My First Rally (ralley)!
Crocuta and myself Volunteered at the Mendocino Red Tail Rally in Ukiah! The first off-road rally in NoCal in nearly 30 years.
Many months ago, Crocuta asked me to join him in volunteering in a rally. He wanted me to brag about my ham radio skills so he could get the position he wanted (fast/medical sweep).
Saturday, August 6th was the Mendocino Redtail Rally. This was my first rally and the first time I’ve done something with ham radio for a few years. Originally, I was assigned to the fast/medical sweep team, but then got moved to green sweep. The people who ran a rally in Southern California wanted to do green/med sweep and were granted that position, so I got moved to green sweep. During a communications test meeting on the course (2 weeks from the rally), I was promoted to 00 car by the end of the meeting (due to my co-driving and ham radio skills, I think). 00 car is a state opening car. We drive at speed through the stage checking to make sure barricades are up, nothing is on the course, people are in their places and no spectators were on the course. It was a non-spectator event, per BLM. Now a week before it was decided that the 000 and 00 car would just run stages 1,2 and 7. Only 0 car would run stages 3,4,5,6,8,9. To save time. At least we got to run the course. For this rally we bought a new ham radio, Icom 2200h (65 watts for mountain use), antenna, mount, car charger and bigger antenna for my Yaesu VX-5r as a back up, hotel for a night, rally tires from Paul Eklund, cost to have tires mounted and balanced.
Friday August 5th came and we left for the hotel in Ukiah. We arrived at the Super 8 (paid for the hotel 12 days in advance, and hindsight was glad I did because it got full). Then we headed to the Parducci Winery in northern Ukiah for an ice-breaker party/event. There was free wine tasting (until the wine ran out), and some free finger sandwiches and cheese. Really, it was a free event for the volunteers and competitors. Crocuta and myself checked in at the winery and got our route book and swag
.
The next morning we went to the Comfort Inn down the street (volunteer HQ) for a meeting and we learned about the time cards. 0 cars taught the volunteers how to work them. 0 cars are timed to make sure timing crews are working. Try as we did to show people how to fill out the time cards, there was a bunch of miscommunications and people didn’t fill in some of our spots. But by stage 5 (out of 7), people were doing it right.
The race was to begin at Les Schwab tires in Ukiah and proceed to the course. We got to the course and waited for 000 car to take off. Then we went to the start line and took off. We drove the course. A few barricades were down or missing. We put up on and went to the next radio block for some caution tape to construct another. It was my job to advise Net Control what was going on so they could hold the racers at the start. It also let our boss, the 0 car know to go slow or stop until we cleared it. We fixed everything and continued on our way, until the end of stage 1 where it looked like a disaster scene. Everyone was at the end of stage 1 and no one was at the start of stage 2 (because no one knew where it started). I had Crocuta instruct volunteers to get it together because people were lining up to race. Safety Steward did his best to shuffle people off. Then I was told that they needed some FRS radios (walkie-talkies) and they asked if the 0 car could bring them down. 5 people were talking to me at once while I was talking to net control and stress began to build. Net Control was frustrated at me because they didn’t understand what was going on and I didn’t respond fast enough because I was being pulled in many directions. Finally, I got the word through and radios were on their way.
People got to state 2 and it was set up quick. They we were on our way and finished. I got out of the car and was like WHEW. My seat was soaked from heat and stress. 0 car liked how we worked and got things done so we got promoted to open up stage 3 and 4 to make sure people were in their place since finish was now start and start was not inverted to finish. 000 was to work the start radio on stage 3 (hams kept disappearing for some reason). We were opening up the stages now! The rally cars finished stage 2, and turned around for stage 3. Once we got the Ok from Net Control, we were on our way. Everything looked good, I think a barricade was down, but we fixed it. We got to the end of stage 3 and the Stafety Stewart needed some help securing the finish sign. Again, I was on Net Control, letting them know that we were stopped and where. Once that was set up, we went to the start of stage 4 and was instructed by the Operations Stewart to wait until the ambulance was in position.
We waited and once we got the clear, we took off. Towards the end of the course (last half) there were some people by the road. At first glance they might have been photographers but they didn’t have the pro camera and no yellow wrist band. I radioed in to Net Control about pedestrians on the course, when I really meant spectators. They got the message. We told the people unfortunately this was a mandatory non-spectator event and they could not watch, this was BLM’s rule not ours. They replied with “this is our back yard”. They meant to say was “we live in this forest”. I told Net Control they were local people who walked miles? to the course. I told the guys that I hated to rain on their parade, but if they didn’t leave the person behind me would be very angry, better to take my word and leave. The 0 car was monitoring my updates with Net Control and arrived on the scene. Net Control told me the sheriff was monitoring so it they didn’t leave soon, the sheriff would be there. The locals ran down the 3500 foot mountain side and disappeared into the manzanitas. We drove off to the next block and waited on standby and to the block hams of the situation in case they saw those people. 0 car confirmed that they left. The course was cleared to be hot and we left the block to finish stage 5.
Well we finished the stage and 0 car was impressed. We were allowed to run/open the remaining stages! A few cars needed to be towed/hauled and a driver/co-driver team needed to be picked up. Crocuta left with 0 car to pick up the drivers who were brought back to the start of stage 5. With all of that, it took well over an hour (almost 2) to clear the stage. We ran 5 and 6 pretty flawlessly; I think one block was down on 5. After 6 was the service break for the rally cars so we had a good 1.5 hour wait. Once a couple of service cars (delivering food to volunteers) were off the course, we were clear to run stage 7. Stage 7 wound up being the last stage due to the rally being 2.75 hours behind schedule.
We ran stage 7 and just one barricade blew down. That was it. We finished the course and waited for all the rally cars to be done. When they were, and heavy sweep came through and cleared it everyone packed up and headed to the Red Tail Brewery Ale house for drinks. Overall it was a fun day. I had a fun time, Crocuta had an amazingly fun time. We were asked to come back and be a 00 car among other “leadership” positions for next year! The people who did the North Nevada Rally (Operations Stewart) even said they would like us to be a 000 or a 00 car. Next year for sure, we are staying 2 nights instead of one. It was a very tiring drive home last night. All in all it was a fun 2 days and everyone seemed to be impressed with the both of us for our abilities to handle situations and let others know of situations on the course
Many months ago, Crocuta asked me to join him in volunteering in a rally. He wanted me to brag about my ham radio skills so he could get the position he wanted (fast/medical sweep).
Saturday, August 6th was the Mendocino Redtail Rally. This was my first rally and the first time I’ve done something with ham radio for a few years. Originally, I was assigned to the fast/medical sweep team, but then got moved to green sweep. The people who ran a rally in Southern California wanted to do green/med sweep and were granted that position, so I got moved to green sweep. During a communications test meeting on the course (2 weeks from the rally), I was promoted to 00 car by the end of the meeting (due to my co-driving and ham radio skills, I think). 00 car is a state opening car. We drive at speed through the stage checking to make sure barricades are up, nothing is on the course, people are in their places and no spectators were on the course. It was a non-spectator event, per BLM. Now a week before it was decided that the 000 and 00 car would just run stages 1,2 and 7. Only 0 car would run stages 3,4,5,6,8,9. To save time. At least we got to run the course. For this rally we bought a new ham radio, Icom 2200h (65 watts for mountain use), antenna, mount, car charger and bigger antenna for my Yaesu VX-5r as a back up, hotel for a night, rally tires from Paul Eklund, cost to have tires mounted and balanced.
Friday August 5th came and we left for the hotel in Ukiah. We arrived at the Super 8 (paid for the hotel 12 days in advance, and hindsight was glad I did because it got full). Then we headed to the Parducci Winery in northern Ukiah for an ice-breaker party/event. There was free wine tasting (until the wine ran out), and some free finger sandwiches and cheese. Really, it was a free event for the volunteers and competitors. Crocuta and myself checked in at the winery and got our route book and swag
.
The next morning we went to the Comfort Inn down the street (volunteer HQ) for a meeting and we learned about the time cards. 0 cars taught the volunteers how to work them. 0 cars are timed to make sure timing crews are working. Try as we did to show people how to fill out the time cards, there was a bunch of miscommunications and people didn’t fill in some of our spots. But by stage 5 (out of 7), people were doing it right.
The race was to begin at Les Schwab tires in Ukiah and proceed to the course. We got to the course and waited for 000 car to take off. Then we went to the start line and took off. We drove the course. A few barricades were down or missing. We put up on and went to the next radio block for some caution tape to construct another. It was my job to advise Net Control what was going on so they could hold the racers at the start. It also let our boss, the 0 car know to go slow or stop until we cleared it. We fixed everything and continued on our way, until the end of stage 1 where it looked like a disaster scene. Everyone was at the end of stage 1 and no one was at the start of stage 2 (because no one knew where it started). I had Crocuta instruct volunteers to get it together because people were lining up to race. Safety Steward did his best to shuffle people off. Then I was told that they needed some FRS radios (walkie-talkies) and they asked if the 0 car could bring them down. 5 people were talking to me at once while I was talking to net control and stress began to build. Net Control was frustrated at me because they didn’t understand what was going on and I didn’t respond fast enough because I was being pulled in many directions. Finally, I got the word through and radios were on their way.
People got to state 2 and it was set up quick. They we were on our way and finished. I got out of the car and was like WHEW. My seat was soaked from heat and stress. 0 car liked how we worked and got things done so we got promoted to open up stage 3 and 4 to make sure people were in their place since finish was now start and start was not inverted to finish. 000 was to work the start radio on stage 3 (hams kept disappearing for some reason). We were opening up the stages now! The rally cars finished stage 2, and turned around for stage 3. Once we got the Ok from Net Control, we were on our way. Everything looked good, I think a barricade was down, but we fixed it. We got to the end of stage 3 and the Stafety Stewart needed some help securing the finish sign. Again, I was on Net Control, letting them know that we were stopped and where. Once that was set up, we went to the start of stage 4 and was instructed by the Operations Stewart to wait until the ambulance was in position.
We waited and once we got the clear, we took off. Towards the end of the course (last half) there were some people by the road. At first glance they might have been photographers but they didn’t have the pro camera and no yellow wrist band. I radioed in to Net Control about pedestrians on the course, when I really meant spectators. They got the message. We told the people unfortunately this was a mandatory non-spectator event and they could not watch, this was BLM’s rule not ours. They replied with “this is our back yard”. They meant to say was “we live in this forest”. I told Net Control they were local people who walked miles? to the course. I told the guys that I hated to rain on their parade, but if they didn’t leave the person behind me would be very angry, better to take my word and leave. The 0 car was monitoring my updates with Net Control and arrived on the scene. Net Control told me the sheriff was monitoring so it they didn’t leave soon, the sheriff would be there. The locals ran down the 3500 foot mountain side and disappeared into the manzanitas. We drove off to the next block and waited on standby and to the block hams of the situation in case they saw those people. 0 car confirmed that they left. The course was cleared to be hot and we left the block to finish stage 5.
Well we finished the stage and 0 car was impressed. We were allowed to run/open the remaining stages! A few cars needed to be towed/hauled and a driver/co-driver team needed to be picked up. Crocuta left with 0 car to pick up the drivers who were brought back to the start of stage 5. With all of that, it took well over an hour (almost 2) to clear the stage. We ran 5 and 6 pretty flawlessly; I think one block was down on 5. After 6 was the service break for the rally cars so we had a good 1.5 hour wait. Once a couple of service cars (delivering food to volunteers) were off the course, we were clear to run stage 7. Stage 7 wound up being the last stage due to the rally being 2.75 hours behind schedule.
We ran stage 7 and just one barricade blew down. That was it. We finished the course and waited for all the rally cars to be done. When they were, and heavy sweep came through and cleared it everyone packed up and headed to the Red Tail Brewery Ale house for drinks. Overall it was a fun day. I had a fun time, Crocuta had an amazingly fun time. We were asked to come back and be a 00 car among other “leadership” positions for next year! The people who did the North Nevada Rally (Operations Stewart) even said they would like us to be a 000 or a 00 car. Next year for sure, we are staying 2 nights instead of one. It was a very tiring drive home last night. All in all it was a fun 2 days and everyone seemed to be impressed with the both of us for our abilities to handle situations and let others know of situations on the course