San Antonio Hams

TALK-NET – PICNIC AND SWAP MEET FESTIVAL

MAY 31, 2008 SATURDAY – TIME 11:00 A.M. TO 1:00 P.M.

FREE HOT DOGS, DRINKS, AND CHIPS AT ORSINGER PARK  12230 HUEBNER

For more information, check in to the Tuesday night net on 146.42 at 7:30pm, or contact Andrew Watson at 210-422-5304 or BEXARTALK@GMAIL.COM

Close to 3 dozen hams showed up for this first annual event at Orsinger Park. Free foot long hot dogs, with buns almost long enough to hold them, plus all the toppings, chips and cold iced tea you could ever want. Click here to view some photos taken during the event by Lee N5NTG.

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 10, 2008 – NAV3 – Armed Forces Day

Two pix of my “NAV3” operation for the Armed Forces Day Cross Band event. I contacted about 100 stations from my set up at Bullis Cnty Park, San Antonio, using one of the 40 meter “inverted V” antennas I’ll have for the N5D event next weekend. – Bob W2IK

May 10, 2008 – 2 Meter Antenna Shoot-Out

About a dozen hams showed up for ROOST Ham Club’s annual 2-meter Antenna Shoot-out. Homebrew antennas and commercial antennas were compared using the same transmitter and receiver to see what designs worked the best.

Click here for a collection of photos taken by Andy, KD5TNI.

May 7, 2008 – TSA Agents Become Ham Operators

A seven member VE Team lead by Pat AD5BR on behalf of San Antonio Radio Club, gave tests to 16 TSA agents and two other hams who wanted to try and upgrade. The test session was held during the week on a Wednesday morning, which created a challenge for Pat to find enough VE’s willing to take off work to handle this session.

TSA agents from all over the USA were flown in for a week’s worth of training, including studying for their ham radio license. 15 of the 16 passed their tech test, 1 tried twice but missed by 1 or 2 each time. One local ham upgraded to General while another tried for Extra without any luck.

After the test session was completed at the San Antonio International Aiport in the SA Airport Police’s training room, the participants got some hands-on work with stringing dipole antennas and other on-the-air practice.

Click here for more photos from this event.

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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