Heart of Savannah 5K Communications Support

Had a great time this morning helping provide communications support with other members of the Coastal Amateur Radio Society for the "Heart of Savannah 5K" race coordinated by the Savannah YMCA.  We met for breakfast at the SunnySide Up this morning like we do every saturday except a little bit earlier.  We arrived downtown around 0730 to get in place along the race route.  Steve Jonas-K4SDJ setup as our Net Control Station at the Start/Finish line at Forsyth Park.  I walked the few short blocks east on Bull Street to my position at Madison Square. 

The 'kids race' started at about 0800 and then the 5k got underway shortly thereafter.  We had amateur radio operators at various places along the race route to report the position of the lead runner.  We also kept our eyes open to report any injuries and such in case EMS needed to be dispatched.  Happy to say that there were no injuries today.  The race is not very long and the last runner crossed the finish line around 0930.  Wish I had remembered to take more pictures.

Steve did a great job as net control and the newly revived 147.210 repeater on the Talmadge Bridge performed extremely well allowing great coverage for the route and enabling us to use lowest power settings on our handhelds to extend battery life.  Not that battery life was an issue for a two hour exercise but it's good practice.

Thanks to the following operators for volunteering thier time, talents, and equipment to help make our contribution to the race a success.  Great to have several "new" folks helping out this year!

Steve Jonas - K4SDJ
Guy McDonald - K4GTM
Mac McCormick - AF4KL
Irene McCormick - KF4RFF
Don Oberline - KK4AMD
Bob Hearn - N1HNR
Christine Hale - KK4ANA

Race route and operator positions

Where I was positioned for the race

Pledge of Allegiance

"On your mark, get set........"

Finish Line

"Eat more Chickin"

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One of the beautiful squares in Savannah