W2IK | 
Bexar Operators Group, Field Day, General Ham Radio, MARS, W2IK | 
07 1st, 2009| 
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Besides the deer, “Murphy” came out in force when the Bexar Operators Group, W5BOG, assembled for their Field Day 2009 operation at Lost Maples State Park.
Despite “Murphys” best efforts, the Group would not bend whether it be from the 108 degree heat, no wind to drive the wind turbine, lack of park water and sewage due to a clogged septic system, the searing sun which blasted our digital camera after only a few shots nor the nearest ice machine being 5 miles outside the park entrance.
We’ve just added a new club listing for Chaparral Amateur Radio Club in Seguin, TX, aka Guadalupe County ARES, bringing us up to 31 clubs / groups listed on that page.
Our thanks to Louis K1STX for bringing this information to our attention. Louis wears many hats (i.e. belongs to many clubs) like so many of us hams do now a days, but that’s the only way we are able to keep this site current with news.
We invite anyone else who has updated club or ham radio news, to post it on our site.
Just registed as a user on the Blog, and then contact Lee N5NTG via email to request “author” privileges. All articles are subject to editing / moderation by Lee (since he’s responsible for the site), but you’ll find Lee to be fairly lenient when it comes to posting topics. We prefer to restrict postings to information that might possibly be of interest to hams in the South Central area of Texas, but sometimes you’ll find stuff in there “just because.”
Feeled Dazers,
by Jeff Schmidt, N5MNW – Austin Reporter
2009’s Field Day proved to be challenging with extreme heat, poor band conditions and ever-present Murphy’s Law. Many thanks to the tireless dedication of Stu K5KVH, the setup/teardown crew and all the operating & logistical volunteers who made this a memorable event.
Nearby power hardware was causing extreme 10-over-9 buzz noise near the site. It abated somewhat during the weekend but was causing us not to hear weaker stations. 20m had lots of fast fading, 15m was up & down, mostly down. We had what sounded like very sporadic E skip for 15, 10 & 6m openings. 10m was open on Sat AM then closed for all but a few minutes on Sunday and 6m opened briefly several times.
I’m combining some photos from various hams in this posting. These include a few more from myself (Lee N5NTG), Gary (K5GST) and Jorge (WP4KTF).
And as usual, please help us in identifying the hams in each photo. If we’ve failed to identify a person properly or not at all, please post a comment letting us know which photo to update and we’ll get it taken care of.
I’ve labeled the photos according to their owner…
Enjoy!
Club Banners on display just inside the entrance to San Antonio's Field Day event. Wade W5ERX making sure we didn't miss any while putting them up on Saturday AM.
Note: I normally only post Texas related articles here, but this group of hams got such great PR coverage in their paper that I had to post it here, with a link back to the original article of course. I didn’t write this article, it is property of THE SEATTLE TIMES Newspaper, the reporter (Kyung Song) and the photographer (Alan Berner) named in the article. – Lee N5NTG
In a world in which you can make a mobile call from Mount Everest and log onto the Internet from a polar-ice floe, you might expect ham radios to have long been consigned to the technological dustbin. But amateur radio endures, nourished by enthusiasts and sustained by its ability to transmit critical information even after the power supply goes out, cellphone towers get jammed and television and radio fall silent.
By Kyung M. Song
Seattle Times staff reporter
In a world where you can make a mobile call from Mount Everest and log on to the Internet from a polar-ice floe, you might expect ham radios to have long been consigned to the technological dustbin.
But amateur radio endures, nourished by enthusiasts and sustained by its ability to transmit critical information even after the power supply goes out, cellphone towers get jammed and television and radio fall silent.
Hill Country REACT will be coordinating the annual 4th of July parade up at Startzville, TX, on the south side of Canyon Lake again this year. Hams from any club are welcome to participate, you do not need to be a REACT member in order to volunteer to work this event. Some members of REACT, GVARC and Hayes Caldwell ARES are already scheduled for this event.
Parade line-up starts around 9am, but we need to be in place before then. The parade usually starts at 11am, once the Confederate Air Force completes their traditional annual fly-over. Clean your car / truck / suv / RV / mini-van / motorcycle and be ready to jump in line at the back of the parade after the staging area clears.
Shane NS5D has announced that the Debriefing (Wrap-up) meeting for this year’s Field Day effort will be on the agenda during the Tuesday, July 7th, meeting of the Bexar County ARES group at the San Antonio EOC (located inside Brooks City Base on the SE side of San Antonio). Meeting starts at 6:45pm. ARES meetings are typically open to any interested ham radio operator to attend.
However having said all that, I would suggest that if you were interested in attending, and you aren’t one of the regular attendees, that you please contact Shane for more details since admission into this area is generally subject to slightly higher security than when ARES meets at the Red Cross, plus it tends to be a bit confusing for the first time visitor.
Please be thinking about your Field Day experiences and be prepared to stand up and talk about them at our next ARES meeting on Tuesday, July 7th at 6:45pm at the EOC
Especially focus on what you will do differently next time, whether it be Field Day or a deployment to the field. Folks that participated in other Field Day events besides Bexar County’s are also invited to share their lessons learned.
Regards,
Shane NS5D
This batch of 27 photos was provided by Al Fields KE6LGE…
Al was the owner of the RV used by REACT for their station during this Field Day event. Thanks Al!
And as usual, please help us in identifying the hams in each photo.
If we’ve failed to identify a person properly or not at all, please post a comment letting us know which photo to update and we’ll get it taken care of.
Enjoy…
Andrew Watson, KD5NNN, was kind enough to send us some more photos which he took while wandering around the San Antonio combined Field Day Site on Saturday, June 27th.
And as usual, please help us in identifying the hams in each photo. If we’ve failed to identify a person properly or not at all, please post a comment letting us know which photo to update and we’ll get it taken care of.
Temperatures broke the 100 degree barrier once more before we shut down operations and departed shortly after 1pm. In fact, one of our unofficial thermometers over in the shaded grassy area (yes, we had one, but just one such area) where the welcome station was located, reported 104 degrees at 10:30am, and 110 degrees at 1pm when we shut down. Official temps according to the weather service only hit 101 degrees as of 5pm. Of course, we were within 1/2 mile of all that pavement over at Port San Antonio’s Airport (formerly known as Kelly AFB or Kelly USA).
Enjoy the photos, click the link for “more” to see them !
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |||