San Antonio Hams

I emailed out the very first electronic newsletter for San Antonio Hams website, to a list of about 250 hams in the San Antonio Area, plus a few from the IH-35 Corridor up towards Austin, and a few of our ham friends from the Houston area.

14 hours later, only 1 ham asked to be unsubscribed and that was taken care of automatically by the email campaign software I was using.   I had several responses thanking me for the information, especially the news about AA5XH’s passing (3/24/2009) and visitation service happening on Monday (03/30/2009).  Had one ham’s name crossed posted wrong with another ham, but he contacted me to get it corrected.  (Sorry about that, Harvey!)

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Attention all prospective & committed Tour de Cure Volunteers

Here is an update for the 2009 Tour de Cure. It’s time to begin making duty assignments for all ham volunteers, but there have been some major changes regarding SAG Van duty. Most of the SAG Vans will NOT be driven by Ham Radio Operators, due to a donation of services by a local San Antonio company who is providing both the vehicles, the drivers and paying for the fuel.
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It is with great sadness that I report that Gil Mathis AA5XH passed away this morning around 2am (03/25/2009) at a local hospital.  Gil was 76, having been born on December 25, 1932.  He had been admitted to the hospital on February 16th after showing signs of a stroke.  He was transferred to rehab, where he suffered another stroke and was diagnosed with Stage 4 Cancer. Cancer was found in his left lung and had spread to other parts of his body.

Gil was retired from the U. S. Army and later from a career at Industrial Communications as a service technician. He was a longtime member of the San Antonio Repeater Organization, where he was loved by all. He was a currently serving Director for the San Antonio Radio Club as well. Gil was very active in public service events such as the (formerly called) BikeMS Bike to the Beach and Tour de Cure.   Gil earned his Extra Class ham license in February 1992 and his prior call was KI5MO.

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An Update on the New Course
By Milton Johnson, N5HMJ

This is just a short communication to let you know what has been happening over the last month with the 2009 BikeMS: Valero Alamo Ride to the River!

RIDE TO THE RIVER HAMS WEB SITE

First I have created a new web site for the Amateur Radio community supporting the Ride to the River. It is called “2009 BikeMS: Valero Alamo Ride to the River HAMS” and is located at “www.n5hmj.com/BikeMS”. Why a new site? What happens with the YAHOO group? Well with the change in the ride’s name and course change, a group called “Bike to the Beach HAMS” was no longer appropriate. The second reason was that I could not succeed in getting even 50% of the Amateur Radio operator volunteers to join the group, so I decided not to fight it and created the new site. I will eventually disband the YAHOO group.

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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

SAN ANTONIO’S 2009 bikeMS RIDE

CHANGES COME TO AN OLD FRIEND

By H. Milton Johnson, N5HMJ

On Feb. 18, the rumors about changes to the “Bike to the Beach” were confirmed.  In a press conference held at the Alamodome, Tony Ralf of the Lone Star Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society announced the changes.  Here is a summary of those changes:

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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.

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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! 

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I don’t know about the rest of you out there, but I had a wonderful Christmas this year with my family all around me, and no emergency calls from the EOC asking for hams to staff the radios due so airplanes being stranded in town, or a fluke snow storm shutting down the highways and stranding travelers here, etc.

I’ve started working on the list of known events for 2009, with the help of Gary K5GST. My focus has been first on what events the REACT Team has been sponsoring, just because I have more info on them at hand, and then adding in all the other area club events, or charity events that I know are annual events.   I’ll be updating the Calendar events page over the next couple of weeks for as much of 2009 as I can reasonably predict.

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