PUblic service
NSRC provides public service communications for local organizations like the MACC Fund’s TREK100 Bicycle Ride. We have served the Bank of America Chicago Marathon for more than 15 years, providing communication support for the medical volunteers. Many NSRC members participated in this world-class event.
We are currently in the need of a public service director for 2025. This does not have to be a one-man job. If you want to take a part in this exciting opportunity and lead a team for public service, please contact Brian AB9ZI.
Chicago Marathon 2025
Report by Bruce Diamond (W9DBL)
On Sunday, October 12th, members of NSRC volunteered to provide communications for the 47th annual Bank of America Chicago Marathon. We were assigned to Course Medical Tent 4 at Aid Station 4 (5.75 miles from the start line); 1 of 20 aid stations along the 26.2-mile course. Aid Stations provide encouragement, motivation, hydration and medical attention as needed, from volunteer doctors and nurses. CMT4 was located just outside the entrance of Lincoln Park Zoo, at the intersection of Fullerton Ave and Cannon Drive.
As communicators, our main tasks were to provide support to the Aid Station Captain and the medical staff on site. We maintained communications on two different Nets. One for urgent medical requests and a second for logistic traffic. The Med NET was used to request ambulance transport, while the Logistic NET was used to relay course condition status / changes, request non-emergency patient transport, supplies and to report the number of patients treated & the medical stress conditions at 30-minute intervals.
Our station consisted of 3 Yaesu mobile radios each running @ 10 watts; 2 for NET operations and 1 for simplex comms among the team. Power was easily provided by Lithium Iron Phosphate LiFePO4 batteries with Amp hours to spare! Our modest, mast mounted dual band antennas performed well at 15’.
A quick word about the communications volunteer pool. This is a huge event with many moving pieces. HamRadioChicago.org is a multi-club resource that supports those in the amateur radio community who put their skills and ingenuity to work for their community. The 155 “radio” volunteers who worked this event were made up of hams and non-hams; all coordinated and managed by Rob Orr K9RST. Kudos to him for making sure we were all working with the same goal in mind.
I feel we represented the club & our community well and I know that everyone found the experience personally rewarding.
Here we are fully operational and waiting for our medical team at 6:15 am. From left to right William Lederer W8LVN, Mark Benner KE9DRG, Rick Richard W5AOD, Bruce Diamond W9DBL, David Detlefsen K9EAD, Tom Zurek N9TOM and Eliott Goldman K9EHG (Photo by W8LVN).
Another photo shows a fraction of the nearly 55,000 participants turning north onto Cannon Drive from Fullerton (photo by K9EHG).
A message from Rob Orr (K9RST):
Some of you have been concerned that we do not get enough publicity for our work on the Marathon, and I would generally agree. On the other hand, I am happy to quietly do our work behind the scenes and be humble. There are times when shouting from the mountain tops does help, so here is a shout out from the ARRL. I know many of you are not members, so you might not have seen this article:
Thanks again for your incredible contribution to this event. Our work here really does add a face to today's ham radio scene.
Rob, K9RST
TRAK 100 2025
Here are pictures from Rest Stop 2/4 manned by Elliot K9EHG and Don KK9H.