The SunRype Okanagan Marathon took place October 20, 2019.
Jane VE7WWJ and Mike VE7KPZ from NORAC offered service to assist with radio control for this event.
We were stationed at location "Manhattan" on the North side of the course with the brilliant John VE7JXC. As runners ran around us in all directions (requiring us to have two distinct focusses), we all worked together as a really great team.
It was a bit of a challenge to collect the bib numbers of the top male and female runners in each class, but we were able to accomplish the task and report runner statuses back to Tom VE7ENP (AKA "Comm Centre") net control for the Northern section of the course.
We would all like to thank Tom and Doug VE7VZ (net control for the Southern section of the course) for their efforts to organize and coordinate the radio operators spread out along the marathon.
The event ran very smoothly and the runners were all VERY appreciative of our support.
If you could not make it out to assist with this event this year, try to make it out next year. It's a really neat event where you get to use tactical callsigns and pass real traffic on a regular basis. A great exercise for HAMs new and old in a mildly demanding situation.
It was fun,
Mike VE7KPZ
NORAC Vice-President 2017-2020, technical committee member and Okanagan Marathon 2019 radio volunteer
Ps: also big thanks to Judy, Jane's cousin, who catered the event for us and allowed us to stay overnight at her house just 4 blocks from the course. SunRype, the event sponsor, provided some great snacks but Judy provided the much-needed morning coffee as well as egg+avacado salad sandwiches for brunch.
