Chicago Marathon 2023

Bank of America’s Chicago Marathon 2023 Ham Radio Team Registration

Please feel free to send this on to a friend or colleagues. We continue to seek clubs willing to anchor an entire Aid Station, but hope that we will have enough returning veterans to staff all of the stations with experienced operators.

What we do?  Ham radio has become an integral part of the Marathon’s medical communication.  While we do handle some emergency traffic, we also report back to the organizers on some tactical issues, weather and help handle medical supplies.  We do have three different types of assignments: 1) a medical aid station somewhere along the route that has a complete medical staff.  We provide a vital communication link for them to the event headquarters; 2) We have people who work along aside roving medical teams in Grant Park and along the finish line. This group does a great deal of hiking and running; 3) We also have a growing team of folks who work the last mile…staged along the route with medical response teams. They help support the medical staff at the rest station and along the route in that section of the course.  This section of the course also presents its own unique challenges as there are often crowds pressing in on the racers in that last mile and it can be quite noisy.

We can use all hams interested in working a large public event.

This is the start of our 15^th year serving the Bank of America Chicago Marathon.  We are seeking 140 volunteers and currently we have 90 signed up!  If you have an interest in using your radio skills to help with a big community service project, please sign up to the link below or send a note to Rob@roborrproductions.com for more information. This event has really demonstrated to many agencies that ham radio can be effectively used to support large community events.

Please fill out the Google Form below to get the process started 

2023 Ham Radio Chicago Marathon Com Team Register

Our sincerest thanks for your support!

Your volunteer leads:

Rob Orr, K9RST

Jerry Watts, K9LOT

Jeff VanBuren, KD9IPG