Calgary Amateur Radio Association
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Rally Radio Recce
Our CARA communications trailer will be deployed at the 2022 Rocky Mountain Rally, at the Jumping Pound Demonstration Forest's Visitor Centre. It will be used to house the Net Control team, radio operators who control the rally for the day. Crew should be on site by 06:30 AM MDT and have the trailer ready for operation by 07:30 AM MDT. Likewise, you would also be needed to pack up the trailer, ready for towing, likely around 7:30 PM MDT, that same day. If you can help with setting up the trailer, morning and/or evening, please reply to Peter VA6RPL VA6RPL@caraham.org . Many thanks. 73 :-)
Important Registration Procedure
Volunteer registration for the Rocky Mountain Rally (RMR) is available.
The instructions on the Rallywest / CSCC / RockyMountainRally web page(s), and those on Facebook, may be inaccurate for Radio Operator volunteers.
Please use the following instructions:
This URL will take you to the volunteer registration form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe6sFtoplwMonBEWr7kolFqFTz8yXZNrbBY6fboW521qPWaIw/viewform?usp=pp_url
We hope that you will join us for a great time at the Rocky Mountain Rally!
It is time to RALLY again!!!
This is an announcement for this year's Rocky Mountain Rally (RMR).
This event is being planned for (Friday) 27 May and (Saturday) 28 May 2022. Recce and other opening activities are planned for the Friday, and a few radio operators are often needed to help with this part of the event. Only one day of racing will occur, on the Saturday. This is when the majority of the radio operations support is required. Be sure to make the appropriate entries on your calendar.
The usual roads in the Powderface area of Kananaskis will be used for this rally, and we will confirm details as they come available.
While COVID continues to be a factor in our lives, we do not believe it will substantially affect this event. Updates will be made here in the blog with any necessary protocols.
More details about this event will be posted here, soon.
73, Garry, VE6GDS Dana, VA6DJH
This was the first performance rally run by the CSCC this year - and the first to be opened to spectators since the previous instance in 2020. It was a successful day with no major incidents, and we're not sure the weather could be much better for this time of year. A sunny day with temperatures getting slightly over freezing was certainly an improvement over the previous incarnation with 40 below temperatures before any windchill. It was a long day, but also ended up being a bit shorter than expected due to the event being able to run ahead of schedule - which definitely isn't always the case. We had several amateur radio operators who were new to supporting performance rallies - and you couldn't know it by listening to the radio traffic. Every one of them did a bang up job - fitting in perfectly with the rest of the team. The CARA Communications Trailer was deployed to house Net Control. This crew was there early, and some had some longer waits before staffing a position on one of the active stages. From the Radio Coordinators' perspective - the trailer appeared in position and on time, functioned through the day, and was taken care of at the end of the day. It definitely takes effort to do this, and we really appreciate the volunteers who took on this piece of the deployment. Repeaters were an interesting topic. It may be a little trite to say that we expect some unexpected repeater behaviour on rally day - but it really does seem to be the rule. Reach of VE6OLS and VE6MTR into the area was investigated extensively before this event - most recently in a coordinated visit to the area 2021-01-30. The experience on this rally day was seeing more significant multipath propagation than was observed previously. This was also true for VE6AUY - where the magnitude of multipath propagation on the day had also not been observed by us before. A squeal on VE6GAB earlier in the morning was likely a low voltage or temperature related, and went away later in the day. Finessing of antenna location - on the order of inches - was needed in some locations to work these repeaters. There was also at least one example of a blocker location able to tune to a clear reception of the VE6GAB repeater, but not able to transmit back into it. We hadn't seen, or at least recorded, this kind of asymmetry until the previous rally RMR2021 where some creative split channel operation ended up being used. To be clear, we do not think there were issues with the repeaters causing weak reception - we suspect propagation characteristics are responsible for our observations. You may have noticed some interactions with both VE6AUY and VE6GAB active - the output frequencies of these repeaters are only 15kHz apart and this sometimes causes some trouble with radio front ends filtering out the other channel. Sometimes swapping the sides of a dual-VFO radio can help with this. It is also possible that some attenuation may help with this for any component of the interference that might be related to intermodulation. We welcome any discussion about this topic - both in explaining it, and also in ideas to mitigate it. The challenges of operating radios along the valleys in these mountainous areas are sometimes frustrating, but they are also part of the interesting allure of the area. The communications contingency protocol (backup repeaters/channels) worked as intended, and there was also one undocumented contingency that did not end up being used: Radio Support was strategically situated at a location known to have good simplex reach through the area. This is one of our preferred locations for VE6RNQ portable repeater. We are happy with how the "scrub" role is working out. This is the formal designation of a final check on radio operators departing the stage roads that had been already happening informally. Being formally designated means that the hole is noticed, and extra attention can be put onto the exit from that stage. Timings and locations made it difficult to implement a scrub on Harold Creek at this event - and thus the extra attention was applied to monitoring the exit of that stage road. Final check outs were received from almost everybody on their way out of the area: everybody is tracked as they come into the area, and we're satisfied at the end of the day when everybody who was checked in is also checked out. A fully cleared checkin sheet always means a more restful night for us. For a radio deployment - we looked after 31 amateur radio operators who came into the area, and most of the event officials in the area also happen to be licensed hams. Thank you to all the volunteers! It is always a privilege to see this group show up with a generous amount of dedication and incredible quality of work. Dana Harding, VA6DJH Garry Spicer, VE6GDS Next up - Rocky Mountain Rally 2022 - May 28th.
Everything here is current as of 2022-03-04 18:00
Positions for two operators were modified. Those individuals were contacted by email. Document with highlighted cells to show differences to previous operator assignments: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19XrHQNDOTaqL9SknexTlhKVnXMzVc2wo/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fQgRhvePlNWhNOO4WG6V3E447yaSt8Bv/view?usp=sharing
Only difference from v3.0 is two operator assignments - detailed above, also added version number on the title page.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UpF0fd4CnzCF4_0CjOV8vQ9D1OGUwO2-/view?usp=sharing
About: https://caraham.org/RallyRadioRecce/12638274
Questions regarding maps
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NgE9u1WO8u_SUhUyumXR_FtnWFAml3HP/view?usp=sharing
About: https://caraham.org/RallyRadioRecce/12638220
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uIi_TCOBQ5w_L1c-QICBJLZtZ9UVvL12/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YunzwIHMRuaYrgSCfb8d7pyQJFSzlfix/view?usp=sharing
About: https://caraham.org/RallyRadioRecce/12588693
*Action Required*
We have a requirement from the organizing committee that needs to be addressed by all radio operators for CWR 2022. Prior to the event, we all need to complete an online waiver. This is related to insurance coverage for event volunteers, which we all want to have in place in the unlikely event that something goes wrong.
Here is the link to the online waiver form: https://canadianassocofrallysport.speedwaiver.com/rsls
Some questions have been raised about possible map inconsistencies. Here is my general advice on this matter:
1) The "maps" that are in the Radio Operators' Handbook are approximations only and intended to provide a general perspective of the venue. The level of precision in these sketches is not fine-grained.
2) While very few things in the rally world are ever perfect, substantial effort goes into publishing accurate GPS coordinates. I recommend relying on these coordinates as your primary location guidance. The KML files posted earlier in this blog are the source for the GPS coordinates and are the best basis for navigation on rally day.
3) On rally day, Radio Coordinator and/or the 000 car will come by to check that you are in the right spot and set up appropriately before the stage starts. As long as you are within +/- 50m of your assigned GPS coordinates, then you are likely close enough that the details can be sorted out when these officials come by. Note that the 000 driver has accountability for course safety. Please do your best to follow this person's guidance when he/she inspects your site.
See you on rally day!
73, Garry, VE6GDS
(update 2022-03-04 12:24: Added links to other documents. No change to Radio Operator Handbook)
The Radio Operator Handbook version 3 is available here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1npevX8Yuyc8K0xZjC6woTAh1FletAd4I/view?usp=sharing
Version 3 is the first version that has been released.
This is a reminder for the radio operator Pre Operation Briefing:
The time is as follows:
Thursday, 03 March 2022 18:45 to ~20:00 hrs (6:45pm to ~8pm) MT Room opens at 18:45 and the meeting starts at 19:00 sharp Zoom virtual meeting
Meeting ID: 817 6419 4776
Meeting Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81764194776
Here is a Facebook post from the organizers with additional detail: https://www.facebook.com/events/684188152731950
Due to some late changes to the course roads, we have to issue a new set of maps for the event. My apologies to those of you who have already taken the time to program your GPS devices. The changes to the course road segments are quite significant in places, so my advice is to load the new KML rather than attempt to adjust the previous material.
As before, these KML files, not image files. They can be loaded into a GPS device, APRS software, or GIS software such as Google Earth, Google Maps, Bing Maps, etc. If you want to make a printable image, then load this file into the GIS software of your choice and print your maps from there.
If you need another format, such as GPX, there are various free online conversion tools that can be found with a quick web search.
This file contains only the blocker and control point locations on the course road segments. Most of the recent changes pertain to this information.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KNhDUj_2Nwp5M2W9UWjxPJwn8NZRCm2t/view?usp=sharing
This file contains a context map of key event locations, waypoints, and areas where extra caution may be needed.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ouykFm4GKwceDom5m8Ct7U3MWNh90-QT/view?usp=sharing
This file contains the routes to help with overall navigation.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E9ymxUZtEM4n-Y8ki8OLmwBuE49X0Fti/view?usp=sharing
Finally, this file contains all of the above material in one place.
