Townsville Amateur Radio Club provided volunteer communications support for the Bush to Beach Endurance Riders Association’s Spring Shore 5/10/20/40/80km Horse Endurance Rides, held at the North Queensland Equestrian Centre, Bluewater Park, over the weekend of Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th September.
The last B2B ride of the year was run in fairly dry conditions, with a comfortable temperature range for the horses, riders and volunteers. There were riders on the 80km and 40km courses plus a bumper field of 20km riders finishing off the year. On-track incidents were few — the most memorable was a horse getting away from its rider at the Forestry Road creek crossing. Doris and Wayne closed their access gate at the Grid, Snow tracked the loose horse from his checkpoint, other riders rounded it up, and Andrew warned the 20km riders heading back from Rons Loop. Horse and rider were soon reunited.
Main communications ran on simplex at 146.550MHz, with a couple of stations cross-band repeating onto UHF handhelds, while liaison and Strapper Alert traffic used UHF CB Channel 26. Andrew also took the chance to try out some different field antennas, found a few faulty connections, and came away with working systems.
On the Radios
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Ride Base
Lyndall VK4ZM & Gavin VK4ZZ -
CP Grid
Doris & Wayne VK4WSG -
CP Wayne’s World
Snow VK4ME — 80/40km tracks only -
CP Ron’s Gate
Andrew VK4CHG
Volunteers appreciated the coffees from the Coffee Lady on Saturday and the Coffee Couple on Sunday, plus the room-service delivery of Saturday night dinner and Sunday breakfast to the checkpoints by the B2B Cooks and Transport Team. The operators were thanked by the organisers, riders and helpers at Sunday’s presentations, with an invitation to team up again for the 2027 B2B rides at Bluewater Park — the dates are already in the calendar. See the Communications Support page for more on the club’s volunteer program.