On Sunday, October 5th, 2025, six amateur radio operators provided communications for the Raven Half Marathon foot race in the Bald Eagle State Forest. Although the Raven has been run for a number of years this is the first time they asked for communications assistance. There were ninety runners on the 13.5 mile course beginning and ending at the Poe Valley State Park near the lake. A Headquarters station and four field stations were provided by amateur radio operators.
Amateur radio operators assisting were:
- K3CWP, Carmine Prestia, Headquarters Poe Valley State Park
- K3HOT, Greg Guise, Loggers’ Path/Poe Valley Road
- K3CLM, Chad McKissick, Dry Hollow Trail and Poe Valley Road
- K9SDW, Dan Muthler, Penn’s View Overlook
- KC3AF, Ruth Tillman, Siglerville-Millheim Pike/Mountain Church Road
- K8QR, Yi Zhang, Siglerville-Millheim Pike/Mountain Church Road
Cell phone coverage was poor to non-existent at Headquarters in Poe Valley State Park. Two of the field stations situated on a nearby mountain ridge were detailed to call 9-1-1 if that became necessary. Thankfully, it did not.
Most of the traffic let Headquarters know when the first runners passed a particular field station and when the station closed. These times let the organizers know when stations should be opened and closed for future planning. Although there were no true emergencies amateur radio operators did handle a lot of back and forth traffic about runners who appeared to be ‘missing’. The runners were located with our help and in two cases transported back to Headquarters because they could not finish the race.
Incident Commanders Dan Mort and Libby Jones expressed their thanks for our assistance and hope to have us assist in 2026.
Carmine Prestia, K3CWP