[CTSARA] Errors In Betsey's Section News Regarding SARA

[Jon Perelstein]

Those of you who get the ARRL Section newsletter have by now seen the
mention that we got for our Bennett Cancer Center work.  It would have been
nice if Betsey had simply taken the material I wrote and included it, but
instead it appears that she (or someone else) made some changes, and I've
just sent her the following email

*****

Betsey

Thanks for including this writeup in the Section News.  However, what you
included in the newsletter contained two significant errors versus what I
sent you:

1.  This particular event was SARA only, not SARA and GNARC.   SARA fielded
14 people to participate in the coverage and we're pretty damned proud of
the fact that we could get that many participants out of our club.

The two clubs have worked together on the Bloomin Metric (2000+ riders in
late May) and on the Bike MS Down To The Sound (500+ riders this past
weekend), but those were different events.

2.  It's the SARApeater that we didn't use this year, not the SARA repeater.
 The SARApeater is our portable, temporary repeater.  The SARA repeater
(W1EE on 2 meters and on 70 cm) is our main repeater for Stamford and was
used during the Hope In Motion event.

73s
Jon
WB2RYV


******

This is the email I originally sent her

On Sunday June 5, the Stamford Amateur Radio Association (SARA) provided
communications support for the Bennett Cancer Center "Hope In Motion"
charity bicycle ride.   The event is a 50 mile ride from downtown Stamford
up through Pound Ridge NY and into North Salem NY.

Fourteen (14) SARA members participated in the coverage, with hams stationed
at three rest stops, stationed in SAG vehicles to provide support and/or
transport for bicyclists needing help, and hams driving scout/chase vehicles
to track progress and look for riders needing aid.  Net control was
co-located with the Stamford Police Dept mobile command post (at the request
of the Stamford PD) so that we could provide them with real-time information
on the progress of the ride.

Four of the hams participating had not previously participated in public
service events.  The exceptional turnout allowed us to provide these hams
with field training under the supervision of experienced hams.

Our coverage used both the SARA 2 meter repeater (W1EE) and the WECA 2 meter
repeater (WB2ZII) to provide direct coverage through the entire route.  We
would like to thank WECA for its generosity in allowing us to monopolize
their repeater during this event for the fourth year in a row.  In addition,
we also made use of their WB2ZII-15 digipeater near Yorktown Heights and we
would like to also thank WECA for use of the digipeater.

This year, we did not use the SARApeater (a portable 2/440 cross-band
repeater that we developed a few years ago) because it was sent north to
Springfield with SARA members who deployed there with the Red Cross.
 Although we did not use the SARApeater this year, we had made arrangements
with the Westchester County Parks Dept for access to non-public areas of one
of their parks for setting up the SARApeater, and we would like to thank
them for their cooperation.

This year, we were able to use APRS to track the scout/chase vehicles over
the entire course.  This was made possible by the WB2ZII-15 digipeater plus
receivers set up for us by Jonathan (K1RFD) and James (KC2DHU).  We would
like to thank them for their assistance. The event organizers and Stamford
PD were more than a little impressed at our ability to show them real-time
views of vehicle locations.