San Antonio Hams

SA Ham KG6LGE Is Now SA Taxi Driver #32

N5NTG — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 06:10:07 +0000

KG6LGE Al Fields Driving Taxi #32 in San Antonio

Al Fields, KG6LGE, member of the Hill Country REACT Team, has taken his people & radio skills to a new height!

Those of us who worked the Tour de Cure these past couple of years, have grown familiar to hearing his melodious voice on the air as net control on the ham radio. Now, you hardly see him at ham radio events or meetings, because he’s busy taking folks from point A to point B and then to point C, or back again.

He’s become an ambassador to San Antonio, picking up rides from the SA Airport, or bringing them in from outlying towns and cities. Al drives for Yellow Cab, in a brand new Toyota Sienna mini-van, yellow of course.

Al, who is a former law enforcement officer from both here in San Antonio and Southern California, runs what is called a “micro-node” transmitter from his Taxi, connected to IRLP. He uses his Motorola 1250 HT to access the micro-node or local repeaters when not driving passengers around. Al is running on the simplex UHF frequency, 445.500, with no pl tone, but you need to be within 50′ of his taxi (moving target) or connect to another IRLP node to reach him.

Al still operates a fixed base IRLP node at his house, over near Marshall High School on Eckert Road, using the same simplex frequency 445.500, but with a PL tone of 100 required for access.

Al is running a Cradlepoint Wi-Fi portable router with a Verizon 3G USB modem for Internet access, and that provides his micro-node with IRLP connection, plus his riders can get free wi-fi Internet while riding his taxi. Al says he has had up to 4 laptops connected at one time during one longer trip he took riders on. Of course, his iPhone and iPad are always connected to it as well.

He just texted me to say his micro-node could also be accessed via 2 meter, but since he was connecting it only to a dummy load antenna, he didn’t have city wide coverage. You have to be within 50 feet of his taxi to get in on ham radio or the free wi-fi connection. We did of course try to convert him over to using CLEAR’s 4G service, but he said Verizon’s 3G service was fast enough for what he was doing.

Al normally works his taxi service up to 12 hrs a day, 7 days a week. We’re not sure when he gets any sleep, but you can understand why he’s been a bit scarce at regular club meetings or minor events. If he’s not driving, he’s not making any money and his taxi is still running a daily cost for him. But we met him Friday at the Bubble Bath Carwash on Babcock Road, near Eckerd Rd, and took his photo to help illustrate this article.

If you want a Ham Taxi in San Antonio, call 222-2222 and ask for Taxi #32, Al Fields, or just call Al direct (not via ham radio please) by calling or texting 210-355-6431. Al can provide you with his IRLP node number if you want to talk on the air to him when he’s not actively transporting passengers.

Walt Peck NB5TX – SK 8/18/2010

N5NTG — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 12:29:02 +0000

Walter Emerson Peck, NB5TX Extra Class Ham

Funeral arrangements are complete at Zoeller Funeral Home for Walter Emerson Peck, who passed away on Wednesday (8/18/2010) at his residence at age 64.

Visitation will be from 5:30 until 8:30 p.m. Monday (8/23/2010) at Zoeller Funeral Home, with the family present to greet friends. Funeral services will be Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2010, at 10 a.m. at Oakwood Baptist Church. Interment will follow in Hill Country Memorial Gardens.

Chapparal Amateur Radio Club Sets New Date/Time For Net

N5NTG — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:46:46 +0000

The Chapparal Amateur Radio Club, CARC-ARES, in Seguin will be changing its weekly net effective Tuesday, August 17 from its current time of 2000 hrs on Thursday to 1900 hrs on Tuesday except for the second Tuesday of each month which is the clubs regular meeting night.

The purpose of the net is to promote the interests and activities of CARC and Guadalupe County ARES. It, however is not an ARES net and announcements of events of interest to hams in the surrounding areas are welcome.

The net convenes on the club repeater which operates of a frequency of 146.76 MHz with a negative offset and a PL tone of 141.3 in Seguin / Guadalupe County.

de Joe W4CTH

Emergency Communications Team Competition Coming Soon! – September 5th

W2IK — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 15:24:48 +0000

Be a part of this first of it’s kind competition! Rick Palm of the ARRL ARES E-Letter says of this event: “this is a cool idea!” and is including info about it in the August ARES E-Letter. He will be sent the results for possible ARRL publication. Your last chance to sign up. Get a team together.

When: September 5, 2010

Where: South Texas park. Park location to be announced before the competition to pre-registered teams. This is not a spectator sport event.

Teams: Teams, made up of 4 people each, will compete to see which team can set up an operational communications (Jump Team) site and make 5 HF contacts in the least amount of time and in the proper manner.

Competition: Teams would be required to properly:

Erect a 6 man sleeping tent and a “toilet tent” (this includes ground tarp and rain tarp.)
Erect an operations area (canopy) with chairs and tables and radio gear.
Erect a food prep canopy with tables, chairs, stove, cooking supplies.
Erect one 40 meter “Inverted V” antenna with coax back to the operations area with proper hazard flagging.
Assemble one HF station powered by deep-cycle batteries.
Assemble 2 solar panel assemblies and charge at least one deep-cycle battery. (2 panels to charge batteries)
Filter 10 gallons of water (as part of the setup responsibilities)
Cook a simple meal in the food-prep area (enough to feed the judges lunch)
Make at least 5 HF contacts on 40 meters SSB to stations outside our immediate area with proper logging of contacts made. (paper log)
Then properly disassemble all shelters and gear, clean all food handling and cooking “stuff” and properly put them back into their storage boxes, fill out logging paperwork and submit to judges.

Notes:

Communications will begin only after all the setups have been accomplished
Cooking not included as a requirement to begin communications
Judges will determine when all setups have been completed.

This competition is not limited to any group or organization. Any 4 people, such as a scout group, who have at least one licensed ham (General class or above) can compete. They will all be using the same equipment and gear supplied by the Bexar Operators Group.

We estimate about 90 minutes for each competing team to complete their “run”. Pictures will be taken and a report, in article form, will be submitted to the ARRL.

A reference website concerning this type of operations may be found at: Emergency Communications Teams

At this time, we have at least two teams: Chaparral ARC (CARC) and Hill Country REACT (HCR) signed up to compete in this competition which is slated to take place on September 5th. Bob Rod, Lee Besing and myself have agreed to be the judges. I am hoping that others, especially local emcomm groups or radio clubs, will assemble 4 members to compete. More than one team may compete representing any group.

Please spread the word to all the amateur radio clubs in Texas that this event is open to everyone, but there will be a registration cutoff date so no one should be expected to “just show up” and compete.

No pre-registration = no competing.

So which club or group is going to capture “emcomm bragging rights” (and a plaque) from Texas?

Register by emailing to W2IK@ARRL.NET with a list of your team members/callsigns and a contact email and phone number.

Bexar Talk-Net’s Ham Picnic is Saturday, July 17th!

N5NTG — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 06:06:37 +0000

TALK-NET PICNIC
DATE: JULY 17, 2010
TIME: 10:30 AM TO 2:30 PM
PLACE: Elks Club 15650 MARKET HILL
SAN ANTONIO, TX 78256
(Outside Loop 1604, near La Cantera Parkway)

Free Hotdogs and Drinks
VE testing Get you Tech or Upgrade Starts 11:00 a.m.
Tail gate swap meet starts at 10:30 am in the parking lot.
Ham Continuing Education class SWR, VHF,UHF, HF ANTENNAS.
How to make a better station start at 12:00 noon inside the Club
Radio Testing with a IFR Communication Service Monitor and verify your radio’s operation. A stable Signal generator to check the receiver. Make sure you have a clean transmitter and verify your frequency, audio deviation, power out and spectrum.

Please R.S.V.P. 210-422-5304 Andrew KD5NNN

VE Test Info For JULY 17th Picnic

We look forward to seeing you at the VE session for the Talk-Net Annual Picnic. Below I’ve listed information about our upcoming test session and what to bring.

VE test session at Talk-Net Annual Picnic
Date: Saturday, July 17
Time: VE session starts by 11 AM
Location: Elks Club (inside), 15650 Market Hill, San Antonio, TX 78256
Map: http://tinyurl.com/hamtest2

Study help: I highly recommend this web site’s flash cards over any site’s practice tests http://www.kb0mga.net/exams/

Choose the Flash Cards and you will go through all the possible questions for the exam, not just 35 (or 50 for Extra) on a practice test. It will remember your progress when you come back another day to study more. Many of our test candidates have found that the flash cards help them to review/study more thoroughly than practice tests.

What to Bring: All necessary forms will be furnished to you. Please bring
        – Social security number (or FRN if already obtained from FCC)
        – Photo ID (preferably drivers license)
        – Original and photocopy of your current license (if you are a Ham)
        – A simple calculator may be helpful. It should have nothing more
          sophisticated than trig functions — no PDAs, no phones.
        – $15 test fee — exact change preferred

Youth without a photo ID need two documents for identification. Suitable documents include a school report card, birth certificate, and a Social Security card.

Good luck July 17!

73,
Pat Knight AD5BR
hamtest@gmail.com

2010 Field Day Photos – Pending

N5NTG — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 06:01:15 +0000

Sorry for the delays, folks. Been a busy little bee lately and haven’t had time to post any stories or photos from last month’s Field Day events around the area… I’ve gotten photos sent to me from the AARO FD event from at least 2 hams, and have access to photos from KARS, GVARC and possibly one or two others. I keep extending invitations to folks to register and post their own stories / photos direct on this blog, but so far only a handful have accepted that offer. I can only spend a finite amount of my time collecting and posting, in between family duties and earning a living.

I’ll try to get these up later this week.

73 de Lee N5NTG

W5BOG – ARRL June VHF QSO Party Details (2 day operation)

W2IK — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 23:27:27 +0000

UPDATE : The Bexar Operators Group (W5BOG) has decided to operate from two locations during this event rather than be a rover station. On Saturday, we will be operating from the rest area on RT 37, in the southbound area, about 15 miles north of the town of Three Rivers. Anyone is welcome to join us. Look for the antennas. We will be operating on 6 meters, 2 meters and maybe 70CM all on SSB. Our grid square will be: EL08VP - ALSO: On Sunday we will operate from the very rare grid square: DL 99XF.

The ARRL June VHF QSO Party Rules

1.Object: To work as many amateur stations in as many different 2 degrees by 1 degree grid squares as possible using authorized frequencies above 50 MHz. Foreign stations work W/VE amateurs only.

2. Date and Contest Period: The second full weekend in June. Begins 1800 UTC Saturday, ends 0300 UTC Monday (June 12-14, 2010).

Time to Head North to HamCom 2010 in Plano, TX?

N5NTG — Mon, 31 May 2010 06:37:08 +0000

It’s almost that time of year again, the annual trek north up IH-35 to Plano, to attend the largest Hamfest in Texas.

HamCom 2010 will be Friday, June 11th and Saturday, June 12th. But if you want the best deals from the flea market areas, you best be there on Friday morning when they open. The event is more crowded on Saturday, for obvious reasons, but most of the vendors arrive on Thursday night, or Friday morning, ready to wheel and deal.

Parking is free, admission is $10 at the door. Hotel room info is available from the event website, www.hamcom.org by clicking on the Hotels link.

I’ve seen some hams make great deals on Friday, then turn around and sell them to another ham on Saturday for a profit! Or trade in what they got on something even better.

One eyewitness example of an expert in action, was watching Jeff N5MNW last year. He strolled up to a flea market vendor, looked over their selection and asked the wife (of the ham) how much for this box of tools. She said $5. Before Jeff made it back to the building where his wife, Lori, was holding down his multiple tables, he sold 75% of the tools separately to other hams who saw what he was carrying, and he ended up keeping the one tool from the batch that he wanted, and making about $25 on the deal. Then he found a ham giving away those connectors you use with the fiberglass pole sets, bought the whole box for another $5, and started selling them for a $1 or two each over the rest of the day.

Last year, Al Field KE6LGE and myself (N5NTG) rode up in style in his RV, and camped out on the grounds of the event for free. We drove up Thursday afternoon, and came back on Sunday. This year, Al doesn’t have his RV for us to use, so we’ll drive up in Al’s van on Thursday afternoon, spend the night at the hotel nearby, and show up bright and early Friday morning for the fun to begin. We’ll stay around thru the close of the event around 4pm on Saturday, grab a bite to eat on the way out of town, and head back south to San Antonio.

Al says we have room for a couple more hams to ride up with us in the van. You can help us with gas and bunk on the floor of our room, or reserve get your own room. We’re staying at the Ramada Inn Plano, for $59.95/night +tax, for two nights. Rooms with just 1 bed are $10 less a night. This is a special rate arranged by HamCom that you won’t match thru the web, and can’t get by calling the national reservation line. You have to call the hotel direct for this rate.

If you think you want to go, we’re taking off around noon on Thursday (our current plans, subject to change) so that we can up there during daylight hours. We might scout around for some other hams to see if we can get a sneak peak of what’s to come, maybe hang out at the hotel’s swimming pool, or just get some sleep.

Call Lee @ 210-771-7075 (cell) direct, or email at info@sanantoniohams.org

Time is running out!

Tour de Cure 2010 – Photos by KD5ZEW

N5NTG — Sat, 29 May 2010 23:39:26 +0000

Lee, Just wanted to say thank you for all the hard work you put into the ride. It was my first time setting up and operating a field station on my own. Learned some valueble lessons, hope to do it again soon.

Thanks again, John – KD5ZEW

Voice: Yaesu FT-100d @ 5~10w into a 5/8 mag-mount at 6′ AGL
Data/APRS: Yaesu ft-1500m, 6db base antenna @ 30′+ AGL.
Power Supply: 125hr Deep Cycle Flooded Lead-acid Battery.

Pictures from TdC 2010 Day 1 Rest stop 6 where John KD5ZEW was located.

2010 Tour de Cure Ride – Photos by N5NTG

N5NTG — Fri, 28 May 2010 03:27:28 +0000

D1 Finish Line- Unicycle

Here is a collection of 56 photos taken by Lee N5NTG at the San Marcos Finish Line on Day 1, on the road on Day 2 from various rest stops and the Austin Finish Line.

I saw at least two of these uni-cycles on both days, this one (in photo) and one other. Unicycle riders have to peddle 100% of the time, no coasting, no shifting gears, oops, no steering wheel at all. Just their inate sense of balance and lots of forward movement. On Day 2, the other unicycle rider was zipping down the road, so we stopped on the side of the road to shoot some video of him. He waved and then stopped next to my mini-van and held on to its luggage rack, saying “you just knew I needed a break, didn’t you?” He rested for a few minutes and then went on to finish.

Click on thumbnails for a larger view.