UNDER THE WEATHER AT THE OLD MIL
by Tony Tellier

Once again The Weatherman, sometimes known as Bob Steinberger, performed a badly-needed and well-completed task at the Tecate SCORE International Baja 1000. Bob, perched high atop the Sierra Pedro San Mártir granitic batholith south of Mike’s Sky Rancho, suffered a long day and an even longer night under adverse conditions … the dark of a moonless night and the 10º F winter temperatures … in a summer-weight tent! Being so close to the National Observatory, he was hard-pressed to reduce any light population – i.e., light shining through the thin tent fabric:“I’ve taped garbage bags to the inside walls, but the tape doesn’t stick in this cold!”he lamented. Jeez – have Sal buy you a polar expedition quality unit!

Bob is the founder and patriarch of PCI Radios (http://www.pciraceradios.com/about/)

PCI Race Radios, a major racing communications company based in Signal Hill California, provides radio services and motorsports products to a wide array of organizations throughout the country. PCI Race Radios is a family-owned and -operated company. PCI Racing has been a part of off-road racing and the communications industry since 1977. PCI Race Radios founder, Bob Steinberger, known in the off-road racing arena as the "Weatherman", has been an integral component of many events via radio support for teams, medical crews, and on-course checkpoints. Bob has volunteered his communication knowledge and experience to off-road since 1979.

While the Weatherman provides a wealth of continuous entertainment and valuable information, there is the one feature that makes a dangerous endeavor less perilous: Bob is the focus of all incident reports and has the direct ear of SCORE Ops and, therefore, the rescue helicopters.

Work or visit a non-Weatherman event and you will see the difference immediately; you don’t know nothing. You are in the dark; there is no race op radio info and certainly no vehicle info, other than what you can get from your meager methods. Sure, no big deal at Barstow but at Vegas to Reno = “Duh?”

During the ’92 “1000” Lor and I chased from Guerrero Negro to La Paz. We lost all radio contact after the perilous descent into the old once-French copper mining town of Santa Rosalia. We were in a total black-out until we passed the Loreto Sierra la Giganta pass heading to the Pacific and Cd. Constitucion. No Checker radio! Zip. Bingo. ???? Grrr! Later they said, “Oh, we switched over to the Weatherman! We were tracking Larkin.” It was hard to argue that!

VALLE DE LA TRINIDAD VS. EL DORADO VALLEY

You may have followed the Weatherman at, OK, say, the Primm, or Henderson … but the difference between Jean and Jamau (aka “Jo-mama Junction”) is manifold. Primm is a sixty-mile closed course ... that’s a nominal twenty-mile diameter loop encompassing only 314 square miles. If you HAD to, you COULD walk out. But the “Thou” runs hundreds of miles down south and, worse, lies on either side of the highest mountain range in the peninsula … plus Picacho del Diablo, at over 10,000 feet, is the highest peak in Baja.

The checkpoints are often remote and in a radio “shadow” … this “1000” Bob could not reach Checks Five, Six and Seven … located down south on the Pacific side.

More like 2,000 square miles.

HIGHWAY OR MY WAY

Races in the US do not share the highways with chasers and local yokel traffic, either. Mucho peligro! And the high-speed highway crossings, such as at Ojos – only 38 miles into the race – have the potential for disaster. I am always amazed when we dodge the bullet one more time.

OBLIGATORY LECTURE

Race day started out, as they all do, with Bob having to chastise, then educate, the uncaring, unknowing, and the careless in the basic rules of microphone handling:“SOMEONE HAS A STUCK MIKE!” (Emphasis NOT added!)

He then reiterated what we have heard at every SCORE race since Bob was a little Weatherboy.

“Are you sitting on your mike?”

“Unplug your mike, to be sure! You MIGHT have a bad mike with a stuck switch.”

And who can forget the ever-popular”

“Touch the cooling fins on your radio. If they are hot, it’s transmitting continuously and it’s YOU that’s jamming the air waves.”!

Some interesting talk is often overheard by the entire race population. At parker on year, several wives were discussing the faults and foibles of their husbands: “He leaves the toilet seat up in the dark,” and that sort of amusing lady talk. A more bizarre deal was when a chase truck full of Zonie cokies were sitting on the mike doing lines and discussing the latest price of blow. Everyone knew who it was, too!

LUNCH BREAK

His irascibility turned around after lunchtime … when he became noticeably congenial and supportive. Until later.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

According to the driver’s meeting, the race start time, for the cars, had been moved up by an hour … from 0830 to 0930 … to give the bikes a well-needed three hours head start … but that detail was late in being confirmed to Bob up on the mountain; mucho radio traffic was dedicated to ascertaining that nine-thirty o’clock flag time.

011? 001? 01? 1? TELEPHONE 101

Bob was trying to sat-phone a number in Mexicali … or Ensenada … or San Diego … from somewhere else. From the mountain? Uncertainty reared its ugly head as Steinberger attempted to ascertain which prefix was necessary for the dial-up.

Here’s how it works:
• 011: Dial this in the USA to call outside of the US (Plus the country code … Mexico is “52”)
• 001: Dial this from outside the USA to reach the US (“001” is the USA’s country code)
• 01: Dial this in Mexico to reach a number in Mexico in a different area code (Ensenada is 646; San Felipe/Mexicali is 686). This is the Mexican method of dialing “1” in Asuza.
• 1: Dial this in the USA to reach a number in the US in a different area code (but you already knew this)

This became a major production --“^&%$%^$%@^$#@^%$#^%”-- much to the delight of the many lurkers.

STATUS NOT QUO

Bob lights his short fuse when teams continuously call him to track the every whereabouts of their car:“Listen up #552. I am not going to track your car around the course. Call me for status only when your car is over forty-five minutes late. You have asked for status sixteen times today. If you call me again I will do unto you … and you will not like it. I will cut you off. Understand?” We were LOFAO!

I tried this same ploy at SCORE Barstow back in the summer of 1992 – and also failed, miserably. “Tony, let’s get one thing straight right now! I am not going to track your car all around the course.” I hung my head in shame. I learned not to use my real name. Now we just say that we are tracking Dave Sykes and call in every ten minutes! =;oD

I heard of this guy, ya know, who was looking for a small Boojum tree to dig up for his San Felipe digs. It was the next morning and race seemed over, at least at LA Bay; so personal chatter became prevalent. The Weatherman put stop to that right a-way!

CHANNEL NUMBER 5

My fav is when Bob asks a guy to go to HIS car’s race frequency for further, detailed information:“What’s your race frequency?” A“Channel Five”reply gets little further help. I heard that.

Or“Weatherman, where is my car?” “What’s your car?” “It’s the blue Jimco” “Click”. I heard that, too.

OOPS

There was a prerace flap between several teams now using the same race frequency. The “1600” K.I.T. kids – Eric Allen and Adam Pfankuch – have been using the Los Campeones freak for some time, along with a Best In The Desert team and once-in-awhile Class 1 racer “Hot” Rod Muller. Kreg Donahoe’s “Stock Mini” team began using the same 152.960 channel to the apparent consternation of Allen/Adam/Mike, et al.

• K.I.T. 152.960
• Kreg Donahoe 152.960
• Los Campeones #1 152.960
• Malcolm Vinje #2 152.960
• PCI #5 152.960
• Rick St. John 152.960
• Rod Muller #2 152.960
• Dan Fresh 152.960

Yo, Tone! It should be remembered that Los Campeones and its membership IS the only entity licensed to use 152.960. I carry a copy of my license in the truck to prove it. Dan Fresh, et al., are using the freq illegally. Time to call the FCC swat team!

Litigously yours, Dave

This “152.960” issue is not an isolated instance/situation, right? Right? OK!

An example: in the Las Vegas area the normal Checker frequency – 151.926 – is always “hot”, with all day and all night hotel chatter bleed-over:“We need ‘n arning bord in room fo-teen-uh-two.” The work-around? Checkers have an alternate “LV” freak that we use.

PCI does all our work and we love them and where would the B1K be without the Weatherman? God bless Bob Steinberger, without him & BFG Relay we all would be in serious trouble.

Bruce Conrad

F&L Co., Inc. [Fuels & Lubricants]

The Weatherman should be treated with respect and even, kindness. It’s a nonstop job and who could fill his Doc Martens?

Buy Bob a beer. And drop by the PCI semi to say “Thanks” … and on the air, too.

But make it brief, you know!?

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