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Brainerd Area Amateur Radio Club |
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Ice Fishing Contest January 22, 2005 |
The Brainerd
Area Amateur Radio Club provided communications at the
annual  Jaycees Ice
Fishing Extravaganza on Gull Lake. This was
a fun public service event for club members and is a charity fund raiser. |
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Photo looking west across Gull
Lake from the
center of the event. Thanks to the "brave" Paula
WØHA who took the photo high atop a bucket truck.
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Net Control from inside the
Brainerd Area Amateur Radio Club Communications Trailer.
(l-r) Roger KBØUUN, Al WØRC, Roger WØDEU, and John WØRUB
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The ham radio group outside the Communications
Trailer.
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About 9,000 anglers participated in the 15th
Annual Brainerd Jaycees $150,000 Ice Fishing Extravaganza. A 3.71 pound
walleye won the grand prize which was a new truck. Helping to
make the event a huge success were 13 amateur radio operators.
The planning and setup for the event was
handled by: John WØJGY, Al WØRC, Steve WØTNT, Jim WØJDS, and Jack WØJEM.
The BAARC communication trailer was brought out to Gull Lake on
Friday afternoon during a 6 inch snowstorm. The antennas were
installed and radios setup and cables connected. This year we
were connected to the house generator which allowed us to leave the heat
on throughout the night.
The big day started at 7:30 AM with Al WØRC,
Lyle KØLFV, and Steve WØTNT getting into position and starting the net
control station. We had two radios running in the trailer during the
event. One was set for the BAARC 147.225 MHz repeater and the other
set at 146.580 MHz simplex. The simplex was used as the main on ice
frequency. Al WØRC did a wonderful job of serving as net control,
making assignments, and rotating workers. The second wave of radio
operators joined in around mid-morning. They were: Alan AAØAS, Roger KBØUUN,
Greg NØLJY, Paula WØHA, Roger WØDEU, and John KCØRUB. Jim WØIRE
was stationed at the Crow Wing County Law Enforcement Center (CWC LEC) and
served as our direct contact to the dispatchers.
The cannon rang-out at 12 Noon to start
the event. During the next three hours we only had one serious call
for assistance. In that case, Al W0RC had to call the CWC LEC to
to have the ambulance crew dispatched to an incident on the ice.
Other than that, ham operators were periodically rotated in
and out of the Quarter Boss Trailers. Greg NØLJY was assigned to
shadow the Chief of Security, Steve Jobe. That position required a lot
of walking and Greg handled it just wonderfully.
The cannon rang-out again at 3:00 PM to
close the event. Almost all at once, nine thousand anglers left the
ice and headed for the 48 busses that shuttled folks back and forth to
the parking lot located at Brainerd International Raceway. The
communication trailer was torn down in a matter of minutes. Al WØRC
hitched the trailer to his van and off he went. Actually, he only
went about 50 feet before he got stuck the first time and 100
feet before he got stuck the second time. The snow drifts from
the six inches of snow the day before were not very friendly.
Anyway, a little shoveling and a lot of laughing helped to get
the trailer on the move again.
Roger WØDEU, and John KCØRUB may not be familiar
names and calls to most of you. They are hams from Hutchinson and
old friends Al WØRC. We would like to thank them for joining us this
year and invite them back again next year.
Everyone did an outstanding job and
we would like to thank you all for your participation.
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Click here for the story from last year It was a great event. More details to follow. |
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This page was last updated 12/19/2006 Ø
