Making Communication Possible | Amateur Radio Operators Volunteer for the Mountain Mama Road Bike Challenge

Every year over one hundred cyclists trek to the Allegheny Highlands for the annual Mountain Mama Road Bike Challenge hosted by the Highland County Recreation Commission. With rides ranging from 27 miles through the pastoral scenery of the county’s Bluegrass Valley to the grueling 100 mile Century course that encompasses three counties, two states, and over 10,000 feet of elevation climb, cycling enthusiasts enjoy some of the best our region has to offer.

But while the event is certainly challenging for cyclists, it presents it’s own set of challenges for event coordinators especially whenever it comes to communications.

-Background Radio Chatter–

What you are hearing are transmissions made by amateur radio operators, commonly known as “hams” who have volunteered their time and equipment to fill in the communication gaps along the bike routes. Known as SAGs, they provide a valuable service to the riders and event coordinators.

“SAG stands for Support and Gear, and we just basically of course have our radios which we can communicate pretty much through all the courses, make sure that the riders are moving through okay and make sure that all the riders have gotten through the checkpoints.

That was Jerry Moats, call sign WD4ITN a local Amateur Radio operator who volunteers every year coordinating with other operators like Greg Butler Greg Butler KW6GB who drove in from Front Royal, Virginia to help out with the event.

Greg Butler: “The terrain is a double-edged sword. It makes for a great challenging bicycle ride and beautiful countryside for those who participate. At the same time many of the areas of the course have no cell service, so an exhausted or injured rider would have no way of calling for assistance, so with the capabilities and equipment that our volunteers provide, we can provide reliable communications from almost every area off the courses, helping to ensure rider safety and a timely response if they need assistance.”

The day typically begins around 7am with a briefing and assignments given by long time coordinator Butch Washer

Butch Washer: “Real quick all the sags I’m going to start with this then I’ll start making sure you know your SAG numbers. Remember gentlemen this is a directed net. You call me? No. I call you? Yes/ You call me if you have important information are going to get out of the vehicle, at a rest stop somebody falls of their bicycle, bicycle breaks or whatever.

As the operators depart, Butch and Greg stay back, operating radios from the Highland County Sheriff’s Office Mobile Command Center. Known as Net Control, the operation works much like radio dispatch for police, fire and rescue. As Greg explains, the event also offers Amateur Radio operators an opportunity to practice emergency communications, a core component of the Amateur Radio service as designated by the FCC.

Greg Butler: “So an event like Mountain Mama as we plan for it and work on it we develop and exercise skills that would be valuable in a real-world emergency or disaster. So, the event is a essentially a disaster preparedness exercise. With equipment and transportation of our own we can easily deploy over a wide area and provide real time situational awareness to professional responders. That makes us a force multiplier for those who paid jobs charge them with protecting the public.”

Highland County Sheriff Bob Kelly Agrees.

Sheriff Bob Kelly: “They monitor the whole track through both states and three counties, they set up a portable antenna, and they are the only ones that has communications for the whole bike ride. Works really, really well, it makes things smooth. The Ham operators are great guys and a huge asset to the Mountain Mama.”

While amateur radio certainly offers an invaluable service to the community, it isn’t just about providing emergency communications. Butch Washer had this to share about other aspects of the hobby.

Butch Washer: “My name is Butch Washer, my amateur radio callsign is N5SMQ. Amateur radio can cover everybody from someone that just wants to carry a radio in their car for an emergency or maybe talk around some, to being able to talk around the world. Believe it or not there are amateur radio operators who are bouncing signals off the moon back to earth. They use satellites for communication. There’s an amateur radio on board the International Space Station. It’s such a broad hobby that can cover so much that there’s bound to be a niche that just about anybody can get into.”

So what does it take to become a ham radio operator?

Jerry Moats: “It does require a license and you can actually get your study material off of the internet now. There’s different sites that you can go to that prep you for the test. You have to start out with a technican class license, once you’ve accomplished that and passed that if you choose, you can move on to a general class, and after that you can move on to an extra class. Each class of license just gives you more operating privileges and more frequencies to operate on.”

If you’d like to learn more about amateur radio contact your local amateur radio club or visit www.arrl.org. For Allegheny Mountain Radio, this is Nick Mullins callsign KC4WX.