State Endurance Championships

Checking 70cm data comms between a checkpoint and the repeater

NTARC provided safety and rider progress communications at the 2021 Tasmanian equine endurance State Championships, based at Merseylea near Railton in the North West. This was a multi-day support effort, with low resources. Preparatory work included gathering information on the tracks, checkpoint locations, timing and entries. From this, possible repeater sites were identified, equipment set up and made ready for transport and the deployment of scarce manpower planned. A second site visit, to transport the Base trailer and equipment, also included setting up the repeaters, at the excellent site identified via software, followed by checks from each checkpoint to test comms.

The next visit was for the final set up and the event itself. Andre’ VK7ZAB, Stefan VK7ZSB and Peter VK7KPC arrived on site on the Friday afternoon and worked without a break for over twenty-four hours. Andre manned the Base and Stefan the second checkpoint, which was active until late in the day. Peter worked Checkpoint One overnight. Roger VK7ARN started early in the morning at the checkpoint on Leg 3 and Idris VK7ZIR at the checkpoint 5 kilometres out on the riders’ return to Base. Voice and data comms worked throughout, other than a short delay in getting up and running on Leg 3, which turned out to be due to a detached connector between the radio and TNC in the RF reader set, probably due to the rough access track to approach the checkpoint.

The fourth and final visit on the Sunday, by Idris, Andre’ and Stevan was to retrieve the repeaters, pack up and return the trailer and gear to Launceston.