San Antonio Hams

My son David KD5MTJ and myself made the trip up north to Austin to help out Paul KA5FZU with coordinating the ham radio communications for this year’s single day event.  It started & ended at the Travis County Expo Center, east of Austin, and featured multiple routes (11, 30, 55, 78, 100) spread across two counties.  Law enforcement support was great, especially the Williamson County Sheriff’s department who kept in close phone contact with me during the event until all riders had cleared out of his county.    One rider, who was spotted by the WC Sheriff deputy appearing to be in health distress, was placed inside his patrol car for the air conditioning until we could send a SAG truck (ABC Home & Commercial Services) up to retrieve him.  Talk about service?  Don’t know if the rider was in the front or back seat, however. 🙂

We used APRS trackers from the Austin Amateur Radio Club to track 6 of the SAG trucks and 6 of the supply trucks (Austin Energy).  We coordinated medical coverage with the MSET-TX motorcycle group out of Austin, who provided a handful of trained, certified EMT motorcycle riders, able to respond promptly to medical incidents out on the route.

The Comm Center was setup inside the main Banquet Hall, in a small room that had no windows, and virtually zero air conditioning.  We ran the coax cables up thru the false ceiling into a nearby electrical room, and then out thru an opening in the concrete block wall to our antennas.   Internet services were provided by WiMaxSATX.com using CLEAR’s 4G WiMax Internet services.

Here are some photos taken during the event.  As I get more time, I’ll add some captions to better explain them.

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Richard Jay Kilman, K5BBI, born Oct. 21, 1952 in Fredericksburg, passed away March 19, 2012, in San Antonio, surrounded by a host of family and an enormous amount of love. A compassionate man, he was the most awesome father, grandfather, brother and friend to multitudes of people all around the globe.

Rich was an active member, and former officer,  of the KARS (Kendall Amateur Radio Society) in Boerne, Texas.

Richard was the father of Ryan Birks-Kilman and wife Laurel of Kissimmee, Fla.; Kelly Kilman Anderson, and Katy Kilman of San Antonio. He was the grandfather to Alison, Erin, Katie, Cassidy, Lily and Sarah of Kissimmee, Fla; Mikayla, Kirstin, Rogan and Evelyn of San Antonio. He is also survived by sisters Mary Martin and Melanie Roller and husband Frank of Pipe Creek; and brother Ronald Kilman of Austin. He is also survived by five nieces and four nephews.

Hello, I am reaching out to the HAM community for help.

My grandfather, George R. Matthews, was a HAM in San Antonio.  He has been silent key since the late 1980’s.  I have recently been trying to find out what his call sign was. 

I live in North Carolina and no one around here has any log books with his call sign information in it.  I have asked my mother, but she can’t remember.  I have no documents with his call sign information on it and only one picture of him in his shack.  That picture does not show his call sign either. 

He owned and operated Matthews Electronics at San Antonio International Airport up until he passed away.  I was hoping that maybe someone in the San Antonio Ham radio community may have information about my grandfather’s call sign.  Any help would be very appreciated.

Thank you

Bobby Bridgers, KK4ARX
kk4arx@gmail.com

photo courtesy of ARRL.org website

The holder of one of the best-known US Amateur Radio call signs, Frederick (Fred) Maia, W5YI, died of cancer Wednesday, March 28. He was 76 and was a resident of Arlington, Texas.

Fred was a leading Amateur Radio journalist for nearly 35 years and a pioneer of the volunteer examining program adopted by the FCC in 1984.

Maia published “The W5YI Report,” dubbed “America’s Oldest Ham Radio Newsletter,” from 1978 to 2003, and has been a CQ contributing editor since 1985. His regulatory affairs column, first titled “Ticket Talk,” then “Washington Readout,” offered news and perspective on FCC Regulations and ITU actions. His final column will appear in the May 2012 issue of CQ.

After the FCC adopted volunteer examining for all levels of Amateur Radio licensing in 1984, Fred became the first Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (VEC) appointed by the FCC. Fred subsequently founded The W5YI Group in 1986 to develop, publish and sell amateur and commercial radio license study materials. In the realm of FCC commercial radio licensing, Fred formed National Radio Examiners to provide examination services.

Maia served as President of the W5YI-VEC until his retirement in October of 2000 when he sold The W5YI Group study material products to Master Publishing, Inc. The retail operations were purchased by General Manager Larry Pollock, NB5X, newly appointed President of the W5YI-VEC and National Radio Examiners organizations. Maia continued writing “The W5YI Report” newsletter until July 2003

Read the full story here on ARRL.org.

This year, Hams Rule!  Yep, ALL communications go by  ham radio, other than some internal event staff communications using commercial radios at the start/finish line.   The 2012’s event is a 1-day event, starting & ending in Boerne Texas.  The routes are changed 100% from last year.

We’ll have eight (8) White 15-Passenger SAG Vans to staff with Hams, Eight (8) Rest Stops to staff with Hams, and two (2) repeaters to coordinate with.    All communications will be on 2 meters radio, using the 145.19 Boerne (KARS) repeater and the 146.98 Kerrville (Hill Country Amateur Radio Club) repeater.   Dual band radios are suggested to enable local SAG to SAG or SAG to Rest Stop communications off-net.

Contact Lee Besing at tdc@sanantoniohams.org or call him at 210-771-7075 to volunteer!  Don’t wait, assignments are going fast!   Lee will be attending the HCARC meeting on April 5th up in Kerrville to sign up their volunteers.

Actually, the exact title is “South Texas Tour de Cure”, and it’s starting / ending in Boerne, Texas, not San Antonio. But it will happen this year on Saturday, May 19th, as a one day event with 4 routes to choose from. There will be an 18 mile & 30 mile routes going south from Boerne into the Fair Oaks Ranch area, and the 60 & 104 mile routes go north from Boerne thru Sisterdale and Comfort, before the 104 goes NW to Kerrville and back around down past Camp Vista, Center Point and thru Comfort on the way back to Boerne.

We’ve suggested a new slogan for the new Tour de Cure routes…  “If you’re tired of flat, whimpy, boring rides, change over to the Tour de Cure for the hilliest ride you can ask for…” LOL   In other words… The ride is extremely hilly, with a need for extreme caution on the part of our Ham drivers and Motorcyle Marshals.   Roads are mostly narrow 2 lane paved roads with double yellow lines and no shoulders for the riders.  Speed limits are usually near 60mph on the open roads.   Cell phone coverage is very spotty in some areas!  I suspect we may be busier than last year in the SAG and communications venue.

This will NOT be a flat boring ride.

There will be some challenges caused by the hilly terrain. We’ve got APRS radios to install in all of our SAG vans, plus key supply trucks, courtesy of Austin Amateur Radio Club (Paul Fenrich KA5FZU is returning to run APRS). Mike Perez W5ZAP will be leading our valuable Motorcycle Safety Marshals and Curtis Rabenhalt N5QPN will be our route safety officer. Yup, we snagged up Curtis to volunteer this year!   I’ve driven the entire 104 mile route, and found we had solid APRS coverage on most of the course.  I was using my own 25 watt APRS unit with a full sized higher gain antenna, more power & antenna than our borrowed tracking units will have.

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A few weeks ago, we were quietly told that Craig Kennedy, owner of  KComm The Ham Store, would likely be closing his doors at the end of March. 

 March 31st was to be the last parking lot tail-gate sale.   We were asked to keep the news quiet until all the final arrangemens had been made with the employees, etc., before publicizing the news. 

During the past couple of weeks, the word was spread by rumor, by email, by phone calls, during Ham Breakfasts, etc. that the store was closing. 

The San Antonio Radio Club, W5SC, has been holding their monthly meetings in the store, and had their club station setup for visiting hams to use while at KComm.  That era has also come to an end, with the club needing to move their equipment & trailer (in back parking lot) to another location, and to find a new meeting location.   I was told today, that April’s SARC meeting will still be at KComm, but starting in the month of May, the meetings are moving to Jim’s Restaurant on San Pedro & Ramsey.

Store on Gulfdale

Yesterday, we stopped by the store around 9am to find that it was the most crowded that we’ve ever seen it, including during a SARC Club meeting night.  

Craig was playing “lets make a deal” with old equipment, furnishings, anything that wasn’t nailed down to the floor or wall it seemed. 

It was our opinion that he likely did more sales that day in a few hours, than he had likely done all month.  Several folks commented that if Kcomm had seen this much business every weekend, we wouldn’t be there for the closing today.

When I got my ham license back in the late 80’s, Kcomm The Ham Store was located over on the NW side of town, on Mobud Street, just off Loop 410, between Evers & Bandera, in a small industrial complex. 

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From QRZ.Com comes the following information about another balloon launch that happened on March 29th.  This balloon isn’t using APRS, but has a QRP 10 meters CW beacon.   Thanks Greg N5XO for bringing it to our attention – Lee N5NTG

A long duration balloon mission that is using 6 Party Balloons to carry a 50 gram amateur radio 28.223 MHz CW beacon, is hoping to go around the world.  The ballon was released at 2330 UT (1930 EDT) March 29, from Annapolis in Maryland and started it’s journey heading SE at 6 knots. By 0300 UT, March 30, it had reached a speed of 60 MPH (96 km/h).  It has no APRS, just the 28.223 MHz CW telemetry system and it is hoped to locate it by signal strength and beam headings only. 

Note: Wind projections show the balloon heading east over the Atlantic Ocean, but with band openings, who knows? Even Greg N5XO might luck out and hear it… LOL

The mission is to give an insight into constant-pressure balloons and especially the use of common mylar party balloons as a fixed volume envelope. Unfortunately, these balloons have a high mass and so the theoretical maximum altitude no matter how many balloons are used is only about 26,000 feet and that is with no payload other than the fixed balloon mass.

The payload weighs about 50 grams. The team are targeting 6 party balloons 3′ in diameter which should give a float altitude around 16,000 feet. The Telemetry will be in CW on 28.223 MHz (USB DIAL) and will contain Battery voltage, inside and outside temperatures, and surface luminosity of the ocean/clouds. It has no GPS. The team will rely entirely on DF bearings and signal reports.

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Yesterday morning, Saturday, March 31st, Hams helped students & teachers from the Lehman High School Radio Club  launch a small weather balloon from the school, about 2 miles ENE of Kyle, Texas, running APRS using the Call Sign of NN5RR-11.   (Track it here online)  It landed a few hours later at 1.3 miles East bearing 76° from Martindale, in  Caldwell County, Texas.  Raw tracking info can be viewed here.

The weather cooperated for an 9am launch of a small test balloon on Saturday morning. It was picked up by digipeaters and I-Gates and appeared on aprs.fi. Ross Russell, NN5RR, was the instigator of the flight, and pre-flight planning was shared via the HCHams Yahoo group.

Because of the risk of losing the payload for this test flight, they kept the cost down by using the Byonics MT-RTG TNC/2m transmitter combo and a cheap HD camcorder.

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Don’t overlook the Williamson County Hamfest on Saturday, February 25,2012 ast the San Gabriel Park Community Center in Georgetown, Texas. For more details go to: http://wcarc.com/wcarc.com/swapfest.html .

This is always a fun hamfest and it is amazing what you can find for sale!

N5AUS
Vice Director
West Gulf Division