Dear Heloise
So, last weekend about 30 of us provided radio and support for the Evanston Bike Club’s North Shore Century. This is always a great fall event, attracting thousands of bikers (2300 this year) and raising lots of money for charity (last year they gave away close to $40,000! Yes, $40K). Over the nine years we have done this event, we have really grown in sophistication and numbers. We have teams at all of the 7 rest areas; 8 or 9 ham radio operators with vehicles, radios, APRS trackers and a bike person on the course assisting distressed bikers (flats are the most common, but there can be serious accidents as well). We also have 3-4 hams that travel with the bike SAG (Support and Gear) people, with portable radios and APRS trackers. We also had one bike mobile ham. This year we added a new feature…we tried out a sophisticated event dispatch system that worked extremely well, thanks to the incredible diligence of Dave Hartnett, who spend hours learning how to program the thing.
Basically, people call an 800 number that rings in our command tent. From there, we can formulate a response, based on where the trackers say our vehicles are. We are very proud of the service we have provided, the sophistication of our tools and the team we have assembled. In fact, we now almost outnumber the bike SAG folks.
We did have our share of nagging problems. Our repeaters worked well, but not to the limits of the course. The routes run from Dawes Park in Evanston to Kenosha and back…that is a huge distance. Plus, there are serious terrain issues along the lake and a growing amount of radio traffic. Next year we need to do a better job of figuring out a net control system.
I have brought my favorite little Army tent down to the lake shore to serve as our HQ. And my car was as packed for this event as it is for Field Day…tents, poles, antennas, coax and generators. GAS. Well, somehow some gas spilled on the back floor of the car and really smelled. I thought I could get rid of the smell by just letting the air to it, but it overpowered the interior all event day. That Sunday and Monday, I aired the car and took all of the floor protection surfaces out. I thought that would work. I left the doors and windows open…and by Wednesday it still stunk. Time for some Google therapy…how do you get rid of the smell of gasoline? Dear Heloise? How do you get the smell of gas off…hands, clothes, cars…each was a different category. You can find the answer to almost anything on the Internet! So, I tried the first suggestion: spray Febreze on the carpeting in the car?! Seemed kind of extreme, but what the heck, I tried it. The effect was immediate! It smelt great and I thought, SUCCESS! I closed the doors to the car and slept on it. Next morning, I jumped into the car and was greeted with the most putrid mix of gas and sweet perfume. It was like the Avon plant exploded over a refinery. It was not a pleasant mix. Left the doors opens to see if that would work and over time, the Febreze would overpower the gas fumes, but it never eliminated it. So, back to the Internet…solution #2. Coffee! Seriously. You were to throw ground coffee on the spots and let it sit for a few days. Seemed odd to dump good coffee on the floor…and so I took my wife’s favorite flavored coffee (not my preferred Mexican brand) and low and behold it worked…except for the lingering smell of the flavored coffee. So, I got a can of cheap ground coffee and dumped it on the carpeting and now the car smells better. Not perfect…But livable. So, is there a moral to this tale? My wife would say don’t volunteer (and don’t mess with her coffee)…but another option might be to make sure you have fuel cans that are designed for transport (they do make such things, and they are expensive, but it might be less than dumping decent coffee on the floor!)
The bike event…well, it was a huge success. Thanks again to the great turn out from the ham radio community. I continue to be amazed how generous the ham radio community can be for things like this…makes you proud.
73 Rob K9RST