San Antonio Hams

Yesterday was the inaugural event for the Rock-n-Roll Marathon, formerly called the San Antonio Marathon.  Hams have now worked 14 San Antonio Marathons in a row, under the leadership of AARO and the cooperation from hams belonging to almost every club in the area.  This event, like all the other larger events we work, is an exercise in cooperation by the ham community because there is no one single club able to handle these events 100% in-house.   And I believe that’s a good way to run it

For the past 13 years, ham radio operators have been helping with this event, providing communications for every phase of the logistics and support functions.  In previous years, we had staffed to put hams in supply trucks, hams in the SAG vans roving the course, hams with the medical supervisors, hams acting as “shadows” for various race officials (like the race director, safety director, etc.).   We had stationed hams at the start line, hams riding bikes on the course with APRS packs, stationed hams at every water stop and at key safety risk areas like the train crossing on Mission Road (just north of IH-10 & Steves Ave).

But this year was different.

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Alamo Area Radio Organization (AARO) will hold their next monthly meeting on Wednesday, November 12th, at a new location, Martha’s Mexican Restaurant, located at the corner of Huebner and Babcock Rd.  Meeting starts at 7pm, dining is optional, but at your own expense.  See their website at www.aa5ro.org for details.

San Antonio Radio Club (SARC)will hold their next meeting on Thursday, November 13th 2008 at K-COMM The HAM Store. Meetings start at 7:00pm.  This month’s meeting will have a special program featuring the recent DX trip to Belize by Tom O’Brien. Three radio operators from this area made the trip.  November is also the month to elect officers for the 2009 year.The address for K-COMM is 10815 Gulfdale and is located near the intersection of US HWY 281 and Isom Rd.  See their website at www.w5sc.org for details.

Radio Operators of South Texas (ROOST) hold their meetings on the 2nd Friday of the month, which would make that November 14th at 7:00pm.  They serve a meal, so the club suggests bringing a donation of $5 and a side dish to help out.  Visit their website at www.w5ros.org for more details..

Hill County REACT Team (REACT) has changed their monthly meeting date from the 3rd Monday to the 3rd Wednesday, same location, the Bulverde Volunteer Fire Dept on Cougar Bend Rd and FM1863.  This month, that would set their date as November 19th, starting at 7pm. They will be holding elections for various officer positions during this meeting.  All voting is done in person, not by mail-in ballot, must be present to vote. Visit website for details www.HillCountryREACT.org

For the November meeting times for other ham clubs in the area, visit the Area Clubs Web Page Here.

AARO has announced their annual Holiday Awards Banquet, to be held Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 6pm.  Location is their usual place, Grady’s BBQ, 7400 Bandera Road.

RSVP is required due to their need to order a certain number of dinners that night in advance.  Cost of tickets to this event set at $10 a person. Call Teri Thomas for reservations at 680-6841.

More info found soon at their club web site, www.AA5RO.org

AARO was forced to change their meeting location back in early 2008 after some change in management occurred at the University Hospital which apparently caused all non-hospital groups to be evicted, so to speak.  AARO was one of those affected.

Since that time, AARO had been meeting on the east side of town, in the American Red Cross HQ building on East Houston.

But starting with the November meeting on the 12th, they will be back to meeting on the NW side of San Antonio, but not at the hospital.  Instead, they will be meeting at Martha’s Mexican Restaurant, 5822 Babcock, on the corner of Babock Rd & Huebner, just a mile or two away from the hospital.  (There is a UPS store and a T-Mobile store in the same shopping center.)

More info found at their club web site, www.AA5RO.org

(But their website still shows the older meeting location of American Red Cross, as of the date of this posting.)

AARO has mailed out the ballots for their Board of Directors election.  Four vacancies are up for election this year, 3 normal vacancies for 2 year terms, and 1 unexpected vacancy caused by a resignation, for a 1 year term.

But to make it more fun, originally there were five AARO members on the ballot, but one nominee apparently withdrew prior to the printing of the materials and mailing of the ballots. So they have 4 members running for 4 slots, and AARO members get to decide who gets the 1 year slot, and other nominees get the 2 year slot.

Deadline to return ballots is November 12th, via mail or by bringing to their meeting that night.

Nominees are (in order shown on ballot)

• Teri Thomas KC5BJI
• Linda Robinson, KC5QPQ
• Benny Martinez, NU5P
• Charles Thomas, WA3PAY

More info found at their club web site, www.AA5RO.org

(But their website still shows the older meeting location of American Red Cross, as of the date of this posting.)

From Noon Saturday thru Noon Sunday by N5NTG – Lee Besing

I made a tour of three FD locations this year… I used to do this in previous years, but with fuel prices increasing, I had sort of slowed down a bit. But this year, I decided to spend the bux and go visit some of my friends. I had planned to visit two others, but one shut down earlier than planned on Saturday, and around 1am I decided I was too tired to safely drive all the way out to Boerne to visit Kendall County, so I headed home to get some sleep instead.

I started this with compiling a list of known locations around San Antonio, then we received contact from other clubs in Central and South Texas asking that we list their FD site, so we ended up with 13 locations. Click Here for a full list of 13 sites in or around San Antonio, as far west as Ulvade, north to Austin, South to Laredo and Southeast to Corpus Christi.

This report will contain photos from the three locations I managed to visit (GVARC, SARC, AARO) plus photos that were sent to me from other operators. Band conditions this year were sort of weak, so contacts appeared to be less than in some previous years, but the weather cooperated with us locally. The Bexar Operators Group set up down on Mustang Island, “roughing it” with a portable A/C unit sitting on the edge of his picnic table sticking out thru the sides of his pop-up shelter that they rigged around the table. His pop-up was the only one that didn’t blow away in the high winds that hit the gulf coast during that weekend because he rigged for the possibility of high winds at the start.

Photos are embedded in the 2008 Field Day Page here.