N5NTG | 
01 13th, 2009| 
I’m working on a major update to the 2009 Event Calendar for this web site, but in the meantime, here is a summary of events, as per the REACT Team’s Operation Officer Gary Tangrady, K5GST.
Jan
11
To the Bandera 100K Ultra-Marathon Radio Team!
The expression of Thanks and Gratitude for our efforts in support of this event, cannot be properly expressed in words! The comments about the efforts of the team have been nothing but positive, appreciative and supportive!
We managed to again increase the level of communication amongst the Aid Stations and Race Controls, with only a few minor glitches. The smoothness of knowing where the final batch of runners on the course, and continual updating allowed for early and incident free shutdown of all Aid Stations, well in advance of the traditional times!
Dec
14
Hello all and Happy Holidays from Wade W5ERX
More questions have been raised as to the status of the donation for the 147.14 repeater. I addressed this issue not long ago but it was brought to my attention a couple of days ago that all of you may not have received this information. For this reason I am sending this to as many individuals as I have e-mail addresses for. If I have missed anyone please share this with them as soon as possible.
A few months ago Hill Country REACT received a check in the amount of $482.55 from Greg Lewis/ Unusual Suspects. This money was earmarked as a donation for the 147.14 repeater. This entire amount was placed into the REACT account to be held in trust for the repair on the repeater. Other funds were raised from other hams up thru the Austin Summerfest held in August 2008, bringing the total up to about $750 or so in donations. Read the rest of this entry »
Dec
7
It was 35 degrees outside on a Sunday Morning, December 7th, but ten ham operators got up before the sun did, and drove over to the SE side of San Antonio for the annual San Antonio Road Runners 10 Miler Mission Run. The event started and ended at the Mission County Park #2 on Padre Drive, near VFW Blvd. The course ran down Mission Parkway, south of Military Drive, and then continued south of Loop 410 for a total of 5 miles, then returned.
The event had about 270 registrants this year, but 20 “no-shows” brought the number of runners down to about 250. There were a dozen or so “relay runners” who were supposed to run out to the 2.5 mile park and return, then let their partner run the same 2.5 out and back to finish.
Nov
20
At the November membership meeting of Hill County REACT, elections were held for the team officer positions. The following were elected to serve 2 year terms of office:
- President – Wade Bolling, W5ERX
- Treasurer – Barbara Manley, KA5RLF
- Secretary – Charles Manley, KD5ESX
Because this created a vacancy by Wade moving from VP to President, Lee Besing N5NTG was appointed Vice President until the next membership meeting in January at which time a special election will be held to fill the term.
Gary Tangrady, K5GST, was elected as the Team’s Operations Officer, with the duty to coordinate public safety and emergency communications support by the Team.
More information about this local REACT team can be found at www.HillCountryREACT.org
Nov
10
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.
Nov
6
I received the following letter today in the mail from the Universal City Police Department, thanking ALL of the volunteers who worked the 2008 Veterans Day Parade on November 1st. While he mentions by name, “REACT” and “Motorcycle Marshals”, he was aware that there were non-affiliated hams working the event, but considered them all to still be volunteers with REACT since REACT had coordinated the event for the past 20+ years. REACT wishes to thank those who volunteered for this event, for without your support, it would not have been the same. Lt. Denton asked that we share this letter as widely as possible, so I’m posting it to this blog, with a link to let you download the scanned PDF version of the original paper letter for confirmation. – Lee N5NTG
Nov
2
Saturday and Sunday, as the readers of this blog already knew, was the annual Tour de Gruene tour and competition races. See story posted to the MySanAntonio website here…
I couldn’t work the Saturday events, although we did divert a couple of our REACT members from the parade over to the Tour de Gruene to help out GVARC after finding out they might be short handed on Saturday morning. According to news reports, Lance Armstrong finished Saturday with a time of 33 minutes, 8 seconds to win the race along the Guadalupe River on the breezy Hill Country afternoon.
Four members of Hill Country REACT got up early Sunday morning before the sun was up, to meet for breakfast and move into our assigned locations prior to the start of the 8 am team time trial races. Due to this morning’s daylight savings time change, we appreciated that extra hour of sleep.
There were about a dozen or so ham radio operators out on the course that morning, including Mike WQ5C who served as net control of this annual event. The sponsors of the Tour de Gruene reportedly donated $500 to the GVARC club afterward, to help them fund a new amateur radio repeater polling receiver in the northern part of Comal County. (For those of you who aren’t hams, a polling receiver is just a receiving point connected back to the primary radio transmitter, and that increases the coverage area to allow more hams to use the 147.000 repeater.)
Nov
1
November 1st was the 38th Annual Veterans Day Parade in Universal City, Texas. (Universal City is on the NE edge of San Antonio, near IH-35 and Loop 1604.) Normally, this parade is over in about 90 minutes or less, but this year it went for over 2 hours. There were only about 50 registered entries this year, but it was still a very nice parade. 
It started around 10:30am and ended after 12:30pm. Pat Booker Road was shut down, almost military law or forced evacuation except for everyone lining the streets on foot.
Oct
31
One of the annual events that the Hill Country REACT Team does each year, is the Halloween Trick-or-Treat in Sattler, Texas, just east of Canyon Lake on FM2673. The entire town turns out for this event, with businesses and various groups setting up tables or booths and passing out candy or other snacks to the kids (and adults) who walk by in their costumes.
REACT has been doing this for many years, and the Canyon Lake Chamber of Commerce donates around 10 huge bags of candy to the Team for distribution in REACT’s name. This year was no different. We passed out about 40-50 pounds of candy in just three hours, from 5pm-8pm tonight.