Bishop High Sierra Ultramarathon

Three members of the Sierra Amateur Radio Club (SARC) participated in supporting the Bishop Amateur Radio Club (BARC), which provided radio communication and runner tracking for the Bishop Ultra, held 22 May 2022 in the Eastern Sierra near Bishop. The event lasted roughly from dawn to the wee hours past midnight, but the SARC personnel saw their duties draw to a close in late afternoon. Notable to those of us experiencing Ridgecrest weather this spring: no significant “W” all day. Every Aid Station had an Amateur Radio team to provide comms to
the race main base. Volunteers at the sites were advised to bring lunch,
along with a shovel and TP. Sandy, KJ6VRW, and Dave, W6TLA,
worked the site at Bishop Creek Lodge, which turned out be an Inn with
rooms for lodging, and most importantly a restaurant and a flusher…
Stationed at 8400’, we saw sunlight with a few clouds; it was a nice day
warming up for shirtsleeves in the afternoon. Nearly 100 of the total 300
runners passed through the site. Also, from SARC, Mike, KB6NIZ,
worked the day at “Intake 2”, which handled more runner categories
and so saw more runners. Bishop Creek Lodge is in a canyon (radio shadow), and can’t connect to either of the Bishop repeaters, so we operated via a subnet with the “Edison Loop” site, manned by John, AD6NR, and with occasional communications with “Intake 2”. Through it all, the runners powered through. All told, it was an excellent experience!

Submitted by Dave, W6TLA