CALENDAR
October NGARC meeting:

October NGARC meeting:  Monday, October 17, NGARC meeting:  Monday 6PM at El Maguey Mexican Restaurant on West Main Street.

Reminder:  Club dues of $10 are for the year Jan to Dec.  ($5 now for the last half of the year) and will be collected at the next meeting for 2005 for those of you not already paid up.  Also, please fill out one of the new NGARC club application forms even if you are a long time member so we
will have your information for our records.  Diana has a roster of all the members info (addresses, telephone, etc.) available.

There is a joint Lumpkin/Dawson County ARES/RACES net on Monday nights at 8:00 PM on the Dahlonega repeater.  This will be a check in net, with announcements and an occasional test message (to practice formal traffic handling.)

Other October Ham Radio happenings:

NOVEMBER 5-6--- Alford Memorial ARC Hamfest, at the Gwinnett county fairgrounds on Sugarloaf Parkway, Lawrenceville.. see www.totr-radio.org for a map and talk-in info.  This is the largest hamfest in Georgia and ends the GA hamfest season.  You'll have to wait until Dalton at the end of February if you miss this one!!

Bulletin Board

FORSYTH COUNTY--- These folks will be offering free classes for both technician and general class licenses at Grace Chapel Church Of Christ, 6755 Majors Road, in Cumming. These classes will run for five weeks, beginning on Saturday, October 15th, from 9AM- noon. Call John (W4JJM)
at 770-781-8082 for information or registration. Class size is limited. An open VE session will be held at this same location on November 12, at 1PM.

SIX GAP Bike Ride Report and comments:

The net started at approximately 0700 local time, with the following stations participating:

Communications Summary:
The ride got underway at 0733, although several riders started early, and ended at approximately 1830 with  one rider still on the course. Although there were several incidents involving either rider exhaustion or inability to continue for mechanical reasons, no major incidents requiring medical aid were reported to net control.  There was one incident reported involving a local driver making threatening comments, which was reported to Lumpkin County Sheriff's Office, and which was
subsequently dealt with by officers from Union County.  The majority of other communications involved requests for rider pickup and/or re-supply of various rest stations. 

General Comments:
Stations participating in planned events of this nature need to bear in mind several things:
  1)      Our function is to provide communications.  This does not mean that we may not assist race personnel in the performance of their duties, but we need to bear in mind that stepping away from our radios makes it more difficult to be contacted in a timely manner.  Stations should either take a portable radio with them, or inform net control when they will be out of touch.

2)      We need to bear in mind that the general public may be listening to our operations.  It is therefore essential that we keep communications brief and professional.

3)      As a general rule, we use primarily our regular call sign; however, the use of tactical callsigns is acceptable if universally adopted.  This is an item that should be discussed and agreed upon prior
to the time net operations commence.

4)      Stations should check in with net control as soon as net operations begin.  If an operator is still en route to his assigned station at this time, he should check in and give an estimated time of
arrival at his assigned location.

5)      Should it be necessary to report an incident regarding a rider's injury (or any other item which may be required by race officials), we should not give complete name information over the air.  A rider's number, and, if required for verification, First Name, should be sufficient for field work.  Medical or Law Enforcement personnel should be able to gather and communicate other ID information as required. Fortunately, major injuries have been very few in the past, and will
continue to remain low in the future.  However, should one occur, it is in our best interest to NOT discuss this over the air - that is a function that can best be handled by race officials; all that WE should report is the incident, and that medical personnel are required at the location.

6)      Rest stop personnel need to remember that we supply communications for the logistical side of the race.  If a rest stop starts running low on a given item, they need to advise us as soon as
possible so that the request can be passed along in a timely manner. Likewise, as we also arrange for transport of riders who are dropping out of the race, all we can do is to make arrangements for a rider to be picked up - if we happen to be going towards a rest stop or collection point, it is okay to transport the rider if we have the room in our vehicle, but we need to bear in mind that we should NOT attempt to transport a rider who is injured seriously enough to require medical aid; should this occur, we should block the road to prevent the rider being further injured, and report the incident, but take no other action unless requested to do so by appropriate officials.

Personal Notes:
I had a lot of trouble with interference - probably due to my location at Woody Gap.  Although I do not believe that this is due to equipment problems, I anticipate acquiring new antennas and possibly other equipment prior to next year's ride. 
I had a fair amount of difficulty contacting Vogel this year.  I'm not sure if this is due to my problems with interference or not, but assuming that my equipment was not a fault, we need to look into setting
up a better antenna at that, and possibly other locations for next time.  I also believe that there was a similar situation at Jack's Gap, at least insofar as Jeff and/or Tom had to move some distance from the
rest stop in order to make contact with me.  I believe that it would be advisable to double check this and other rest stops for similar problems, and see if arrangements can be made to move the rest stop to overcome this situation.

Buck, KC4GCK