This year, Hams Rule! Yep, ALL communications go by ham radio, other than some internal event staff communications using commercial radios at the start/finish line. The 2012’s event is a 1-day event, starting & ending in Boerne Texas. The routes are changed 100% from last year.
We’ll have eight (8) White 15-Passenger SAG Vans to staff with Hams, Eight (8) Rest Stops to staff with Hams, and two (2) repeaters to coordinate with. All communications will be on 2 meters radio, using the 145.19 Boerne (KARS) repeater and the 146.98 Kerrville (Hill Country Amateur Radio Club) repeater. Dual band radios are suggested to enable local SAG to SAG or SAG to Rest Stop communications off-net.
Contact Lee Besing at tdc@sanantoniohams.org or call him at 210-771-7075 to volunteer! Don’t wait, assignments are going fast! Lee will be attending the HCARC meeting on April 5th up in Kerrville to sign up their volunteers.
Actually, the exact title is “South Texas Tour de Cure”, and it’s starting / ending in Boerne, Texas, not San Antonio. But it will happen this year on Saturday, May 19th, as a one day event with 4 routes to choose from. There will be an 18 mile & 30 mile routes going south from Boerne into the Fair Oaks Ranch area, and the 60 & 104 mile routes go north from Boerne thru Sisterdale and Comfort, before the 104 goes NW to Kerrville and back around down past Camp Vista, Center Point and thru Comfort on the way back to Boerne.
We’ve suggested a new slogan for the new Tour de Cure routes… “If you’re tired of flat, whimpy, boring rides, change over to the Tour de Cure for the hilliest ride you can ask for…” LOL In other words… The ride is extremely hilly, with a need for extreme caution on the part of our Ham drivers and Motorcyle Marshals. Roads are mostly narrow 2 lane paved roads with double yellow lines and no shoulders for the riders. Speed limits are usually near 60mph on the open roads. Cell phone coverage is very spotty in some areas! I suspect we may be busier than last year in the SAG and communications venue.
This will NOT be a flat boring ride.
There will be some challenges caused by the hilly terrain. We’ve got APRS radios to install in all of our SAG vans, plus key supply trucks, courtesy of Austin Amateur Radio Club (Paul Fenrich KA5FZU is returning to run APRS). Mike Perez W5ZAP will be leading our valuable Motorcycle Safety Marshals and Curtis Rabenhalt N5QPN will be our route safety officer. Yup, we snagged up Curtis to volunteer this year! I’ve driven the entire 104 mile route, and found we had solid APRS coverage on most of the course. I was using my own 25 watt APRS unit with a full sized higher gain antenna, more power & antenna than our borrowed tracking units will have.
Net Control Hams – We’re expecting to possibly need 2 net controls. One up near Kerrville at Rest Stop #4, the other at the Champion High School (location of the start / finish line) in Boerne. Depends up on how well the Champion High School Net Control can reach both repeaters.
SAG Van Drivers & Navigators – All fuel is paid for using designated re-fueling stations (usually Valero). We will be having a training & orientation meeting in May. SAG vans will be picked up in San Antonio after 5pm on Friday, and must be returned Saturday night. The ADA TdC is only paying for 1 day’s use, and Enterprise is being “very proud” of their vans this year, in terms of rental cost per day. We’re trying to get the same Enterprise location on IH-10 & Wurzbach, that we used for last year’s BikeMS event in San Antonio. Very friendly staff & very convenient for a Boerne event.
Rest Stop Hams – You will be tasked with all communications in / out of your stop. Stay on top of your Break Point Captain regarding need for supplies, because of the lag to get a supply truck back out there. Stay in touch with net control regarding any medical issues or need for a SAG to move riders further up the route. Bike repair & medical services will be available at every rest stop. There will be a Lunch Stop on the 104 mile route only!
Watch Out for the other bike ride! Yup, there is a second bike ride overlapping 15 miles of our route, along FM473 thru Sisterdale. The Real Ale Ride starts in Blanco, Texas, and has a rest stop in Sisterdale, just blocks away from the Tour de Cure Rest Stop. Fortunately, they will be going the same direction as the TdC, and will start a bit later than the TdC riders. But an agreement was made between the two rides, to allow each other’s riders to get help from any SAG van or Motorcycle support person. If you need to pick up a rider from the RAR, bring them to their rest stop in Sisterdale. Exact location of their rest stop, and the overlapped part of the route will be covered in the training meeting held in May.
Contact Lee Besing N5NTG at 210-771-7075 or by email at tdc@sanantoniohams.org to volunteer or ask questions. Assignments will be on a first come, first served basis. We’re approaching both KARS (Boerne) and HCARC (Kerrville) for Ham volunteers, in addition to those coming from San Antonio. I’ve been told our Houston SAG Teams are also planning to volunteer, so I’ll save some SAG van assignments for them.
Here are images of the 4 routes, but the exact location of some rest stops have been “adjusted” slightly since these were made. For example, RS1 has since been moved back closer to the start line. Click on the image for a more detailed view on the Map My Ride website.
104 Mile Route
60 Mile Route
30 Mile Route
18 Mile Route
