December 9, 2023, Big White ski resort surrounding area
NORAC members Mike VE7KPZ and Jane VE7WWJ along with their nephew Tristan volunteered at this year's Big White Winter Rally.
The crew awoke at 3 AM to drive to down the Okanagan valley and up to the Big White ski resort surrounding area where the rally was being held.
They then provided tactical radio support for the event, in the position of "blocker". This position effectively blocks a side road on the rally course and offers tactical radio support for course clearing, emergency coordination, etc.
The morning and afternoon stages were in different locations so a move was made around 2 PM to the afternoon blocking position. This more remote position required the use of cross-band repeat (on Mike's Kenwood TM-D710GA) as just a handheld transceiver did not have enough oompf to get into the main event repeater.
The rally stages finished around 9 PM and the crew got home and into bed around 11 PM - that was quite the day!
Kudos to the other Okanagan HAMs that volunteered as well. It was nice to hear so many familiar calls. And kudos to Chris VE7EQN and OCARC for allowing the event to use the VE7RBG repeater.
We always look forward to seeing the recap of the event on TSN and YouTube (a couple of months after the event) but nothing beats the front-row seat experience of actually being there as a volunteer. Check out the full recap below.
73,
Mike VE7KPZ