Thank you to all the radio volunteers who helped make this event a success!
It is always a significant effort for every individual preparing the
gear to bring out to an event, and the ongoing efforts of the Repeater
Team and the Communications Trailer team allowed CARA to provide some of the communications infrastructure for this rally.
This infrastructure includes repeaters - VE6RYC (Nose Hill), VE6AUY (Wildcat Hills), VE6RNQ (Portable Repeater), and the Communications trailer which hosted Net Control.
Many amateurs from the local community were present, and even some local amateurs who were not present on the day helped with the organization beforehand.
At least one blocker team came down from Edmonton to support the event.
There were no major incidents during the event - it's a sure thing that VE6RYC's building warmed up significantly during a particularly busy time in the afternoon with multiple recoveries at the same time as multiple requests for and reports of movement on the road.
During that neither VE6RYC or Net Control missed a beat.
There were also no incidents before and after the event. All of the spectators and volunteers safely adapted their driving to the slippery conditions, especially at the south end of the course.
I did hear, from one of the spectators, about a couple members of the public (not a spectator or volunteer of the event) who were not as well prepared for the area and conditions. Ultimately able, with a little bit of help, to safely exit the area on their own - the coincidence of the rally happening at the same time these people were in the area was incredibly lucky for them. Directly because it was actually one of the rally spectators was able to help them out, secondarily because the event had both the recovery volunteers and the communications infrastructure to get the request for assistance to them. I'm not sure what a typical gratuity is in the rally circles, but if offered - it likely comes by the case.
Propagation in the area, as usual, behaved unpredictibly. The afternoon 'trick' where the propagation to VE6RYC has, in the past, swiftly gone away did not occur this year - propagation to VE6RYC moved around a bit but was overall uninterrupted.
If the propagation had gone away, VE6RNQ was online and ready to go.
The location where VE6RNQ was situated worked well on 2m and 6m simplex along the entire course, but not very well to the Delta location.
In a pinch, the contingency would have been to fall back to a simplex
relay through one of the closer radio locations - Blocker 278, 283, or
Spectator South.
One of the areas for consideration and improvement for next year.
Net Control reports that a 70cm voice link to relay RallySafe information (from a location with cellular service) worked well the entire day.
There was a fair presence on the 6m band at this rally, including at
least 4 operators, a link radio for VE6RNQ, and Net Control.
Comparing 2m to 6m propagation was interesting - with some instances of
2m having a better quality QSO, and some instances where 6m seemed to
work somewhat better.
For any thoughts on improvements for future years, signal reports and
communications observations from this event, email
va6djh_rally at oneharding.com
