[aprssig] WRAP-UP MISSOULA MARATHON APRS SUPPORT

[David Dobbins]

Hi Kent. We had a combo of everything.

M-1, M-2, F-1, HF-2 trackers were all mounted on 10-speed bikes. We wrapped
blue painters tape around the area where our tracker would be mounted, so
as to not cause any scratches on some very expensive bikes. Dick W7XT fab'd
a couple 19.5" metal mounting brackets to the bike to hold the mini-mag
mount antenna and give some semblance of a ground plane. We also used

H-1 tracker, the MT-RTG, was in a Subaru. Nothing fancy there.

TL-1 tracker, a D7 and Etrex GPS with 1/2 wave no-ground-plane antenna, was
on Dick's BMW 1100R and worked just fine.

TL-2 on Dean's bicycle bob-trailer, the Arduino tracker, and a pole mounted
Go-Pro HD camera. Perfect for the larger battery he had. Next year we may
run a uStream-capable camera from it, and put him up front. This takes the
limited tracker mounting options off the bike an onto a small,
single-wheeled trailer that attaches to the rear. With as many biking
events the HARC supports here in Missoula, perhaps the club will invest in
a half-dozen of these to come up with a really-robust tracking capability.
Think of the possibilities!

It was a really fun event to support, and the race officials really
appreciated the club's efforts. The club is moving forward to purchase
several more MT-AIO trackers since they support a bunch of different events
where APRS can supplement voice communications.

We're also recommending to the race officials to have the escort bike
riders wear a brightly colored shirt with M-1, F-1 etc in big letters, so
our AID station communicators can more-easily identify the leaders, and the
riders call out the bib numbers of who they're escorting, as in some cases
the bib numbers curl up or are tucked in, making them unseen to the AID
stations as they come by.

Again, this was really a great event, and the people of Missoula and all
involved are really super people. It's no wonder this smaller venue
marathon was voted "most friendly marathon" in 2009. I think the trend
continues today.

Dave K7GPS

On Tue, Jul 10, 2012 at 9:56 AM, Kent Hufford <khufford at atlanticbb.net>wrote:

> David, ****
>
> Fantastic operation and report!****
>
> ** **
>
> What and how did you do "monitoring the trackers we had following three
> lead males and female runners"?  Did you have bikes or motorcycles with
> EACH, with trackers?****
>
> ** **
>
> Thanks in advance.****
>
> ** **
>
> Kent****
>
> KQ4KK****
>
> APRS since 1994****
>
> Aiken, South Carolina****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* aprssig-bounces at tapr.org [mailto:aprssig-bounces at tapr.org] *On
> Behalf Of *David Dobbins
> *Sent:* Tuesday, July 10, 2012 11:47 AM
> *To:* TAPR APRS Mailing List; Elmer Myers; Jerry Ehli N7GE
> *Subject:* [aprssig] WRAP-UP MISSOULA MARATHON APRS SUPPORT
>
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