WCF SECTION PRESS RELEASE #19-34

BIKE MS CITRUS TOUR 2020 DATE ANNOUNCED AND VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED

The MS Society has announced that the date of the Bike MS Citrus Tour 2020 will be Saturday March 7, 2020 and Sunday March 8, 2020, which is two months before the tour was held this year and in previous years.  Mike Bresse W2YS, our Assistant Section Manager and amateur radio coordinator for the Bike MS Citrus Tour, has opened up the Citrus Tour website for new and returning volunteers for the Bike MS Citrus Tour 2020.  Amateur radio operators who wish to volunteer for the first time for this event should register at http://www.citrustour.org.  Volunteers returning from a previous Bike MS Citrus Tour do not need to register again but should login into the Citrus Tour website with their credentials and will be prompted to update their contact information.  If a returning volunteer needs assistance with their login credentials, please contact Mike Bresse W2YS via email at mbresse@slbsservicesgroup.com and Mike will be glad to assist you.

Bresse has been informed by the National MS Society that the route for the Bike MS Citrus Tour 2020 will be similar to this years route.  The ride on both days will start and end at the Omni Hotel at Champions Gate which is just off of I-4 just inside of Osceola County.  Approximately 98 percent of the route will be on the northeast, east and southeast side of Polk County, which is in the ARRL West Central Florida Section.  Darrell Davis KT4WX said the following about the Bike MS Citrus Tour, “The Bike MS Citrus Tour is basically an ’emergency without the emergency’.  The Bike MS Citrus Tour is a great opportunity for ARES, ACS, and CERT volunteers to practice their communications equipment, their operating skills, and to build camaraderie with other amateur radio volunteers.  When you have done the tour once you will want to do it again.  ARES personnel from ARES groups in all three ARRL Florida Sections participate in this event and work together as a team.”

More details about the Bike MS Citrus Tour 2020 will be coming out as they are made known.  The amateur radio communications has been sponsored by the ARRL West Central Florida Section since 2018.  This will be the third year that the ARRL West Central Florida Section has sponsored amateur radio communications for the Bike MS Citrus Tour.  For more information you may go to the Bike MS Citrus Tour web page on the Section website at http://arrlwcf.org/wcf-special-events/bike-ms-citrus-tour/.

END OF PRESS RELEASE