Amateur Radio Communications SAG Wagon Support for Cycling Events

[BobT]

Amateur radio has been increasingly called on to support cycling events. This public service from amateur radio operators has become key to the safety of the events’ outcome. This is especially true during the summer months where southern states temperatures can reach over a hundred degrees with heat index values to 115 degrees or more. Add to that races that have thousands of participants, many of whom are not physically able to complete their chosen route become a recipe for disaster. I have participated as a SAG (Support and Gear) Wagon in several bike events and while not a cyclist myself, I take great pleasure in providing a service to the cycling community. That being said, I am on a quest to see if I can improve the service that SAGs provide. I need your input as experienced cyclists to fill in the knowledge that I lack.
The first topic I would like to get information on centers around the dispatching of a SAG to a rider in need when they are between rest stops. In the events that I have supported, getting to a rider quickly can be delayed due to imprecise location information. I know that many riders now use GPS based apps on their phone but I have never been passed GPS coordinates. I think there is room for improvement here. My initial questions are:

• What is the most popular GPS app in use in cycling events today?
• What methods have you used to communicate your location to the event staff?
• What methods are used by the event staff to track the location of riders, if any?
• If you need a SAG, does your app allow you to communicate (voice, text, etc) your exact location?
• Do you prefer real time tracking or on demand tracking?
• Would you be willing to install an additional app on your phone to facilitate getting a SAG to you quicker?

This is a start and I would expect that this discussion of SAG support will expand. Your thoughts and recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Bob

 

[Ajax Bay]

Bob
By offering this rescue service (appreciate very well meaning), aren't you encouraging riders to venture out on rides which either ought not to go ahead in such temperatures and/or for which they are not prepared?
"temperatures can reach over a hundred degrees with heat index values =>115oF"(48oC)
"participants, many of whom are not physically able to complete their chosen route become a recipe for disaster."
Having said that, I'd have thought what.three.words which riders can easily upload as an app (assumes phone coverage) is the way to go: communicated by text or voice.
Most riders (in UK) use GPS 'normally' on a bike computer, not on their phone.
Most riders will be able to say how many km they've done since starting and that will indicate (to the organiser) where they are, provided they've stayed on route.
The ride I organised in mid-summer (600km) explicitly stated that there would be no recovery support (and there wasn't).

 

[BobT]

Ajax Bay - Thank you for the quick reply. I appreciate your feedback and recommendations.

Your point is well taken and I have also wondered why the local cycle clubs schedule events in the heat of the Texas summer. As amateur radio operators, we are support people and have nothing to do with the scheduling of events. We just respond to requests for service from the organizers. We donate our radio skills, equipment, vehicles, ice water and gas in order to support the needs that they define.

I was introduced to What-3-Words on our last mission but noted that it was grossly underutilized. It seems like a great solution as long as the riders would be willing to load it on their phones. In your opinion, would it be unreasonable to request that all riders with cellphones have it preloaded on their phones? If not, what would you recommend?

Regards,
Bob

 

[Mike Ayling]

Bob
By offering this rescue service (appreciate very well meaning), aren't you encouraging riders to venture out on rides which either ought not to go ahead in such temperatures and/or for which they are not prepared?
"temperatures can reach over a hundred degrees with heat index values =>115oF"(48oC)
"participants, many of whom are not physically able to complete their chosen route become a recipe for disaster."
Having said that, I'd have thought what.three.words which riders can easily upload as an app (assumes phone coverage) is the way to go: communicated by text or voice.
Most riders (in UK) use GPS 'normally' on a bike computer, not on their phone.
Most riders will be able to say how many km they've done since starting and that will indicate (to the organiser) where they are, provided they've stayed on route.
The ride I organised in mid-summer (600km) explicitly stated that there would be no recovery support (and there wasn't).

Agree 100% Ajax.

 

[Mike Ayling]

Ajax Bay - Thank you for the quick reply. I appreciate your feedback and recommendations.

Your point is well taken and I have also wondered why the local cycle clubs schedule events in the heat of the Texas summer. As amateur radio operators, we are support people and have nothing to do with the scheduling of events. We just respond to requests for service from the organizers. We donate our radio skills, equipment, vehicles, ice water and gas in order to support the needs that they define.

I was introduced to What-3-Words on our last mission but noted that it was grossly underutilized. It seems like a great solution as long as the riders would be willing to load it on their phones. In your opinion, would it be unreasonable to request that all riders with cellphones have it preloaded on their phones? If not, what would you recommend?

Regards,
Bob

Hi Bob

Just wait until a rider dies in the heat and watch the law suits!

 

[BobT]

We don't do medical. We dispatch EMS for anyone who appears to be in medical distress. Our Net Control tracks our SAGs real time with APRS giving EMS the exact location.

 

[Drago]

An admirable piece of volunteering.

Here in the UK we have REACT, who do the radio bit only. They big themselves up but in reality their reputation with the emergency services is woeful to say the least. They tell tall tales about their bravery and derring do at the Lockerbie air disaster, when in actual fact they were getting in the way or the emergency services and trampling across a serious crime scene without invitation.

 

[Ajax Bay]

As amateur radio operators, we are support people and have nothing to do with the scheduling of events. We just respond to requests for service from the organizers. We donate our radio skills, equipment, vehicles, ice water and gas in order to support the needs that they define.

I empathise with the role you are filling. On a long event (https://www.threepeaksyachtrace.co.uk/the-race which I had competed in previous year) I had radio, men and resources to do similar (easier): manned radios at checkpoints (so not mobile but tops of mountains as well as ports and base of mountains) but bitd before mobile phones were around (!) spread over 500km.
I've also organised an event (1700 competitors) where tragically one man died (heart attack) but getting the ambulance swiftly to him might have saved his life if the attack had not been so catastrophic: I had radios and was briefing the ambulance a minute later with an exit route planned and the emergency site identified (marshals and we in 'HQ' had maps with key points named and all were navigationally very capable).
I have also been the Risk Assessment signatory (and sometimes in charge on the ground) to a repeated event (monthly all year round with 60 participants in arduous remote (no roads/tracks) terrain) over 5 years. And lost noone (one hiker had died a couple of years before I arrived).
Can I take it you have seen a Risk Assessment (RA) which an organiser has generated and signed?
Does your service/assistance feature as a mitigation to the risk of (heat/physical exhaustion) hazards to reduce that to ALARP?
If so, is the help you provide properly described therein? (IANAL)
Does the RA also specify temperatures (in shade and WBGTi) where successive risk mitigation measures will be required, including cancellation?

Just wait until a rider does [. . . . .? one] in the heat and watch the law suits!

I suggest it's the organiser that will feel the heat, not the contracted SAG wagon service.
But that's why the service expected needs to be clearly described and bounded.
And in your position, Bob, (OP) I'd make it clear to the organiser that if the temperature limit is exceeded (specified in the RA) but they 'go with it anyway', I will withdraw the support. You may be saving lives by making such a condition clear, forcing the organiser to face the risk and adhere to their RA.

What-3-Words on our last mission but noted that it was grossly underutilized. It seems like a great solution as long as the riders would be willing to load it on their phones. In your opinion, would it be unreasonable to request that all riders with cellphones have it preloaded on their phones?

1) In adverse conditions I would make it a requirement for all participants to carry a mobile. They can put it on airline mode: its possession, in this context, is for their support (or to help another).
2) You could request it (load the app) and make it easy for them so to do as part of the pre race prep.
3) In my experience of cyclists (asserted with the bias of one who orienteered competitively for 30+ years) they have minimal idea where they are and are either slavishly following the pink line or following another rider they assumes knows what they're doing.
4) Other than flashing up what.3.words or another geolocation app, the distance they've ridden is simple and easy data which most riders know (on screen on their bars), is easy to read, communicate (text/voice) and verify (on radio). Equip your SAG wagons with an A4 print of the course, annotated with the distances at both 5 mile and 10km intervals. Job jobbed.

 

[BobT]

I empathise with the role you are filling. On a long event (which I had competed in previous year) I had radio, men and resources to do the same: manned radios at checkpoints (so not mobile) but bitd before mobile phones were around (!).
I've also organised an event (1700 competitors) where tragically one man died (heart attack) but getting the ambulance swiftly to him might have saved his life if the attack had not been so catastrophic: I had radios and was briefing the ambulance a minute later with an exit route planned and the emergency site identified (marshals and we in 'HQ' had maps with key points named and all were navigationally very capable).
I have also been the Risk Assessment signatory (and sometimes in charge on the ground) to a repeated event (monthly all year round with 60 participants in arduous remote (no roads/tracks) terrain) over 5 years. And lost noone (one hiker had died a couple of years before I arrived).
Can I take it you have seen a Risk Assessment (RA) which an organiser has generated and signed?
Does your service/assistance feature as a mitigation to the risk of (heat/physical exhaustion) hazards to reduce that to ALARP?
If so, is the help you provide properly described therein? (IANAL)
Does the RA also specify temperatures (in shade and WBGTi) where successive risk mitigation measures will be required, including cancellation?

I suggest it's the organiser that will feel the heat, not the contracted SAG wagon service.
But that's why the service expected needs to be clearly described and bounded.
And in your position, Bob, (OP) I'd make it clear to the organiser that if the temperature limit is exceeded (specified in the RA) but they 'go with it anyway', I will withdraw the support. You may be saving lives by making such a condition clear, forcing the organiser to face the risk and adhere to their RA.

1) In adverse conditions I would make it a requirement for all participants to carry a mobile. They can put it on airline mode: its possession, in this context, is for their support (or to help another).
2) You could request it (load the app) and make it easy for them so to do as part of the pre race prep.
3) In my experience of cyclists (asserted with the bias of one who orienteered competitively for 30+ years) they have minimal idea where they are and are either slavishly following the pink line or following another rider they assumes knows what they're doing.
4) Other than flashing up what.3.words or another geolocation app, the distance they've ridden is simple and easy data which most riders know (on screen on their bars), is easy to read, communicate (text/voice) and verify (on radio). Equip your SAG wagons with an A4 print of the course, annotated with the distances at both 5 mile and 10km intervals. Job jobbed.

Our radio club publishes a document at the before each event outlining our duties and responsibilities. I can only assume that it is a subset of a risk assessment from the organizer however I have not seen such a document myself. I will make it a point to ask if one exists.

As for "mitigation to the risk of (heat/physical exhaustion) hazards", right now, our club provides a chart to help identify the risk. I personally have taken it one step further and purchased a non-contact thermometer and record the temperature of each person I service (See attached log sheet). In the event before last, I transported a rider with an elevated temperature directly to the event nurse as a possible heat stroke victim. While most of our amateurs carry some form of first aid kit, I also carry a trauma kit as I am trained to use it.

Our radio operators are equipped with course maps ( see attached PDF) however, I find them lacking is enough detail to be useful. I find your suggestions on this subject very useful.

I have started this exercise out of the frustrations I encountered in supporting bike events. I have found your comments and recommendations very helpful. I am hoping that other riders from around the world (and especially my home the USA) will chime in to help educate me from the rider's point of view with the objective of coming up with recommendations that make it better and safer for all participants.

 

[the_mikey]

Ajax Bay - Thank you for the quick reply. I appreciate your feedback and recommendations.

Your point is well taken and I have also wondered why the local cycle clubs schedule events in the heat of the Texas summer. As amateur radio operators, we are support people and have nothing to do with the scheduling of events. We just respond to requests for service from the organizers. We donate our radio skills, equipment, vehicles, ice water and gas in order to support the needs that they define.

I was introduced to What-3-Words on our last mission but noted that it was grossly underutilized. It seems like a great solution as long as the riders would be willing to load it on their phones. In your opinion, would it be unreasonable to request that all riders with cellphones have it preloaded on their phones? If not, what would you recommend?

Regards,
Bob

"What Three Words" suffers by using similar sounding words or using plural and singular words which leads to results very different to the one the user is trying to exchange, especially if there are communication difficulties it can cause problems. It's a clever grid location system but fails with it's choice of words.

 

[BobT]

"What Three Words" suffers by using similar sounding words or using plural and singular words which leads to results very different to the one the user is trying to exchange, especially if there are communication difficulties it can cause problems. It's a clever grid location system but fails with it's choice of words.

Agreed. Have you run across a better option? I had thought about using the APRS messages function for net control to send to the SAGs. It is limited to 67 characters but that should accommodate most if not a M3W locations strings. This assumes that all of your SAGs can receive APRS messages. Since the riders can text the location string to net control, there is little chance for error there. Sending the string via voice could be a problem. I will try experimenting with that to see if it is feasible.

 

[Drago]

"What Three Words" suffers by using similar sounding words or using plural and singular words which leads to results very different to the one the user is trying to exchange, especially if there are communication difficulties it can cause problems. It's a clever grid location system but fails with it's choice of words.

Spot on, that's why more than half police farces in the UK won't use itz that and the makers refusing to make the source code available for the police boffs to examine.

 

[Ajax Bay]

https://www.geoapify.com/what-is-geolocation/

 

[OldShep]

I was introduced to What-3-Words on our last mission but noted that it was grossly underutilized. It seems like a great solution as long as the riders would be willing to load it on their phones

I hate W3W with a passion. Why would I be willing to load it on my phone when I just have to open the, already there, (I Phone ) Compass. There I see my exact coordinates, location area and elevation.
i do also have an app which gives OS grid ref which is much more use than W3W