WCF SECTION PRESS RELEASE #19-01
MIKE BRESSE W2YS RECIPIENT OF THE 2018 WHITE AWARD
Mike Bresse W2YS talking about the Bike MS Citrus Tour at the Tampa Bay Hamfest during the ARRL forum.
On Saturday December 8th, 2018 at the Tampa Bay Hamfest and during the ARRL forum, the 2018 White Award was presented to Mike Bresse W2YS. Bresse received a 2018 ARRL Handbook from the ARRL West Central Florida Section and one year paid ARRL membership from the West Central Florida Group, the owners of the NI4CE repeater system. Bresse was appointed an Assistant Section Manager of the ARRL West Central Florida Section on February 1, 2018, to be the amateur radio coordinator of the Bike MS Citrus Tour amateur radio communications upon the ARRL West Central Florida Section assuming the sponsorship of amateur radio communications for the Bike MS Citrus Tour in January of 2018. Bresse took over as the amateur radio coordinator for the Bike MS Citrus Tour in 2018 succeeding Jason Triolo KD4ACG who had been the amateur radio coordinator for a number of years and had decided to step down to transition to coordinating the Bike Marshall program for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Bresse had previously been the SAG vehicle coordinator for a number of years and in 2017 became the amateur radio co-coordinator.
Bresse developed the amateur radio support website for the Bike MS Citrus Tour at http://www.citrustour.org in 2016, which provided a “one stop place” for all Bike MS Citrus Tour volunteer registration, related support documentation such as SOP’s, assignment rosters, printable placards, etc. Bresse also implemented two nets, Logistics and Operations, to improve radio communications, and computer logging for the net control stations in 2018. Bresse has developed and plans to implement in 2019 an online form that can be filled out easily on a smartphone that riders on the route can simply fill out, which will pull their GPS coordinates, if they need to be sagged into another rest stop or the finish line, which will hopefully improve dispatch response time to render assistance to riders.
Darrell Davis KT4WX, Section Manager, said, “Mike W2YS is deserving of the White Award as he tirelessly spends a lot of his personal time and money, particularly in the months of March and April, in preparation for the Bike MS Citrus Tour. Mike does all the top level coordination for the ride, coordination of road stripping and route signage, has made tremendous improvement to the Logistics to support the Bike MS Citrus Tour, and is working on the new self-reporting form for SAG pickup by rider for 2019.”
The White Award is annual award instituted in 2016 by the ARRL West Central Florida Section to recognize the amateur radio operator who has made the most significant contribution to amateur radio in the ARRL West Central Florida Section in the year of the award. It is awarded at the Tampa Bay Hamfest every December.