Every year, the MST supports local events. It's not just great fun, it's also great training!
"Public service events are the very best practice for emergency communications work. They are 'disasters by appointment.' You know that things will go wrong, you just don't know what, where and when. You have to improvise, just as in a disaster."
-- Mike Pulley
MST is proudly supporting the Cascade Bicycle Club's Flying Wheels Summer Century! A sprawling ride with plenty of challenges for our riders and practice for our volunteers.
This bicycle ride is composed of three separate routes (50, 70 and 100 miles) that all begin and end at King County's Marymoor Park in Redmond.
Typically from 1,500 to 3,000 riders participate. Ham volunteers can either serve as SAG (support & gear) drivers to provide transport, mechanical assistance, and occasionally medical assistance to riders out on the courses or at net control taking calls for assistance from distressed riders and dispatching ham SAGs. We run net control out of a private home garage in the Ames Lake area off SR-202. SAG drivers should have a mobile dual-band radio (40 - 50 watts) with mobile antenna, a bike rack, some bicycle tools (adjustable wrench, tire irons, patch kit, foot pump), hi-vis vest, and 1st Aid kit. This is an all-day event, from about 6:30 am to about 5:00 pm. Hams will be on their radios all day with net control and other SAG drivers. Volunteers usually get a free tee shirt.
A lower key event. Very easy going and relaxed but still a great chance to exercise your radio operator abilities.
This fun run goes from about 8:00 am to 11:00 am at Marymoor Park. Hams will be stationed at points around the course; the equipment needed is: a dual-band H-T with whip antenna and hi-vis vest. Volunteers get a coffee mug or, occasionally, a tee shirt. Parking is free the day of the event.
This bicycle ride is hosted by the Cascade Bicycle Club and begins at UW Stadium, ending at Waypoint Park in Belingham. We provide SAG assistance for the Saturday ride only; CBC riders and vehicles provide SAG support for the Sunday ride on to Vancouver, BC. This is a much more rigorous event than most others; SAG drivers typically put several hundred miles on their vehicles. The ride begins at 6:00 am and we usually don't dismiss drivers until about 7:00 pm in Bellingham.
There are about 1,500 riders for this event and we'll provide assistance to 75 - 150 riders, depending upon weather conditions. SAG drivers should have the same equipment as listed above for Flying Wheels. Net control is mobile; KD7KUS takes distress calls and dispatches ham SAGs via radio in his vehicle. The SAGs move along with the riders during the day, although they get pretty spread out by the afternoon. The Saturday route, about 106 miles, follows along I-5 but on side roads, never on I-5. KD7KUS prepares a CalTopo map of the route, with mile markers, for SAG drivers to use with the (free) CalTopo app on their phones.
April 19, 2025 9am PT
American Medical Response (AMR) King County Operations facility
13075 Gateway Dr. Tukwila, WA 98168
Please contact us for remote connection info or check the members site if you are a member.
We will extend our training from last week with practical application of your funtioning Winlink station.
March 15, 2025 9:30am PT
White Center Salvation Army
We will be providing a joint training operation with the West Seattle Amateur Radio Club.
January 18th, 2025
9:00am PT
American Medical Response (AMR) King County Operations facility
13075 Gateway Dr. Tukwila, WA 98168
We enjoyed a holiday potluck brunch with longtime friends of the MST: the Seattle ACS.
Subject—Cybersecurity. He's the former CISO of University of Washington and current CISO of DomainTools.
This was an in-person-only meeting. With all the brunch preparation and cleanup, and being in a different space, hybrid would be a challenge to support.
This month, we were joined by Danica Little, MHA, UW Director of Preparedness, who spoke to us about the role of hospitals, and how they prepare for emergency events and coordinate during an emergency.
Danica Little, MHA, is the Director of Preparedness for UW Medicine in Seattle, Washington which includes three hospitals, Airlift Northwest air medical transport, and a large network of primary care clinics. With over 20 years as a distinguished leader in healthcare preparedness, Danica is responsible for UW Medicine’s strategic program development, preparedness planning, training and exercise initiatives, overall Business Continuity programming, response coordination and maintaining emergency preparedness and business continuity capabilities, including downtime procedures for clinical operations.
She collaborates regularly with other health systems in the region, local response partners and departments across the University, and co-chairs the Preparedness Oversight Committee for the University of Washington. She led the response to COVID-19 for UW Medicine and has been with the University for 14 years.
This month we were joined by John Schurman, a retired antenna system design engineer with over 30 years of experience with in-building antenna systems for UHF/VHF public safety and cellular applications. John also served as the Operations and Service Manager for Day Wireless for over 10 years, providing radio services to commercial and public safety agencies at the largest Motorola full-service dealer in the country.
John holds an amateur extra class license and has been a ham radio operator since 1969. He is the co-founder of the Lake Washington Ham Club and former Chairman of the WWARA (Western Washington Amateur Relay Association. (repeater coordinators) and also holds an FCC GROL license and formally served as Chairman of the Lake Washington Institute of Technology Electronics Department Advisory board.
John covered the basics of how antennas work, and what you need to know to make yours work. He also covered differences in base and mobile antenna performance.
Carlos Smith, AA7SB, and Paul Thomsen, KI7VDA, led a discussion and table top exercise of voice message handling best practices.
Sources
Carlos: TACOM notes
Resources
A good summary of basic (core) techniques: BASIC RADIO COMMUNICATION SKILLS (tcep.org)
A serious take on ICS-213 messages: MESSAGES 213.pdf (reactintl.org)
Deep dives: