The Reston Bike Club Ride Across Loudoun County
Event Director Shadow -- Mark - N3GWM

Mark had the requirement to provide communications support to the Event Director as he moved around the routes and made side trips to stores to obtain extra needed supplies.

Mark was equipped with a 2 Meter Handheld Transceiver running about 5-watts. He used a mag-mounted 5/8-wave antenna when mobile. Generally, it was not possible to communicate directly from Reston to N3GMW once he got beyond Arcola or Ashburn and instead other stations relayed his traffic to Reston. It appeared that Mark could talk as necessary to the other out stations. During the late afternoon, while at Hillsboro his batteries died and when Mark arrived at Hamilton he picked up Bill - K8SYH's handheld to use for the duration. When the storms began in late afternoon, Mark shutdown his station fearing damage to Bill's equipment. This was challenging duty and Mark held his own throughout the operation.