The Madison – Chicago 200 Mile Relay (MC200) is a really unique, team running relay race. This requires a really special communications team to cover this amount of real estate. This event will use the same assets as a two day, two state emergency communications operation.

This unique 200 mile, team adventure running relay race begins at 7 AM on Friday in Madison, Wisconsin, continues for approximately 30 hours and finishes mid-day Saturday in Chicago, Illinois.

This will be the fourth year that this major, national event is being held in the Midwest. Monies raised by this event help support the Special Olympics of Wisconsin and Illinois, and again for 2008 the MC200 is pleased to partner with the Avon Foundation and the “Need for Speed Against Domestic Violence” series. Every year up to 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence. We are asking each team to raise funds to help end the cycle, so these children don't become victims or abusers in the future. Funds will go directly to Domestic Violence Shelters in Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago.

The MC200 is being actively support by each individual county ARES/RACES group the event passes. This includes: Dane, Jefferson, Waukesha, Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha Counties in Wisconsin; and Lake and Cook Counties in Illinois (with tactical help from Will and Kendal Counties in the past).

Lake County Illinois Emergency Management Agency (EMA), and the Lake County Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services (RACES) and Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) group will again host the MC200 Comm Center for this entire event due in part to their geographic location, their voice and digital communication capabilities, and the many years of similar event experience by this group.

The positions which need your help, include;

1.)   Radio Operators at each of the “Transfer Areas” (TA’s);

2.)     Digital Radio Operators (Winlink2000) at the VTA’s to update the event staff on team status;

3.)     Non-hams (spouse/young adults) to coordinate the arriving/departing runners and the team vehicle traffic at each “TA”;

4.)     Radio Operators in the “Madison Net Control” for voice and digital  traffic;

5.)     Radio Operators in our “Waukesha Net Control” for voice and digital traffic;

5.)     Radio Operators in our “Racine Net Control” for voice and digital traffic;

7.)     Radio Operators in the MC200 Comm Center to conduct “section net control” voice traffic;

8.)     Digital Radio Operators (Winlink2000) in the MC200 Comm Center to update the event staff on team status;

9.)    Radio Operators to staff the Comm Center for voice traffic from the start at 6 AM Friday morning, June 6th, to the finish of event at 6 PM, on Saturday, June 7^th;

10.)   Non-Hams to work the phones for the Served Agency Liaison (S.A.L.) Desk contacting law enforcement agencies throughout the entire course;

11.)     There are many pre-event activities which need your help.

This is another wonderful opportunity for all of our members and families to experience the satisfaction of volunteering for a very worthwhile event, plus helping raise funds for the Special Olympics and the Avon Foundation “Need for Speed Against Domestic Violence” series.

Please show your support by signing up to help that day, and by giving us some basic information on the following link: MC200 sign-up

The MC200 Comm Team has a Yahoo Group used to access files and assignment information. It is found at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MCRCommTeam/ .

You may subscribe to this group at: MCRCommTeam-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Any specific questions regarding this event will be promptly answered by contacting us at: 

For additional event information; Click here for the MC200 home page for the running team participants or here for the MCR200 Communication Brochure.

Sign Up to participate here.