San Antonio Hams

Saturday was one of the first organized ADA Tour de Cure Rider Rallys scheduled for the 2012 event.  The event started on the south side of San Antonio at the Texas A&M Campus on Gillette, just north of Palo Alto College with aproximately 156 riders registered.  Rally Riders had a choice of 3 routes, a 15 mile (out & back), 32 mile or 53 mile.  

APRS Tracking of SAG #2

As you can see from the screen shot to your right that shows the APRS tracking from N5NTG-9, the bottom section shows the route.  We’ve put a marker at the split for the 32/53 mile route on the image, along with a few notes.   My van was SAG #2, N5NTG-9, and we covered primarily the longer route, but did a lot of back tracking & delivery of riders who couldn’t finish.

We had 2 SAG vehicles, one driven by David Sloan, the other driven by Lee Besing N5NTG.  Riders had a choice of taking SAG #1 or SAG #2 this weekend. 🙂    SAG #2 had APRS tracking active all day (see above notes) and worked mostly the longer route, while SAG #1 worked the shorter route (and kept much busier because only about 1/3 of the riders rode the longer route).   

 We had 13 Motorcycle Safety Marshals for this event, with about half of them being hams.  We ran a short informal net (no net control per se) for the event, and never asked that the repeater we used (STARS 146.66) be closed for our exclusive use that morning.

The ride kicked off at 8:30am, and the last rider didn’t finish until nearly 1:30pm.  No accidents were reported needing medical care, although we had several riders with blown tires, or other mechanical failures that needed to be SAG’d into finish.

One of the “fun” things I got to do in SAG #2, was have Alex from KSAT 12 TV ride with me, taking photos of the various riders along the route, and some video.  He’s going to create a 30 second promo video for the Tour de Cure event to be shown on TV.

The big ride, the South Texas Tour de Cure, is on Saturday, May 19th, starting in Boerne, TX, with four (4) routes available.  The two longer routes go north of Boerne, the two shorter rides go south toward Fair Oaks Ranch.  Many more Hams are needed for this big event, to cover Break Points, drive SAG Vans, shadow event officials, etc.  Contact Lee N5NTG at info@sanantoniohams.org or call 210-771-7075 (voice / text).

Here are some photos from the March 17th Rider Rally…. Read the rest of this entry »

Spring is in the air, and our calendar list of events is springing into action.  We’ll eventually get all of these posted to the actual calendar, but here is the quick and dirty listing of the next few major public service events where Hams are needed here in the Central / South Texas area.

FYI – This is our 500th article posted on San Antonio Hams!  Yay!

• March 25th – Tall Texan Triathlon (Boerne), 1 day event.  Participants swim in Boerne City Lake, ride their bikes 56 miles (route thru Waring), and run 12 miles.  Hams needed at checkpoints / rest stops on the ride and run portion of the route, no need to get your radio wet in the lake.  Gordon Dial K5SUZ coordinating. Contact him by phone (only) at 210-410-9518. No email.
• March 25^th – Capitol 10K Race & Fun Run- 35th Anniversary!  35th Anniversary – Sunday, March 25, 2012. Jeff Schmidt, N5MNW, coordinating. Contact Jeff at N5MNW@arrl.net
• April 21-22nd – BPMS150 (Houston to Austin), 2 day event, arrive Friday night before to get free hotel room for SAG Hams.  Using dual band mobile radios (preferred) because some nets are on VHF (2 meter) and others on UHF.  Lee Besing, N5NTG, & Charlie Land, KC5NKK coordinating.  Contact Lee at 210-771-7075 or email info@sanantoniohams.org, Contact Charlie at 512-796-7565 or email at kc5nkk@hillcountryreact.org.
• April 22nd – Wildflower 100 Bicycle Tour (San Antonio), 1 day event, start / end at Retama Park (IH-35 & 1604 area).  SAG Hams and Rest Stop Hams needed.  Gordon Dial K5SUZ coordinating.  Contact him by phone (only) at 210-410-9518.  No email.
• May 5th – Central Texas Tour de Cure (Austin), 1 day event. Start / Finish at Travis Expo Center. 5 routes, many rest stop hams & SAG Hams needed, plus net control.  Using the Austin 146.94 repeater most likely.  Jeff Schmidt, N5MNW, coordinating.  Contact Jeff at n5mnw@arrl.net or Lee at info@sanantoniohams.org to volunteer.
• May 19th – South Texas Tour de Cure (Boerne / San Antonio), 1 day event.  Start / Finish at Champion High School in Boerne, Texas.  5 routes, 8 rest stops, 8 SAG Hams (plus navigator), net control help, etc. Lee Besing, N5NTG, coordinating.  Contact Lee at info@sanantoniohams.org to volunteer.
• June 9-10th – Texas Water Safari, multi-day event, but San Antonio hams usually only handle Day 1, way into the night on some locations.  http://www.texaswatersafari.org for info.  Eric Olson, WB5ZJQ, coordinating.  Contact Eric by email at wb5zjq@sarepeater.net to volunteer. Packet Radio used to transmit canoe numbers to other stations down the river.   Some positions are short (closer to start line), and others are mosquito bait (late into the night).  This event can be lots of fun, sort of a mini-Field Day event, combined with a picnic. Every location is different.
• June 23-24^th – Field Day Weekend.  We’ll be posting locations for the various organized ham clubs in the upcoming weeks, and for the unorganized ones as well.

See more details below for the BPMS150 and Tour de Cure events…

Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t overlook the Williamson County Hamfest on Saturday, February 25,2012 ast the San Gabriel Park Community Center in Georgetown, Texas. For more details go to: http://wcarc.com/wcarc.com/swapfest.html .

This is always a fun hamfest and it is amazing what you can find for sale!

N5AUS
Vice Director
West Gulf Division

The Orange Amateur Radio Club and Jefferson County Amateur Radio Club will be holding their annual Orange Hamfest on Saturday, February 25, 2012, athe VFW Post 2775 in Orange, Texas. For more details go to: http://www.qsl.net/w5nd/ .

Director Woolweaver, STX SM Lee Cooper, STX SEC Tom Whitesides and I all plan to attend. Come talk to us – we might learn something!

N5AUS
Vice Director
West Gulf Division

ARRL will conduct a virtual tour of Amateur Radio’s flagship station, W1AW, at 5:00 p.m. EST today, February 12, 2012.
The station is impressive and should be seen – and operated – by every HAM. If you haven’t seen it, this is an excellent opportunity to see how membership dollars and donations have been put to an outstanding use.

N5AUS

The following letter (from REACT) was hand delivered to SARO at their membership meeting on January 27th. The SARO membership subsequently passed a motion at that same meeting, to authorize the SARO board to spend up to $5,000 for obtaining the services of a tower crew and needed hardware to finish this project ASAP. 

Nearly 2 years ago, Hill Country REACT purchased  a 1283 ft long’ spool of 1-5/8″ foam core Anderson Heliax, and reserved it for the completion of the 147.14 restoration project, but if the project remains unlikely to move forward, this valuable resource will be reassigned, or sold  by, REACT for other more feasible projects. – Lee N5NTG

Read the rest of this entry »

Ham Radio Help Desk – January 2012 Newsletter
http://www.hamradio.me

Hams helping hams make the most of the hobby of amateur radio. 

1. ‘UHF’ Connector Test Results – 2011-10-02 21:10:43-04
   Real measured data reveal the UHF (PL259 and SO239) connectors have real limitations.
2. Hexbeam Gets a Spine – 2011-10-03 00:15:49-04
   My G3TXQ Hexbeam gets a new metal backbone to accommodate a VHF beam antenna. A byproduct is a much stronger antenna assembly.
3. Installing Ground Rods the Easy Way – 2011-10-04 23:54:04-04
   Ground Rods… so easy a pre-teen can do it. Presented is a method learned from other hams on how to install a ground rod with minimal or no hammering. Using a watering can, even children can sink an 8 foot ground rod into the ground. All it takes is water and time.
4. Help: How can I Migrate Microsoft Works 2004 Logs to New Program – 2011-11-05 10:16:16-04
   K3CDQ asks: I have an old computer with lots of 2002, 3 and 4 software on it. I have thirty years of ham contacts logged in a data base that I worked up using Microsoft Works 2004. I now have a new computer with all 2010 and 2011 software on it and running XP. I […]
5. J-Pole Antenna – Should I ground it? – 2012-01-28 01:10:48-05
   To function as intended, the J-Pole antenna needs electrical isolation from its mount. Here’s why and in technicolor no less.

(c) 2011-2012 John Huggins Internet, Warrenton, VA 20186, USA

SARO has resumed publishing quarterly issues of the SARO Bulletin, their club newsletter. The newsletters are open for reading by the general public, and the January 2012 issue can be read using the link below.

NEXT SARO Memberhip Meeting – Friday, January 27th. See website or newsletter for details.

THE SARO BULLETIN (CLUB NEWSLETTER) IS BACK!

Eric Olson, WB5ZJQ, is the new editor.

Check out the newest issue on the Bulletin webpage, or click on the image to the left of this notice. This file is in Adobe Reader format (PDF) and is 33kb in size

At the Board Meeting in January the board members elected the new officers for the coming year.

• President is Royce Taylor, KA5OHJ
• Vice President is Chuck Kenworthey, WB5FWI
• Secretary is Lyle Turner, KB5SU
• Treasurer is Don Kirchner, W5DK 
• Directors Stan Stanukinos, KA5IID
• Scott Renwick, WB5ZJI
• Gordon Dial, K5SUZ

Quarter Century Wireless Association
San Antonio Chapter 38

The QCWA monthly meeting will be on Saturday, January 28th at 11am.  The meeting will take place at Sea Island located on Bandera Road just inside Loop 1604. The restaurant is located inside Bandera Shopping Center across te street from H.E.B. The restaurant’s phone number is 651-7000. The meeting starts at 11:00a.m. but many start showing up at 11:00 to order their lunch.

Program will be:

Richard Elder WB5ACN will present this month’s program entitled “Inside Your Cell”. Richard is an AT&T Engineer and is very knowledgeable in electronics and antennas. This program will prove to be a very informative presentation.

It is not necessary to be a member of QCCWA at attend any of our presentations.

Visitors are always welcome.

QCWA weekly net: Chapter 38 conducts the weekly net at 147.380- (162.2)and is conducted at 8:30 p.m. local time Sunday. Thanks for AARO for the use of their repeater.

QCWA International Net is on 14.347 at 2:00 p.m. local time.

QCWA CW Net takes place on Wednesday at7:00 p.m. local time at 7.036Mhz.