We have every right to be proud of the service we provide to our community during this and other events.
