Oops, I thought I had already posted the results of my "bicycle communications systems" test, but I see I was mistaken. Doh!

I hit the W&OD trail about 1 p.m. on Sunday, and found Bill McCourt WF1L on a local repeater. We changed to the simplex frequency we'll be using for the bike race, and we had solid copy on each other as I wheeled my way west on the trail out of Reston. We bounced back and forth between the repeater and simplex as I progressed through Herndon and on into Loudoun County and Sterling Park. This was a good test of my system, since Bill lives in Reston, about two miles north of our planned fixed site in Reston.

Joe Sheinman W2BHK also joined in while he was driving around CountrySide and Cascades, and again, nothing but solid copy each way. As I slogged my way west, Bill and Joe conversed on the repeater, and I would occasionally switch over to the input frequency to see how my simplex connection was faring.

It was only after I had gone about a half mile or so past the Loudoun County Parkway did I start to lose Bill on the input. If I had to copy him, I probably could have, but it would have definitely taken a lot of concentration. Since Joe was in "North Sterling" and much closer, I could still read him very strongly on the input frequency.

All-in-all, a very successful test. I was able to talk with Bill for over six miles, and at that point, I was about two miles from Ashburn, so I have no doubt that I'll easily be able to communicate with either Reston, Ashburn, or both along the entire length of the W&OD trail between those two communities.

On Sunday, August 24, 2003, the Reston Bicycle Club will be holding their annual Reston Bike Ride, supported by the Loudoun County chapter of the American Red Cross. The Loudoun ARC is, in turn, supported by the Loudoun Amateur Radio Group, of which I'm a member. LARG will be providing communications support for the event, which includes a Century (100 miles), a Metric Century (100 kilometers) and a Half Metric Century (50 kilometers). An approximately nine-mile stretch of all of the rides will be on the Washington & Old Dominion Trail, and won't be accessible to the various support vehicles. So, here comes Amateur Radio bicycle support!

Along with several other Amateur Radio operators, I'll be on my bike with a magnetic mount antenna on the back, and an HT (walkie-talkie) bungie-corded to the handlebars. I'll be running a test tomorrow to see how well my "communications suite" works. I've got a pretty good antenna (Larsen 2m/70cm dual-band antenna, approx 40" tall), and I'm hoping that the 5-watt output from my Yaesu VX-5R will be pushing enough power to communicate effectively with our fixed and vehicle-mobile stations.

I tested my setup last weekend with a much smaller antenna, and I wasn't too pleased with the results. Consequently, I bought the Larsen this week, and I noticed a tremendous difference in signal strength and quality when I tested it outside my house. The ARRL Emergency Coordinator in Loudoun County still recommends that I use a more robust radio, such as a mobile, to improve both audio quality and power output. While I don't doubt his experience and expertise in this matter, and I'm sure that both my reception and transmission would improve with the use of the mobile, but I still want to test my current setup to see how it works. Adding to my reluctance of leaping to the "50-watt mobile" solution is the inconvenience of extracting my Yaesu FT-8900 out of my truck and installing it on the bicycle, plus the expense and inconvenience of buying and mounting sufficiently powerful gel cell batteries to supply the power. So I'm going to try to run some tests tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll be able to contact Jim Scott - KG6EFT in Reston on a simplex frequency (as opposed to using a repeater), since Jim has graciously agreed to help me test my setup.

I'll be posting the results, so keep an eye out for my next post (which won't take me ten days this time).

As an addendum to yesterday's entry, I took my handheld radio with me on my trip to California, hoping to chat a bit with a few fellow Amateur Radio operators while I was there. Admittedly, I didn't spend a whole bunch of time trying to establish contact, but I never heard a single peep out of anyone. From my son's apartment, I could only hit one repeater, so I suppose that happened to be one that wasn't very active. I was a little disappointed about that, but there were plenty of other benefits from the trip that completely overshadowed that small shortcoming.

Today's Washington Post carried an article on the Loudoun Amateur Radio Group's Field Day activities over this past weekend. I learned this because of the emails and phone calls I started receiving, telling me that my photo was on the front page of the Post's Metro section. Unfortunately, they misspelled my surname, but it's still kinda neat to get your picture in the paper.

I'm a tad embarrassed since I'm one of the newest members of LARG, and there are many folks who contributed much more to our Field Day efforts. I hope no one gets too bothered over my photo's prominent placement.