“National Guard Helicopters drop supplies to support towns completely cut off due to Hurricane Irene” “No power, phone or roads to towns hard hit by Hurricane Irene”

I’m sure you’ve seen the videos of cars being swept down swollen rivers in Vermont. Who would have ever thought that a coastal hurricane would dump so much water over land-locked Vermont to cause such devastation! This reminds me of the time back in the late 1990’s when I was dropped along with supplies in to a town in upstate New York to supply emergency communications during the North East Ice Storm. It’s just another reminder that emergency communications teams must be prepared for any event. This is also a glaring reminder that we need well-trained “Jump Teams” in every area to assist with emergency communications support. EVERY local emergency communications group needs to have a Jump Team on hand to help cope with this type of disaster. Just as it happened in Vermont, it could happen in Texas. Towns being cut off. No power. No communications.

 If you don’t know how to start a Jump Team, or what your team would need, just go to this website for information and support: http://www.texasmars.com/

 Bob W2IK

Hams have the opportunity all year round to use their communications skills & equipment to help out the community & have fun while doing it.  SARO is very active in these events, and helping out with others. There are three major bike tours originating near San Antonio, plus the big daddy of them all that runs from Houston to Austin on the third weekend of April. To keep up on what’s happening in the local  ham world, stay tuned to SanAntonioHams.org/blog.

If you know of any ham related events not included in the list below, please contact Lee N5NTG at info@sanantoniohams.org.  Better yet, why not register as a user on this site, then ask Lee N5NTG to bump your status up so you can directly post your own articles and photos?

Coming up Fall 2011, to a start line near us, will be the following events/ opportunities:

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Ladies and gentleman, we did an outstanding job of organizing and fighting the attempted take over of simplex Freq by the Digital Repeater folks. There was some very spirited debate going on at the meeting (TX VHF-FM Summer Meeting in Austin, 8/5/2011)  with a strong force against this proposed Band Plan change. 

I am glad so many of us put forth an effort to get the word out to fight, I believe had we not done so the Band Plan would have passed and we would have lost some valued frequencies. As it is they the vote was just about 2:1 against the proposed band plan change with 58 against and 26 in favor.

As a note, it was a big surprise to find out the Armadilo group was not supporting in and most of them were against the plan as well, so shows you how fast misinformation can spread.  I appologize for my repeating such rumors.

WE WON FOLKS!

After the vote, a motion for a very solid method of dealing with the digital/analog situation was proposed and it made sense for all parties there and should pass next year. Check out the Texas VHF FM society web page for exact details.

But this shows that if we organize and fight for what we believe in, we can overcome. Thanks to all who voted this ill conceived idea down.

Greg Lewis/N5XO
n5xo@satx.rr.com

I came away from the San Antonio meeting (8/1/2011) with the Texas VHF Society very disappointed. First off, based on the wide range of comments, complaints, etc from hams around town on the air and via e-mail I expected a much greater turn out, the turn out was a major disappointment. People if we do not stand up and count, we are going to lose a chunk of our simplex freq and it was CLEARLY JUST A STARTING POINT.

First off, the Texas VHF Society reps stated they are trusties of the band based on ruling by the FCC. Well if they are trusties then they represent ALL HAM RADIO OPERATORS, not the special interest groups in Houston, etc. In a case that impacts all of Texas Hams, I think it is inexcusable that you have to pay to vote on an issue that impacts us. On this issue, if you have a Ham lic then you should have a vote. A select group should not be able to run roughshod over thousands of ham radio operators.

I went to this meeting yesterday thinking they were looking for input from ham radio operators around the state and that a solid voice could help make a difference. That is not what the meeting was about, it was to tell us what they planned and basically that we needed to LIVE WITH IT.

Multiple things about this band plan concern me.

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