PCRC - Lower Naugatuck Valley Parent Child Resource Center
lnvpcrc.org/

What an improvement of weather over last year!
It's nice to not have to deal with rain.

Big increase of riders over last year.
Last year riders = 26
This year riders = ~90 (final number pending review)

Good Training Event for everybody:

- 2 Shifts simulating a 24 hr. event

- 12 Amateur Radio operators (including myself) came out for this event, and I’d like to recognize them here for their excellent efforts today:
Betsey K1EIC
Bill N1AKF
Medeya KC1BBK
Dave KC1AFK
John K1FBI
Jon N1BDF
Levon KB1ZVT
Kevin KB1YCA
John KB1QQA
Mike N1PLH
Al K1QEX

- We were surprised at the last minute (Friday 7 pm) with the addition of a 4th Sag Wagon. I sent an email out Saturday afternoon, and an recieved an immediate response from Al K1QEX to fill that radio operator slot. THANKS AL!

I also want to acknowledge the efforts of Mark - WA1MSH in helping make our involvement possible.

- The two Rest Stops and one Observation Post ("Check Points") logged the Bib numbers of passing rides and relayed that information to NCS.

- NCS then used that information to track all riders through the 3 Check Points, and worked with Event Director to compare Finished Riders with Check Point results to make sure no rider was lost or still on the course.

- The 4 SAG Wagons drove around the courses, trailed tail end riders, checked on disabled cyclists changing tires, and did final sweeps of the courses.

MR MURPHY VISITS...
Incident #1
While I had planned to operate my “Go Box” using battery power, Mr. Murphy had other ideas, and decided that today was a good day to have my Deep Cycle 12v. battery prove that it was truly past its useful life.

Not to Worry! On to “Plan B”:
Used my 5 watt HT connected with a SMA to SO-234 jumper to 50 feet of an LMR-400 class ½”coax cable (“Low-Loss Bury/Flex”). The coax was attached to a 2m/440 vertical “gain” antenna mounted at 20’ AGL. This arrangement has proven itself to work well in the past at this event. So, we were not concerned.

However, it became apparant that computer batteries do have a finite run time without being recharged.
Note: Paper logs work very well, and we had to rely on the duplicate paper log we were running.

Incident #2
Someone arrived at a Rest Stop with just a 5 watt HT and quickly discovered that 5 watts does not work in the hills of CT. Fortunately, another ham was able to scoot up there and lend him a 2m amplifier that put out about 25 watts.
- BiG IMPROVEMENT.

Mon 5/19/2014 11:02 AM

From: Betsey - K1EIC

Many thanks to all of you for your time and excellent operating at yesterday’s PCRC ride. It was fun working with you. We were able to provide a needed service for the Parent Child Resource Center because of your commitment. Everyone arrived at their stations on time which made the effort easy to coordinate.

Thanks!

73,
Betsey Doane, K1EIC
VARA VP