San Antonio Hams

Attention all prospective & committed Tour de Cure Volunteers

May 30th – 31st

Here is an update for the 2009 Tour de Cure. It’s time to begin making duty assignments for all ham volunteers, but there have been some major changes regarding SAG Van duty.

There are only 4 full sized SAG Vans plus 5 Toyota Pickup Trucks to be driven by Ham Radio Operators, due to a donation of SAG services by a local San Antonio company who is providing both the vehicles, the drivers and paying for their fuel.

First, let me clarify points of contact… The following hams are coordinating different segments / times of the event:

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Yesterday, I prepared the April 2009 San Antonio Hams Electronic Newsletter and shipped it out (well, emailed it out) to more than 300 hams in the area.

This issue included the following News Items From The San Antonio Area:

• FREE CLASSIFIED ADS FOR HAMS
• 2009 Tour de Cure Update – May 30th-31st
• 2009 Field Day Plans in San Antonio – June 27-28
• Current Top Headlines, including April 1st Jokes

If you did NOT receive a copy of this informative newsletter, and want to, please send an email to me and we’ll make it happen.  I’ll need your name, call sign and email address in order to fill in all the blanks for the email manager that I’m using.

Of course, most of what was in the newsletter, is also on this Blog and the rest of the website, if you hunt long enough for it. 🙂

What the VE forgot to tell you, and the FCC didn’t print on your ham license…

Almost every ham radio related event will require you to get up before the chickens do. Yep, the early bird gets the worm!

Question: When is the best time for bargains at Ham Swap-Fests?  

Answer: During the first hour of the event, which will mean getting up, driving across the town or even part of the state, to get there first in line when the doors open at 8am.

Question: When do you need to be ready to drive your SAG van for the big bike tours?

Answer:  5am for the Houston BPMS150, 6AM for the San Antonio BikeMS

I’m being sort of sarcastic here, but the point is that 99% of the ham radio events, other than Field Day (which involves staying up way after the chickens go to sleep, and stay awake until way after the chickens have rested comfortably all night), require you to get up before dawn if you want to participate.   FD starts around Noon or 1pm, and runs 24 hours straight, non-stop, but the operators can change out and take breaks. You aren’t chained to your chair / stool for 24 hours without a potty break. 🙂

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The Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard are co-sponsoring the annual Military/Amateur Radio Crossband Communications Test in celebration of the 59th anniversary of Armed Forces Day.

The AFD Military/Amateur Crossband Communications Test will be conducted on May 9 – 10, 2009. The annual celebration features traditional military to amateur crossband communications SSB voice tests and copying the Secretary of Defense message via digital modes.

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I was doing some call sign lookups of our newer hams today (04/05/2009), and found these 4 pages on the web, with a list of 3,004 licensed hams in San Antonio, TX. (Note – turns out some of the hams on the list have expired licenses, so the actual number of “active” hams is a few hundred less than 3k. – Lee)

If you want to check and see who’s who, starting with AA5DB Oscar Delgado Lee Cook, visit this site when you have time to peruse it.

Click Here For The 4 Page List

Meeting has been POSTPONED – Stay Tuned for New Date.   April 16th was suggested, but has not been confirmed.

The next meeting of the Guadalupe Valley Amateur Radio Club is coming up:

Thursday, April 9 @ 6:30pm
Northwoods Apartments #602 ( model apartment )

We will be planning Field Day and discussing the current projects.

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ARRL has released their 2009 version of the Field Day PSA and posted it to YouTube.com. In addition, copies (on CD-R format) are available from Gary Tangrady K5GST.

Contact: Gary S. Tangrady, K5GST
Asst Public Information Coordinator
South Texas Section, ARRL
(210)383-7872/(210)568-8224
K5GST@ARRL.net

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2009 Fiesta Wildflower
April 19, 2009  —  San Antonio, TX
(100 mi, 100K, 40 mi, 25 mi routes)

The Fiesta Wildflower Rides will take place on April 19^th  – 2009.  The start location is Retama Park in Selma, TX .

In 2008, this event was coordinated by Gordon K5SUZ, and net control was ran by Barry W5BLH. (see Barry in photo on the right, along with David KE5LOU relaxing in the back of the comm trailer. 

We’ve spoken with Gordon to confirn that he and Barry are handling the 2009 event, and are looking to recruit more hams to help with this event.  Unfortunately since it is the same weekend as the BPMS150 (Houston – Austin BikeMS) ride, several of our regular volunteers will not be available.  

We suggest that if you DO want to work this 1 day event, and get another free t-shirt in the process, contact either Gordon or Barry to volunteer ASAP.  Gordon can be reached at 210-410-9518  and Barry can be reached at 210-618-4774, or click on the links to their names to send email. Read the rest of this entry »

Congress passed ,and today the President signed into law, a bill dictating that a minimum of 27 sunspots will appear each month for the duration of this century.

When asked how the federal government could guarantee sunspots, An unnamed source from the White House said “The amateur radio community represents a large voting block in America, and when polled indicated that they prefer sunspot days over spotless days. We also think it is unfair that some hams get their ticket in the down years and some in the up years…we want it fair for all, especially since it is so simple to sign a law and give the citizens what they desire.

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ARRL (Apr 1, 2009) — The FCC announced April 1 that the scheduled mandatory changeover of SSB and AM HF voice communications in the Amateur Radio Service has been delayed for one year; originally scheduled to begin April 1, 2009, the new changes will now take effect April 1, 2010.

Under the plan, originally approved by Congress during the Clinton Administration, all Amateur Radio voice communication in the HF spectrum (3-30 MHz) will adopt digital voice technologies, reducing the bandwidth of typical QSOs from an average of 2.4 kHz to an average of 1.5 kHz. No particular protocol is specified — amateurs can use any method they desire as long as it is digital.

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