WA5VHU
New member
As Amateur (Ham) Radio Operators my wife (KD5CCB) and I (WA5VHU) work with area radio clubs providing communications at various Public Service events, including the famous Marine Marathon down in Washington D.C. For many of the running events I ride my bicycle following the last runner in the race, acting as a safety sweep at the tail end. We have voice communication with net control plus we use APRS, which is Automatic Packet Reporting System, which gives our GPS position via a data burst over the radio that can be displayed on a map for our Net Control and the race officials.
Last Sunday we did an event that was new to many of us, a bicycle ride event (not a race). This was a fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis and included 117 bicycles split between three courses of 20, 40 and 60 miles. I rode my Spyder, following the last bikes on the 20 and 40 mile courses. I was interrupted at the end of the 40 mile course searching for a “missing”group of riders (helicopter parents!) and did not complete that search before the 60 mile riders finished their course so I didn’t follow them into the finish line.
For my fellow Hams, I used my VX-8 talkie mounted to the center of the handlebars. Strapped to the back seat in a small plastic ammo box were a 35 watt 2m/70cm amplifier and a 12 amp-hour AGM battery which powered the amplifier and talkie. For an antenna I used the elevated ½ wave dual band antenna on a fiberglass stick that I use on my bicycle. I mounted the antenna to the side of the trailer hitch with a square U-clamp from Tractor Supply.
For additional visibility I used some blinky lights from my bicycle. They are very bright and attention-getting.
I don’t think I will use my Spyder for this in the future as I discovered the last bicyclists quickly run out of steam and wind up walking their bicycles up even easy hills which kept me going about 2 mph in first gear. I hate to think how much clutch wear may have happened during those 4 hours of creeping!
On the dash I have my GPS (Samsung Galaxy Tab4 7”), GoPro camera and a 6 amp-hour USB battery pack to keep the tablet and camera running.
It was mostly sunny, very windy and crisp, a great day in beautiful country for bicycle or motorcycle!
73,
Charles
Last Sunday we did an event that was new to many of us, a bicycle ride event (not a race). This was a fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis and included 117 bicycles split between three courses of 20, 40 and 60 miles. I rode my Spyder, following the last bikes on the 20 and 40 mile courses. I was interrupted at the end of the 40 mile course searching for a “missing”group of riders (helicopter parents!) and did not complete that search before the 60 mile riders finished their course so I didn’t follow them into the finish line.
For my fellow Hams, I used my VX-8 talkie mounted to the center of the handlebars. Strapped to the back seat in a small plastic ammo box were a 35 watt 2m/70cm amplifier and a 12 amp-hour AGM battery which powered the amplifier and talkie. For an antenna I used the elevated ½ wave dual band antenna on a fiberglass stick that I use on my bicycle. I mounted the antenna to the side of the trailer hitch with a square U-clamp from Tractor Supply.
For additional visibility I used some blinky lights from my bicycle. They are very bright and attention-getting.
I don’t think I will use my Spyder for this in the future as I discovered the last bicyclists quickly run out of steam and wind up walking their bicycles up even easy hills which kept me going about 2 mph in first gear. I hate to think how much clutch wear may have happened during those 4 hours of creeping!
On the dash I have my GPS (Samsung Galaxy Tab4 7”), GoPro camera and a 6 amp-hour USB battery pack to keep the tablet and camera running.
It was mostly sunny, very windy and crisp, a great day in beautiful country for bicycle or motorcycle!
73,
Charles
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