Loch Leven ½ Marathon
May 10, 2009
Local amateurs have been providing communications for the Loch Leven ½ Marathon event since it started 26 years ago.
Loch Leven 1/2 Marathon Route
Our main task is to provide radio communications for the First Aid teams. Sometimes this is for First Aiders at fixed points about the course or mobile units that respond on request.
As well as providing for the First Aiders, we have no objection to passing messages for the organisers that involve the welfare of the participants or the spectators. RAYNET members are also stationed at the water stations about the course.
Where First Aid vehicles are used, as well as voice radio, we also fit GPS receivers that connect to the radios. This system sends the location, speed and direction of the vehicle via the radio back to the control vehicle. This information is displayed on a laptop computer that shows on a map the detailed location of the vehicles. This allows a quick deployment of a First Aid vehicle without having to ask the locations.
This saves much time and effort in the event of an incident. In addition to this we also provide a ‘back marker’. This is a RAYNET member on a bicycle that is fitted with radio and GPS so the control can see at a glance on their laptop where the rear runner, or walker as is often the case, is located.
We have on occasion sent Slow Scan images from locations on the course back to the control vehicle using the same radio system.
The commentator for the event is given a receiver so that he can listen to our communications. This gives him instant feedback of who and where the first runners are. This keeps the spectators waiting at the finish up to date with the excitement of the race.
In the early days ‘Control’ used to be someone’s car. We now thankfully have the use of the Fife Council Emergency Planning vehicle. This vehicle is fitted out for such events and incidents that the Council would have to respond to such as power cuts, flooding and pollution.