 Hello, thanks for watching this edition of Cal OAS Quick Look. I'm Sean Boyd. We're here right off Highway 1 in beautiful Big Sur. We are in fact right at the beautiful Bixby Bridge. That is in fact the midway point for the Big Sur Marathon. Now the course will not only challenge the 4,500 plus runners, but also the dozens of public safety personnel who will patrol the 26 mile route that ends just north of here in Carmel. But they have a big problem they're working hard to solve, getting their radios to communicate with each other. The ragged edge of the western world. Its breathtaking beauty attracts tourists, artists, romantics. And for the last 32 years, Highway 1 has also attracted runners for the Big Sur International Marathon. The race route is a challenge for runners. They'll wind along the coast and climb from a low of 64 feet to a height of 560 feet above sea level. The problem with radio communications along the route is the topography. Unlike the runners, two-way radio signals cannot make it up and over the hills and around the cliffs. So Cal OAS Public Safety Communications comes to the rescue. Installing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 temporary towers called repeaters. Those strategically placed repeaters take the radio signals, send them to each other and to the first responders' radios. CHP has radio problems here, Cal Fire has radio problems here, and what we're doing is we're enhancing that 30 mile stretch, bringing it all back to this command post so we have as close to seamless communications as we can achieve. Cell phone coverage is also terrible. Now imagine there's a health emergency during the race, or worse, like what happened during the Boston Marathon in 2013. It just showed that there was weak spot. That bombing is why this operation, with its unified command, was implemented five years ago. So that if an incident occurs we can be fast response rather than being somewhere that it takes us a lag time to get here in traffic and what have you is we're already set up and ready to go so we can just go right to business. Cal OES can deploy any or all six of its Mobile Interoperability Gateway Units or MIGUs whenever there's a need for communications between multiple agencies. For instance CHP and Sheriff's Office or FIRE would have you. Cal OES tactical communications set up its incident command post about two blocks from the finish line. Inside dispatchers from the CHP, Cal Fire and Ham Network will handle all first responder radio communications that come in via those repeaters. It's all about strategic placement when it comes to these repeaters and this one here at Point Sur Lighthouse is one of the most important and here's why because it'll catch and receive a signal all the way from the starting line in Big Sur and transmit it all the way up the coast up Highway 1 to Point Lobos. With less than 24 hours till the starting gun, technicians drive the course, testing each repeater along the way. Are you copying me 10-2 or am I breaking up to you? You are 10-2 out of 10. All towers are working, they expected nothing less and it was all done with the help of volunteers like Daniel Bennett who want to give back to their communities but also allow us to get some knowledge and to use these experiences in our day-to-day life. Runners reach the finish line, warn but smiling and celebrate individual achievements. Little did they know so many dedicated professionals were watching their backs and later celebrated their own achievement. So if you'd like more information on public safety communications and just how these wonderful people keep the communications going back and forth throughout the beautiful state of California all you got to do is go to OESNews.com and CalOES.ca.gov and search PSC. For everyone here in beautiful Big Sur and back there at headquarters in Mather, California, I'm Sean Boyd. Thanks for watching. Visit our online newsroom at OESNews.com to learn more about this program and get the latest news and information from our team. Don't miss our next video on your Facebook timeline, like our page and you'll get the latest posts as they happen. If you're an Instagram user, you can see the latest snapshots by following our CalOES Instagram account. And Twitter users can get instant access to our tweets from across the state by following CalOES.