Tas. Endurance State Championships
Dawn and a rider approaches
The 160km endurance ride, the “100 Miler” is a feature of major endurance events, especially the annual nationally run “Tom Quilty Gold Cup” and of the various State Championships. The Tasmanian championships were held at Scottsdale on the 18th to 20th November. There were three events – 160km starting at midnight on Friday night, the 95km starting at 05:30 and a 55km at 08:30.
NTARC provided safety communications and rider tracking with a base at Santarena Park, Jetsonville, between Scottsdale and Bridport. Two checkpoints, at Rodeo Road crossroads and Rex’s Race, provided on track monitoring and the ability to report progress.
A relatively large crew was needed given the 24 hour time span of the 160km ride and the number of passes through each checkpoint. In Rodeo Road’s case, the total number of horse and rider passes recorded was around 340 over almost the full 24 hours. Rex’s Race was relatively short lived with only 124 passes over about 12 hours. Most of the Rex’s Race crew dispersed to other duties when they became free.
The NTARC crew were VK7s ZAB, ZSB, KPC, RC, ZTT and ARN. From the South were WICEN’s VK7s TW and VWK plus Richard, son of ARN.
On the preceding Wednesday, a forward group, which also included ZIR, towed out the Base Comms trailer, set up the repeaters and made a few checks.
Last minute apologies were received from VK7RI, who was struck down with a positive COVID test, and from VK7ES who grabbed a surgery opportunity arisen due to a late cancellation.
The being continually improved NTARC RFID System, now widely known of due to its exposure at the recent Tasmanian Expo, was successfully deployed. This left checkpoint operators minimally inconvenienced with radio operation and better able to focus on system monitoring via the local built in system WiFi. Rider numbers and times of passing were noted manually in case of a rare glitch in the system. This left time to be generally sociable with riders (and occasionally horses).
NTARC member Peter SP, who is in Switzerland, occasionally phoned in and took over control of the main computer to check on the system during the event. We did have an issue when loading the rider list for the 55km event as the system flagged there was a duplicate RFID card. It turned out the card from a rider in the 160km event that was vetted out had been re-issued to the late entry in the 55km event. Thanks Peter.
There were no overly dramatic events, other than very late in the day (night actually) when the system showed a rider still out on track. This was odd as the Ride Base had obviously been closed down. Some very damp investigations showed that, beyond reasonable doubt, the rider had in fact returned to, and stayed at, Base. It appears that climatic conditions had expedited a rapid Ride Base timing system shutdown when the last rider was accounted for; but before entry of the occurrence into that system - which provides a feed into the NTARC system. NTARC’s screens, therefore, retained the last feed-in, which included a rider still in the saddle (and the stormy tempest!). Steps have since been taken to incorporate, into standard operating procedures, a notification to Comms Base of Ride Base closedown and that all riders were home.
The weather storm continued through much of the night but had cleared to a fine day on Sunday morning to enable a pleasant pack up and the presentation of awards to the horses and riders so deserving. The drives home were unremarkable (or not reported as otherwise), if in some cases long due to enroute visitations, distance, and Midland Highway roadworks.
Reports from the client organisation were, once again, of a high degree of satisfaction with the services rendered. As usual, NTARC set up dual monitors in the public area to display the rider’s progress through the three events. Andre’ noticed no one had used them for the first couple of hours. Having a look at the Webserver for the public Wi-Fi revealed the secret. All the strappers were sensible and using their phones to display the pages! Advertising of the service and instructions in its use had obviously paid off.
The 2023 event calendar is starting to fill. Most of the listed, and to be listed, events are traditionally serviced by one or several Amateur groups. The commitment will need careful prior consideration.
