The Bridgerland Amateur Radio Club and Cache County ARES group in northern Utah participate each fall in an ultra marathon event called the Bear 100, a one hundred mile all-back-country race. The event starts in Logan, Utah and ends in Fish Haven, Idaho.

Since the event is entirely held in the back country, the only event communications is by ham radio. There is no cell coverage or any other kind of data communications available except at the start line and finish line.

At each aid station, 13 in total, plus start line and finish line stations, the communications team records the in-time and out-time of each runner. The race starts with 300 runners but thins out substantially by the end of the race!

Amateur Radio support for the race is primarily for runner safety, although other communications are provided, too, including messages for DNS's (Did Not Start), DNF's (Did Not Finish), supplies, runner status inquiries, and lost runners. In the past, messages were
Operators in the snow, Bear 100 marathon checkpoint. (photo courtesy N7UWX)
communicated to net control via voice and as a consequence, the FM repeater in use for the event was tied up about 80 to 90 percent of the time. Net control took the data and recorded it into a database, manually one by one.

Over the last couple of years, the group started using Winlink to communicate data, especially runner times. Club member Cordell Smart, KE7IK, wrote a program for compiling the data automatically into a CSV file that enters the times with the runner. Periodically, this file is copied off the computer and sent via RMS Express to net control via e-mail using packet and Winmor. Sending a file takes 2 to 3 minutes whereas on voice it took hours, freeing up the repeater for other event communications.

This year, 80% of the aid stations either used Winlink or attempted it and the result was a significant improvement in efficiency in tracking runners and their times.

-- Tyler Griffiths, N7UWX,
Cache County (Utah) ARES EC;
Winlink RMS Packet Sysop N7UW-10


Source:
www.arrl.org/FandES/field/ares-el/?issue=2015-01-21