W9VT Tri Town Radio Amateur Club 146.490 Simplex & 146.805(-) pl 107.2

Next Drivin' the Dixie event Saturday June 20th, 2009!

Drivin' the Dixie 2008 a Big Success!
Drivin� the Dixie 2008

By Jerry K9PMV

Tri-Town does it again! For the third consecutive year, TTRAC provides communications assistance to the annual Drivin� the Dixie event. In case you don�t know, Drivin� the Dixie is a celebration of the historical Dixie Highway route. When the highway was first constructed, it ran from the Chicago area all the way to Florida and was created to promote travel by automobile. The Homewood historical society, in co-operation with all the towns between Blue Island and Momence, sponsors an antique car rally between these two towns every June. It is quite a spectacle as about 150 vintage vehicles parade south from Blue Island on ole� Dixie Highway. Each year, this event gets better and this year was no exception.

The day before the event, TTRAC repeater gurus Tom W9SRV, Brian WD9HSY, Lee KB9SUY and Dale KB9RRE, engineered and installed a link between WALDOFAR UHF and the Club 146.805 Mhz VHF machine. This provided total handie talkie coverage regardless where you were and what system you were using. The results were astonishingly good; hardly a missed call due to poor coverage.

As in previous years, Tom W9SRV and 2 of his junior ops shouldered the NCS duties as the W9VT �embedded mobile�. Tom was the 5th or 6th car from the head end of the procession and advised all concerned as to logistical needs. Tom also kept in touch with the �A�s R Us� club cars in the group via FRS radio. Critical traffic was passed regarding parking arrangements, time schedule, and traffic control to TTRAC members stationed in each of the town checkpoints along the way.

Also participating in the motorcade were Paul KB9PZC and his sidekick Bruce WD9GHK in Paul�s new looking U.S.Army Jeep and trailer. These guys were all dressed up in Army fatigue uniforms and the Jeep was equipped with military radios � quite an attention grabber.

The parade left Blue Island at about 8:30 AM, Saturday June 21st and arrived at Island Park in Momence at about 4 PM. The weather was mostly fair but there were isolated T storms midday. Lee KB9SUY and Brian WD9HSY/m gave Internet based weather and radar updates as the caravan progressed along. Fortunately, the storms skipped around the event.

This event has generated much interest, technical improvements and participation for Tri-Town Radio Amateur Club. Indeed, the operator turn out seems to exceed that for Field Day. And, hopefully, we have provided a valuable service to the community while having fun at the same time.

This year�s participants were:

Martin WD9JGG/m co-coordinator at large

Tom W9SRV/m , NCS and repeater engineering.

Jim NV9X, Blue Island and Steger

Jerry K9PMV, Blue Island, Posen and Bunker

Tony W9VN, Chicago Heights

Doug WA9YSW, Chicago Heights

Pete K9OWQ, Flossmoor

Gard K9GBT, Flossmoor

Richard KB9IPS, Homewood

Matt N9OTL, Homewood

Todd KA9IUC, Homewood

Dan WB9ACN/m Homewood route scout.

Sharon KA9IIT/m, Homewood route scout.

Paul KB9PZC, Military vehicle operator

Bruce WD9GHK, Military vehicle participant.

Dale KB9RRE, repeater engineering.

Mark KA9MDJ, Beecher

Tom AB9LA, Crete

Brian WD9HSY/m, repeater engineering and mobile at large.

Lee KB9SUY, repeater engineering and WX reporteer.

Apologies to anyone who participated and is not listed. This event continues to be a lot of fun and we look forward to participating again next year.

More info also at www.drivinthedixie.org

Here is info from Martin WD9JGG about last years event:

Here's where things stand at this time.

Jim-(NV9X) has once again volunteered to be at Steger; Tom (WA9MVI) to again be @ Crete; Mark (KA9MDJ) to again help in Beecher; and it looks like Jerry, Tom Gunderson, and myself as a minimum will be in Blue Island-with at least Tom and I staying with the caravan down to Momence.

This list should not deter additional Tri-Town volunteers, as we can always use more than one on-site communicator to work communications and assist the local hosts w/on-site logistics like the parking, giving directions to where the passports are stamped, etc.

Tri-Town volunteers should plan to be on-site and introduce themselves to the local hosts 20-30 minutes before the scheduled time for the arrival of the cars in each town as noted on the attached PASSPORT. Their total duty time at anyone location should not exceed 1� hours.

To coordinate w/ the others involved, I need the name, location(s) they plan to serve and e-mail and/or phone number of all Tri-Town volunteers no later than the conclusion of the Sunday night net on June 10. I will then try to inform these Tri-Town folks of who they will be introducing themselves to and working with at their respective site(s). I prefer to receive this information by e-mail to MartinM524@aol.com, or @ 708-957-9654.

As with last year, it is suggested the Tri-Towners, as available, appear in our yellow jackets and/or hats.

We will need to do some planning ahead as to how we will be using the 2 meter and 440 repeaters. To effectively use the Waldofar N & S sites, it may be necessary to borrow/share some 440 radios as some of our volunteers, as with myself, have indicated they do not currently have portable/and/or mobile 440 capabilities.

The Tri-Town communications services during the 2007 event were much appreciated and I'm sure we will be even more helpful this year.

I would be glad to answer the questions of anyone @ 708-957-9654.

Martin (WD9JGG)

Here are the 2007 Documents for the Event:

Click to download the 2007 Passport!

Click the Picture to Download the Offical 2007 Passport!

Click to Download the Offical 2007 Flyer!

Click to Download the Offical 2007 Registration Form!

Tri-Town Does "Drivin' the Dixie"

Sat, June 17, 2006

Here we are at the Start in Blue Island! Jerry, K9PMV (a.k.a. "The Prez") and Martin WD9JGG Showing off the new Club signage Tom's vehicle that was going to be in the procession. The Truck was in full radio dress that day, 1/4 wave 2m antenna, 5/8 wave 440 antenna, 5/8 wave 2m antenna, and 1/4 wave 10m whip on the back bumper!

Here are the drivers in Blue Island getting last minute instructions from the M.I.C. Bob. Quite a group! At the start there were roughly 125 cars in the procession, covering from Ford model A's to the present!

Steger put on quite a show for the procession. The Mayor was there and doing it up right! Here is a picture of the Steger Fire Department Aerial truck. The photographers there climbed up to the top to get some overhead shots of the crowd. It was all you can eat hot dogs here! They had 700 hot dogs ready for consumption free of charge! Jim NV9X manned this post for us. I never got a final hot dog count for him though!

Here is the procession lined up in Grant Park. By this point there were 135 cars in the group! At several points along the route the cars stretched from one checkpoint to the next!

We made it! Here is Tom, Martin, and Mark, KA9MDJ, in Momence posing by the Homewood FD Chief car that trailed the procession the entire way. It was a very successful event with no problems. We utilized 146.805 for the most part, and also 146.49, 443.325, and 442.375 along the way, so we were never out of touch!

And to top it off another generation of Gunderson makes his first radio public service appearence! Riley Gunderson pictured here at the helm of the Suburban!