2010 UP200 After-Action

2010 UP 200 After Action Report

Lake Effect members had posts south of Marquette and at Deerton this year. The races were re-routed to deal with poor snow conditions - this led to some confusion about turns in deep woods. Lynn, KC8GHK put on a clinic in good radio ops dealing with an injury (crashed / damaged sled, injured musher - getting help dragging the sled and dogs to an access point for pickup) and later reporting and helping direct SAR back down the trail looking for a lost musher. John, KC8ULE and Marge, KD8AIL (at Deerton, where the handler for the lost musher was waiting for him) were contacted by the handler. She had received a Spot emergency message from the musher that he was in trouble and showed his GPS coordinates. John & Marge related the coordinates to HQ and the Hwy 553 crossing point, where the SAR team took over. The net went into directed-net emergency mode during this time, and Paul, KB0P did masterfully at regulating emergency related traffic for quite a while. After SAR found the musher, contact information was relayed back to Deerton. There is no cell service at Deerton so Marge escorted the handler (who was not from the area) to the pickup point after a cell service area was reached.

The Spot system is intended for this kind of situation. The system is a beacon only using satellite service to get to the cell network. It does not do two-way messaging. It is readily available for around $150 and certainly proved its worth is this live demonstration. See the site for more info: http://www.findmespot.com/en/ .

The lost musher and his handler both stopped in at radio HQ at the Holiday Inn in Marquette to see the operation and thank the crew.

The Deerton station during the race is very active. UP200 mushers pass through the station (and are reported back to HQ as they cross) but Midnight Run mushers cross an actual timing line, then are required to take a mandatory 5-hour layover to rest their dogs (and themselves, if they can!). They then start up again in calculated time due-out sequence 5 hours later, so there is a gap in activity of around three hours in the middle of the night. That's not quite enough time to go home and nap for the radio guys so they do what they can to stay warm and assure they're awake when the race resumes. This year the first departure from Deerton was at 03:41, last out about 05:30, so that was 11 1/2 hours on station.

Race officials ask the radio guys for information on crossings at previous checkpoints - this helps them plan for expected crossing times at their stations. For the midnight run, this means helping get their crew out to the timing line. The crew includes several volunteer dog handlers, a vet, an official time recorder and more people to inspect the sled for required kit and actually check the sled in to that checkpoint. Spectators also stop in at the radio vehicle and ask questions about the last reported crossing for a particular sled, or the first sled, or the last sled - having good info and info resources and being able to chat directly with any checkpoint on the net (about 150 miles from end to end) is very useful.

The race was cut short due to snow conditions at Wetmore station.

Race radio coverage was available locally by repeater and via IRLP and Echolink. Several technical improvements were implemented this year to provide coverage over a wider area, in particular taking full advantage of the linked repeater system spanning the central UP all the way to Grand Marais, the turn-around for the long race. Net Control Operators handled traffic smoothly. Even the rookies had had a good enough orientation to keep coverage running. Something over 50 hams from across the UP signed up again this year making this the biggest event in the UP.