What's It All About? How many people have seen car rallies on TV - the annual event that used to be called The RAC Rally but now is The Network Q Rally GB, for instance - and not given a thought to the safety crews that are present? Except for the marshals. Can't miss them really, they stand there in their high visibility jackets and can be seen sorting problems out whenever they are needed. If you look a bit harder you will see on some junctions there sits a car with an aerial that doesn't look like a CB or car radio aerial. That is the Marshal's link with the Organisers of the Event. The radio works on the MSA Safety and Medical frequency and there are cars like that spaced at intervals on each stage throughout the rally. With the car should be two people, one to sit with the radio and one to do the marshalling. On radio junctions the latter will be the one you see in the high visibility jacket. The other will be sitting in the car with one ear glued to the radio while marking off the number of every car that passes and reporting to the Controller anything that is "not quite right". For instance a car might have sustained damage or have an engine problem. Once such a thing is reported all the radio crews pay particular attention to that car and the finish radio will report its arrival at the finish. Thus if the car does not arrive at finish within the expected time frame a search will be put out for it over the radio. Every car is timed in and out of each stage. At start and finish will be radios who report the competitor numbers of the first and last three cars in/out and the time of the last one so the organisers can keep track of the rally as a whole. And, like instage radios, they keep a record on a checksheet of every car that goes in/out of stage so the Controller can keep track of each individual car. If a car stops for any reason it will be the job of the Controller to find out where it is and why it is stopped. It is here that the radios come in handy. Each radio post is polled to see if a missing car has been past them. Thus the car can be pinned down to having stopped between two radio posts. Then a runner (the radio operator's second man) is sent from both posts to search for the car. Now one wonders who has the worst job, the radio operator with one ear on the radio while he checks off the cars on his checksheet or the second man who may have to walk a few miles before he finds the missing car. Oh, yes, remember he then has to walk back to his radio post to report where he has (hopefully!) found the car and why it is stopped and giving all the information he can about the situation. Of course if the radio marshal has found competitors with injuries that need medical attention it will be up to the radio operator to report this and the Controller will likely stop the stage to allow the Rescue Crew to go in to assist. Again the radio comes in handy - the Rescue crews all have the frequency installed. All manner of things are dealt with by the radio operator, anything that is a matter of safety for the competitors, spectators, organisers, in fact anyone and everyone who is at the rally. The radio operator is the link between the Organisers and the track. Nothing could be as important for the safety of a rally than a Radio Marshal.