San Antonio Hams

Even though I always somehow seem to end up “in charge” of these types of events, I could NOT do this without all the help I get from other Ham Radio operators who “appear out of the woodwork” when I most need them.

Some of you volunteered, changed your personal plans, and showed up to help, even though you were hurting, such as Earlene Harris K5DEH who had just broken a rib a couple days before the event.  Some of you practically “demanded” that I allow you to participate!  🙂

GVAR’s 147.000 repeater cooperated with us all day, with no major glitches noticed.  GVARC had a couple of hams standing by monitoring the repeater, and the event, to be sure it stayed up and running.  We never needed to switch over to either backup repeater frequency.

The weather cooperated with us and we didn’t have many areas of the route with water on them. I know of at least one road that was reported as “wet, but just puddle, not running across the road.”  I promised Paul Yura & his crew that I’d try to get some even t-shirts if they “made the bad weather go away,” so I guess I need to keep that promise. J

I’m currently accepting “after action debriefing reports” from any hams who worked the event.  Please email those reports to me at tdc@sanantoniohams.org when you get the time.  There should be a volunteer party in a few months. If that happens, I’ll put the word out and collect your RSVP’s at that time.

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Special Olympics Spring Games

Hill Country REACT will be operating a special events station at the 2013 AREA 20 Special Olympics Spring Games. The guest operator will be W2IK, who will concentrate on 40 meters, around 7.270 MHZ from about 9AM until he poops out in the afternoon. Feel free to work this station, send a QSL card and a SASE to the QRZ address of  K5HCR, since this is the callsign he will be using.

Guest ops are welcome to join in at the operation:  Location is at the Frank Mata Stadium, 1922 S. General McMullen in the “athlete village’. If you hear us, work us and please post on the cluster!  Back in 2006, we made over 130 contacts in 4 hours. Help us break that record.

Jean and Ed Larose KS5V

I received a text from Jean. Ed passed away this morning sometime around 3:00 a.m. She said “his pain is gone”.

Ed had been recently diagnosed at the VA Hospital with a very rare form of Stage 4 Cancer in his Bile Ducts (Gallbladder). Initially the doctors had given an estimate of 1-2 years, dropped this month to perhaps 6 months, all with proper medical treatment to extend to that date. Ed went on record to decline such treatment, saying he didn’t want to undertake expensive treatment just to prolong the pain another month of two.

Please keep the Larose family in your prayers as they say goodbye to a Husband, Father and Grandfather. Ed didn’t want a funeral service. I will keep you posted on how you may want to pay your respects.

Andrew Watson, K5NNN

This from Jim, WB8AZP, via the ARROW mailing list:

FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT TELL THIS WAS AN APRIL FOOLS HOAX, I”M PUTTING THIS SPOILER UP FRONT!  Duh!

Buried in the middle of the 1200-page Health Care Reform package is something that should be disturbing to all US amateur radio operators. Embedded in the funding guidelines section 415, paragraph 27, line 45, are details on one of the mechanisms that the government intends to employ to help pay for the staggering costs of the new plan.

To put it simply, the new health care guidelines support the notion of creative funding from untapped resources, and from other government agencies, like the FCC.

This puts the burden on funding on other agencies, and therefore the health care reform pundits can claim that “they” didn’t introduce any new taxes to pay for everything.

Lurking in the depths of the new health carecare package is a time bomb waiting to affect all US Amateur Radio Operators; The new Talk And Pay (TAP) Tax.

What does the TAP Tax do? Well, just as it implies, it adds a tax on to each amateur license, based on usage of the bands.

The FCC knew it was going to be troublesome to enforce this kind of regulation, so they came up with a clever scheme – taxation by license class. All Technician, General, and Extra Class Licensees will be taxed at a different rate. Any holdover licenses from different classes will be taxed at the next higher rate, so novice license holders will be taxed as technicians, advanced holders as extra class licensees and so on.

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From: “Alex Garcia”
Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2013 10:33 PM
Subject: Texas Severe Weather Conference

Hello Everyone,

The Texas Severe Weather Conference, SkyWarn Training Session is coming up this Saturday at the University of the Incarnate Word.
Registration is required and is FREE. Sign up, if you haven’t
already done so, at www.texasstorms.org.

See you this Saturday.

Alex Garcia

AB5UE called & asked me to send this out.

The Southwest Lynx Repeater System will be down for a couple of weeks for maintenance.

I don’t have any other details.

Thanks & 73s –

Mark, KE5GL
Kendall Amateur Radio Society

Guadalupe Valley Amateur Radio Club (GVARC) is now offering the opportunity to test for your FCC Amateur Radio License through the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Volunteer Examiner (VE) program.

When: April 6, 2013, Testing starts at 10:00 am.

Location: New Braunfels Fire Department Training Center Emergency Operations Center (1311 Industrial Dr. Suite A New Braunfels, TX 78130)

Exam Fee: $15.00 – Payable by cash or personal check

Requirements: Photo ID or 2 alternate forms of identification, plus your Social Security Number (SSN) or Federal Registration Number (FRN – Free registration on FCC.GOV website).   Note: Testing for License class upgrade also requires applicant’s ORIGINAL License or Certificate of Successful Completion and an additional photocopy of such documentation.

Morse code is not required for any Amateur Radio License

Contact: Gary S. Tangrady K5GST – Volunteer Examiner (VE) via email – K5GST01@gmail.com
or call one of the VE’s at phone – (210) 619-6217

GVARC is now sponsoring an ARRL affiliated VE Team and will conduct test sessions on a quarterly or more frequent basis as the demand for such requires.

When: March 2nd and 3rd, 2013 0600 hrs briefing, 0700 event start
Where: Hill Country State Natural Area, Bandera, TX

Ham Radio support needed for the 2013 AERC Heart of the Hills Endurance Ride.
We will be providing communications and check point support during the event.
The team will be the eyes and ears of the Event Director by providing timely and accurate tracking of the horses/riders on the course and any safety/medical coordination as needed!

We have a briefing at 0600hrs at event control with enough time to disperse and set-up prior to the start.

Voice Communications will be on VHF simplex for the majority of the event. We do have access to an off-site repeater should HT communications be weak.

Packet: if you have portable packet capability, that is a plus, but not required! The set-up we use is similar to the Texas Water Safari program!

For more information or to volunteer, contact Louis – K5STX at k5stx at arrl dot com!

Hill Country REACT Team #4804 is the coordinating group of this event. All licensed Amateur Radio Operators with an interest in Public Service and Emergency Communications are invited to participate!

Thank You,
Louis – K5STX

Tighten up those seat belts, and start your SAG Van engines!

It’s that time again again for Ham Radio Operators to transplant their radios into large 15 passenger vans, or other vehicles, stick their magnetic mount antennas on the roof, turn on your amber light bars (optional, but handy to have), and start looking for those tired, but grateful, bicycle riders on the side of the road who need a lift to the nearest break point.

Riders might just be tired, they might be having mechanical issues with their bicycle, or they may have decided it was just to hot outside and wanted a ride in an air conditioned vehicle that might have some cool bottled water inside.  Or they just might like your smiling face!

April 20th-21st is the BPMS150 ride from Houston to La Grange to Austin. 

Two days, 13,000 bicycle riders, 50+  SAG vans, 12+ SAG Trucks with a school bus following them around like a little lost puppy, 150 Motorcycle Safety Marshals (all ham operators), more than 300 ham radio operators working together on a network of linked repeaters that stretch from Houston to La Grange on Saturday, and Houston to Austin on Sunday.

The famous phrase “Houston, We have a problem” has happened before, and every time it does, the hams come thru with a timely solution.

Unfortunately with this many riders, there is always a higher chance of something going wrong, but with the ham radio coordinated medics and law enforcement, response time has never been faster!

Hams from the San Antonio metro area have helped support this ride for many years, and in return, hams from this ride have come to San Antonio in October to help us with our local MS150 ride as well.  This ride builds friendships on and off the radio.

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