San Antonio Hams

Every year the members of the Boerne KARS Ham Club gather on the Saturday before Labor Day to work the staging area for the county fair’s parade.  KARS members coordinate the staging area, helping to direct entries to their proper line-up location, and figuring out what to do when someone put the entries too close together, or when they put the numbers on the wrong order facing the wrong way of the street.  Oops!

But sometimes “stuff happens”, and this year was no exception.  One street had the numbers in reverse order causing some confusion which was quickly straightened out by KARS.  And then there was that dead end street, E. Voygt, which had entries assigned to both sides, got filled up quickly, and this this huge gravel truck appears pulling a flatbed trailer with a backhoe on it, plus another huge semi truck.   Did they need to dig up the street?  No, they were one of the first time entries assigned to that block!  But they got there about 1 hour before the start of the parade, and there was no way possible to fit them into that dead end street and get them turned around facing the wrong way.  So we put them in a nearby parking lot, and simply inserted them into the proper order when the parade finally got started.

And then there was the taxi cab who was pretending to be a float.  Actually, she was pretending to have a dead battery, or was it real?  Boerne PD arrived with a patrol car and KARS members assisted with jumping the battery.  Shortly after,  a small pickup truck shows up and they changed out the battery in the taxi van.

Bottom line, fun event with a fun group of hams.

August 18 , 2008 – MOU Signed between Texas MARS and Texas REACT

August is hurricane season but apparently it is also the season for cooperation between various radio communications agencies as well.  On August 18, 2008, Charles Land, president of the local San Antonio based Hill Country REACT Team, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the South Texas Navy – Marine Corps MARS (Military Affiliated Radio System).  Minutes later, Texas State REACTCouncil Secretary, Lee Besing, signed a similar agreement with the Texas Navy – Marine Corps MARS. The MARS signature was NOT that of Bob Hejl, W2IK, but rather that of a MARS officer higher up in the chain of command for Texas. See links at bottom of this article for PDF copies scanned with signatures of both agreements.

{Photo Left – Right; Charles Land (KC5NKK) signing as president of Hill Country REACT, Bob Hejl, (W2IK, NNN0GBY2) representing MARS, and Lee Besing (N5NTG) signing as the secretary for the Texas State REACT Council.} Read the rest of this entry »

From Noon Saturday thru Noon Sunday by N5NTG – Lee Besing

I made a tour of three FD locations this year… I used to do this in previous years, but with fuel prices increasing, I had sort of slowed down a bit. But this year, I decided to spend the bux and go visit some of my friends. I had planned to visit two others, but one shut down earlier than planned on Saturday, and around 1am I decided I was too tired to safely drive all the way out to Boerne to visit Kendall County, so I headed home to get some sleep instead.

I started this with compiling a list of known locations around San Antonio, then we received contact from other clubs in Central and South Texas asking that we list their FD site, so we ended up with 13 locations. Click Here for a full list of 13 sites in or around San Antonio, as far west as Ulvade, north to Austin, South to Laredo and Southeast to Corpus Christi.

This report will contain photos from the three locations I managed to visit (GVARC, SARC, AARO) plus photos that were sent to me from other operators. Band conditions this year were sort of weak, so contacts appeared to be less than in some previous years, but the weather cooperated with us locally. The Bexar Operators Group set up down on Mustang Island, “roughing it” with a portable A/C unit sitting on the edge of his picnic table sticking out thru the sides of his pop-up shelter that they rigged around the table. His pop-up was the only one that didn’t blow away in the high winds that hit the gulf coast during that weekend because he rigged for the possibility of high winds at the start.

Photos are embedded in the 2008 Field Day Page here.

May 17-18, 2008 – Tour De Cure Hams

I’ve collected 673 photos from hams taken during the 2008 Tour de Cure event which rode from San Antonio to San Marcos on Day 1, and San Marcos to Austin on Day 2. Around 56 ham volunteers worked this event on Saturday, 53 Ham Volunteers on Sunday this year, a new record. We also drove 9 SAG vans on Saturday, 8 SAG vans on Sunday, manned 9 Rest Stops on Saturday, 6 Rest Stops on Sunday, plus we had around a dozen or so Motorcycle Safety Marshals on both days.

Photos provided by Lee Besing N5NTG, Joe Plano KA1MZY, John Trigg W5KXO, Eugene Bentz KI6MPA, and Phil Boggan KD5MMM as indicated. If you have photos to share, contact me for simple FTP instructions. Credit will be given to each source.

Photo at left, Day 1 San Marcos Net Control Station. L-R rear, Roger W5WIA, Sterling KE5KZE, Mike KD5OZM, front – Pat AD5BR

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May 3, 2008 – Special Olympics Spring Games

Actually, despite the perception you might get from this photo, Bob W2IK was not up to monkey business during the Special Olympics Area 20 Spring Games held May 3rd at Harlendale’s Memorial Stadium in south San Antonio. Bob set up his self-contained EmComm station on battery power, plus an inverted 40 meters dipole. While there were at least 4 pop-up awnings destroyed by the high winds that morning (winds gusting to over 30+ mph), Bob wisely had used metal stakes to secure the legs of his awning, plus used a pair of bungee cords to secure the top cover to prevent the wind from lifting it off.

Bob checked into the Navy Mars HF net before the start of Special Olympics, then allowed Schuylar KE5VIP to borrow his station while he explored the nearby facilities and looked for refreshments. This event is about the fifth time in a row that Bob has offered to help with this event, using K5BCR club call for Hill Country REACT as the special event call. Operators making contact could send SASE to the REACT Team’s PO Box address for a certificate to be mailed to them.

Click here for more photos from this event.

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April 20, 2008 – Wildflower 100 Bicycle Tour

About a dozen hams helped support the annual Wildflower 100 Bicycle Tour, which operated from Retama Race Track on the NE side of San Antonio, and runs multiple courses thru Bexar, Comal and Guadalupe counties. We’ve been promised an article about this event, but in the meantime, here are some photos taken by the webmaster. Click on photo for a larger view.

April 12-13, 2008 – BP150 Bicycle Tour (13, 000 riders from Houston to Austin)

About a 150+ hams helped support the annual BP150 Bicycle Tour, from Houston to La Grange on Day 1, La Grange to Austin on Day 2. 3 calls for life flight to pick up riders with serious problems, plus a few transported by ambulance on Day 1. No major medical calls on day 2. We’re working onan article about this event, but in the meantime, here are some photos taken by the webmaster. Click on photo for a larger view. We’ll put to gether a photo montage set of pages, separate from this page to keep from causing the load time to deteriouate for all viewers.

Lee, N5NTG, and his son David, KD5MTJ, were driving SAG 10, Alternate Turtle on Day 1, Express Route Turtle on Day 2. This was a tremendous effort with hams from Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and points between, setting up temp repeaters in areas that had little or no coverage normally, including digipeaters for APRS. Echolink and IRLP were used to tie in all repeaters each day, so that Houston Net Control was able to run the route up until the last segment of Day 2 when it closed with Austin. (And I’m not sure they weren’t still listening in, but they needed some sleep also.)

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