San Antonio Hams

Dr Larry Becker W5VEO

Dr. Larry Becker W5VEO, a well known & active member of Kendall Amateur Radio Socity (KARS), was hit and killed Thursday night (6/28/2012) while riding his bicycle on the access road of Interstate 10 in Kendall County.  Larry was 69 years old, a ham operator & a dermatologist with offices in Boerne and San Antonio.He had last been spotted riding his bicycle along the IH-10 access road less than an hour before the accident by another KARS member, who said Larry had been wearing his trademark bright yellow jersey and a helmet. It was dry and still daylight at the time Larry was hit by the truck.

Around 7:15 p.m. on 06/28/2012, Dr. Larry Becker was struck by an unknown vehicle that fled the scene in the 39000 block of west-bound Interstate 10, a relative confirmed. A Department of Public Safety official said the impact of the crash threw Becker into a ditch and left his bike, a carbon fiber racing-style bicycle, in pieces. Officers at the scene said Becker had died from his injuries.

His wife, Dorothy made public pleas via the news media for information about the hit & run accident, asking for any witnesses or the person driving the vehicle to step forward.  The Kendall County Crime Stoppers put a hefty reward out for info leading the arrest & conviction of the guilty person or persons.

On Monday, July 2nd, after the word went out today about a $25,000 reward going out by Kendall County Crime Stoppers for info//capture of the person who ran down, killed, and hit&run Doc Larry W5VEO Becker, Col MedicalCorps US Army, at 7pm last Thurs late-afternoon — the perp decided to turn himself in.  Hams from KARS had been scouting out the area, looking for pickup trucks or other vehicles with a missing radio antenna (AM/FM was found on the scene) and damage to the right front / side of the vehicle.

Richard reports the following details:

1.)  There will be a viewing at David Vaughn’s Funeral Home, here in Boerne, 319 East San Antonio St., on Monday 9 July from 6-8pm. 2.)  The Funeral Service at 10:30am on Tue 10 July at First Baptist Church is still the same.  There will be a lunch at the church afterwards. 3.)   But, Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery has made room to receive Larry with Military Honors at 2:30pm on Tuesday 10 July 2012.

Our thanks to Richard McDaniel K4RMC & other KARS members for keeping us informed.

I spent about 8 hours at the AARO Field Day at Raymond Russell Park, where they almost ended up with a Marachi Band for entertainment (band went to the wrong pavilion), then moved on to visit the KARS Ham Club in Boerne before swinging back down south around midnight to the SARC Ham Club in Shavano Park.

By the time I left SARC, still running on those 5 hour energy drinks, I started to head south to ROOST, knowing they would be still running full steam ahead even in the middle of the night, but sanity prevailed, and I advised my “extra” wife that I’d be heading home soon instead of visiting more FD sites this weekend.

I used my cell phone to make some videos and take some pics, but the phone battery died & had to be recharged after I left AARO, so no middle of the night pics from KARS or SARC to be shared.  I’ve been promised pics from other hams who were at those locations, however.

AARO did a 1 day only FD event, starting setup around 10am when the park opened (county park hours restricted how long they could stay there), and shutting down & leaving before midnight when the county park turned into a pumpkin one more.  They were running 6 stations in different modes (voice / digital / cw / satellite) on various bands, and had more antennas and generators than I’ve seen in a long time.

Most of the actual radio operators were taking it very seriously, but the bulk of the 50+ hams were just there for the workshops, free food & fellowship.  A few were experimenting with different antennas, mostly home brew, and learning new modes.  There were a handful of brand new hams show up, and AARO took extra time to show them the operations and get them talking on the air to make a contact or two.

Workshops also were conducted on various topics:

• Proper Soldering Techniques
• Building DiPole Antennas
• Quadrafillic (sp?) Antennas
• Anderson Power Pole

Click the link below to continue this article & see some of the pics I took.

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I’m putting out a request here for area 2012 Field Day reports, complete with photos.

If you visited or hosted a Field Day event, and want to share your photos and stories, or even your results, feel free to post them here. Just register on this site (see link to the right) if you haven’t already done so, then send an email to info@sanantoniohams.org to request a status upgrade to allow you to post stories.

I won’t allow personal flames or attacks, so every new author gets moderated until I know they are doing okay.  I can also offer you assistance and advice if you are having problems uploading photos, or whatever.  One trick it to write up your story in MS Word, or another processor, then copy / paste it into the “Add new post” window online.  Add your title, pick a topic category or two (like Field Day, or club name), upload some photos from your computer to show either one by one, or as a gallery at the bottom of your article, and tada!

If you are a ham operator, already registered on this site, you may be already setup to do that.  Just login and add a new post. If you forgot your password, no worry, just click the link to say “forgot my password” and you will get a link emailed to you to create a new password.  I don’t know your password and don’t want to.  The software will automatically handle that for you without my manual intervention.

Registration for being an author on this site, is NOT the same as subscribing to the newsletter.  That’s a separate registration process.  Send your subscription request to subscribe@sanantoniohams.org to be automatically added to the list.  I’ve got about 450 hams already on that list, after dropping about a dozen that bounced from the last mailing.

Hope to see you here soon!

Lee Besing N5NTG
210-771-7075 cell (voice / text okay)

We have collected information for the following Ham Club Field Day Locations, in and around the San Antonio extended metro area…. 

• Alamo Area Radio Organization (AARO)…
• San Antonio Radio Club (SARC)…
• Radio Operators of South Texas (ROOST)…
• Kendall Amateur Radio Society (KARS)… (Boerne, TX)
• Guadalupe Valley Amateur Radio Club (GVARC)… (New Braunfels, TX)
• Hill Country Amateur Radio Club (HCARC)… (Kerrville, TX)
• South Texas DX Contest Club (STXDXCC)… (Bandera, TX)
• Atascosa Amateur Radio Club (AARC)… (Poteet, TX)
• Coyote Amateur Radio Club (KS5TX) (Uvalde, TX)

ARRL’s Master Field Day Search Site – Map 

See below for details…  Not all clubs have registered with ARRL’s website.

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Staples Dam Lowerside

This was only my second year to participate in this challenging event, with about 135 canoe teams starting to paddle down the river at 9am Saturday morning (6/9), and continuing on down the river over 260 miles until they reached the Gulf Coast at Seadrift, Texas, 2 to 4 days later.  Or else quit along the way.This year, 141 teams entered, 134 teams started in San Marcos, and 80+ teams actually made it all the way to the finish line.  The first team to finish got there just before midnight on Sunday night, and the last team to arrive got there sometime late on Wednesday morning I think.  See the event website at www.TexasWaterSafari.orgfor full details.

This was also the first year they had a death in the race, with a contestant being flown on Sunday (day 2) to a hospital back in San Marcos, after he collapsed.  (details on their website).

Ham Radio operators staffed a boatload of checkpoints (pun intended) starting about the 16 mile point at Staples Dam (where my son David KD5MTJ and myself N5NTG where stationed).   Each checkpoint ham team would record the team #, time in and out, and then enter that info into an Excel spreadsheet.  Once entered, it was transmitted over Packet Radio downstream to all the other checkpoints using digipeaters that had been setup as relays all the way to the coast.    Some checkpoints have become family traditions, where you almost have to inherit the assignment to be able to work it, but extra hams are usually always welcomed.  The list of hams is quite long, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to list them all here without missing someone and possibly hurting their feelings. 🙂

I made a trip out to this location the week before the event, to contact the land owners and familiarize my self with the layout. That pre-planning helped make setup much smoother, because the owners allowed us to tap into their electricity and thus avoid the need for generator or extended battery operations on the day of the event.  It also let us find out the “secret” location of the flush toilets inside the barn, instead of making the long trek across the bridge to the porta potties on the other side of the river.

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ONE-DAY HAM RADIO REVIEW COURSE
For Amateur Radio Technician License Exam
Saturday, June 16, 2012
8:30 a.m. to ~6:00 p.m.

COST: $75 – Includes book, continental breakfast, lunch, and fee for one 35-item multiple-choice exam given at the end of the day (or $55 if you already have book)

TARGET AUDIENCE: Anyone wanting to earn their entry-level ham radio license

COURSE BOOK: Study and bring to class (7th edition, ISBN 978-0-945053-62-0) Technician Class, EFFECTIVE July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2014, by Gordon West.

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My son David KD5MTJ and myself made the trip up north to Austin to help out Paul KA5FZU with coordinating the ham radio communications for this year’s single day event.  It started & ended at the Travis County Expo Center, east of Austin, and featured multiple routes (11, 30, 55, 78, 100) spread across two counties.  Law enforcement support was great, especially the Williamson County Sheriff’s department who kept in close phone contact with me during the event until all riders had cleared out of his county.    One rider, who was spotted by the WC Sheriff deputy appearing to be in health distress, was placed inside his patrol car for the air conditioning until we could send a SAG truck (ABC Home & Commercial Services) up to retrieve him.  Talk about service?  Don’t know if the rider was in the front or back seat, however. 🙂

We used APRS trackers from the Austin Amateur Radio Club to track 6 of the SAG trucks and 6 of the supply trucks (Austin Energy).  We coordinated medical coverage with the MSET-TX motorcycle group out of Austin, who provided a handful of trained, certified EMT motorcycle riders, able to respond promptly to medical incidents out on the route.

The Comm Center was setup inside the main Banquet Hall, in a small room that had no windows, and virtually zero air conditioning.  We ran the coax cables up thru the false ceiling into a nearby electrical room, and then out thru an opening in the concrete block wall to our antennas.   Internet services were provided by WiMaxSATX.com using CLEAR’s 4G WiMax Internet services.

Here are some photos taken during the event.  As I get more time, I’ll add some captions to better explain them.

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Richard Jay Kilman, K5BBI, born Oct. 21, 1952 in Fredericksburg, passed away March 19, 2012, in San Antonio, surrounded by a host of family and an enormous amount of love. A compassionate man, he was the most awesome father, grandfather, brother and friend to multitudes of people all around the globe.

Rich was an active member, and former officer,  of the KARS (Kendall Amateur Radio Society) in Boerne, Texas.

Richard was the father of Ryan Birks-Kilman and wife Laurel of Kissimmee, Fla.; Kelly Kilman Anderson, and Katy Kilman of San Antonio. He was the grandfather to Alison, Erin, Katie, Cassidy, Lily and Sarah of Kissimmee, Fla; Mikayla, Kirstin, Rogan and Evelyn of San Antonio. He is also survived by sisters Mary Martin and Melanie Roller and husband Frank of Pipe Creek; and brother Ronald Kilman of Austin. He is also survived by five nieces and four nephews.