San Antonio Hams

HOW DRY IS IT ?

It’s so dry in South Texas that…

the Baptists are starting to baptize by sprinkling,

the Methodists are using wet-wipes,

the Presbyterians are giving out rain-checks, and

the Episcopalians are praying for the wine to turn back into water.

Now THAT’s Dry!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so it’s a lame attempt at humor. But it is too dry down here in Texas!

Looks like all current hurricane path predictions have Hurricane Bill veering north up along the Alantic eastern seaboard of the USA, instead of west into the Gulf of Mexico.  Guess Bill learned that the ham operators in Texas were prepared to respond to his visit, and decided to go look for better hunting elsewhere…  🙂

Actually, based on the track shown on www.stormpulse.com it would seem that Bill doesn’t even want to visit the eastern portion of the USA, except perhaps for a quick brush past the state of Maine?

Hurricane Bill Advisory 22 08-20 at 4pm ET

From ARRL.ORG — On August 11, the FCC announced that the cost of an Amateur Radio vanity call sign will increase $1.10, from $12.30 to $13.40.  Now that notice of the increase has been published in the Federal Register, the increase will take effect in 30 days, September 10, 2009.   The FCC is authorized by the Communications Act of 1934, As Amended, to collect vanity call sign fees to recover the costs associated with that program.  

The vanity call sign regulatory fee is payable not only when applying for a new vanity call sign, but also upon renewing a vanity call sign for a new 10 year term. The notice in the August 11, 2009 Federal Register, entitled “Assessment and Collection of Regulatory Fees for Fiscal Year 2009,” includes regulatory fees; these fees are expected to recover a total of $341,875,000 during FY2009, encompassing all the Services the FCC regulates.

For more information, see the recent ARRLWeb article, “FCC Looks to Raise Vanity Call Sign Fees for Second Consecutive Year.”

Ray Taylor (N5GAR), STX’s long-serving and dedicated SM, retired this year, resulting in a 3-way race for Section Manager of one of the ARRL’s largest Sections.

STX was lucky to have three fine hams, Lee Cooper (W5LHC) from Austin, Lou Everett (WA5LOU) from Kennard and Gary Tangrady (K5GST) from San Antonio vie to replace Ray Taylor.

The ARRL just announced the election results:

A close race between good men.

Congratulations to Lee who will officially take office on October 1, 2009.

More photos from the August 15th Cowboy Homecoming in Pleasanton, TX where Atascosa County Amateur Radio Club WA5AR had a demonstration station.  This country fair had all the usual amentities like rooster roping, bull riding, pony rides, beauty queens, home-made jewelry, ham station demonstrations, and oops!  even Longhorn Mobile operations? 

Click on photos below for larger view.

One of my favorite tracking sites is www.stormpulse.com which lets you choose which storm to track, and can see how far away it is in miles from some city (like San Antonio or Corpus Christi, etc.).

Currently as of 08/17,  this tracking authority apparently does not envision a high chance of Hurricane Bill coming to Texas, but instead predicts that it will be heading toward the eastern US coast.  Bill turned into a Hurricane status as of the morning of 08/17.

Of course, the true official hurricane forecast site is always the National Hurricane Center from the National Weather Service.

The State EOC has issued potential timelines for response to Ana or Bill, should they threaten the Texas Coast:

Lee, W5LHC

1.Current Situation:

Tropical Storm Claudette will make landfall overnight in the western Florida Panhandle. No threat to Texas. Tropical Storm Ana has weakened to become a tropical depression. Most current models do not develop Ana once it enters the Gulf.

Tropical Storm Bill appears to be destined to become a major hurricane.

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Later this month on August 29th, the combined talents of Navy-Marine Corps MARS, REACT, National Weather Service, Bexar Operators Group and others will work together during a hurricane drill. Information will be passed using both MARS EEI and standard text messaging when a “hurricane” landfalls on an area just north of Corpus Christi. We will also have coastal hospitals and Skywarn personnel working the event.  The drill is scheduled for the morning of Saturday, August 29th.

This will be a test of various MOUs and our ability to communicate with each other in case a real weather event should erupt.

This is NOT just some “table top” drill, as stations will actually deploy along the coast and along evacuation routes from both Houston and Corpus Christi. In addition, there will also be stations up and running at two National Weather Service offices (New Braunfels & Corpus Christi).  And now it looks like “someone invited” Tropical Storm Bill to come help make our drill be a bit more realistic. 🙂

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Here are some photos of the Atascosa County Amateur Radio club taken during the 08/15/2009 Cowboy Home Coming in Pleasanton, Texas, at River Park.

Thank you
Andrew KD5NNN

Click link below to see photos….
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Parade with floats, displays, vendors. A nice, small town fair.
Bob  W2IK

Following are some photos by Krissy, KD5YTN and a few byW2IK.
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