[CTSARA] Thanks to Swim Across America Volunteers

[Jon Perelstein]

Yesterday, hams from the Stamford, Norwalk, and Fairfield clubs ran comms
networks for the Stamford/Greenwich swim of Swim Across America (SAA).  SAA
conducts fund-raising swims in various locations across the United States
to raise money for charities related to cancer research.  The
Stamford/Greenwich swim raises money for the Alliance for Cancer Gene
Therapy.  Yesterday's event raised over $300,000 so far - so far because
the way these things go there are usually subsequent donations and it's
likely that they'll hit $500,000 before they close the books on the 2014
event.

Because they had over 200 swimmers out in Long Island Sound, comms are
especially important to an event like this and truly can mean the
difference between life and death.  For example, yesterday's event had to
pull four swimmers out of the water from points as far as 1 mile out in
Long Island Sound, three of which involved radio communications to find the
swimmer in distress and get a boat/kayak to the person ("... boat three,
there is a swimmer about 500 yards east of buoy six who appears to be
struggling - investigate and report status ...").

This was a different kind of public service event in that the hams were
being used for their skills at communicating information but were not using
ham radios - instead we were using Marine Band radios for the people on the
"swim side" (i.e., in the boats and kayaks) and LMRS radios for the event
leadership on the "land side" (e.g., the Event Director, the Safety
Director, the Beach Director).  This approach meant that the event could
field over 20 radios out on the water and 12 radios on the land - far more
than ham radio could provide for an event this size.  Our hams served as
shadows to the senior event leadership on the "land side", also served as
the net control for the "swim side", and as the relay link between the
people on the "swim side" and the people on the "land side".  The comms
plan was developed by a couple of SARA hams (me included) working with the
Greenwich/Stamford event's Safety Director.  Event leadership and SAA
leadership were both ecstatic with the results, and SAA Board members have
already asked us (the Stamford/Greenwich Safety Director and me) to consult
with other SAA swims to help them set up similar comms plans.

This is not the first public service event that has found that it doesn't
need ham radio per se.  Ham radio is no longer the only game in town when
it comes to radio communications - events now have options such as FRS/GMRS
radios, cheap LMRS radio rentals (it cost the event $200 to rent 12 radios
with mics/earpieces AND a 25 watt repeater for the weekend -- including
shipping and insurance), inexpensive Marine Radios, texting/phone
conference services like Skype on cell phones, and even internet chat.  We
all know of events that have dropped ham radio as obsolete or irrelevant -
this is one of the first events to invite ham radio in because of our
communication skills and not because of our radios.  It's not going to be
the last.  As with our leadership in disaster communications, once again we
are leading the field in moving ham radio to adapt to new realities.

As the people who participated will attest, the comms plan almost worked
too well -- radio traffic was kept to a minimum because we were making sure
that the right people and only the right people were involved in each
communication.   And, of course, there was the small matter of a huge dose
of good luck - Mr. Murphy took the day off yesterday.  As a result, some of
our shadow hams never received or sent any traffic.  Don't worry, our
experience in 2013 was quite a bit different and I'm sure that next year
Mr. Murphy will make up for giving us such an easy time of it this year.

Our participants were

Steve (KB1YLQ)
Sam (NV1P)
Rachel (KB1VWJ)
Doug Defauw (KB1UKC)

Rich Gillespie, a 30 year veteran of Stamford Fire and Rescue, also
participated.

73s
Jon, WB2RYV