Amateur Radio donates thousands of man hours of supplementary public service communications in civil emergencies, official drills and events such as parades and marathons each year. Such events show Amateur Radio in its best light, and it is critically important that ARRL bring documentation of this public service work to the attention of the Congress, the FCC and other public officials. Your information below is an important addition to the record. Please complete and return this form to the Public Service Branch at ARRL Headquarters. Thank you.
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1. Nature of activity (Check one).

3. Places or areas involved: Hope, Alaska

4. Number of amateurs participating: 7

5. Event start date/time: 14 Aug 98/1400L          6. Event end date/time: 16 Aug 98/1600L

7. Duration of event (hours): 50                           8. Total man-hours: 318

9. Number of repeaters used: 1

10. Estimated manpower cost: $3,180 (man-hours times $10/hr)

11. Estimated cost of equipment used: $3,850 (hand-helds, repeaters, etc.)

12. Total estimated cost of service: $7.030 (add amounts from lines 10 and 11)

13. Nets and/or frequencies used (including repeater call signs): KL7G public service deployable UHF repeater, 449.65/444.65 MHz; and 146.52 MHz simplex

14. Number of messages handled: Continous Tactical Traffic

15. Names of agencies receiving communications support: Knik Canoers and Kyackers

16. Please list call signs of amateurs who were major participants: KL0CY, KL5T, KL0CW, KL0EO, WL7YR, NL7NN, KL7TS

17. Other comments: See attached summary article

Please attach photos of amateurs in action, newspaper clippings or other data.

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Name of Amateur Radio organization providing service: South Central Radio Club

Location of organization: City or town: Anchorage State: AK

Your name: Larry K. Petty Call sign: KL5T

Address: 2631 W. 27th Ave, Anchorage, AK 99517

ARRL appointment, if any: ASM, VE, ARES      e-mail address: [email protected]

Telephone:  (907) 552-2448     (907) 248-3864
                          (days)                    (evenings)

I attest that the information provided above is complete and true to the best of my knowledge.

//SIGNED//
LARRY K. PETTY                                                                                               25 Oct 98

The Sixmile PaddleFest is the premier canoe, kayak, raft and inflatable whitewater river event in Alaska. Hosted by Knik Canoers and Kayakers (www.kck.org), this race draws participants from Alaska, the Lower 48 and Canada.

Held on the Sixmile river along the road to Hope, Alaska, the three day affair is as close to a long duration, remote-site, emergency communications exercise as the amateur community currently supports. At the site, there is no developed campground, no potable water, no in-place sanitation facilities, no commercial power and no communications, other than the State Department of Transportation (DOT) highway phone at the Seward Highway Hope Junction cutoff, and the pay phone 17 miles down the road in Hope. Your cell phone may or may not work, depending on where you are standing on the riverbank.

Communications volunteers are expected to function effectively in weather ranging from bright sunshine and 70° F to a wind driven rain, rattling down the canyon, bringing temperatures into the 40’s on the river and producing snow at higher elevations. You are pretty much on your own to provide the basics of shelter, warmth, food and water. This tests not only our communications system, but our ability to exist comfortably in the Alaskan "wilderness".

Fortunately, we are blessed with the luxuries of campers, motor homes, generators, petroleum (and other distillates!), along with polar fleece, Gore-Tex, wool, polypropylene, and dry split fire wood.
 
 

The following individuals provided communications support for the Kink Canoers and Kayakers:
 
 

Our purpose at most Public Service events is to provide a temporary and effective communications system that adds value in the eyes of the served agency, while testing our equipment, our ability to react to changes, and our willingness to make adjustments on the fly.

The communications system for the Sixmile was initiated with a simplex net used during setup on Friday night, and for "talking-in" those arriving for the main event on Saturday morning. One interesting use of technology was exercised during the drive down to Hope. John and Edythe Lynn were on-site with a nice communications overlook of Turnagain Arm, assisted by a J-Pole antenna located 30’ up on the end of a fiberglass hotstick.

Kent Petty, KL5T and I were driving on the Seward highway. He was able to raise John and Edythe on 146.52 simplex. Since I have not yet replaced the 2 m glass mount antenna that fell off my van, Kent put his mobile rig into cross-band mode and I was able to work with them by linking through Kent on 440 MHz. The implications of this simple exercise should give emergency communications specialists pause.

Simplex was exchanged for the KL7G Public Service repeater when it arrived on-site and was powered up in the back of Kent’s big green diesel truck. This "porcupine" has six antennas on board, and covers HF, VHF, UHF and digital modes in a 4WD package that’s ready to roll down the highway or climb in the mud. Applying 12V to the repeater from a 60 Ah gel cell and running a feedline to an existing dual-band mobile antenna produced a transportable communications system that was functional in motion or parked.

The repeater was built by Jim Wiley, KL7CC, from an existing W. R. Communications telephone "line extender" that was discontinued from manufacture and commercial service about 10 years ago. Kent Petty, KL5T, sent the rocks to International Crystal where they were able to swing them down into the ham bands. Jim and Kent aligned, tweaked and tested the repeater, but Jim wasn’t satisfied until he built an audio equalizer into the package that produces the high fidelity we’ve come to appreciate from this dandy little system.

I can’t say enough about the effectiveness of a portable repeater in emergency or Public Service applications. All stations, especially Net Control Stations (NCS), can hear the participants at the same signal level without having to ride the audio gain as is often required on a simplex net, where the stations operate with significant differences in transmitted signal strength. Most amateurs are familiar with repeater protocol, and the courtesy beep lets everyone know their HT is making the machine. The friendly announcement from the CW ID’er is a welcome diversion after 10 minutes of radio silence encountered during periods of no traffic.

One interesting phenomena was observed when we first set up the system. A piece of closed cell foam bedding was used as a cushion for the repeater during transport, and when we first set up the machine it was naturally resting on top of the foam.

The repeater would key itself and not release until we pulled the power. Removing the foam eliminated the problem. Would anyone like to speculate on the reason(s) behind this mysterious effect?

Saturday was the down river race and whitewater rodeo. The repeater was moved to a pull-out along the Hope road approximately half-way between the start and finish lines. This location provided a decent line-of-sight path to the river and to the support personnel at the start and finish. Communications were effective throughout the race, and no problems were reported accessing the machine. Very little traffic was moved on Saturday, due to the nature of the events, but it was fun to be involved as a spectator, and of course, kids and dogs love being down on the river!

The down river race began with a "LeMans" style start, where everyone ran for their boats at the sound of a horn, and a frenzied paddle downstream determined the winner. There appears to be an opportunity or two in developing a timely and effective scoring process that identifies and credits the boaters with their finish times without straining the shoreline calculations crew. Effective planning is the key to solving this puzzle, and an invitation to the KCK organizational meetings will go a long way in sorting out the details.

Saturday night was a potluck dinner with music, food and beverage. A bonfire kept the chill away and an amazing variety of chow appeared from the interior of John and Edythe Lynn’s motor home. Many of us spent time working HF mobile late into the night, and with virtually no man-made noise on the low bands we could hear more than we could work.

Sunday morning arrived with a drizzle that would characterize the rest of the day. This challenge to our selection of weather gear was heavy at times, and the wind rattling down the canyon drove sharp points of cold, hard rain into anything and everything. Conventional ink pens and paper became torn, smeared and useless, despite an effort to keep the clipboards dry under see-through plastic bags. A donation of "write-in-the-rain" paper would be a good idea for next year.

The whitewater slalom has the participants clear numbered gates suspended across the river, with the score determined by total elapsed time plus penalty points (seconds) added for missing or hitting a gate.

The communications repeater, still located in the back of the diesel truck, was moved to the top of a narrow, single lane parking area overlooking the river canyon. With the engine running and the truck blocking access to the river trails, one volunteer inadvertently locked all the doors after climbing out!

This presented a problem, since a spare "hide-a-key" was not available. Innovation and a sustained effort by Kent Petty, Bruce McCormick, and Clyde Raymer eventually solved the problem. A screwdriver, a coat hanger, some cuss words, and a Slim-Jim were used in the process. No damage was done to the truck, but these volunteers were delayed some 40 minutes while they worked on a solution. Ultimately the doors were opened and the truck moved to the top of the trail system.

The repeater provided excellent coverage of the river canyon, and tied back to John and Edythe’s motor home, which served as the NCS and computer calculations center. Some communications problems at the motor home were reported and solved with suggestions from the net. Everyone will check power and feedline connections each time we bring up a communications exercise to make sure these lines haven’t been jostled in the confined space of campsite living.

Our communications process was developed somewhat "on the fly", with excellent suggestions from the start line to bring improvements in processing and turnaround time. We were able to call the gate scores in near real time, since there was enough elapsed time to pass the traffic while the boat made it’s way down river. A computer crash at the motor home identifies the need for backup systems that can quickly come on-line, with access to data that was current up to the time of the crash.

A hot meal at the end of the day was very much appreciated by all, and our thanks to Edythe Lynn, KLÆ EO, for taking good care of us! After a quick tear down and cleanup of the campsite we were back on the road.

Overall the boaters seemed to appreciate our effort, and invited us back for next year’s event. I think we could easily "time-phase" the arrival of our communications volunteers, using a minimal crew of two or so on Friday, adding one or two more on Saturday, and building up to a full complement of six for the slalom event on Sunday.

All in all the Sixmile PaddleFest was another excellent learning opportunity and an adventure for those of us who "pay the bill" for our amateur radio privileges by volunteering for communications duty at Public Service events.