Children Tangled in Dipole After Special Event Station Becomes Pokéstop

By K5KAC, on the scene

VERMILION, OREGON – The Vermilion City Amateur Radio Club awoke early yesterday morning to the cries of local children tangled in their 80m dipole.

“From far away I could see the screens of their iPhones glowing as they called out for help in getting untangled. It was the loudest racket I’ve ever heard,” said Ash Allman, who lead the effort in freeing the kids.

The children were caught in the dipole after the S.S. Anne Park and Marina was named a Pokéstop in the popular mobile game Pokémon GO. A Pokéstop is an area, typically a landmark or park, where Pokémon Trainers can converge to get prizes and set lures to attract rare Pokémon characters. A player must physically visit these locations to collect the rewards.

“We were all set up to work into the night, but the band conditions went south so we decided to get some rest,” lamented Misty Brock, the event organizer. “It wasn’t until morning that we found about a dozen kids wrapped up in the legs of the dipole.”

At press time, the special event station had been forced to cease operation due to lack of participation, with one member finding a high-level Charmander character in his tent and the rest wandering the nearby tree line looking for a Clefairy.

photo credit: IMG_9241 via photopin (license)