Received my ballot from San Antonio Radio Organization (SARO) in the mail on Tuesday, December 2nd. 3 director slots on the board are up for election this year (2 yr terms) and there are 4 candidates on the ballot to choose from…
At the November membership meeting of Hill County REACT, elections were held for the team officer positions. The following were elected to serve 2 year terms of office:
Because this created a vacancy by Wade moving from VP to President, Lee Besing N5NTG was appointed Vice President until the next membership meeting in January at which time a special election will be held to fill the term.
Gary Tangrady, K5GST, was elected as the Team’s Operations Officer, with the duty to coordinate public safety and emergency communications support by the Team.
More information about this local REACT team can be found at www.HillCountryREACT.org
Yesterday was the inaugural event for the Rock-n-Roll Marathon, formerly called the San Antonio Marathon. Hams have now worked 14 San Antonio Marathons in a row, under the leadership of AARO and the cooperation from hams belonging to almost every club in the area. This event, like all the other larger events we work, is an exercise in cooperation by the ham community because there is no one single club able to handle these events 100% in-house. And I believe that’s a good way to run it
For the past 13 years, ham radio operators have been helping with this event, providing communications for every phase of the logistics and support functions. In previous years, we had staffed to put hams in supply trucks, hams in the SAG vans roving the course, hams with the medical supervisors, hams acting as “shadows” for various race officials (like the race director, safety director, etc.). We had stationed hams at the start line, hams riding bikes on the course with APRS packs, stationed hams at every water stop and at key safety risk areas like the train crossing on Mission Road (just north of IH-10 & Steves Ave).
But this year was different.
The SARC Board of Directors announced the 2009 Dues schedule which includes the “Early Bird Special” effective immediately. All members may renew their registration, or New hams may register as a new member, by paying only $12 for their 2009 dues. Deadline for this special time limited offer is the date of the Radio Fiesta, January 10, 2009. Regular dues rate is $15/household per year. (Flat rate for all hams in same household.) A PDF copy of their membership application can be downloaded here.
The SARC Board of Directors also set an “advanced admision price” for the Radio Fiesta of $4/person. No deadline was stated in the announcement, but obviously you need to pay up before the date of the event. Check out their website at www.w5sc.org for details.
Alamo Area Radio Organization (AARO) will hold their next monthly meeting on Wednesday, November 12th, at a new location, Martha’s Mexican Restaurant, located at the corner of Huebner and Babcock Rd. Meeting starts at 7pm, dining is optional, but at your own expense. See their website at www.aa5ro.org for details.
San Antonio Radio Club (SARC)will hold their next meeting on Thursday, November 13th 2008 at K-COMM The HAM Store. Meetings start at 7:00pm. This month’s meeting will have a special program featuring the recent DX trip to Belize by Tom O’Brien. Three radio operators from this area made the trip. November is also the month to elect officers for the 2009 year.The address for K-COMM is 10815 Gulfdale and is located near the intersection of US HWY 281 and Isom Rd. See their website at www.w5sc.org for details.
Radio Operators of South Texas (ROOST) hold their meetings on the 2nd Friday of the month, which would make that November 14th at 7:00pm. They serve a meal, so the club suggests bringing a donation of $5 and a side dish to help out. Visit their website at www.w5ros.org for more details..
Hill County REACT Team (REACT) has changed their monthly meeting date from the 3rd Monday to the 3rd Wednesday, same location, the Bulverde Volunteer Fire Dept on Cougar Bend Rd and FM1863. This month, that would set their date as November 19th, starting at 7pm. They will be holding elections for various officer positions during this meeting. All voting is done in person, not by mail-in ballot, must be present to vote. Visit website for details www.HillCountryREACT.org
For the November meeting times for other ham clubs in the area, visit the Area Clubs Web Page Here.
I received the following letter today in the mail from the Universal City Police Department, thanking ALL of the volunteers who worked the 2008 Veterans Day Parade on November 1st. While he mentions by name, “REACT” and “Motorcycle Marshals”, he was aware that there were non-affiliated hams working the event, but considered them all to still be volunteers with REACT since REACT had coordinated the event for the past 20+ years. REACT wishes to thank those who volunteered for this event, for without your support, it would not have been the same. Lt. Denton asked that we share this letter as widely as possible, so I’m posting it to this blog, with a link to let you download the scanned PDF version of the original paper letter for confirmation. – Lee N5NTG
W2IK | 
Antenna Design, ARES, Disaster Response, General Ham Radio, JOTA, W2IK | 
11 3rd, 2008| 
No Comments »ARRL WEST COAST CONVENTION – “With A Little Texas Touch”
In mid July, Bob Hejl, W2IK, was approached via email by Per Brashers, KI6JJS, requesting permission to reprint several of his Emcomm and antenna building web sites to assist in presenting a RACES forum at “PACIFICON 2008”, which is also known as the “Dayton Of The West”. It is the major ARRL West Coast convention held in mid October and offers dozens of lectures, a swap meet, exhibits, demonstrations and even an operational JOTA station. To learn more, see:
http://www.pacificon.org/index.html
Emails were exchanged and the request soon escalated into more than simple reprint permission. KI6JJS also requested assistance with creating his actual presentation script.
Saturday and Sunday, as the readers of this blog already knew, was the annual Tour de Gruene tour and competition races. See story posted to the MySanAntonio website here…
I couldn’t work the Saturday events, although we did divert a couple of our REACT members from the parade over to the Tour de Gruene to help out GVARC after finding out they might be short handed on Saturday morning. According to news reports, Lance Armstrong finished Saturday with a time of 33 minutes, 8 seconds to win the race along the Guadalupe River on the breezy Hill Country afternoon.
Four members of Hill Country REACT got up early Sunday morning before the sun was up, to meet for breakfast and move into our assigned locations prior to the start of the 8 am team time trial races. Due to this morning’s daylight savings time change, we appreciated that extra hour of sleep.
There were about a dozen or so ham radio operators out on the course that morning, including Mike WQ5C who served as net control of this annual event. The sponsors of the Tour de Gruene reportedly donated $500 to the GVARC club afterward, to help them fund a new amateur radio repeater polling receiver in the northern part of Comal County. (For those of you who aren’t hams, a polling receiver is just a receiving point connected back to the primary radio transmitter, and that increases the coverage area to allow more hams to use the 147.000 repeater.)
November 1st was the 38th Annual Veterans Day Parade in Universal City, Texas. (Universal City is on the NE edge of San Antonio, near IH-35 and Loop 1604.) Normally, this parade is over in about 90 minutes or less, but this year it went for over 2 hours. There were only about 50 registered entries this year, but it was still a very nice parade. 
It started around 10:30am and ended after 12:30pm. Pat Booker Road was shut down, almost military law or forced evacuation except for everyone lining the streets on foot.
One of the annual events that the Hill Country REACT Team does each year, is the Halloween Trick-or-Treat in Sattler, Texas, just east of Canyon Lake on FM2673. The entire town turns out for this event, with businesses and various groups setting up tables or booths and passing out candy or other snacks to the kids (and adults) who walk by in their costumes.
REACT has been doing this for many years, and the Canyon Lake Chamber of Commerce donates around 10 huge bags of candy to the Team for distribution in REACT’s name. This year was no different. We passed out about 40-50 pounds of candy in just three hours, from 5pm-8pm tonight.
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