Volunteers with the Kittitas County Amateur Radio Communications Service man the mobile command unit, otherwise known as the ‘Hambulance’ at the Teanaway Country 100 race.
The ‘OG’ of social media Dedicated group maintains ham radio system
KARL HOLAPPA staff writer
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t is a hobby that spans generations, and it is still alive and well in Kittitas County. The Kittitas County Amateur Radio Communications Service has approximately 35 active members who span both Upper and Lower Counties, and in recent years they have taken the hobby to a level that serves the community in ways that other technologies don’t have the ability to do. This summer, members
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of the club set up relay stations along the courses of two mountain races that cross through the county in order to create a communications network in terrain that isn’t otherwise accessible by cellular networks. On a Saturday morning, a group of volunteers sat inside a modified ambulance near Salmon La Sac. The vehicle, nicknamed the ‘hambulance’, has been set up as a mobile command unit with all the necessary communication components. The vehicle is the brainchild of club member Randy Thomas, who sunk his own funds
into its creation. The volunteers were monitoring communications from the relay stations set up along the annual Teanaway Country 100 race, which takes competitors across some of the most remote terrain in the county. Thomas said the group has been handling the communications for the TC100 since it started and took over communications for the Cascade Crest 100 race this year for the first time, although he said they have participated in various aspects of race organization over the past few years. “Each of these races have aid
