For four years, ham radios operators have
deployed their own mobile and portable radios
and worked alongside the medical teams. There
are 21 medical stations set up on the course and
each is staffed with doctors, nurses, other
medical personnel to assist the runners who will
run the 26.2 mile course. Ham radio operators
sit near the medical tent and provide critical
medical dispatch information to the ambulance
company based in Grant Park. Ham radio
operators also provide critical information from
the command center back to the field medical
teams. There are two main nets: a medical
dispatch net and a logistics net (for
non-emergency calls: supplies, information about
the pace of the event, course condition
information, to name just a few of the things
that are handled).
For the Chicago Marathon, hams typically work in
4 person teams: One person serves as the lead
and works closely with the medical team to
provide a communication link back at the command
tent. The doctors are not communicators-they
are care providers, so the hams help free them
up to do their job. There are typically two
hams set up on tables near the Aid Station (each
Aid Station is set up slightly differently). One
ham radio operator handles only medical
emergency dispatch information and one handles
logistics information. There are one or two
additional hams who work with hand-held radios
to provide communication around the aid station
itself. A typical aid station has 300 non-
medical volunteers, who provide water and
assistance to the runners. These aid stations
can be up to a city block long!
Ham use several repeaters provided by local
clubs to build their network. These repeaters
are the backbone of the ham radio network. The
support we offer to the Chicago Marathon would
not be possible without the cooperation of these
organizations.
There are two hams who are weather specialists
and provide customized forecasts for the event
officials. The hams in the field provide some
weather data back to the weather team. Hams are
also responsible for deploying flags that
represent the various course conditions for the
day...green, red, yellow, black flags are set up
at near the medical tent to advise the runners
about the general conditions for the race. Hams
are also on hand to provide support in the event
of a contingency or an emergency.
At the command center, all of the radio nets are
monitored by a team of net control operators,
who work closely with the course medical
director and his logistics teams including
Superior ambulance. Superior provides a fleet of
medical teams to support the event. They have
their own dispatch center in the Command
Center. Hams also have a seat at the table with
the OEMC - Chicago Office of Emergency
Management and Communication, who is charged
with overseeing all of services provided by the
city for the event. A ham radio operator sits
with the Police or Fire Captain assigned to
handle the event.
Public service is a very important aspect of
what ham radio can provide its communities.
This event is a terrific way to show the public
and municipal officials how hams can provide
communications using their own resources and
frequencies. Working closely with the Fire and
Police in Chicago has shown these public
officials just how reliable and dedicated ham
radio operators can be when deployed.
All major Marathons use ham radios operators in
some manner for support. Each deploys them in
different ways. New York uses almost 300 hams
and 26 repeaters. The Marine Corps Marathon
places a ham every half mile with a medical
corpsman along the route and they have hams in
the 8 major medical tents along the route.
Every race has their own geographical, municipal
and logistics challenges that have to be
addressed. For instance, the Marine Corps
Marathon has a robust medical information
network that they have in three of their medical
tents, but for the 5 others long the course,
they have extended their network using D-Star
digital network, that the ham radio operators
have provided, to allow the remote sites to have
access to the medical records of the runners who
might need care. The Chicago Marathon support
evolved as a voice network, to help the doctors
talk to the medical director and to the various
other support teams.
The Chicago Marathon uses 2 medical repeaters
and up to 4 logistic repeaters. We also have a
back up repeater that all stations can access
using a mobile radio. This repeater is
monitored by a team located some distance from
the Forward Command Center, typically in the
middle of the course. This location can serve as
a remote command post in case there is a need
to close Forward Command or if there are issues
that have to be communicated back to Grant Park
and other channels are not available. Hams use
a 220 simplex link from the mid-course
medical/radio station to the Grant Park Forward
Command Center. This serves both as a redundant
system, but also as an important talk around
channel if hams need to discuss issues not
related to the medical teams. For instance, if
teams are having problems with their radios or
with personnel, they can use the Admin channel
to talk indirectly to the HQ.
We encourage clubs to organize Aid Station
teams, but individuals are also invited to join
the event. If you have an interest in this
activity, please follow this link to sign up:
http://goo.gl/2Jr7S
Volunteer leads,
Rob Orr
Mike Freeman
leads@Ham Radio Chicago.org
