San Antonio Hams

The picture to the right was taken in March of this year when former President George W. Bush met up with Bob Hejl, W2IK, while the former President was touring the “Center For The Intrepid” where W2IK works.

The Center For The Intrepid is part of the BAMC military hospital complex in San Antonio where “Wounded Warriors” have physical therapy and are outfitted with the latest in prosthetic limbs.  

W2IK explained to Bush that the last time he had seen him was when he was doing emergency communications work at “Ground Zero” during the World Trade Center Disaster in 2001. After hearing that, Bush slapped him on the back and said : “God Bless you for being there. It’s an honor to shake your hand.”

After some small talk, such as W2IK explaining how he moved down to Texas in 2002, married a “good Texas woman” (Krissy, KD5YTN)  and how he knew it was a Texas residency requirement to root for a Texas football team, the former President finished his building tour.

N7ICE  QRZ Member  

This week’s HamBrief.TV demonstrates how to send a Twitter message via APRS using your ham radio! Catch the video online at 73s.org!

73s,
Chris Matthieu
http://73s.org/n7ice

 The photo below was taken today while I was testing the output of my solar panels that I’ll be using for the W5BOG (Bexar Operators Group) Field Day up at Lost Maples State Park. We will be setting up in the afternoon on Friday, June 26th so as to also operate during a Navy-Marine Corps MARS traffic net that evening. Field Day starts on Saturday, June 27th and runs through noon Sunday, June 28th. It is a 24 hour event, but we’ll be doing other ham-related things, including experiments, while we are there.

Since the duty cycle of SSB is much less than FM (25% vs 100%),  they’ll be able to easily keep my six banks of marine deep cycle batteries charged.

 Combine this system and my 200 watt wind turbine unit (pix shows three blades before I added three more to make it much more efficient) will mean plenty of power for at least two SSB stations to operate. This setup will also be used for my jump team programs. I may even skip bringing any of my gas generators with me to my jump team boot camps. Anyone who wishes to join us at Lost Maples is free to do so. Bring a sleeping bag (we provide the tent) and whatever personal items you wish. (check out the park  and how to get there by clicking on the red “Lost Maples State Park” title above)  All power, including the LED lighting system, will be furnished using either battery charged solar energy or wind energy. Cooking will be accomplished using propane stoves. This will be a non-polluting  “GREEN” power operation. Antennas won’t be commerically made, but will be built “on the spot” as if deploying under emergency conditions. Come and learn how to operate during a real emergency situation where all you have is what’s brought to the site. Learn about site survey and set up from scratch, setting up and using solar and wind turbine power, duty cycles of equipment, propagation (how it works for or against you) and basic contesting skills from someone who has earned several operating awards and deployed emergency stations many times using survival skills acquired over the past 35 years. Since we are out in the field, I will even give mini-lessons on subjects such as how to filter “local water” using a 4- step filter system, of my own design, which ecom workers may need if deployed to a rustic area and run out of bottled water.   Learn alot and have a lot of fun! If you plan on coming, email me at:   alonestaryank@aol.com    

Bob  W2IK – W5BOG – NNN0KSI – NNN0BGY2  MARS Ecom

by Shane O’Neal NS5D

Field Day 2009 is nearly upon us, and preparations are underway to make this the largest, most successful Field Day event in San Antonio’s history. This is thanks to the participation of AARO, SARC, ROOST, SARO, Hill Country REACT, QCWA and many other organizations and individuals, operating jointly under the banner of Bexar County ARES.

Field Day 2009 is expected to draw record numbers of operators and will feature many different bands and modes of operation, including PHONE, CW, SSB, PSK-31, FM and ATV as a Class “A” station. The total number of transmitters to be operated has yet to be determined, but will number at least six.

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Before I moved from Long Island to Texas, I had the privilege of doing something very rare. While a member of the Suffolk County Radio Club, I had the honor of actually operating from an antique, time worn, 10 foot by 10 foot wooden “shack”.

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We’ve set up a new Twitter Account for user “tourdecuresa” to be used for the 2009 Central Texas bike tour.   This event is May 30-31, just a week away.   The organizing committee is concerned about being able to quickly spread the word, should something “strange” happen, like has happened to the last two MS150 events in Texas.  (Severe weather forcing closure of course, or other emergency requiring evac of riders).  Obviously we’ll be depending upon Ham Radio as the backbone of our response system, but using Twitter allows us to contact non-hams quickly with updates.

We’ll be using this Twitter account to keep our followers informed of only Tour de Cure event news, no personal comments, etc.   You can sign up to follow this user if you already have a Twitter account, or create a new account for yourself and then sign up to follow.  

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Hill Country REACT Meeting – May 27 @ 7pm

Come one, Come all!
Join the festivities!
Find out all about this PSK 31 Stuff!

Bob Rodriguez/K5AUW (photo on right)

Bob Rod, a local Guru will be speaking about PSK 31 in the first of a new series of speakers at the next REACT meeting!

REACT is largely committed to Public Service Events as you may already know but this year we are expanding our activities to include some more of the fun stuff. Later this year we will be having a FOX Hunt, a great activity for the old timers and a fantastic learning experience for the newcomers! And this summer we are planning on having a special test session, a one time deal, in the middle of the week up in Bulverde, to help new people and those already licensed either get licensed or upgraded.

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We’ve still got a few slots left open for hams to volunteer for this year’s American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure bike event. This is a 2-day event from San Antonio to San Marcos, and San Marcos to Austin, on May 30th and 31st.

• We’ve got a couple of  Saturday Rest Stop positions that will only need manned in the morning, would be over before  noon. 
• We could use 1 or 2 more hams at the San Antonio Start Line on Saturday, would be over before noon.
• We could use a couple more Hams to ride in the Supply Trucks. (2-day assignment)
• We’ve got a few driving assignments available for hams 25 yrs or older, driving brand new Toyota pickup trucks. (2-day assignment)

Contact Lee Besing N5NTG via email or by phone (210-771-7075) to get more info.

Field Day 2009 is June 27 and 28, and this year’s event promises to be a memorable one for San Antonio.

This year, a huge, multi-club Field Day site will be sponsored by the Bexar County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) with participation by members of the Alamo Area Radio Organization (AARO), the San Antonio Radio Club (SARC), Radio Operators of South Texas (ROOST) plus several other San Antonio area amateur radio groups (SARO, REACT, Baptist Men, etc.).

Field Day will be held at the San Antonio Fire Department Training Academy at Highway 151 and Callaghan Road, near Southwest Research Institute.

All amateurs and their families are invited to participate, regardless of club affiliation. New hams and prospective hams are especially welcomed. The event is also open to the general public, and there will be a “Get On The AIR (GOTA)” station available for unlicensed individuals to make some Field Day contacts.

Eric KD5YZU

This is NOT a simple, typical “field day”operation. This IS a serious over-night “real day – real deal” learning session.

A much shortened version of my full 3 day Jump Team Boot Camp will be offered ONLY IF there are enough interested hams in this area.

Note: My full 3-day boot-camp is still being held in late October but it’s been requested that I also hold a simpler one. We will go through the same basic steps needed to set up and run a complete emergency communications complex at a location where nothing would be standing.

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