San Antonio Hams

Don’t forget that SARO is holding their quarterly membership meeting this Friday at Martha’s Mexican Restaurant (Corner of Babcock Rd & Huebner) on the NW side of San Antonio. SARO president Erik Olsen reminds members and visitors that they “need not buy a meal or drink” if they choose to attend, but aren’t interested in eating.  Meeting starts at 7:30pm, but feel free to come early if you want to eat prior to the meeting, rather than during the meeting.  Visitors are always welcomed.

Program this time will be fairly short, primarily dealing with past events (like field day) and the two major upcoming public service events that SARO is responsible for coordinating, i.e. the LaVernia Wild West Hammerfest bike ride in September and the BikeMS event in October.  Come learn more about how to volunteer for these events. 

One note:  2009 BikeMS volunteers are being required to submit for a background check, no credit check involved, just criminal background check.  Those volunteers who worked the BPMS150 Houston to Austin ride last April have already had their checks completed and do not need to have it done a second time within 12 months.

More info @ SARO’s website, www.sarepeater.net

The Bexar Operators Group has closed the availability of our late October, three  day “Jump Team Boot Camp” session as we have reached both our limits of registered applicants and  filled a short standby list.

I did turn away a few people, such as a father and son team from the mid-west who wanted to “audit” (just watch) the event. This boot camp is only for the “doer” and all participants are expected to do everything so they can be prepared for any real emergency event.

Some slots were filled by hams from North Texas, Army MARS and hams from the mid-west. There were no hams from South Texas who wanted to attend. I may have to make some minor adjustments to the timing of the event in order to accommodate people coming in from out of state and so the personnel teaching survival skills can be available. 

I probably will have a few of the special 200+ page session guides available after the event, replete with any additions made during the event, for sale to others.

Bob  W2IK – NNN0KSI – NNN0GBY2  STX NAVMC MARS Ecom

Last Friday afternoon, I managed to take some time to get over to my favorite Sign Company, Art-Trig Corporation, in Leon Valley.  They’re located just off off Bandera Road 1 block south of Huebner Road on Sawyer Road.   I stopped by the carwash first to get the van cleaned up for putting my new signs on the windows, but shortly after I arrived at Art-Trig, it started raining!  🙁

Yay! for the rain, but Boo! for the timing.  I mean, just washed the van, needed to get the lettering installed, it hasn’t rained for days, but now it decides to rain?  Oh well, we needed the rain really bad.   Fortunately, the rain stopped for about 2o minutes and let them dry off the windows long enough to apply the lettering to the  back window and two rear side windows.   10 minutes later, here comes the rain again, heavier than ever!

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Experience outer space right in our back yard! This exciting event will feature NASA astronauts, hands-on activities, space exhibits and feature presentations for the whole family. Meet former NASA Astronaut Rick Hieb and John Blaha, shoot model rockets and ride the Rockit Rider in this informative and exciting atmosphere. Free with museum admission. For more information call 210.357.1910 or go to www.amazingskies.org.

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Howdy Roosters,  I submitted our Field Day report online to the ARRL yesterday evening.  I will mail in our logs for our backup documentation.

Operating score:    1,605
Bonus points:         670
Total:              2,275

I bet we gave the Super Field Day folks a run for the money!  That’s a helluva score, guys.  You’ll notice under Club Name it says “None”: only clubs operating A, B, or F can operate under the club name – we were operating E.  I don’t really understand the distinction.

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Planning is good, but sometimes even the best planning needs some “tweaking” in the real world.

Being flexible in field contesting, just as in emergency communications deployment, is the best way to get things done.  All ham radio operators need the experience of going out in to the field to do this sort of thing. It makes them better operators.

I tend to over pack my truck when it comes to doing ham radio events, and for good reason: You never know what obstacles you might encounter and how to overcome them. However, this time I had a minimal amount of gear and supplies. This was the height of my “daring”. Never again!

Lesson number one learned: Pack for the worst, pray for the best and be happy with the in between. New hams need to remember this

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Members of the BEXAR OPERATORS BROUP will be running, W5BOG/R in this contest this weekend as a rover station and plan to be in the following grid squares at the following times and on the following bands:

Saturday July 18th

Grid                          Time                     Frequency (SSB)

EL09XA             1 – 2 pm local            144.200 mhz

EL09XA             2 – 3 pm local             50.125 mhz

EL08XX             3:30 – 4:30 local        144.200 mhz

EL08XX              4:30 – 5:30 local        50.125 mhz

EL18AX               6 – 7 pm local          144.200 mhz

EL18AX               7 – 8 pm local            50.125 mhz

EL19AA               8:30 – 9:30 local      144.200 mhz

EL19AA               9:30 – 10:30 local      50.125 mhz

We will drop down to CW on request and as time permits.

Times/Bands/Grid Squares subject to change.

Here’s a photo taken of me on Sunday, July 12th, about 3 hours before my van held an impromptu BBQ Cook-off in the middle of the road.

Little did I know what was about to happen, but I sure looked satisfied at the time of this photo, at least with the progress I was making with my emergency go-kit in a rolling tool box.

By the way, the story posted earlier about W21IK and his antenna test at Bullis County Park?   This photo was taken by W2IK during that event, because he said it wasn’t fair that I got to take all the photos and hide behind the camera. 🙂

I started out with a plain heavy duty Stanley brand toolbox w/ wheels available from Wal-mart for about $20. 

This toolbox was selected because the wheels were mounted on a single piece steel rod shaft that ran the full width, from wheel to wheel.  In other words, the wheels weren’t simply snapped onto the sides like some of the other cheaper models I had looked at elsewhere.  Also, I had looked at some two-piece toolboxes that stacked, but they ran the risk of having the two pieces come apart at the wrong time while loading or unloading from your vehicle, or rolling to where ever you needed the kit to be.  I just liked the idea of a one-piece double stacked toolbox with strong wheels that were unlikely to come off at the wrong time.

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I wish to thank all of those readers who have expressed their concerns over the loss of my van last Sunday to the engine fire. 

The old van now has a new home in a junkyard somewhere in Texas, and I now have a new(er) van sitting in my driveway with seriously less mileage and years than the old van had on it.  

The new van is a late model Chrysler Town & Country mini-van with a factory installed alarm, dark limo tinted windows, sliding doors on both sides, and more option packages than I’m normally used to having.  At first, I was concerned about the black exterior causing the van to be too hot, but actually, it hasn’t been any hotter than my old van got on a summer day. Guess that’s why I always put that window shade in the front  windshield when not driving.  Those shades really work!

I sent out tweets and emails to various groups and individuals asking for input / suggestions on the best way to install the antenna in this type of vehicle. 

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This morning I met Bob W2IK up on the north side of San Antonio at a county park named Bullis Park. This is near Blanco Rd & Borgfield Road, on the back side of Camp Bullis (way outside Loop 1604). The purpose of this meet was to test some of Bob’s new antenna deployment ideas in preparation for the CQ VHF Contest next weekend. He had just received a new aluminum flag pole that would extend from 6′ to 25′ tall in 5 sections.

Bob rigged a mount in the bed of his truck, using an old heavy-duty umbrella stand (emphasis on the “heavy” part of that description) that he had rescued a couple of years ago at a yard sale or side of the road (I forget which), strapped the mounting pipe to that stand, inserted the flag pole, attached the yagi 2 meter beam antenna and coax, then raised it up to the full height. The pole itself only weighs about 10 pounds. He bought it on eBay for about $80 including shipping.

He powered up his rig on battery power and started calling CQ, CQ on 144.200, but at 10am on a Sunday morning, there weren’t all that many folks running SSB on 2 meters. He contacted one ham up in Boerne, TX, but that wasn’t more than 20 miles from his setup location at the park.

Here are some photos….

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