San Antonio Hams

Okay, Day 2 of Ham-Com is over for 2009, I didn’t win any of the 18 Alinco HT’s or the 2 HF mobile rigs given away as door prizes, but I also didn’t get the (not so)  free ride in the Plano EMS Ambulance like one ham from Longview did.

I was taking a tour of the McKinney ARC Net Control Station on Saturday morning (Plano Amateur Radio Club did it on Friday) when we heard sirens approaching the Plano Centre, firetruck and ambulance.

The Net Control operator asked me to go find out what was happening, since he needed to stay near the radio.

Seems that one of the attendees, an older ham in the 60+ age range, was sitting in a chair inside the flea market area and he apparently dozed off, was snoring, but suddenly stopped breathing. He was reportedly unresponsive when another ham observed his condition and tried to revive him, so 911 was called. They ended up transporting him to the hospital and I don’t know what the final result was.  

Hams from the event, quickly and efficiently cleared barricades and established a path clear of traffic for the two emergency vehicles to arrive and depart.  Naturally, they were using their HT radios on simplex to coordinate their efforts.   A page was put out on the intercom inside asking if there were any other hams present from the Longview Amateur Radio Club who might want to assist / be aware of this other ham’s predicament and to get word back to any family members that might need to be contacted.

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Friday, June 12th was Day 1 of the 2009 HamCom event in Plano, TX.    www.HamCom.org is their web site.  

Al KE6LGE and Lee N5NTG rode up and stayed there in the comfort of Al’s RV, parked outside the conference center in the shaded area of the parking lot.

This is the same RV we used last month for Net Control of the American Diabetes Association’s Tour de Cure bicycle event from San Antonio to San Marcos to Austin on May 30th and 31st.

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W2IK- NNN0KSI – NNN0GBY2, from San Antonio, Texas, will be donating 150 copies of his amateur radio emergency communications training course (on CD) so they may be given out at EmComm East, held in Rochester, New York in early October 2009.

In the past, he has given out hundreds of copies of this training guide, for free, to dozens of clubs, including REACT and ARES groups throughout the country and Canada, Pacificon 2008 (held in California last year), as well as two special emergency antennas of his design and plans, and authoring a special “white paper” for Communications Academy 2007 as per their request when health problems prevented him from giving a lecture.

He will also be donating one of his VHF emergency antenna kits to this event as a free raffle.

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The Guadalupe Valley Amateur Radio Club will be again holding Field Day at WQ5C’s QTH on River Road. We’re planning on running a home station on emergency power, along with a temporary station, and possibly a “Get On The Air” station reserved for inactive hams. The highlight will be a cookout on Saturday evening. All area hams & their families are encouraged to attend.

The specifics:

Saturday, Jun 27:

• 07:30am breakfast/coffee @ Los Gallos ( as usual )
• 09:00am setup begins
• 01:00pm Field Day begins
• 06:00pm cookout

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This report just received from Anthony Jackson, KE5PWX, in his Smart Car, aka  known on the radio as “Smart Car 42” when he wasn’t at RS8 or RS2.

TOUR DE CURE, 2009: A QUICK REPORT FROM RS8, RS2 AND POINTS IN-BETWEEN

I had a great time working the TDC. It was quite a learning experience and I hope to participate in this capacity next year as well as volunteering at other community service events.

First, a few word about yours truly may help to understand this report. My wife says I am the “Perfect Storm” of impulsiveness, chaos, and obsession. She knows me pretty well, so I make every effort to slow down, organize, and limit myself when I become overly infatuated with a given endeavor. I work hard to overcome these character defects, but I’m afraid they still often come shining through. I get a true sense of satisfaction from times when I can honestly say to myself , “you were useful”, but enough about me.

If I were to advise anyone running a rest stop, or any portable station, it would be to say, “Get organized and fight to stay that way.”

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Thanks go to Shane NS5D for providing a copy of this proclamation to share.

This weekend is the Annual Texas Water  Safari,  down the Guadulupe River from San Marcos, TX, to the Gulf Coast in 100 hours, non-stop.   

Local area Ham Radio Operators provide needed check-point safety communications along the river under some really tough conditions.  Check points are down at the river level, often down where you can’t get a signal back to the repeater easily, but where the mosquitoes can find your signal easily.    Hams have to figure out ways to get their antennas up really high, or signals relayed via cross band, etc., while fighting off killer mosquitoes.    (Did we mention mosquitoes yet?)  Battery powered radios are a must, unless you have a really, really, really long extension cord.

Eric Olson WB5ZJQ is the contact for this event.  Call him @ 210-647-3180 if you want to help out.  All check-points are currently manned with hams, but extras are always appreciated since this event runs non-stop.  San Antonio hams work the first portion of the route, and some points won’t be released until Sunday morning.

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I wish to thank all of those hams who came out to help us the other weekend with the Annual Tour de Cure for the American Diabetes Association. We had approximately 1,700 registered riders this year, almost a 50% increase over 2008’s event.

Erika Bayless, the San Antonio ADA Tour de Cure Director, had this to say about this year’s event:

Whoo-hoo!  We made it!  What a fantastic weekend– it was long hours, hard work and lost sleep, but in the end we had 1,700 cyclists register and we have raised over ½ million for the American Diabetes Association’s mission.  Job well done!  The ADA staff could NOT have done it without you all.  ADA volunteers are the backbone to reaching the numbers that we do in South Central Texas.  Please take the week to reflect on what a difference you have made in the lives of the over 23 million Americans with diabetes and how the dollars we raised will help others like our Youth Ambassadors, Greg and Colby. Thank you.

Once again, we depended heavily upon the GVARC 147.000 ham radio repeater on both days for our primary net. We ran net control on Saturday out of San Marcos using Al Fields KE6LGE’s excellent RV. Al & Louis Upton K1STX were our initial net control stations, later supplemented by Jeff Schmidt N5MNW who also set up the APRS tracking system for us.    The 147.000 repeater covered all the way from San Antonio north past San Marcos to just the other side of Kyle, Texas.   Only one rest stop reported difficulties hitting the 147.o00, and that was the rest stop nearest Buda, TX, closer to Austin, which used the Austin 146.94 repeater instead.

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This is your Field Day Primer. Much of the information contained in this communication was extracted from the ARRL rules which can be found at http://www.arrl.org/contests/forms/fd-2009-packet.pdf.

This email is targeted at the Station Captains, as identified in the Field Day Planning Meetings. This is an explanation of our classification (as a site) and your responsibilities as Station Captains.

As I’m sure you’re well aware, Field Day entries are classified according to the maximum number of simultaneously transmitted signals at the given site, followed by a designator indicating the nature of their individual or group participation.

We will be operating as a Class A entity, meaning a group of three or more persons set up specifically for Field Day. Shane O’Neal (NS5D) is the trustee responsible for the group entry K5EOC.

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From Noon Saturday thru 4pm Sunday 

Using only Old Vacuum Tube Radio / Equipment by K5AXN – Jerry Barry

Jerry says… It’s time for my 9th annual Vintage Field Day. this is mostly a social event, so bring a yard chair and join the fun. The place may need mowing and I might be slow in getting the equipment set up, but come pitch in and have fun. This is a gathering of some old AM guys and some family, plus new friends, and not a contest, so come join us to discuss Ham Radio or the problems of the world. Enjoy some time under the big pecan trees down by Cibolo Creek near Marion, Texas. We will have Polish Sausage wrapped in tortillas and bottled water. Carol will play you Hammered Dulcimer. If there is a lot of rain, call first because this is near a creek bottom with the usual country / creek insects.

From San Antonio, take IH-10 toward Seguin.  Take exit 595 (Zuehl Road) then go back toward San Antonio on the access road (on the south side of IH-10, 2-way traffic on access road).  Turn left on Sea Willow Drive and go to the end of the road on the right sie (1463).  San Antonio contact # is 210-653-0430. Time is noon Saturday until 4pm Sunday, +/- depending on weather.