San Antonio Hams

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:

• President – Wade Bolling, W5ERX
• Treasurer – Barbara Manley, KA5RLF
• Secretary – Charles Manley, KD5ESX

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.

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I heard various hams talking on the radio this weekend about how the SA Marathon compared with the other big time marathons.  So I did some research.

The 2008 San Antonio Marathon , the Rock N Roll Marathon, that we’re doing today (Sunday, November 16th) was maxed out at 30,000 runners.   About 7 or 8 times more than last year.  But upon reflection, does this total include the half marathon plus the full marathon?  If so, how many were doing only the half marathon?

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I was contacted by phone yesterday by a local non-ham who was interested in talking further with the ham operator who drives a full sized white panel van which had ham license plates on it.  Of course, he didn’t remember the call sign (what’s a call sign?)  that would have been on the plates, but he remembered the “Radio Opr” wording.

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Teri says that more hams are needed for this Sunday’s event.  She’s got 4 slots left open for Hams to drive 15 passenger SAG Vans to pick up runners and deliver them back to the south end of the Alamo Dome.  Shift hours are from 6:30am until no later than 3pm on Sunday, November 16th.  Passes, t-shirts, and “stuff” can be picked up Friday evening at 6:30pm at the Alamo Dome, but if you are already a volunteer, you already knew that.

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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.

Fresh off the e-mail press from Jeff N5MNW…

The [Austin Amateur Radio Club's] W5KA ‘94 repeater has been exhibiting long/hanging squelch tails recently, most likely due to terrific VHF band openings and the decision to keep the Austin ‘94 an old-fashioned carrier-access machine.  The antenna at ~1500′ ASL hears things we at ~700′ ASL can’t.  Near-threshold co-channel (Brownwood, HOU, SA, DFW) signals cause the hysteresis in the squelch circuit to keep the repeater keyed even though no audible signal is getting thru.

The [Austin] Technical Team is working on adding multiple, S/N voted 107.2Hz PL-tone-access remote receive site(s) that will help mitigate this effect.

Make sure you are encoding 107.2Hz to take full advantage of the planned upgrades!

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

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Once again, Ham Radio Operators are invited to volunteer for the annual Trail of Lights, held in Zilker Park up in Austin.  Travis County REACT coordinates this event for the Austin Parks Department, working also with the Park Police and Austin PD.  We use Ham radio for our back channel coordination between our folks, and commercial UHF radios for the non-ham volunteers staffing each of the light displays.

Carpooling Available From San Antonio

The Hill Country REACT Team members will likely be sending up a caravan of folks (going up Hwy 281)  on opening day, Sunday, December 14th, and possibly another night or two.   We’ll be leaving early Sunday afternoon to attend a Trail Captain’s meeting @ 2:30pm, before heading over to the park before the roads close. (See details below)

Free admission, free parking passes are available for ham volunteers to park just outside the exit of the park, instead of paying $5 or more for parking in the regular lot and having to walk a mile to get there.  Bring your family, even if they don’t want to “work the event”, they can enjoy watching / walking the event.  This display of lights is about a mile long, from start to finish.

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