Beargrease Amateur
Radio Coalition

BARC - Who are we? What do we do?

Welcome to BARC! What is BARC? Well, BARC stands for Beargrease Amateur Radio Coalition. We are a group of ham radio operators dedicated to the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon, which is a 150 and 400 mile sled dog race run on the north shore of lake superior in the great state of Minnesota. If you would like to learn more about the Beargrease, you may navigate to the official Beargrease website at www.beargrease.com.

So, what do BARC volunteers do? Well, we do what we do best; use our radios/equipment for the benefit of the race. Our primary goal is to assist in providing safety, health, and welfare for the mushers, dogs, race officials, and volunteers involved in the race. Ham radio operators are needed to staff net control, road crossings, and checkpoints. Ham radio operators work the entire race from start to finish, which usually is 3-5 days, 24 hours a day. Of course, we never ask anybody to work the entire time, but we often times work in "shifts", which can sometimes be very long. This race is not for the faint of heart, nor those who bore easily. Whether you're working net control, road crossings, or checkpoints, the action can go from intense to boring quickly. You may work for 6 hours straight, with hardly enough time to take a break, or you could sit around waiting for teams for 6 hours straight. We're at the mercy of the race.

Net Control - Net control is operated out of the Beargrease Headquarters in Duluth. It is warm, and unlike most checkpoints and road-crossings, has pizza delivery! This is the "luxury" volunteer opportunity of the race. Net control is generally worked by those experienced with the race, or with demonstrated net control experience. There are generally 2 people working net control at any given time, sometimes 3 when it is busy. There is lots of opportunity to try your hand at net control with an experienced operator. If you are interested in working Net Control, please see the Net Control page for sign up information.

Road Crossings - Road crossings are the "roughin' it" part of the race. Some people love working crossings, others hate it. Ham radio operators staff road crossings throughout the race and report team crossings to net control. BARC members record road crossing times and bib numbers and reports this information to net control. Depending on the crossing, Sunday afternoon can be very intense with teams every few minutes, regular traffic, and lots of spectators. Sometimes, you can barely report the teams before the next team is at the crossing. On the flip side, road crossings can be very boring later in the race, with teams every few hours, little traffic, and virtually no spectators. Boredom can quickly set in, so be prepared for that.

Road crossing volunteers must also be prepared to be self-sufficient. Make sure to bring food, and be prepared to take a walk in the woods if you need to relieve yourself. Road crossing volunteers often times will bring foods like beef stew or instant soup and use a portable stove to warm up food, and water for coffee/soup. Some also bring along portable video games, laptops, or portable DVD players to pass the time. If you would like more information on road crossings, click here.

Checkpoints - Ham radio operators also work each checkpoint throughout the race. We report the bib numbers, dog counts, and check-in/check-out times for each team. Each checkpoint is usually staffed by 3-4 BARC volunteers for the duration of the race. Some checkpoints require less operators due to their nature and times they're open. Billy's for example is only open for a few hours on the up-bound leg, but is open for up to 24 hours on the down-bound leg. Finland is usually open for the entire race with a good 12-24 hour break between the up-bound and down-bound leg. Sawbill will sometimes have the first down-bound team only hours after the last up-bound team left.

Operating conditions vary from checkpoint to checkpoint. Finland for example can be worked from inside, with the occasional step outside to communicate with the Beargrease officials. Sawbill on the other hand is completely outdoors, there are no buildings, electricity, and often times the rest-room (outhouse) is snowed in. Sawbill is worked using campers for shelters, and generators for electricity.

As you may be able to tell, this race is an extremely fun event. Some operators take the week off work just to work this race. Others work for just one day. Good operators are hard to come by and operators available during the week are even harder to come by. If you would like to work the race, please click one of the links below.