Manny and Marshall at Baker to Vegas 2013

THE 2013 HBRACES BAKER TO VEGAS MOVIE

HB RACES looks forward each year to providing the best communications resource for the Huntington Beach Running Team. We use this event as an opportunity to practice implementing a reliable communications net in a difficult environment and fostering our working relationships with the Huntington Beach Police Department. This year 13 RACES communicators will provide radio communication support to the running team. This year HB RACES is coordinating with the WD6AWP Repeater Group and testing cutting edge Internet linking of several repeater systems including our local Santiago Peak 2-meter machine. HB RACES communicators should keep an ear on our local machine if they’re not headed out of town this weekend. The linked repeater system allows our local RACES communicators to contact the running team while they are traveling to and from the event. Feel free to contact them Friday, Saturday morning and all day Sunday and check in with the team as they travel between Huntington Beach and Las Vegas.

HB RACES provides live tracking of the runner’s position via APRS ham radio equipment during the race. HB Runner team number 073 shows the real time position of the runner. The position reports are available via any Internet connected PC at Huntington Beach Runner Position Report  or  http://bit.ly/ZxSyiW Huntington Beach has a 2:00pm (PDT) start time on Saturday, April 13th.

HB RACES communicators follow the Huntington Beach runner and are deployed at the upcoming stages to provide updated position reports and assistance to runners waiting for their leg to start. The stage communicator will have the unofficial leg times for the running team and any special instructions relayed from the team captain.

HB RACES Communicators are available at the Hunting Beach Running Team’s Staging Suite at The Las Vegas Hotel. Runner status information and unofficial leg times are available. Call the room and ask for the RACES communicator. We can assist you in getting emergency messages to the racecourse runners. Cell phone coverage is spotty along the course, but our ham radio resources provide 100% coverage of the racecourse allowing voice communication to all participants and the follow van.

Web links for more info:
http://www.bakervegas.com/
http://www.radiobaker2vegas.org/
http://b2v.findu.com/
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?073!Huntington Beach PD
http://aprs.fi/#!lat=35.82004&lng=-115.631104&mt=terrain&z=10

Click on the thumbnails to see the full size photo.

tactical comms took place on a separate 2 meter net. The exercise took place during a busy Saturday 12 pm to 8 pm shift.

Fourth of July 2012

Huntington Beach Emergency Manager Brevyn Mettler, KI6FRG (right), explains our multi-operator Field Day capabilities to Huntington Beach Mayor Don Hansen and his wife Sara and daughter Bailey Elizabeth. Photo by Pete Zilliox, K5PZ.

Field Day Surf City Style!

HB RACES had another great Field Day at the beach. Special thanks go to Emergency Manager Brevyn Mettler, KI6FRG and Eric Engberg, Division Chief of Operations and the Huntington Beach Fire Department, for allowing our group to access the parking area at the beach for this nation-wide emergency communications drill.

The highlight of our weekend happened when Huntington Beach Mayor Don Hansen and his wife Sara and daughter Bailey Elizabeth took a day out of their busy personal schedule to visit our operation. To top the weekend off, the City’s Police helicopter, HB1, performed several fly-bys and sent full color, P5 ATV images of the shoreline and our operation back to us in the Emergency Communications Trailer.

This year, our group established a 4A entry (four transmitters, low power class), with operations from 40 meters to 13 cm (10 GHz microwave). Most of our contacts were made on 40 meters – which seemed to be open all FD weekend!

Shelly Lothringer KC6ZOW, did a tremendous job working 40 meter SSB, filling several log pages! Pete Zilliox, K5PZ installed his G5RV antenna using a palm tree support and turned his HF mobile station into the GOTA station; Chief Radio Officer Dr. Steve Graboff, W6GOS deployed an HF station running into a random wire and auto tuner; Joe Tom, KB6JOE set up several VHF stations and a beam antenna; Wayne Yoshida, KH6WZ brought a 10GHz station as well as an HF station and a vertical wire antenna with a new auto-tuner that worked on just about any band. Last but not least, Al Estupinan, KJ6RIX, provided the most important support item of all – food! Al and his wife kept all of us happy and fed throughout the entire weekend.

We made nearly 300 phone contacts on various bands, including one SSB contact on 10 GHz, and more than 30 contacts on CW.

Here’s an interesting bit of trivia about the 2012 Huntington Beach RACES Field Day operation:
There were three ex-ARRL Hq. employees present: Peter Zilliox, K5PZ, Wayne Yoshida KH6WZ and George Barker, NA1L.

Take a look at some of the videos posted on my YouTube channel, KH6WZ!

Also look at the W6O Soapbox entry posted on the ARRL website by clicking HERE. Enter “Field Day 2012″ and search for “W6O”

Our picturesque Field Day location with many antenna supports – er – palm trees – in the background. Photo by Wayne Yoshida KH6WZ

From background to foreground: Shelly Lothringer KC6ZOW (operator) with Peter Zilliox, K5PZ (logger) on 40 meter phone, and Dr. Steve Graboff W6GOS operating 20 meter phone during Field Day 2012. Photo by Wayne Yoshida KH6WZ

HB FD Division Chief of Operations Eric Engberg and HB RACES Chief Radio Officer Dr. Steve Graboff working on Sunday, taking down antennas from the emergency communications trailer. At the far left, HB RACES Assistant Radio Officer Steve Albert, KC6OCE, supervises the process.