San Antonio Hams

The SARO President’s Corner

I would like time to thank all of the Directors, Committee Chairpersons, and numerous other members who have given of them selves so freely throughout the past year.  As your president I look forward to serving this organization again in 2010.

You’re new and returning Officers and Board members are Vice-President – Gary Tangrady, K5GST; Secretary – Dale Robinson, KB5YSJ; Treasurer – Mike Check, K5UCQ; Directors – Bob Rodriguez, KA5AUW; Pat Knight, AD5BR; and Lee Besing, N5NTG.

The 2010 Committee Chairpersons are: Membership – Pat Knight, AD5BR; Maintenance – Gordon Dial, K5SUZ; Engineering – Stan Stanukinos, KA5IID; Public Service – Royce Taylor, KA5OHJ; Public Relations and Newsletter – Gary Tangrady, K5GST; Web Master – Lee Besing, N5NTG; and Net Control Coordinator – Herm Hartel, N5CNH.

The first quarterly general membership meeting will be on Friday January 22 at 7:30 p.m. We will be at a new location the “El Jalisco Lindo Grill” near the intersection of Wurzbach Rd. and Watercress Dr. this is one block southwest of Bandera Rd. on Wurzbach Rd. The address is 5309 Wurzbach Rd. Suite 115.  Please note it is not necessary to purchase a meal to attend the meeting.  The restaurant is happy to host SARO and we will not have to contend with the mariachis.

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Tonight was the first meeting of the 2010 San Antonio Repeater Organization (SARO) newly elected Board of Directors.  Four (4) new directors had been elected by the members this month to serve a 2 year term of office.  Only about half of the SARO members returned a ballot in the election.  SARO mails paper ballots to every member in good standing (ie. their dues got paid) by the first of November.  Ballots are generally due by sometime in the 2nd week (this year it was December 11th).

Elected were Lee N5NTG, Pat AD5BR, Bob K5AUW, and Gary K5GST.  Their term of office is thru end of 2011.  Outgoing directors were Sharon Olson KB5KZD, Chuck Kenworthey WB5FWI, and Royce Taylor KA5OHJ.

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Hill Country REACT Team is the sponsor of a new Ham Radio Repeater in the Canyon Lake area. 

The repeater is located about a mile southwest of Startzville and the antenna is up at about 1670 feet above sea level.  The antenna was measured as being about 390 feet up in the air on the tower, and the base of the tower is at 1280 feet above sea level.   

The repeater frequency is 444.450 mHz, positive offset, and with a 114.8 PL tone.  The repeater is intended to be for open use by all hams.

Testing has shown excellent coverage from north San Antonio up to south Austin, and all points between, using mobile radios.    The Trustee is Wade W5ERX, currently the president of Hill Country REACT.   He had the assistance of a couple other hams, including the newly appointed Comal County EC, Don Kirchner W5DK, and Gene Rowell WA5PAX, to build /prepare the repeater and finally install it at its new home.  The repeater is a coordinated frequency with the Texas VHF-FM Society and tower hosting is being provided by BKT Towers.

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Members of the San Antonio Repeater Organization met Friday night at the Martha’s Mexican Restaurant, corner of Babcock & Huebner, for their quarterly membership meeting. About 30 members were in attendance, to hear the latest club news, learn about past and upcoming events, watch some videos about recent events, and nominate folks to run for the SARO Board of Directors.

The following five persons were nominated from the floor, and will run for 1 of 4 open positions on the SARO Board of Directors.

• Gary K5GST
• Bob K5AUW
• Pat AD5BR
• Linda KC5QPQ
• Lee N5NTG

Ballots will be mailed out to all members in good standing (i.e. you paid your 2009 dues) sometime in November, with instructions on where to return them by what deadline.    Ballots will be counted after that deadline, and the new directors will be seated after January 1st. At that time, the board will chose who will serve in what officer capacity. There are only 4 vacancies, 1 current director is up for his 2nd term, the other 3 directors either declined or were limited by term.

One View of the 2009 BikeMS: Ride to the River

By Milton Johnson – N5HMJ

The structure of the BikeMS Amateur Radio volunteers has changed over the last two years, without really changing.  What does that mean?  

In 2008, the final year of the Bike to the Beach, we had 81 Amateur Radio Volunteers not counting the Motor Marshalls who have their own organizational structure.  This year we had 64 volunteers.  Any school of management will tell you that a group that big is too large to effectively manage. 

Fortunately, the group has informally functioned around teams, and beginning last year we formalized the teams with team leaders which this year broke down as follows:

• Breakpoint Team: Bob Rodriguez-K5AUW;
• Net Control Team: Shane O’Neal-NS5D;
• Safety Team: Curtis Rabenaldt-N5QPN;
• Medical Team: Neil Martin-WA5FSR;
• Officials & Logistics Team: Alfred Horn-KG5QW;
• SAG Team: Gordon Dial-K5SUZ and Milton Johnson-N5HMJ. 

Coordinating and organizing these teams was the task of KG5QW, K5SUZ and N5HMJ. 

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Some of the crazier hams like to be Motorcycle Marshals on the BikeMS events, and Don W5DK, found a way to mount a camera on his helmet while he rode his Honda Goldwing during the event.  This 5 1/2 minute bit of footage was taken during the storm toward the end of the course on Saturday.   You can see the rain coming down hitting him and the camera, and see the lightening strikes zapping the camera.   The first minute or so has no sound, but the rest of it has the sound of the rain and motorcycle noise.

Thanks Don and the rest of the M&M’s for being out there with us making the event safer for all the participants!

Here is Don’s original version…

…and here is the version I “fixed up” for him afterward…

Here is the video you’ve all be waiting for. The video is about 9 minutes in length, with some narration and sound tracks left untouched.  Some titles added to explain what is going on, or to inform the viewer about all the work the ham radio operators are doing.   Would have liked to have included some photos or video of the ground to air lightening strikes at the Finish line, but we’re working with what I shot myself.

I inserted only a few still photos in the video, but not many, so if you want to see the photos, please visit the earlier posting made to this blog.  I’m willing to post more photos taken by other hams, if they send them to me.  <hint, hint>

Here is the video, courtesy of YouTube.com where it is hosted.

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2009 ALAMO RIDE to the RIVER
MY PERSONAL THANKS

The first BikeMS: Ride to the River is over and it was quite the event.  As you all know, Saturday started with rain and it continued all day.  The weather deteriorated all day forcing a multitude of changes such as the closure of the River Road Century Extension, the move of the Lunch location, the move of Breakpoint 4, and the re-routing of the course into New Braunfels. 

All of these major changes were forced after the start of the ride and all of them were made very smoothly.  These changes went smoothly in no small part to you, the Amateur Radio operators.  You reported to your locations on-time and prepared to provide communications. 

 The flexibility of the Amateur Radio community is it’s hallmark and you proved that again this weekend.  My thanks to the Breakpoint Operators, the Shadows for the officials, the medical team and safety team.  By providing essential communications under adverse conditions you helped to make this ride both successful and safe.

 As Saturday’s weather continued to worsen with extreme rain, fog and ground lighting strikes, the ride was cut short.  The SAG and Motor Marshal Teams were fantastic, getting hundreds of riders off the course in these extreme conditions.  Read the rest of this entry »

This morning, a few dozen hams gathered at the American Red Cross HQ on the east side of San Antonio, TX, to get their briefing, packets and their free t-shirt, for next weekend’s BikeMS Valero Alamo Ride To The River.  Most of those who missed the briefing, will be given their materials when they pick up their SAG vans or on site at their assignment the day of the event from Milton (SAG 5) N5HMJ.

Here are a few photos taken this morning….

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I put together this video after the 2009 La Vernia Wildwest Hammerfest.  Probably missed some items, but here it it.  Featuring some well known ham radio operators and hundreds of bicycle riders who came out that day just so I could try and make this video.

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