San Antonio Hams

I know the weather down here in San Antonio TX was a bit “warm” today, but my van thought it was really, really hot outside! 

So hot, that it caught on fire!  Literally!  

Something apparently exploded under the hood on the passenger side and it would appear that perhaps gas sprayed out onto the street at the corner of Nacogdoches Rd & O’Conner Road (NE Side of San Antonio) and caught fire while I was stopped at the light.   It was a smaller “pop” noise, sort of s like a gas powered lawnmower back-firing might sound, not a big bomb noise like in the movies.

The small explosion happened just as I was stepping the gas pedal as the light turned green.   I was the first car in line in the right lane with lots of traffic stacked behind me and beside me.  

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This month is the 6th anniversary of the www.SanAntonioHams.org web site, and over the years, we ‘ve added a ton of stuff to the site, building upon previous entries and uploads. We’ve done some major revisions, but only in the past year have we added a bunch of new stuff, like this Blog, the online Classified Ads, and the online interactive (for registered users) Events Calendar.

But some of the “old” stuff is still useful!  

• We’ve got listings of most area clubs in Central South Texas, all of the ones in San Antonio, TX of which I’m aware of, and a bunch scattered around the area who requested to be included, all the way over to Corpus Christi, down into the Valley, or west into Medina County. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve been running a new Events Calendar on this site for the past few months. Anybody that was raised to “editor” status, has been able to post their own events on the calendar thru the dashboard interface (what you see after you log in as an elevated user).

You have the option to create a post for each event (which appears immediately) or not. If you are posting a series of routine meetings / recurring events, etc., I’d suggest NOT creating a post each time, or we’ll have a bunch of very similar postings all saying we’ve got X’s meeting on July, August, September, October, etc. Boring!

Feel free to contact me direct, info@sanantoniohams.org , if you have questions or ideas about how to use this feature.   The concept behind this feature, is to let others post events, so I don’t have to post them all myself.
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I’m not in the habit of reposting other folks newsletters, at least not on a regular basis, but this web site from over in Germany, has consistently had the answers to my ham radio hardware questions. Their periodic newsletter isn’t so much a newsletter per se, as it is simply a summary of what new postings / updates had been done on their site since the last newsletter. I do highly recommend this site, and suggest that you sign up for their free newsletter if you think you might be looking for a manual or mod in the future.

The content is (c)1996-2009 by mods.dk website, and all content is their responsibility. Having said all that legal jargon, I’ll simply say if you don’t feel comfortable and qualified to make the mods they describe on your equipment, or if you are worried about voiding your warranty, get help. If you are technically challenged and barely know which end of a soldering iron to hold, or where to find Harbor Freight, don’t try to do it yourself, get help.

Now on with their July 2009 newsletter….

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Hill Country REACT Team #4804

Visit us at www.HillCountryREACT.org

We would like top take a chance to invite you to attend the next meeting of Hill Country REACT Team #4804 to hear our guest speaker Skip Stem/WB4DAD talk about CW Operations!

Skip is along time CW Operator and has been working CW on the HF bands for a number of years.  Many of us learned our CW years ago to upgrade our licenses but few us have taken to the air and used this skill.  And many new operators, despite the fact that CW is no longer a requirement to hold an amateur license desire to learn this mode.  So come one, come all and find out what CW is all about!

We meet at the Bulverde Fire Station on Cougar Bend in downtown Bulverde at 1900 (7:00 PM) on the fourth Wednesday of the month.  This month that will be July 22nd.

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Title: Chaparral ARC / GCARES
Location: Guadalupe County Emergency Management Office – 415 E. Donegan – Seguin
Description: Monthly meeting of the Chaparral Amateur Radio Club a.k.a. Guadalupe County ARES. All licensed Amateurs and prospective licensees are welcome to attend!
Start Time: 18:00
Date: 2009-09-08

Title: Bandera 100K Ultra-Marathon
Location: Hill Country State Natural Area – Bandera, TX
Link out: Click here
Description: Hill Country REACT and San Antonio Region Amateurs have provided Comms support for this event over the last 5 years. There are 5 fixed and a couple of rover positions to be filled over the 24 hr event. Typically 10-14 operators are needed! Safety, Supply and Tracking logistics are involved. For the 2010 event we are adding Packet to facilitate the tracking logistics, and with some technical help, will provide live internet updates to the families and friends of the participants at home! For more information or to volunteer, contact Louis Upton @mailto:k1stx@yahoo.com (210-687-4347) or Gary Tangrady @ k5gst@live.com. Thank You!
Start Date: 2010-01-09
Start Time: 06:30
End Date: 2010-01-10
End Time: 07:30

Title: CARC / GCARES Monthly Meeting
Location: 415 E. Donegan – Seguin
Description: Monthly meeting of the Chaparral Amateur Radio Club a.k.a. Guadalupe County ARES. All licensed Amateurs and prospective licensees are welcome to attend!
Start Time: 18:00
Date: 2009-07-14

Tonight was the big night, the night that all three candidates running for the vacancy of ARRL South Texas Section Manager would speak in person before the San Antonio Radio Club during their regular monthly membership meeting.  

Amazingly enough, all three candidates showed up on time and spoke, along with current SM Ray Taylor N5RAV who is “retiring” from that position (with no pension provided), and SEC Mike Schwartz, KG5TL.

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This was from a ham out of the Houston, TX area. Every area is having record power being drawn from their grids due to the 100+ degree temps. – Lee N5NTG

I heard on the radio this morning that we set a record in Texas yesterday.  The record was we taxed our electrical grid to its highest point ever.  

They continued to say that between the hours of 3pm and 7pm was the peak time and we should cut back a little. 

Try not to use large appliances between 3pm and 7pm and don’t turn your air down to 72 when it’s 100+ outside.  It won’t get there. 

So to make this amateur related, turn off the amps.  🙂

 Bill Rimmer, N5LYG
n5lyg@n5lyg.org

And I got this link off the Bexar County ARES list, linked to the Public Utilities Commission.

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