San Antonio Hams

KARS has filed the following ARRL Field Day Report for 2009

1. Field Day Call Used: KB5TX          GOTA Station Call:   n/a
2. Club or Group Name: KARS
3. Number of Participants: 18
4. Number of transmitters in simultaneous operation: 5
5. Entry Class: Check only one.    X A. Club or non-club portable
6. Check All power sources used.  X Generator
7. ARRL / RAC Section:   STX
8. Total CW QSO’s: 342 X 2 = Total CW QSO points: 684
9. Total Digital QSO’s: 0 X 2 = Total Digital QSO points: 0
10. Total Phone QSO’s: 247 X 1 = Total Phone QSO points: 247
11. Total QSO points: 931
12. Power Multiplier      X 150 Watts or less = 2
13. Power Multiplier: 2
14. Claimed Score: 931  (Should this be 931 x2 = 1862 with power multiplier added?)

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Today was the 19th Annual 4th of July Parade at Canyon Lake, held in Startzville, TX, and sponsored by the Startzville VFW Post.  And of course  the members of Hill Country REACT were there helping in the Staging Area to get the parade off to a smooth, on-time start. 

In the past few years, we’ve had the help from some other area hams, and this year was no exception. 

Hams from San Antonio, the Guadalupe Valley Amateur Rado Club (New Braunfels), and Hayes Caldwell County ARES group (San Marcos) showed up to assist REACT with this fun event.   Read the rest of this entry »

The much shortened version of my full 3-day Jump Team Boot Camp which was offerred for a July date  has been cancelled due to not enough interested parties signing up.

This was to include such sections as site survey before structures are erected, sheltering and how/where to properly put them up, station operating posts, antenna building and erection, power generation, food support/dining areas, message handling, troubleshooting your station, propagation, water purification, basic survival techniques, creating a complete EmComm cache of gear to have on the ready, etc.

All participants would have been exposed to every phase so they would have been able to “do it all” from scratch in case of an emergency, with session taught by a team of experienced communicators and also survival experts from the military.

Note: My full 3-day boot-camp is still being held in late October. We will go through the same  steps needed to set up and run a complete emergency communications complex at a location where nothing would be standing and included will be a comprehensive book/guide enabling people to start their own emergency communications jump team in their area.

Bob W2IK

iBCNU is an APRS GPS position reporting and text-messaging application for the Apple iPhone.

When position reporting is enabled, the application will periodically send out location of your iPhone using either 3G or WiFi network and iPhone’s built in GPS receiver.

The rate at which position reports are sent out is adjustable. Once the GPS information is in the APRS-IS system, it is shared between all users and you can track yourself or track your friends using this or one of the many APRS mapping sites.

When used as a text-messaging tool, iBCNU will let you send and receive messages using the APRS-IS system. You can send short (approximately 512 character) messages to your ham friends for free.

This item is apparently available, or will be availble soon,  for sale thru the Apple Itunes Store for $1.99.     

I did a search at store.apple.com for “iBCNU” (I be seeing you?), “APRS”, “Amatuer Radio” and didn’t find it listed as active.   Reading the developer’s log revealed that he ha been experiencing some “technical difficulties” meeting Apple’s “human interface standards” and other “issues” which have delayed the release of an updated version to the initial release, or any of us from downloading it.   (Note: I don’t have an iPhone anyway. – Lee)

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Don’t know much about what happened out in Kendall County (Boerne) at this year’s Field Day event, but judging from the photos that Jim Mastrogiovani KK5RZ posted, it looks like they had fun doing it…  (That’s Jim with the cigar in the photo to the right.)

This location typically has lots of shade, with a huge metal roof overhead, but not sure how cool it was underneath.

Anyway, here are some of the photos from the KB5TX Kendall Amateur Radio Society Field Day event. 

Enjoy….

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I am looking for an electronics club in San Antonio.    I can’t seem to find one on the net… been looking and looking. I am interested in fixing little gadgets with circuit boards and the like, if anyone can help me or direct me to aid my quest I would appreciate it. Thank you!

Besides the deer, “Murphy” came out in force when the Bexar Operators Group, W5BOG, assembled for their Field Day 2009 operation at Lost Maples State Park.

Despite “Murphys” best efforts, the Group would not bend whether it be from the 108 degree heat, no wind to drive the wind turbine, lack of park water and sewage due to a clogged septic system, the searing sun which blasted our digital camera after only a few shots nor the nearest ice machine being 5 miles outside the park entrance.

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Feeled Dazers,
by Jeff Schmidt, N5MNW – Austin Reporter

2009’s Field Day proved to be challenging with extreme heat, poor band conditions and ever-present Murphy’s Law. Many thanks to the tireless dedication of Stu K5KVH, the setup/teardown crew and all the operating & logistical volunteers who made this a memorable event.

Nearby power hardware was causing extreme 10-over-9 buzz noise near the site. It abated somewhat during the weekend but was causing us not to hear weaker stations. 20m had lots of fast fading, 15m was up & down, mostly down. We had what sounded like very sporadic E skip for 15, 10 & 6m openings. 10m was open on Sat AM then closed for all but a few minutes on Sunday and 6m opened briefly several times.

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I’m combining some photos from various hams in this posting.  These include a few more from myself (Lee N5NTG), Gary (K5GST) and Jorge (WP4KTF).

And as usual, please help us in identifying the hams in each photo.  If we’ve failed to identify a person properly or not at all, please post a comment letting us know which photo to update and we’ll get it taken care of.

I’ve labeled the photos according to their owner…

Enjoy!

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