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Where: Hill Country State Natural Area - Bandera County Texas

When: January 8 and 9th, 2010

What: Tejas Trails - Bandera 100k Ultra Marathon

This event is three races in one, a 25k, 50k and 100k that incorporates nearly
every trail on the 5400 acres of Hill Country State Natural Area. This is a
unique situation to train and test EmComm abilities in a remote environment,
provide a service, as well as enjoy the Texas Hill Country!

Participation for this event is expected to be over 800 runners!

Duties: This is a 24 hour all weather event! Amateur operators man the Aid
Stations and duties are basically like any other bike or running event (BP150,
MS150, River Safari, etc), relaying supply needs, runner counts and times, and
coordinating the Horse Patrol with Safety and SAR operations! Operators support
Race Control, Aid Stations and the HCSNAP Coordinated Horse Patrol! We are
encouraging everyone to actually set-up stations within the Aid Station tent, or
within a few feet utilizing a pop-up shelter or tent. Most Aid stations are
situated in a manner, to which we could attach and additional EZ-up type canopy
to facilitate station set-up! Operators will be required to stay in constant
touch with the Aid Station Captain and/or Race Recorder, in order to keep the
Database up-to-date.

Needed: Usually we need 10 or so license Amateurs to assist with this event, it
has been done with less! A repeater will be set up on a high ridge, 50 watt
dual band portable/mobile EmComm type set-ups required in case we need to go
simplex, if the repeater fails to produce. Most communications will be done
with 5 watts or so through the hilltop repeater, but just in case of a
catastrophic failure of the repeater, we can go to simplex. All the Aid stations
allow close proximity of your vehicle, so proper crossbanding can be utilized!

We will also be utilizing the Packet Program again this year at each Aid
station. There is a test and tune session planned for November 13th, 0800 hrs to
1200 hrs. Location to be determined (it will probably be in somewhere between
SA, New Braunfels and Seguin). Note: you are not required to have packet to
assist with the event. Those without packet will be teamed with those that have
it!

Individuals and Teams(Organizations ) encouraged to participate! The scenario
presented by this event creates some unique training and testing opportunities!
Several of our operators have worked some great HF DX in the less busy times of
the event.

The Amateur Operators, coordinating with the Horse Patrol have been instrumental
the last couple of years in extracting injured runners from remote areas of the
trail, tracking lost ones, and of course, peace of mind to the staff and
participants that if something goes wrong, we are there to help!

Additional Volunteers:We are also in need of several more riders for the Horse
Patrol. Sorry, I cannot supply horses, you must have your own. Also, do to the
increase of participants, there will be a need for additional support staff at
each of the Aid Stations. If we can get firm commitment from enough
individuals, the Amateur Radio community can adopt and aid station. The race
coordinator will provide an experienced person to assist in set-up and
operation.

Other quick details:

Camping: yes, at all the Aid Stations - no charge to our volunteers! Generators
will be allowed in most areas, for this event only! <Questions - call or e-mail
K5STX

Food: Several Meals are provided to the Volunteersby the event management! Rumor
has it, that there will be a big pot of something Saturdy night! No telling what
Charlie-KC5NKK will come up with this year! Thanks Charlie

Weather/Environment : From wild to mild! Anything that Texas can dish out is
possible! Hill Country State Natural Area is just that, a natural environment,
not changed much since it's donation to the state by Louise Merrick.

The 2010 event experienced what was a rare and unusual occurrence with the
extreme low temperatures. Normally the lows are in the high 40's and low 50's,
highs in the 70's. But, it is Texas winter, so anything can happen!


Looking forward to working with those that have supported this event in past
years, and the new operators coming on board. Thank you from myself and the
Tejas Trails event management!

Links of Interest:
HCSNA Park Information: http://tinyurl.com/o99sw
Hill Country Trail Runners: www.tejastrails.com/Bandera. html
Hill Country State Natural Area Partners: www.hcsnap.org

Other details will be placed on my web page in the near future! Link tba
To volunteer or if you have other questions, please contact K5STX at
trlrider@... cell phone - 830-305-2889.


Louis Upton - K5STX
Bandera 100k Communications Coordinator (coordination provided through Hill
Country REACT)
Cactus Rose and Bandera 100k Horse Safety Patrol Coordinator