San Antonio Hams

Read the rest of this entry »

Date:  Tue, 5 May 2015 23:30:12 -0400 (EDT) HB 939 — Thank You For Calling/Faxing Your State Representative But, More Calls & Faxes Need To Be Made

HB 939 is still scheduled to be voted on by the Texas House of Representatives on Thursday, May 7, 2015.

We have a very, very good chance of passing this Bill — IF we have the same effort that everyone made on the cell phone bills. John Robert Stratton, N5AUS, West Gulf Vice Director and his XYL, Mary, visited the Capitol today to speak to each Representative to personally ask them to vote for HB 939. A lot of State Representatives and their staffs commented that they had been called and/or faxed by Hams, asking them to vote for HB 939 — they were impressed. But, many of you have not yet called or faxed your State Representative. We need you to do so. The ARRL cannot pass legislation beneficial to Ham Radio — or defeat legislation that hurts Ham Radio — unless you help us. For those who did not call or fax, we really, really need you to do so on Wednesday. You may determine who is your State Representative — and their fax and telephone numbers — by going to this link and inserting your zip code or your zip code and your address: http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/find-your-representative/

Please DO NOT CALL OR FAX STATE REPRESENTATIVES TONY DALE, RENE OLIVEIRA OR MATT SCHAEFER. These Gentlemen are our Sponsors — they don’t need to be convinced.

DO NOT EMAIL — the ONLY effective contact methods are either faxes or telephone calls. Whether you contact your Representative by phone or fax: BE POLITE – ALWAYS — elected Representatives and their staff are not our enemies. They want to hear from their constituents — the people who vote for them — about Bills their constituents want passed. Some staff members may ask where you are from or for your telephone number – it is ok to tell them – it makes you “real” and convinces them you are not a phony caller. If you call or fax and their telephone numbers are busy – that is good news, because it means other Hams are calling. KEEP CALLING OR FAXING UNTIL YOU GET THROUGH. Read the rest of this entry »

Thomas O Caldwell
April 17th 2015
Amateur License: WD5GXH
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
San Antonio, Texas 78280

Mr. Caldwell,

Please consider this official notice that effective on this 17th Day of April 2015, you are hereby directed that you are not authorized for any purpose beyond an Actual Life or Death Emergency to use any of the Repeaters Owned or Operated by N5XO.

This includes but is not limited to the following Repeaters: 927.0750 / 443.025 / 147.120 / 145.350 and any future repeaters that I should bring on the air. Failure to heed to this notification will result in immediate notification to the F.C.C Enforcement Bureau.

You are in receipt of this notification due to your consistent behavior that is contrary to the Spirit of Amateur Radio, the direct personal abuse aimed at myself personally, as well as the members of our local Radio Group. I also personally believe that you are responsible for the placing of the Jamming transmitter in the creek bed behind my home, as well as guided John Watkins in his actions against me and my family. All actions are contrary to the good Amateur Practices and civilized behavior.

With this, it is my belief that permitting you to use my equipment would not be of benefit to the myself, the local Amateur Community or our Amateur Radio Group.

Gregory Lewis
Amateur License: N5XO

CC
Laura Smith of the F.C.C
Mark Stennant of the Texas VHF Society
Kim Molder, Converse P.D

Note: This letter was sent via registered USPS mail to the ham’s mailing address.  Address was marked out in the above letter.

Gary R Sheets
April 17th 2015
Amateur License: WD5FWP
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
San Antonio, Texas 78218

Mr. Sheets,

Please consider this official notice that effective on this 17th day of April 2015, you are hereby directed that you are not authorized for any purpose beyond an Actual Life or Death Emergency to use any of the Repeaters Owned or Operated by N5XO.

This includes, but is not limited to, the following Repeaters: 927.0750 / 443.025 / 147.120 / 145.350 and any future repeaters that I should bring on the air. Failure to heed to this notification will result in immediate notification to the F.C.C Enforcement Bureau.

You are in receipt of this notification due to your consistent behavior that is contrary to the Spirit of Amateur Radio, the direct personal abuse aimed at myself personally as well as the members of our local Radio Group. I also personally believe that you were involved in the placing of the Jamming  transmitter in the creek bed behind my home, as well as guided John Watkins in his actions against me and my family. All actions are contrary to the good Amateur Practices and civilized behavior.

With this, it is my belief that permitting you to use my equipment would not be of benefit to the myself, the local Amateur Community or our Amateur Radio Group.

Gregory Lewis
Amateur License: N5XO

CC
Laura Smith of the F.C.C
Mark Stennant of the Texas VHF Society
Kim Molder, Converse P.D

Note: This letter was sent via registered USPS mail to the ham’s mailing address.  Address was marked out in the above letter.

Spring is here and so is our public service event season.  We’ve got lots of events coming up, with something for everybody. No experience needed, just lots of enthusiasm.

April 18-19th – BPMS150 ride with 13,000 bicycle riders.  Too late to sign up for this, but 7 of the 40 SAG vans will be coming from San Antonio over to Katy, TX for the start this Saturday morning.  We’ll be picking up our vans in San Antonio at the CAPPS Van Rental location near the SA International Airport on Friday, then driving over to Katy later that day to stay overnight in our FREE hotel room.  Saturday night will also have us staying in a FREE hotel room.  Very little cash out of our pocket. All fuel paid for, hotel paid for, 2 free t-shirts per person, free foot and lots of friendship and fun.

These next  two events are the ones that we really need your help for, the Fiesta Wildflower 100 and the Tour de Cure ride.

April 26th (Sunday) – Fiesta Wildflower 100 Bicycle Tour.  Still needing few more hams to help staff the 9 rest stops along the route, but no SAG drivers are needed.  Last year 1,500 riders were registered.  Start and finish will be at Morgan’s Wonderland, near Wurzbach Parkway and Thousand Oaks, on the northeast side.  Event benefits Morgan’s Wonderland and it is an officially  recognized Fiesta event.  Last year the organizer gave us a $25 Valero fuel card (1 per rest stop) to help compensate for the cost of helping out.

May 9th (Saturday) – American Diabetes Association’s Tour de Cure Bicycle Tour.  We need hams for 9 break points, 10 SAG vans, plus a few other assignments.  We will have brand new routes and a new starting location this year due to the City of Selma passing an anti-bicycle ordinance.   The event has been relocated to the south side of San Antonio, at the Texas A&M University campus on South Loop 410, near Zarzamora.  Routes go east toward Floresville and the longer routes loop down to Pleasanton, TX, over to Poteet and back up to the University finish line.  Atascosa County Hams will be helping with the southern part of the longer route and we welcome their support!

If you want to volunteer, or need more info, please  contact Lee Besing N5NTG at info@SanAntonioHams.org or call/text him at 210-771-7075 (I work late hours, so no early morning calls please). Please leave a message with your name, number, callsign and events you want to help with.

Fellow GVARC members and other hams,

No, it isn’t a spelling error, it was plagiarized from WD5GWT to hopefully grab your attention to start going through your piles of ham stuff and pulling out unused antennas of any sort, superseded ARRL publications, hf. vhf and uhf rigs, meters, ‘scopes, computers, solder stations and such like.

Talk-In Repeater: 147.00- (103.5PL)

Location & Time: You will want to bring those items Saturday morning to GVARC’s swap meet at 0900 Saturday morning, February 14th, 2015,  at the New Braunfels Fire Training Facility, 1311 Industrial Drive here in New Braunfels.

GVARC had hoped to use Granzin’s overflow parking lot diagonally across from the main entrance, but it was discovered this morning that the lot now belongs to a local church.

GVARC requests that you bring only ham related stuff. That is to say, no kittens, puppies, sheep or Avon products. GVARC’s expectation is the honesty typically associated among hams. If you say something works, it should. If you don’t know, say so.

Here’s how is going to happen. Everyone is invited to join us for GVARC breakfast at Granzin BBQ Restaurant (660 West San Antonio Street, in New Braunfels, TX 78130) at 0730 or so Saturday, and then promptly at 0845, we will saddle up and ride over to parking lot where K5GST and his VE team administer GVARC ham exams.

Read the rest of this entry »

MS 150 SAG drivers – thanks again for all that you have done to support MS and ham radio!!  In case you didn’t notice from the calendar and the beautiful day out yesterday, Spring is approaching!!

The  BP MS 150, traveling from Houston to Austin, is April 18 & 19.  If you like BIG, EXCITING events, this one is the king of events.  MS will arrange for you to pick up your SAG van in Houston, San Antonio or Austin (your choice) on Friday.

MS will arrange a hotel room Friday night near the Addicks Park and Ride in Houston.  Then Saturday morning at 5:30 we meet and hit the road with 13,000 bicycle riders and about 50 SAG vans and buses.

We overnight in LaGrange Saturday night and MS will find us a place to sleep – usually a motel room, sometimes a bunk house at one of the camps there. MS will provide us a supper Saturday night and breakfast Sunday morning in LaGrange.  Plus all the bananas you can eat at the break points. 🙂 We finish around 6: 00 pm Sunday, go home, and turn in the van Sunday night or Monday morning.  And you will have many grateful riders as you help them along on the ride.

Having done this for many years, I can tell you it is a LOT of fun and is very rewarding.  You are part of an event that will raise over $20,000,000 for MS, the biggest bicycle fundraiser in the country. – Charlie KC5NKK

If you would be willing to consider this event, let me know and please contact Susan and Steve Shirk and get on their email distro.  If you haven’t worked with them before, you will be delighted at how well organized they are and how appreciative they are of your contribution.

Read the rest of this entry »

Gary Stock WF5Y aka Grumpy”

The local ham store he operated, Grumpy Shop, was closed at the end of September 2014.

Some of his inventory was purchased by Mark Lacey W5TXR, who is considering opening a new Ham Store up in New Braunfels (time period unknown).

As of 09/28/2014, San Antonio does NOT have a local Ham Radio store.

Friday December 5th 6:00 p.m. to Saturday December 6th 6:00 p.m. We still have multiple slots open for this event.

Especially 10:00 p.m. Friday to 6 p.m. Saturday. All license classes invited to participate.

Contact Louis – K5STX at k5stx@k5stx.net or by phone: 830-305-2889

This year the San Antonio
Rock and Roll Marathon
will take up 2 days. 

Saturday, December 6th, will feature the 10k race (new event), while Sunday, December 7th, will feature the normal bicycle tour, full marathon and half marathon races that the Ham Radio operators in San Antonio have long supported.

Due to the increased need for our services, we are especially looking for hams who are willing to work the timer clocks on both days.  The 10k Race route overlaps the top part of the marathon route to a certain extent.

View the full route maps here.

Assignments will be made mostly on a first come, first serve basis, with preference given to those who have worked a location in the past, or living nearby, etc.  Some assignments may require the volunteer to synchronize multiple clocks, such as one for the 1/2 marathon and one for the full marathon that are within a block or so of each other.  If we get lots of volunteers, that will reduce the need for double assignments.

Please contact Lee N5NTG to volunteer via email info@sanantoniohams.org or text message (210-771-7075). Remember to provide your name, callsign, contact info and which events you are available to help with. Please let Lee know if your radio can do both 2 meter and 440 UHF, or just 2 meter because we’re looking at using some alternative repeater frequencies to possibly minimize interference from idiots. Most locations will work fine with just an HT, but the southern most positions may need higher power.  If you have a preference or special need, please include that information.

Don’t forget that the clocks will need to be picked up on Friday evening.  Once you get  your assignment, please take time to locate your physical location during daylight hours, because trying to find your way in before sunrise can sometimes be a real challenge. Roads will be getting closed off hours prior to the start of the race, starting at the north end and working down south.

Read the rest of this entry »