Chicago Marathon Radio Support
A team of 135 ham radio operators from 4 states helped the medical teams volunteering for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 10, 2021. The Chicago Marathon is the third largest Marathon in the world and has a best-in-class reputation. This was also one of the largest events Chicago has hosted since the pandemic shut the city and the Marathon down in 2020. This is the 13th year ham radio operators have partnered with the medical teams to help them coordinate medical responses, arrange for medical supplies to be redeployed and provide situational awareness for the organizers.
Recruiting volunteers for this year’s event proved to be a real challenge. The organizers were committed to making this a safe running event for everyone. All participants had to be vaccinated or show they had a negative COVID test within 72 hours of the event. To further help reduce the potential spread of COVID, the number of runners was reduced from their high of 45,000 two years ago to just over 30,000. (Because of the forecast for hot weather, which forced the Marathon to shut down in 2007, the actual runner count was closer to 27,000.) It was a difficult year for recruiting hams as well. The group recruited 170 ham radio operators, but for one reason or another, largely COVID related, people dropped out.
Ham teams are often built around veteran operators. This year many newly minted hams applied, most of whom have had little or no public service experience. The ham team leaders offered several Zoom training classes before the event to get everyone at least acquainted with the event and their respective roles.
The largely flat marathon course has 20 Aid stations on its 26.2-mile course, and each has a Course Medical Tent. Hams are deployed at each medical tent and are there to provide critical communication for the medical teams. Each Course Medical Tent has a team of about 15- 20 doctors, nurses, massage therapists, and other specialists. Hams, as well as the other volunteers and staff members, were required to wear masks whenever they were indoors or in a situation where they were facing the public.
There are two main communication nets: a medical net and a logistics net. To support those nets, they use nine repeaters. Most of the repeaters with course-wide footprints belong to local clubs but they also deploy five special use temporary repeaters. They also have several back up strategies in case of complications. For instance, this year, they had to abandon one key Logistics repeater because of RFI noise that was not experienced previously and so the entire team moved quickly to another repeater channel.
While one job is to pass urgent medical traffic to the ambulance company that sits next to the hams in the Forward Command tent, hams also provide situational awareness reports to the organizers. They report the number of patients being cared for at each Course Medical Tent and the stress level the medical teams face in providing care. Stress is a subjective value but does communicate to the medical director if a situation is growing more complex. Higher stress levels can be the result of an unusual high number of patients, reduced supplies or a sudden increase of serious medical cases.
At each Course Medical Tent, the hams are also responsible for changing the Event Alert flag. This is an innovation that was introduced after the near disastrous 2007 Marathon when the high heat and humidity forced the race to stop. That became a very complicated problem since runners didn’t want to stop running and the organizers did not have systems in place to communicate to the field. The organizers came up with a visual way to show the runners what the course conditions were so runners could better adjust their pace. The EAS conditions are green, yellows, red and black. This year’s the event started in yellow because of the unusual heat and changed to red because of the humidity and the increased potential for serious heat related injuries. Generally, when a red flag is displayed, many runners adjust their pace and often start walking. This helps to cool them down and prevents many serious injuries.
Following the 2007 event, the organizers reached out to the ham radio community to see how they might be able to help. Once a proper role was defined, it was agreed that hams would serve the Medical Director and provide health and welfare traffic. Doctors, they admitted, preferred to serve patients and would rather not be responsible for communications. They seemed happy to pass those chores over to a ham radio team.
Most of the hams communicate using FM repeaters, largely because those repeaters are in place and many hams have that equipment. They have experimented with Fusion and DMR radios. DMR is used with the teams on the final mile, where teams of hams work with a team of medical personnel as they line the last mile of the event. Historically, this has proven to be the most dangerous area for runners. The hams serve as communicators and call for additional medical support if such support is required
Ham teams also work in small tactical teams that roam the finish line area. If a runner collapses for any reason, spotter towers call out the person to the rapid response medical team to provide aid. Each medical team has a ham to handle communication. If the case needs to be escalated, the hams call into to Forward command to dispatch mobile professional medical teams to assist.
In Forward Command, the hams have ten people who serve as net controls, traffic handlers, logging specialists and expediters. They work alongside the ambulance company and the resources of the entire city of Chicago, so if the Medical Director wants water to spray on the runners to help cool them off the ham might need to communicate with the fire department if certain hydrants need to be opened.
The event has plenty of personal challenges for the hams. Many report to their duty stations very early in the morning so they can do roll calls at 6 a.m. and many remain on course working till the event ends around 4 p.m. Rain or shine, snow or wind, the hams and the medical teamwork. The hams must adjust to the weather. Hams also serve the aid station (collocated with each Course Medical Tent) which can have as many as 300 volunteers handling water and Gatorade. In the event of an emergency, hams shadow the aid station captain to facilitate communication back to Forward Command.
All communication from the Course Medical Tent to the Forward command tent is handled with two mobile radios – one dedicated to medical traffic and the other for logistics. They in turn talk to the remaining members of their team using simplex frequencies. Three stations provide local wet bulb readings to the meteorologist sitting in Forward Command. He happens to also be a ham and provides custom forecasts for the event
Hams are not the only communication link these days. Everyone has cell phones and the race does have its own network of commercial radios, but those are used for race operations. Cell phones have proven to be unreliable when you have so many spectators lining the park and streets. Ham radio provides an independent resource to the event organizers that can be a back up to all other communication. The hams also created a remote backup command post that the city command center can use in the case of an emergency when continuity of operations is required.
Like hams who serve other large public events, the primary skill needed is the willingness to serve the event and its Medical Director. It demands a commitment to perform and execute at a high level. Hams today compete with many other services to be relevant. Staying focused on the customer and delivering quality service keeps them at the table. Chicago has been recognized for how well it integrates all the resources of its and the hams have been publicly recognized by FEMA observers for their performance.
Ham radio is important to the event, but it is just one small component to a very complex `event that demands 20,000 volunteers to be successful. Ham radio has a unique role and work right alongside the other specialty service groups.
