As you're watching the Tournament of Roses Parade on TV, ever wonder how those huge, flower-bedecked floats make it to the start of the parade route on Orange Grove Boulevard? Probably not. Well, Allen Hubbard has. And for the past six years, this major logistics challenge has been much simpler thanks to Garmin GPS, ham radios, mapping software and Allen's idea to combine all these technologies.

For the past 14 years, Allen (N6VTX) has been an active member of TORRA (Tournament of Roses Radio Amateurs), a volunteer group that uses two-way radio communications to support parade operations. Originally, TORRA members helped with the local Pasadena law enforcement during the parade and later started assisting with the float convoys.

"There are nine convoys of 60 parade floats moving from their construction barns to the parade's formation area," Allen said. "Some have to travel as far as 20 to 30 miles and be put in the correct order in the parade’s line of march. When you're moving an 80-foot float, you just don't parallel park the thing."
For years, TORRA members used Ham radios, and later, tournament officials used cell phones to communicate between convoys and get all the floats lined up in the correct order. Worked fine until the networks got jammed from all the back-and-forth communications. Allen thought "if we could see where these floats were coming from, we could route them much easier."

Allen had heard of a system that used GPS receivers to track events like the Olympic torch relay, and he thought the same technology could be applied to tracking the float convoys. The system is called APRS, or Automatic Position Reporting System. APRS was developed by Bob Bruninga (WB6APR) in 1992. APRS uses GPS receivers to collect location data and overlay it on a computer mapping program. The location data is updated once every second. Instead of simply updating the position on the unit's display, as Garmin GPS receivers do, this system transmits positions to a remote computer.

"Using this system, the Tournament of Roses officials know in real time where each float convoy is," Allen said. "This information is crucial when you are lining up 60 floats in numeric order. The use of this system has cut our two-way radio and cell phone traffic by 80 percent."

The APRS tracking system was first used in the 1997 Rose Parade and has been used every year since. A total of 13 tracker vehicles are equipped with the system and all but one use Garmin GPS receivers, mostly GPS 12 and GPS II units.

"For the first few years, another GPS manufacturer was helpful and supplied us with units, but they didn't work that well," Allen said. "Some TORRA members started using their own Garmin GPS receivers, and the system has worked flawlessly."

Allen said the float convoys are like a rock star entourage, complete with mechanics, equipment, support people, vehicles for the float officials and police motorcycles. Most of the convoys, traveling at speeds of 5-10 miles an hour, make the trek late at night on New Year's Eve.

"You can imagine what a traffic nightmare this could be," Allen said. "Once, we had three convoys come together at one intersection. It took hours to get it all straightened out."

Allen is an associate engineer at the Jet Propulsion Lab (J.P.L.) for NASA. A lifelong resident of Pasadena, he has helped with the Rose Parade for years. As a teen, he built floats. While attending college, Allen took photos for the Pasadena City College school paper. And today, as APRS chairman for the TORRA group, he sees to it that all those beautiful, high-dollar floats — some costing over a million dollars — get in formation without a hitch.

So this New Year's Day, when you're watching the parade on TV, think about Allen and hundreds of other volunteers working behind the scenes to bring the show to you. And know that a little ingenuity and some Garmin GPS helped them get there.

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