Tour de Loudoun 2002
- A Loudoun ARG and Loudoun ARES Amateur Radio Communications Operation -
- Supporting The American Red Cross In Loudoun County, Northern Virginia -
Photographed by WF1L - Bill McCourt, KE4FYL - Allon Stern, Charlie Nelson - KG4KZY, and AI2C - Norm Styer - Photo Credit Under Cursor

      This is a report of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service Operation conducted on Sunday, August 25, 2002, in support of the Loudoun County Chapter of the American Red Cross as it provided support to  over 1100 riders of the Reston Bike Club as they rode across Loudoun County. As in past years, the heart of this communications operation was the Loudoun Amateur Radio Group and this year the Loudoun County ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) Emergency Coordinator (EC), Tom Dawson, WB3AKD, encouraged us to make this effort as close as possible to a real emergency. Thus, other Amateur Radio Operators from Loudoun, Fairfax, Prince William and Clarke Counties were invited and joined us in this operation. The LARG had supported the Red Cross Chapter on two previous Reston Bike Ride Operations ( 2000 and 2001 ) and the 9-11 Dulles Airport Family Support Center Operation last September, and we always have a super ARRL Field Day Operation ( See 2002's FD Operation ); so, our folks  stepped forward and the plan came together quickly. The Operations Coordinator, Julie Belindo, KG4RKI of Middleburg, put together a fine OPLAN and had key operators and their equipment planned for each of the four fixed sites and several Route Riders.
       Yours truly set up at O-Dark-Thirty - like 0515 local - at the Hillsboro Elementary School Support Site shown above with John Hawley, N2PBY of Sterling, Bob Oliphant, KF4VBM of Waterford, and Jim Terrell, KC4UWS of Fairfax City, and Jim Banks, W0MAZ of Leesburg. We were joined later by Tom, KF4TNX and Maria Martin, KF4ZPV of Berryville. Tom Martin is the Clarke County ARES EC. It was nice meeting all the others who came North to check us out.
       By the time everything closed around 7 PM on Sunday evening over 30 Amateur Radio Operators had spent their Sunday in the field practicing and learning what it is like "To Be Counted On!" Best Regards, Norm Styer - AI2C.

     The operation in Reston involved 440-UHF and 40-Meter HF stations on the floor of the Reston Town Center by WF1L, Bill McCourt. And, in addition, Carol, KF4TJJ and Denny Boehler, KF4TJI of Leesburg,  established a 440-to-2 crossband repeater on the top on the higher parking garage. Joe Sheinman, W2BHK of Sterling, Julie Belindo, KG4RKI of Middleburg, Carol Boehler, KF4TJI of Leesburg, and Jim Scott, KG6EFT of Reston also had 440 handheld transceivers to talk through the crossband repeater out onto the 2-Meter network operating simplex on 147.480 MHz. The WF1L HF station was a mobile ICOM 706 and a elevated pair of 40-Meter Hamsticks  configured as a dipole. Bill's HF setup was always good and readable throughout the HF network.

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      Julie Belindo, KG4RKI confers with Ms. Withers of the Loudoun Chapter of the American  Red Cross while Joe Sheinman, W2BHK and other wait for bikers to arrive.

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Ashburn Red Cross Support Site

        Well, none of the Hillsboro Crew got to Ashburn but Bill Buchholz, K8SYH of Sterling, had a nice signal on 40-Meter Phone as the Net Control. The net settled in good around 9 AM and Bill ran a tight one; no one bothered us on 7285 KHz - not even the AMers. And the Ashburn VHF station was also good copy in Hillsboro. Helping Bill at Ashburn were XYL BA Buchholz, Chester Kmak, WA9LAZ of Ashburn, and Buddy Brewer, K4CJB of Round Hill.  Paul Dluehosh, N4PD of Leesburg was to operate there also but we heard him out doing some SAG and Route Riding jobs. We didn't hear Nancy Dluehosh, KE4RTP but she might have been there too. The Ashburn Site is the most active. They catch all the riders on the way out and back and have to wait on all the 100-milers to clear and also stay up for any strays. It's a long day there and two crews are welcomed relie

        Thus there was plenty of actoin between Reston, Ashburn and Hamilton. Route Rider Robert Rice, KG4RRN of McLean, reported he was near Checkpoint "F" - past Ashburn and just before Rt.15: "I was riding west on the trail, at approximately 10:20 AM when I spotted a biker from a team on the side of the trail with a blown out rear tire. I called Net Control, Mr. Dawson met me and the biker at the nearest road 1/4 mile west of the incident location. I overheard him telling Net 'Mark this as Incident #1.' I started out from my house at 5:15 AM on a Schwinn 27" 12 speed circa 1975, racing bike. I wore a black helmet with my call-sign on it and didn't get back until around 5:00PM round-trip."

Robert Rice - KG4RRN of McLean

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Hamilton Community Park Support Site
K4LRG - NCS By WB3AKD - Tom Dawson

Hamilton is 21 miles west of the Reston Town Center and the second Red Cross Support Site on the Bike Routes.
It's almost as busy as the Ashburn site since the 100-milers visit it twice.
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.      It's early morning, as Tom Dawson, WB3AKD of Round Hill arrives to open up K4LRG as Net Control. Tom's station is a dual-axle trailer mounted S-280 Communitations Shelter with air conditioning and a 50-foot numatic mast. He pulls a second trailer with a 10-KW PU-219 AC Gasoline Generator. He has a variety of HF, VHF, UHF and SHF gear that can used either in "The Boss" or from the shelter. For this operation a rotor controlled 4-element 2-Meter Yagi and a 40-Meter Tape Doublet were supported by the mast..

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.      Here Tom Dawson, WB3AKD runs some radio checks before turning Net Control Duties over to Allon Stern, KE4FYL of Purcellville, Willie Williams, KC0GNH of Vienna, Tom Garasic, NA4MA of Haymarket, Ray Houff, K4AJA of Purcellville, Bob Kennedy, KG4QXF of Reston, and Charlie Preston, K4LJH of Hamilton. The Hamilton site was ideal for this operation and was heard on all modes throughout the network. The operators did a super job.

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The Red Cross Support Shelter At Hamilton Still Had A Few Customers at 5 PM Sunday

Route Riders

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Dave Putman - KG4KZZ and Army61 - Joe Greeley .

        Route Riders played an important support role this year. We had sufficient riders to cover most of the route and from Hillsboro you could hear them reporting into Net Control or Reston or some other site about this rider down or the status food and water deliveries between sites. Checking on the last biker through was important to us waiting to close and you would hear the Route Riders reporting their check points as they rode cross Loudoun County. The last minute effort to get a route map with check points paid off. Besides Dave and Jay, we could hear Paul McIntyre, KG4TIH of Aldie, Mark Gillam, N3GMW of Lovettsville, Brian Cochran, N8FK of Manassas, and Steve Tedesco, KB2CEV of Merrifield. There were about a dozen incidents where Route Riders turned SAG Vehicles picked up exhausted or broken down bikers. A bike mechanic at Hillsboro could have helped; at the minimum, a powered air pump would have put several more  back on the route.

      Tom Garasic, NA4MA operated NCS at K4LRG out of Hamilton (above) and also pulled Route Rider-SAG Duty. In the afternoon, he visited Hillsboro (right)  to assist returning stranded bikers to the Reston Town Center.

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Jay Greeley and Charlie Nelson, KG4KZY of Landsdown, both Red Cross Officials
confer with Dave Putman, KG4KZZ of Leesburg during a break at Hillsboro.

Tom Dawson, WB3AKD With "The Boss"
He set up Net Control in Hamilton then traveled the routes checking out other stations and assisting where necessary.

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.       Hillsboro Elementary School Support Site
Amateur Radio Station AI2C by Norm Styer of Clarkes Gap

        I must honestly report that Hillsboro is "The Place." John Hawley, N2PBY of Sterling, and I arrived by 5:15 AM and immediately off loaded the gear and started to assemble tables and  the tent while the mobile rig kept us in touch with the rest of the network. By 6 AM, Bob Oliphant, KF4VBM of Waterford, was on site and helped with preparing the antennas. We were in business by 7 AM including the perkin' coffee. The Scouts showed about 7:30 AM and went to work on the Red Cross stuff that showed about 8:30 AM. In the meantime, we just took it easy. Most of the action was to the South and I'd like to go back to Hillsboro next year; it brught back old memories of the Central Highlands of 'Nam, the Fulda Gap east of Frankfurt and the mountains of SW Asia north of Tehran -- justing listening to the radios, keeping an eye on the horizon, and waiting on something to happen. And, in the meantime, just trading old war stories with some guys who have been there too.

.      A  Cushcraft Dualband 5-element 2-Meter VHF and 440-UHF Yagi was mounted on a Radio Shack telescoping mast at about 35-feet and a 40-Meter dipole was strung between two tall pine trees. The LARG's TS-440 HF Transceiver with a Johnson Matchbox was used on 40-Meter Phone and a Kenwood TM-V7 FM Dualbander Transceiver was operated on the VHF/UHF bands. Separate 12-volt dc deep cycle batteries powered each station.

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Jim Banks, W0MAZ of Leesburg, and Bob Oliphant, KF4VBM of Waterford,
trade war stories while we wait for some action.

John Hawley, N2PBY of Sterling, adds his own war story while everyone listens to a pretty quiet VHF Net and waits for the coffee to brew.

        Hillsboro is a nice quiet place and everyone liked to come up and visit, have some coffee, soup or hotdogs and trade some war stories. Here, Route Riders Mark Gillam, N3GMW of Lovettsville, and Dave Putman, KG4KZZ of Leesburg, listen into the radio chatter as the bikers move north towards Hillsboro.

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Jay Greeley of the Red Cross stops by for a hot cup of Norm's coffee.

      Jim Terrell, KC4UWS of Fairfax City, handles the 2-Meter station and Jim Banks, W0MAZ of Leesburg, mans the HF setup.

The Scouts quickly setup the Red Cross Support Facilities.

.       And, about 10 AM the first line starts to form as the 100-milers reach the half way point and take a long needed rest.

     At mid-morning, we were joined by Tom, KF4TNX, and Maria Martin, KF4ZPV of Berryville. It was very nice to meet them again and exchange ideas on how best to help our communities.

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.       At about 1 PM,  Carol Boehler, KF4TJJ, and Julie Belindo, KG4RKI, paid a visit to Hillsboro and passed out some nice Reston Bike Club T-Shirts. Thanks.

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.      By noon, biker traffic had peaked and soon most would be gone and all that would be necessary was to look for strays and decide when the northern route was clear. Route Riders Brian Cochran, N8FK and Mark Gillam, N3GWM, made several trips around the northern route and by 2:30 PM the last biker had left Hillsboro. The Hillsboro AI2C Station closed at 2:45 PM and march ordered towards Hamilton at 3:10 PM.  John Hawley, N2PBY, and Norm Styer, AI2C, visited the NCS at Hamilton and by 5 PM, NCS duties were turned over to Ashburn and Reston to roll up the support.

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