San Antonio Hams

Ham Radio Class Number 8! 

We’re proud to say that seems to be the consensus of our eighth Technician and first General crash review courses. AARO (Alamo Area Radio Organization) and SWRC ARC (Southwest Research Corporation Amateur Radio Club) again teamed up with Johnny Wallace K5POP for coordinating Tech instructors and being the liaison with the South Texas Regional Advisory Council for Trauma (STRAC).   And a new “Thanks Again!” to Bob Rodriguez K5AUW for coming up with plans for our first General Crash Review course and following it through.

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PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Action:

Once again a bill is being introduced into the Texas Legislature to ban the use of cell phones while driving unless the call is being made using hands free operation. Senate bill (SB582) is being sponsored by State Senator Jeff Wentworth of San Antonio includes language to the effect of exempting Amateur Radio.

However, a bill being introduced by State Representative Jose Menendez from Bexar County does not include such language, Otherwise the bills are almost exactly alike.

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18 of 23 TSA Agents who participated in an almost week long communications training course conducted in here in San Antonio, passed their ham license exam on Wednesday, March 4th. This was the 2nd such session in San Antonio, the previous session being in May of 2008.

The TSA is trying to improve interoperability in their communications, and each major airport in the USA is being required to establish the ability to communicate via ham radion, in addition to their normal modes of communications (which include Sat Phones, etc.).

The TSA has purchased “go kits” containing ham radios, power supplies, antennas, and other items, sort of like the resources we now have at our EOC, so that they could send a ham radio operator / TSA agent down to the Rio Grande Valley or other areas where there were some of the smaller airports being affected by some emergency.  They have installed a “normal” ham radio station at their office here in San Antonio, which is off the airport’s premises and location which we won’t divulge due to security concerns.  They are ho[ping that in time of need, they will be able to depend upon the San Antonio Ham Radio community to provide them with extra operators to supplement their trained TSA employees.

San Antonio Radio Club’s VE Team led by Pat AD5BR, supplemented by some other VE’s from AARO, conducted the testing at a local hotel near the airport.  Following is a list of the VE’s who took time off in the middle of a workday to assist.

• Pat AD5BR
• Dave W5QS
• Terry K5ADF
• Bob K5AUW
• Lee N5NTG
• Bill WE5ET
• Teri KC5BJI
• Charles WA3PAY
• Harry AD5WR

Greg N5XO <n5xo@satx.rr.com>

It has been awhile since we had a Unusual Suspect Meet and Greet and with the repeater issues and many of us operating on simplex or other repeaters up in the Austin area we can not talk as often as we would all like.

So it’s TIME ONCE AGAIN TO HAVE A MEET AND GREET BREAKFAST.

WHAT: UNUSUAL SUSPECT MEET & GREET
WHEN: SUNDAY MARCH 22ND 2009 @ 9:AM
WHERE: BILL MILLERS BBQ {BREAKFAST TACO’S} AT IH-35 AND FM 3009
TOPICS:

• HANG OUT AND ENJOY GREAT COMPANY AND RECONNECT WITH FRIENDS.
• ALSO DISCUSSION OF THE 2009 UNUSUAL SUSPECT FIELD DAY DXPEDITION……

LET’S MAKE THIS A SUPER TURN OUT AND HOPE TO SEE EVERYONE THERE!!!!!!

RSVP to Greg suggested, but not required.   Dutch Treat.

This guy’s ham radio antenna was confused by police as a bomb. Wow!Story Link – Video Here  Updated: Feb 26, 2009 12:46 PM CST

OMAHA (KPTM) – Police evacuated a midtown neighborhood briefly Thursday morning for what was originally thought to be a bomb, but in the end, it turned out to be ham radio equipment.

The house, located near 48th and Mayberry, caught fire last week. A cleaning company found the equipment and called police, thinking it was a pipe bomb. Police were called, and officers detonated the equipment. The neighborhood was evacuated during the investigation.

History is in the making for San Antonio Hams in 2009.    All of the major  Ham Clubs in San Antonio appear to be reaching agreement in coordinating a single Field Day location rather than holding a half dozen separate locations as had been done in the past.

AARO led the way, after losing their normal comfy spot over by the VA Hospital. They started the search for a new location, and thanks to our Ham Radio ties with the City of San Antonio, specifically our ties with the Fire Department, they found a new location to hold Field Day.   The City Fire Department offered them the use of their Firefighters Training Academy, located west of the downtown area near Hwy 151 and Callaghan Road, as the site of their 2009 Field Day event.

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 Lost Maples SNA , in Bandera County north of Vanderpool, has been chosen as the location of the “Bexar Operators Group” (W5BOG) 2009 Field Day operation.  We will be concentrating on “primitive  camping techniques” along with our amateur radio operations.

Our rigs and LED lighting systems will be powered by several solar energy panels and a wind powered turbine which will charge banks of deep-cycle marine batteries, making this a 100% “Green Operation”.

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This Saturday, January 17, Houston Amateur Radio Supply will host its annual swapfest in the parking lot where it’s been held in the past.   Also, there will be representatives from ICOM, and there will probably be drawings for hourly prizes and a grand prize. There will be free hot dogs, chips, and sodas.

Directions to the HARS can be found on their web site.  http://texasparadise.com/hars/

Other 2009 known Ham Fests include the following (thanks Ben NE5B for some of this info)

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From: david griffith ZC4DG <davidggriffith@hotmail.co.uk>

Back on Cyprus / ZC4 from January 20th for 2 weeks – pass the word to the locals!!   Some propagation info would be useful and save time.  I will be running 20 Meters Voice and possibly even CW.
73s David zc4dg

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Received the following list of prize recipients from SARC President JC Smith N5RXS today via email.  The San Antonio Radio Fiesta was held Saturday, January 10th, out in Schertz, Texas at the Knights of Columbus Hall at 509 Schertz Parkway.  The parking lot overflowed, the meeting room was jam packed, and a good time was had by all who attended.  More info soon as it gets posted to their club’s  www.w5sc.org web site.

Here is the list of prize winners.  Grand / Major prize winners did not need to be in attendance at the time of drawing in order to win.

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