San Antonio Hams

Wade KE5ZUO on Talk-in, JC Smith N5RXS, wanting to resell empty tables

San Antonio Radio Club’s event chairman, JC Smith N5RXS, reported on the air, Saturday morning at 6:15am, prior to opening the doors, that all vendor tables had been sold out already!

Wow!  In fact, JC placed several calls were placed on the air searching for hams who had rented tables, but hadn’t yet shown up to claim them, so that he could resell those empty tables to folks who forgot to advance register!  Amazingly enough, it seems that some hams will pay to rent a vendor table, just to get in the door before the general admission, so they can scout out the better deals and buy before the crowd starts rolling in.  This practice is discouraged, but it happens, and then it leaves empty tables that could have been used by another ham.

One of the challenges we faced this year, was the SARO 146.94 repeater being used for talk-in, failed around 6:20am, just after we had started making announcements.    We were actually then hitting the Austin’s .94 repeater, so we changed to simplex and kept on going.    Bob K5AUW set up his mobile for crossband on simplex in the beginning, then we changed over to using my radios (as discussed later).  The .94 San Antonio repeater stayed down the rest of the day.

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Okay, the long wait is finally over!   We’ve compressed 24 hours of operation down to about 5 minutes, without using the fast forward button.  Amazing, but true!  Of course since we weren’t personally there the whole time to take photos and videos of every single operator, we weren’t able to include more than the three operators shown in the video (recorded live) plus a few others that had their photos taken and forwarded to us.

Most of the footage in the video was provided by Lee N5NTG, with some by Bob W2IK and Wade W5ERX.

Here is the YouTube link to this video…

All year long, there are opportunities for you to use your Ham Radio skills in events other than contesting, or rag chewing (chatting mindlessly with other hams about nothing in particular).

Coming up in the next couple of months, the event schedule is a bit lighter than the rest of the year, primarily due to all the holidays, or is it?

Here is a list of known Ham Radio Christmas Parties and Events…

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Repeating this announcement since this VE Team will be testing on 10/24, this Saturday at the Great  Northwest Library branch…

Members of the San Antonio Radio Club W5SC and Alamo Area Radio Organization AA5RO put on their annual JOTA event out in Castle Hills, at the McGimsey Scout Park, located off NW Military near Lockhill Selma Road.   This is an annual event held the 3rd Saturday of each October.  

Another local JOTA event was held up at Canyon Lake, but we don’t (yet) have any photos or details to share.

Andrew KD5NNN attended the event, and was kind enough to share these photos with us…

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News flash!

SARC VEs get to hit the snooze alarm a few more times!

In case you haven’t heard, our city leaders thought the library hours needed to be changed. As of October 1, the Great Northwest Library will be opening on Saturdays at 10 AM. Since we don’t want to start the test session in the parking lot, we’ll need to change the SARC VE session time to start at 10 AM when the library doors open.

Thanks for those of you who have been helping us, for your continued service at our test sessions. If you’d like to help at any of upcoming sessions (especially the January one), let me know!

Our next VE sessions will be:

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About 20 hams gathered after hours at the KComm Ham Store to hear Lothar K5LEH demonstrate and explain Amateur Fast Scan and Slow Scan TV.   He started with a presentation on a projector screen, showed the equipment that he regularly uses to make this happen, then the group moved over to the radio side of the store to “go live” on the air and see if they could exchange photos with other hams.  Unfortunately, the bands were not cooperative with Lothar’s wishes, and so he got to explain what would have happened if someone had responded to what he was sending out on the air.

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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by Shane O’Neal NS5D

Field Day 2009 is nearly upon us, and preparations are underway to make this the largest, most successful Field Day event in San Antonio’s history. This is thanks to the participation of AARO, SARC, ROOST, SARO, Hill Country REACT, QCWA and many other organizations and individuals, operating jointly under the banner of Bexar County ARES.

Field Day 2009 is expected to draw record numbers of operators and will feature many different bands and modes of operation, including PHONE, CW, SSB, PSK-31, FM and ATV as a Class “A” station. The total number of transmitters to be operated has yet to be determined, but will number at least six.

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It is with great sadness that I report that Gil Mathis AA5XH passed away this morning around 2am (03/25/2009) at a local hospital.  Gil was 76, having been born on December 25, 1932.  He had been admitted to the hospital on February 16th after showing signs of a stroke.  He was transferred to rehab, where he suffered another stroke and was diagnosed with Stage 4 Cancer. Cancer was found in his left lung and had spread to other parts of his body.

Gil was retired from the U. S. Army and later from a career at Industrial Communications as a service technician. He was a longtime member of the San Antonio Repeater Organization, where he was loved by all. He was a currently serving Director for the San Antonio Radio Club as well. Gil was very active in public service events such as the (formerly called) BikeMS Bike to the Beach and Tour de Cure.   Gil earned his Extra Class ham license in February 1992 and his prior call was KI5MO.

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