Iron man is an expensive event – especially for Radio Hams!
My brother is a nutjob. There I said it! In 2016 he did the Two Oceans Ultra Marathon, Comerades, and Iron Man! Now I am not THAT far behind him – as a nutjob anyway. I did the Two Oceans HALF marathon, watched parts of the Comerades and assisted with the radio communications for the Iron Man event.
As always (this is not my first Iron Man) PEARS set everything up to cover the course as adequately as possible. This involved deploying stations at strategic points along the route and deploying a temporary repeater on top of the Radison Blue hotel on the famous Port Elizabeth beach front.
Cross banding was done to handle the beach front and the club’s lady’s slipper and mount road repeaters were linked providing a VHF channel for the distant stations.
Upon arrival at my base (the University Way/Marine Drive corner) at the usual ungodly hour (5am I think, but way before sunrise anyway!) I was asked if I could redeploy to the beach front to cover the swim. It is not far from where I was stationed to the Shark Rock Pier where I was needed, but traffic was such that going on foot was the only option. Time restraints meant this would not be walking. Apparently one of the VOC members was late getting to the party and Tony ZR2TX (aka bossman) had to make a plan.
After a swift jog down to the Pier, a quickbriefing on the job at hand, and I was a working man. The beach front was jammed full of athletes, spectators, pick pockets, journalists, medics, and me. Two helicopters hovered just off the end of the Pier is a threatning “Vietnam” pose – and this made me think: If a known criminal can get to stand next to Obama on a South African stage, how sure are we that these pilots are not about to open fire? Now that would have put PE on the map!
As luck would have it, they didn’t open fire and I got to see my brother standing in the massof athletes in the “tube” to the start line. Andrew finished his swim, followed by a few others and I was free to return to the corner, my base, and my partner Jimmy. There was only one drawback – my handheld was now flat! Only a few hours, but the noise had me using the radio of full volume and well it was now moeg!
So, what makes Iron Man so expensive as a ham? Well when I got back to the base I put my radio on charge in Jimmy’s bakkie. Not sure what happened, but I no longer have a radio. Battery will not charge and so I am one HT down. It was a Baufeng UV-82. A wonderful radio that, until this point, had not given me any grief at all. A dual bander, 5W, DTMF tones, the works. RIP my little friend!
We set up a gazeebo, table, chairs, antenna, radio, battery, and then put the kettle on for some coffee. The plan for food was to have something light at lunchtime and then braai in the evening. Iron Man is a LOOOONG day from before sunrise until after midnight. Not all stations are needed all the time, but as a nutjob, I sign up for the suicide squad.
About mid afternoon the “helicopter incident” happened. It was the same helicopter that was involved with the incident with the leading lady cyclist getting to taste the tarr. This helicopter – under the direct instruction of a competitent pilot – hovered over my gazeebo, blowing the living crap out of it and breaking the plastic corner pieces. The gazeebo is now unpitchable and I am a gazeebo down too!
The evening braai was a treat. We fed the refs who were allcycling around and getting hungry. Colin ZR2CRS was one of them and we fed him anyway!
My brother, doing his first ever Iron Man was toward the back of the field and so we could spot him when he came past our point. He looked so fresh though, that I thought of slapping him! Unfortunately I was not able to see him finish, but the rest of the family was there and he was treated to the famous redcarpet treatment and to hear those words they say at the end of “Iron Kids” – you know “Your and Iron Kid son!”
Jimmy and I packed up just after midnight and were home by 1 am. A long day by all accounts, but enjoyable and it only cost me a radio, a charger, and a gazeebo!
While I was not involved in deploying the temporary repeater on the Radison roof, I was asked to help remove it. Pictured to the right is a look into the box (for those iof you who are into that sort of thing) and below are some event photos, photos of the beach front and the Port Elizabeth skyline as seen from way up there!
Enjoy.
