Ride MS – City to Shore 2022- Ham Help Needed!

By | July 18, 2022
about 20 bicycles riding down a wooded road
Several thousand riders participated in the 75 mile ride on Saturday

This year’s Bicycle event Ride MS – City to Shore will be here before we are ready for the end of the summer.  The event will run September 24th and 25th this year.  Last year several of us participated on either Saturday or Sunday or both. The role of ham operators is to help riders who are in trouble… or to report situations where others can help. It’s also a good way to practice emergency communications.

We use local repeaters (mostly only one repeater) to report things like the position of the Support and Gear trucks, tire repair cars, and how far along the riders are.

The ride starts before dawn on Saturday, and ends mid-afternoon on Sunday. If you work both days, there is dinner, breakfast and a hotel bed in Ocean City, NJ.

DSRC will be sending out an e-mail to the club e-mail reflector on how to volunteer. The sooner you volunteer, the easier it is to run.

John operates radio from rental truck
John, KD2AAR Helped by running a SAG wagon (Support and Gear) to pick up stranded riders and their bicycles.

Here’s our page about last year’s event:

http://n2re.org/dsrc-group-helps-with-ms-150-bicycle-ride-9-25-21

Last year they even made a Video (click here)

New hams welcome.

Operations are on 2 meters and maybe 440 MHz.

COVID Safer Participation?

Concerned about social distance and transmission of COVID virus?

  • volunteer to be a communicator along the route (not SAG wagon or rest stops)
  • volunteer only for one day, Saturday or Sunday to avoid staying in Ocean City, and don’t go to dinner, breakfast or lunch (those are fun, but you are being safe)
  • most of your contact with others will be via your radio. The SAG and aid folks will come buy, but you can maintain good social distance.
  • Wave instead of accepting fist-bumps from grateful riders.
  • Find a safe place to go to the bathroom.

I don’t know that this will be totally safe, but it should be safer.