We’re in need of another dozen or so ham radio volunteers to help with the L’ETape San Antonio Bicycle Ride being held on Sunday, April 10th. This is a competitive ride with 10mile / 25 mile / 60 mile and 100 mile routes. The Start / Finish line is on the UTSA Campus, east parking lot off Valero Way. We’ll be using a VHF repeater located out near Pipe Creek
This is a fully supported ride, with the riders having timing chips on their shoes / bikes, that get read by sensor mats about every 20 miles or so. There will be 7 Aid Stations, of which 1 will be staffed by the BikeMS folks. We’re finalizing the number of SAG vehicles this week, but it looks like we need at least 6 SAGs staffed by ham radio operators. There will be bicycle repair shops at each of the Aid Stations as usual.
Net control will be at UTSA and will feature the same crew that we used for the National MS BikeMS Ride to the River last October. Erik and Steve will be net control. Lee N5NTG will be the turtle on the 100 mile route. Our friendly Motor-Marshals will be helping out just like the BikeMS Ride to the River event.
Most assignments require the use of a high powered (25-40 watts) mobile radio. In addition, some of the Aid Station locations may require the use of a high gain antenna on a mast in order to reach the repeater.
Here’s a link to the PDF document with all of the routes shown. L’ETape San Antonio Route Map
Here’s the volunteer link to sign up. Please email me at info@sanantoniohams.org once you’ve signed up so we can discuss assignments.
Thanks for volunteering. This is a historic ride for San Antonio and we’re looking forward to showing them what the Ham Community can do for them.
Lee N5NTG
