Just a reminder that the Bandera 100k Ultra Endurance Trail Run is coming up on the weekend of January 9th and 10th, 2010, out at the Hill Country State Natural Area. Very poor cell phone coverage, but we’ve got a local 2 meter repeater that does fairly well, and we’ll be putting up a temporary Ham 440 repeater and UHF Commercial repeater.
We’ll be trying to communicate this year between check points to net control using Packet as well as voice, trying to track runner numbers live as they pass thru a check point. So far about 550 runners have signed up for this event, which includes a 25k, 50k and 100k (they do the 50k twice) trail run. We aren’t talking running on paved streets, we’re talking cross country, over hill, over dale, round the tree, over the stump, thru the ravine; in other words, running thru stretches of trail where even the horse patrol (yes, we’ll have them out there) and ATV Drivers can’t go.
Oh, and the weather? What about it? This event goes on no matter what the weather might be. It can be hot or cold, freezing, drizzling, raining, or sun shine, it won’t matter, the race goes on! So come dressed / equipped to survive the weather, and just think of those poor chaps out there running after dark in their running shorts and LED headband lights.
Louis K1STX is the ham in charge from Hill Country REACT Team, and the guy setting up the schedules. Contact Louis via email at trlrider@gvec.net to find out more details. Some of the hams will be on horseback, but most of those on horse will be using commercial radios.
We staff a half dozen check points plus the start/finish line (lodge), a couple of which won’t close until 3am or even 5am on Sunday morning. Once all check points are closed (i.e. all runners are verified as having cleared thru them), we shut down the ham net and either get some sleep, or head home, depending upon how tired we are. A ham crew goes out earlier in the week to set up the repeaters, and stays on Sunday to take them back down again.
Some checkpoints have electricity, others don’t and have to use generators or their vehicles for power. HT Batteries will be pushed to their extreme use, so bring extra batteries and a charger to recharge them when you kill them.
