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Tour de Victoria Oct 2 2021![]() Lantern Rouge communications motorcycle following a bicycle eventMy day as a Lantern Rouge RiderIt's not often one gets to combine all of ones favorite hobbies, but when the Victoria radio club WARA was looking for motorcycle riding volunteers to help with the Tour de Victoria bicycle event, I was delighted to be able to comingle all my diversions.I admit I was also very tempted by the opportunity to ride my motorcycle on the Galloping Goose bicycle trail, which is normally forbidden to motorcycles. I discovered the radio challenges were a fabulous learning opportunity. It seems to be a feature of my radio hobby that I dive enthusiastically into things without really knowing what's involved, and this was no exception. The radio brief was to provide communications support to the bicycle riders participating in the event, as well as position information via APRS. Bicycle riders might need a medic, a mechanic or a lift back, and so the role of the Lantern Rouge involves relaying requests for assistance or transportation. Event organizers and support crew were able to access real time information about my position at the tail end of one route of the ride event. Getting my motorcycle (a 1992 EN 500 Vulcan) set up for radio was an interesting process, with the help of Dave VE7EPX who constructed a beautiful lightweight platform for the tail rack on my motorcycle to hold a mag mount antenna. The rack mounting was very solid, the antenna stayed firmly in place, and even though it was back in the 'dirty' swirling air behind my body the antenna didn't flutter or twitch in the wind even at highway speeds. Since the day of the Tour de Victoria was spent in first gear, at bicycle speeds, it really wasn't an issue.
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The Lantern Rouge team was uniquely vintage; Dave on his '95 Honda ST 1100 and me on my '92 Kawasaki failed, as far as I could tell, to make any impression on the bicyclists, although I think the motorcycle mounted police riding behind us for the last few kilometers of the event (opening up the roads) noticed our bikes weren't as modern as theirs. I was tempted to point out my motorcycle was older than some of them, but decided it might be better not to offend... I'm not looking for ways to get arrested!
![]() ![]() READ MOREIf you are interested in the motorcycle part of the story, check out my motorcycling website here: www.dirtygirlmotorracing.comTour de Victoria - https://tourdevictoria.com/ Tour de France - https://www.letour.fr/en/ Lanterne Rouge in Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanterne_rouge WARA (west coast amateur radio association) - https://www.ve7vic.ca/ SSIARS (Salt Spring Island Amateur Radio Society) - http://www.ssiarc.ca/
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Back to the WHEN Page - Main PageThanks for visiting... hope to meet you on the air! 73 ~ Andrea VA7ALG
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