GMRS at the Evanston 4th of July Parade and Fireworks!

[n4gix]

This year I decided to volunteer my day to helping provide communications support for the City of Evanston's (Illinois) annual 4th of July Parade and evening fireworks down at the lakefront. I live in NW Indiana so it was a long drive for me, but it was worth the trip! Evanston has the distinction of having had the first and longest running annual Parade in Illinois, and draws entries from all around the nation.

 

North Shore Emergency Association (NSEA) has been doing this project since around 1966. My station was as the primary net control operator from the green/white lawn chair on the two base radios. I also passed along the necessary information to the gentleman to my left to enter into the laptop for logging purposes. This is a terrific example of GMRS being used for a good purpose!

 

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In the late afternoon, we relocated to the lakeshore and I again provide net control as well as operating the FM transmitter that broadcast the synchronized music and "firing cues" for the mortars in the firing pit. I had a blast, but it was a very L O N G day since I left home at 0700 CST on Monday and didn't get home until 0005 CST on Tuesday.

 

The command tent was set up just outside the safety area, so I had the closest view I've ever had of the spectacular fireworks as they burst almost directly overhead!

 

The parade is ready to start!

 

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[FrankNY]

Thanks for posting, and thanks for your good service. Almost wish that I had been there!

 

Regards,

 

Frank.

[Werdna]

Neat! I've done this kind of comms work with ham radio, but never occurred to me that GMRS would work just as well. I assume you used a repeater? How many operators did you have covering the event?

[n4gix]

Neat! I've done this kind of comms work with ham radio, but never occurred to me that GMRS would work just as well. I assume you used a repeater? How many operators did you have covering the event?

For the parade assembly we used 462.675 simplex since everyone was clustered in a 12 block area just to our left (the direction of the longer yagi antenna). For the parade itself we used our 462.700 repeater located at Northwestern University since we needed coverage in both directions as the parade began and spread out over 30 blocks.

 

Counting myself as net control operator, we had one acting as the logging operator, and 15 others as "tags" assigned to specific Parade Marshals, police liason, fire dept liason, and four mobile operators; three on bicycles and one on a scooter to provide roaming rapid response to any incidents.

 

NSEA has been providing this communications support for forty-six years. Although this was my first year, I'm already looking forward to next year!

 

NOTA BENE: For the record, since I've been criticized elsewhere let me make it crystal clear that the pumps in the service station were shut down during the entire parade period, and did not resume operations until we'd completed our equipment teardown!

[PRadio]

I love the difference between the posts here and the "other forum." This is much more pleasant. 

 

Yeah, I read the posts regarding being set up near the gas station and the non-existent risk of explosion. lol It looks like you provided a nice service and had a good time in the process. Nice to see. 

[n4gix]

Thanks! Yes, it was very fun but also quite tiring. I'm still somewhat in "recovery mode".

[gortex2]

How do you get operators to spend the money on a licence. Our SAR team has had GMRS repeaters for almost 20 years and i struggle to get more than 4 of us to buy the license. I would love to use the channel more but dont want folks using it unlicensed. We have a mix mash of VHF and UHF public safety channels we use for normal operations but keep the GMRS for the chat channels. We actually handle comms for some large races and would love to use GMRS instead of our PS channels.

[SteveC7010]

How do you get operators to spend the money on a licence. Our SAR team has had GMRS repeaters for almost 20 years and i struggle to get more than 4 of us to buy the license. I would love to use the channel more but dont want folks using it unlicensed. We have a mix mash of VHF and UHF public safety channels we use for normal operations but keep the GMRS for the chat channels. We actually handle comms for some large races and would love to use GMRS instead of our PS channels.

 

Do your unlicensed members know that the price has dropped due to the removal of the regulatory fee? That might be an incentive.

[n4gix]

I think in the case of the North Shore Emergency Association (NSEA) it has more to do with the fact that the organization was founded in 1966 and has been continuously active in support of community activities. NSEA also owns and maintains four very well placed repeaters which allow for a wide area of coverage on the Northeast side of greater Chicago, making it possible for members to actually have reliable communications available at all times. 

[gortex2]

Do your unlicensed members know that the price has dropped due to the removal of the regulatory fee? That might be an incentive.

 

They do and I have tried. a couple got it when the fees dropped but thats it. A few have also went for there HAM ticket instead. I guess part of the issue is our VHF and UHF Public Safety repeaters work so well in addition to the P25 trunking system we use folks dont understand the benefit. In addition being all volunteer and buys all our gear ourselfs already costs a member upwards of $1000.00. I'll keep hinting to them all about it and hope someday more will jump on the boat. 

 

Until then I'll just keep installing repeaters until i run out of frequencies !