Sep 2

Major Hurricane Dorian Prompts Sustained Activations

09/01/2019

From ARRL.org

Hurricane Dorian, now a dangerous Category 5 storm, hit the island of Abaco in the Bahamas with 185 MPH winds and heavy rain. The Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) on 14.325 MHz (7268 MHz alternate) and the VoIP Hurricane Net (EchoLink WX_TALK Conference) remain activated in conjunction with WX4NHC at the National Hurricane Center to keep on top of ground-truth weather information and to handle emergency traffic, if needed.

FEMA has announced that channels 1 and 2 of the 60 meter band will be made available, as necessary, beginning September 2 for interoperability between federal government stations and US Amateur Radio stations involved in Hurricane Dorian emergency communications. They will remain active until the storm has passed and the need for the channels no longer exists.

Channel 1 (5332 kHz channel center) will be available for primary voice traffic 5332 kHz channel center, 5330.5 kHz USB. Channel 2 (5348 kHz channel center) will handle digital traffic, 5346.5 kHz USB with 1.5 kHz offset to center of digital waveform

Radio amateurs must yield to operational traffic related to Hurricane Dorian. Although the intended use for these channels is interoperability between federal government stations and US Amateur Radio stations, federal government stations are primary users and amateurs are secondary.

For the full article click here

http://www.arrl.org/news/major-hurricane-dorian-prompts-sustained-activations

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Sep 2

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of ARRL’s first president and cofounder Hiram Percy Maxim (HPM), W1AW, born on September 2, 1869.

ARRL will hold an operating event this summer to celebrate HPM’s legacy, getting under way at 0000 UTC on August 31 and continuing until 2359 UTC on September 8. It is open to all radio amateurs.

ARRL members will append “/150” to their call signs during this event.

Check out http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-announces-happy-150-hiram-percy-maxim-birthday-celebration

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Sep 2

The ARRL Foundation has announced it is accepting scholarship applications between September 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019 for the academic year 2020-2021.
If you know a deserving Amateur, please urge them to apply.
For details of the program, please see:

http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-foundation-scholarship-program-is-now-accepting-applications

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Sep 2

The annual Texas QSO Party starts 1400Z Saturday, September 14, 2019 and runs to 0200Z, Sunday, September 15, 2019. (New weekend this year.)
The organizers have requested that all who plan on participating, particularly the very important mobile operators, send their operating plans to no5w.chuck@gmail.com
TQP gets better every year; even if you can only operate for a part of the contest, please do so — you become one more valuable QSO for someone, including the increasing number of DX operators that favor the TQP.
For more details see:

http://txqp.net/index.php

More Info …

Read the rest of this entry »

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Sep 2

Route 66 On The Air Returns

The 20th Annual Amateur Radio special operating event, known as “Route 66 On The Air” returns on September 7-15, 2019.

Organized by the Citrus Belt Amateur Radio Club of San
Bernardino, California in 1999 to celebrate the anniversary of Bobby Troup’s 1946 hit song “Get Your Kicks On Route 66”, the event now involves over 20 cities on the “Mother Road” being activated by
multiple Amateur Radio clubs and individuals.

Oklahoma and Texas will again activate portions of the Mother Road. Oklahoma expects to have special event stations in Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Elk City. Texas expects to have a station in
Amarillo.

The list of all the planned special event stations along the Mother Road can be found at:

http://w6jbt.org/?page_id=117

and the operating frequency guidelines can be found at

http://w6jbt.org/?page_id=25

John Robert Stratton N5AUS
West Gulf Division Director

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Aug 28

JOTA Patch 2019

Please join us for the 62nd Annual Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) event
and enjoy worldwide communications via Amateur Radio and the internet.

JOTA is the largest Scouting event in the world with over 1.8 million
Scouts participating across 150+ countries. Scouts of all ages are
welcome to come and participate.

This year’s San Antonio area event will be held at McGimsey Scout Park in the Cub Pavilion area.

The event starts Friday,
October 18th from 6:00PM to 10:00PM, Saturday from 9:30AM to 10:00PM, and concludes Sunday 9:30AM to 12:00PM.

Participants can camp out
overnight Friday & Saturday.

If you are interested in participating, reservations are strongly encouraged. Please send us a count of the number of youth and adults in your group that will be attending the times you are wanting to attend and if you’re group will be camping overnight.

See more info here…

https://w5sc.org/jota/

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Aug 24

Dear club members,

I wanted to provide a reminder that the Texas QSO Party dates have changed this year. The TQP is now scheduled to take place the second weekend in September. Operating times for the 2019 contest are from 1400Z on Saturday, September 14 to 0200Z on Sunday, September 15 and from 1400Z to 2000Z on Sunday, September 15th. This is always a fun event. Texas has 254 counties so there are a lot of multipliers to work.

Does anyone have any plans for the contest?

73,

Marty
W5MRM

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Aug 24

Do you have an antenna you purchased and want to test to see how it performs and stacks up to others?

Did you build a nice J-Pole? How about a quad? A tape measure Yagi? Or maybe converted your old walker into a secret antenna? Got old bed springs?

BRING IT TO THE HAMster Antenna Shoot out the 7th of September.

The date is getting here quick….don’t miss out…….get that antenna built and join in the fun.

There will be Awards for
Most Unique
Best Performer {Omni}
Best Performer {Directional}

And by crowd vote, the most popular design.

You can build a 6 meter or 2 meter design, we will be testing those two bands.

LET’S HAVE A LOT OF FUN…..

SPREAD THE WORD OUTSIDE OF THE MAIN CORE HAMster Group, everyone in the Amateur Community is Welcome.

JOIN IN THE FUN.

THE HAMster Antenna Shoot out

8:30 am at the American Red Cross in San Antonio
September 7th 2019

Join us…..Coffee, donuts will be provided.

Note: We would like to get an idea on the number of folks who will submit an antenna for the event…..please let us know.

Please RSVP to Greg N5XO via email at gclewis@144420.net

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Jul 21

I am selling this (used) Cushcraft R-7000 HF vertical antenna and the 70ft crank-up tower for $700, package deal. It has two cranks, one to raise / lower and another one to lay it down. Great for DX Contesting.

I believe the antenna is the Cushcraft R-7000 (10 meters – 40 meters, half-wave) and it comes with the tubular setup you see. I’m not sure if my dad got the optional 80 meter add-on kit or not. The antenna alone sold for $389.95 when new. Not sure of the original cost for the tower, but I rember that it “wasn’t cheap” at the time.

My father (Doug, NA5YO) has used this setup to reach countries all over the world, and in lowband usb competitions.

Buyer will need to remove and transport. Location is on the southside, (near Pleasanton Rd and Military Drive) in San Antonio, Texas. No delivery option available, sorry.

Contact Daniel Gollihar, KC5QIG, at 210-966-2148. (Text, or call / leave msg)

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Jul 14

Just received this info courtesy of the San Antonio Radio Club… better late than never, I guess.

_____________________

Mr. Curtis Edward Swafford, born on July 24, 1941 in Riceville, Tennessee, passed away at age 77 on September 17, 2018 in San Antonio, Texas. He graduated from Calhoun High School and TN Wesleyan College. Curtis served in the Air Force and he devoted his career to working at Randolph Air Force Base – Civil Service. Curtis is survived by his son, Mark Morga and wife Tara Morga; daughter, Christine Garza and husband Mark Garza; sister, Faye Burger and husband Carey Burger; and grandchildren, AnneMarie Garza, Stephanie Garza, Karina Morga, and Gabriela Morga. Some of Curtis’ hobbies were ham radio – W5PKE and bowling league.

Normally that would be the end of his story, but his family graciously allowed members of SARC to attend an estate sale of his treasure trove of years of collecting amateur radio equipment. Apparently, Curtis was into a lot more hobbies than just ham radio and bowling. He was into graphics art and computers from what we could see.

His memory will live on as other club members use his equipment to talk around the world. By the huge stack of QCL cards sitting by his desk, he made many contacts around the world. (A QSL card is a written confirmation of either a two-way radio communication between two amateur radio stations)

Curtis is gone but not forgotten by members of San Antonio Radio Club. While many of us did not know him while he was alive, we bonded with him through purchasing his equipment. His legacy will live on though many SARC members using his equipment once more to talk around the world.

Via: San Antonio Radio Club newsletter editor

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