As a silver-level sponsor of the Vernon Winter Carnival, NORAC provided parade coordination services this last Saturday, February 3, 2018.
This was a great test of our tactical skills. Instead of using 146.52 simplex, we used the VE7RIP repeater for all communications. Low power could be used on all radios and nobody was ever out of range.
The parade ended up being a huge success. We even had the cones cleaned up before the last float began moving.
We were then presented with the opportunity to join the parade. With a quick dress-up of the Unimog we then had a NORAC "float". Jane VE7WWJ, Terry VE7TRZ and Nic VA7AZZ waved to the large crowd as we crawled through the downtown streets of Vernon. Our club name and website URL were prominently displayed for all to see.
I would like to personally thank Brian Langner and Bob VE7EZI for doing such an exceptional job of organizing the parade staging. Things went very very smoothly with the new format.
We had one "FMR" call, but as we knew where the St. John's Ambulance folks were located in the parade line-up, they were quickly dispatched to the ailing parade participant.
Club members in attendance included Murray VE7MH, Ted VE7UIH, Terry VE7TRZ, Nic VA7AZZ, Jane VE7WWJ, Grace VE7IGB, Bob VE7EZI and myself VE7KPZ. It was a small but very effective crew. Thanks everyone for your participation.
Looking forward to next year's event,
Mike VE7KPZ
NORAC Vice President