CAREY PINKOWSKI: We’ve seen a lot of things over the years with the ham operators. They're the most dependable way of communication.
JEN: For three and a half decades, Carey Pinkowski has been the race director of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, and in that time, he has watched his race grow from just a few thousand runners to over fifty-thousand finishers in 2024.
CAREY: At the marathon last year, we had close to 2,000 medical volunteers…
JEN: And of those, about 150 amateur radio operators coordinating medical treatment and transport. The partnership began in 2008 after a dangerous October heat wave cut the 2007 event short. On a course with all asphalt and no shade, water became scarce, and communication was lacking.
CAREY: We didn’t have cell phones!
JEN: Runner Kate Saccany, Kilo-Eight-Sierra-Lima-Foxtrot (K8SLF), was a participant in the Chicago Marathon that year, and like many hams, she was trained in emergency communications. It was after that event that she, Pinkowski, and other amateur radio operators devised a plan to put hams on the run. Sixty-eight hams helped out that first year in 2008, and since that time…
CAREY: They participate in our planning meetings and our operational design of things. A lot of it's geared toward emergency or crisis communications.
JEN: And it’s not just for the 26.2-mile race in October. On Sunday, June 1st, 40 hams assisted medical teams for the Bank of America 13.1, the half-marathon version. For their primary repeater, volunteer hams used a Yaesu DR-2X in analog mode with a “pace” of 25 watts off the rooftop of Chicago’s Historic Mount Sinai Hospital. The backup repeater had an inverted antenna mag mount and a world-class view, as it was housed atop Chicago's tallest skyscraper, the Willis Tower, in the ABC Chicago WLS-TV transmitter suite.
These special ham teams aren't unique to Chicago.
They also assemble for other World Marathon Majors such as Boston and New York.
They play an important role at the Marine Corps Marathon and several others across the globe.
So, when distance runners are in need of a hero,
CAREY: It's the ham operators that are there to save the day.