Supporting The American Red Cross In Loudoun County, Northern Virginia

On The Road, Again !!!  -  Where The Action Is !!!

       I was sorta held in 'reserve' and was able to 'roam free in the west;' that was cool and as you all know, my pickup doesn't like to go 'out east;' so I missed the Ashburn and Reston Town Center sites. Sorry about that !!! Actually, they wanted me available to ride routes and recover bike equipment and riders; I did aid one fellow by picking up his bike and taking it to the Loudoun County High School Transfer Point for further transport to Reston while he was being hauled off by the Lovettsville Ambulance after he took a spill on some gravel northeast of Hillsboro.

       I did have one special assignment: report to the Giant Food Store in Leesburg at 0530 hours and assist the Red Cross and the Virginia Defense Force transport supplies to relief sites in western Loudoun. The Army guys knew where to go so I just brought up the trail.

       So, I got to see and hear a lot of things this year. I even took a route ride on the southern route out of Hamilton then Round Hill to Hillsboro. I tell you, it is a little 'crazy' out on the roads. Folks don't always give ground to each other and often you can run up on a pack of riders that have no clue that there are five or ten cars or trucks trying to pass. This is not fun to all our western Loudoun commuter jocks on their day off on a sunny Sunday morning that get stuck at 5 MPH.

       While on my tour, sometimes I could hear the folks out east. The Ashburn site was captained by Bill es BA Buchholz - K8SYH. Chester Kmak - WA9LAZ was reported also working at Ashburn. At the east terminal in the Reston Town Center - where all the goodies were - some year I'm going to drive that far just for the food and drinks - I could hear Iain McFadyen - KI4HLV of Mc Lean and Bill Frisbie - W3EMH of Sterling. They sometimes struggled with the inter mod on the cross band repeater. They also tried to integrate a UI View computer into the APRS Internet via a local WiFi outlet. Bill reported, "The WiFi connection was not reliable.  I got it briefly, and Tom didn't have any better luck." Folks at these two site work hard; they are first up and the last to close. We should practice a 'relief in place' to see how well we can handle extended shift work.

       Besides sporting a new three bay bike rack, I had a Kenwood dual-band mobile unit for 2 and 440 plus a priority channel for voice communications, a Garman GPS V unit tied into a Kenwood handheld dual-band voice and data transceiver for 2 and 440. The 2-meter channel was broadcasting my position and receiving on the APRS 144.390 MHz frequency. I also fired up a IBM ThinkPad LapTop and integrated its UI View Program into the Kenwood handheld; interesting the UI View program have a one line text messaging capability, a 'broadcast' and an 'announcement' text features. I tried a couple text messages to K4LRG but only got an automatic acknowledgement - these guys were busy. I was able to see almost all the stuff that was being processed at K4LRG's APRS system. All this was run off deep cycle 12-volt DC batteries; so, I could have operated dismounted Of course, I had a cell phone which wasn't needed and my  handy Olympus Stylus Digital 4.0 MegaPixtel camera. All this stuff kept me very occupied; it's a wonder that I didn't run off the road some place. In all, I logged 160 miles on the road. It was a nice ride and it was nice to meet everyone along the way. Best Regards, Norm Styer - AI2C de Clarkes Gap, Virginia.

        I met up with these guys and gal behind the Giant Food Store in Leesburg well before first light. They were already loaded with plenty of fresh fruit, bread, peanut butter, etc., and lots of ice.

       Jay Greeley of Leesburg and LARG greeted me and gave me a couple Red Cross First Aid Kits when he found out what I was going to do all day. I didn't get to break their seals. At the right, Jay tries his Red Cross Radio or maybe it's a cell phone. Anyway, they were ready to roll.

On The Road, Again !!!

AI2C / Mobile 4

All this stuff can keep you very occupied !!!

The Evac - Transfer Point

             Tina Jones - K8TMJ of had the lonely but very important job of posting at the Transfer Point at Loudoun County High School in Leesburg. It was a long day for Tina; it was her job to keep track of and report the comings and goings of SAG and Evac vehicles.

Bike Mobile On The Route

          Here is Steve Greene - KS1G of Herndon passing through Hamilton. He reported having 'fair' 2-Meters communications while on the trail.

The KE4S-4 Digi-Repeater

        Dave Putman - KE4S set his nicely packaged APRS Digi-Repeater on the back porch at Norm Styer - AI2C's location on Canby Road and hooked up to the newly installed 2 and 440 Diamond vertical on a pole in Norm's backyard. Someday I'll get some hardline for this kind of stuff.

Loudoun County ARES Emergency Coordinator

Tom Dawson - WB3AKD Loudoun ARES EC meet up with SAG Shot Gun Rider Kurt Reber - KI4FWB