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We will meet at the McDonald’s at 18050 Triangle Shopping Plaza, Dumfries, VA 22026 in the Triangle Plaza in Dumfries (Route 1, approximately 1 mile north of Joplin Road) at 0530. From there we will roll to the Prince William Forest Park via Joplin Rd. We must be on the course no later than 0630 for those on the course. Assignments to Start/Stop will need to be at the Start/Stop by 0530. The race starts at 0700.
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Our primary mission is eyes on the course to provide safety and back up the Marine Corps Marathon personnel. In the event of a downed runner, contact Start immediately. There will be an ambulance on site for the duration of the event under the command of Top Doc.
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We have permission to access the course. Everyone will need a parking pass (below and in email). Parking on the course is permitted. For those with locations on the blacktop, please stay on the blacktop or pull off on to a utility road. Those in the woods, the road should be wide enough for you to pull to the side. Please be aware of the vegetation.
Assignments before Mile 3 and after Mile 8 may access from 234. Miles 3 through 7 may have better access from Joplin Road.
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This is a mobile event, and depending on your location, you will want all 50 watts. Due to the needs at Start/Stop, Tom intends to set up an antenna/cross-band on XBAND1
A head-set is almost a mandatory accessory, especially where they pump the music up to 11[1]. Your vehicle may act as a good damper.
APRS equipment will be in testing, so turn on beacons on the air-interface, or collect tracks of beacons for radio surveys. APRS will use the standard frequency 144.390. Paths should be no longer than “WIDE1–1”.
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We will plan to operate on simplex at 147.525, the normal ARES operational frequency. We will backstop this with the the K3FBI repeater at 147.345+ PL 167.9. If things get really bad, we may switch to the Woodbridge machine at 147.240+ PL 107.2.
Brian WC4J will be testing an APRS tracker mounted to Tail-End Charlie. Please make sure your APRS tracker is set to WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 so we can capture packets accurately. Anyone else with APRS gear interfaced with radio should listen and contribute. Cellular access is poor within the forest.
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Any questions asked by the public or the media, are to be directed to the Race Officials. We will have our PIO, Tom, W4PIO, on site if anyone has questions about Amateur Radio specifically.
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It’s a Spinal Tap (movie) reference. ↩