San Antonio Hams

After a 6 month hiatus, the SA Hams Monthly Newsletter will be returning on a monthly basis starting in February.  I’ll try to get one published around the end of the month for the following month.  i.e. February’s issue ought to go out near the end of January, etc. We had a small issue where our mailing software wasn’t compliant with the Windows 7 64 bit operating systems we had previously upgraded all of our computers to, so we’ve now setup one dedicated laptop computer at our office to run the older 32 bit version of Vista <gasp>, and the software seems to be happy now.

If you have any CLUB news, Ham Radio related news or stories (that you didn’t already post on the website blog area), send them to me no later than the 20th of the month to be included in the upcoming issue.  

The easiest way to get your stuff included, is of course post it on the Blog.  I’ve been adding other hams as authors, so they can post their own stories without my needing to be involved directly.  That’s my preferred manner of submitting.  Let the visitors to the site read about what you or your club is doing, and then I’ll mail it out to the list of subcribers (currently about 400+ hams) at the end of the month.

SUBSCRIPTION IS FREE!  ARTICLE SUBMISSION IS FREE!

If you wish to subscribe to the newsletter, or confirm you have already subscribed, send email with your name & call sign to subscribe@sanantoniohams.org.   How much easier can that be?   Each newsletter will have a prominent “unsubscribe” link in case you changed your mind.   The newsletters will be focused on ham radio news, and may contain a minor amount of advertising by hams who want to do business with you (like my ads for example), but the majority of this HTML based newsletter will be news & photos from events.

From SARC’s website, as of 04/16/2011, San Antonio Radio Club extends dues-free membership to area active-duty military…

The following provision was made at a recent Board Meeting to SARC Constitution, Article VI – Membership

2. Military Membership in the Club of all active-duty military personnel will be at no cost for membership dues. This condition extends to only active-duty personnel assigned in the metro area and not to any other personnel not activated as active-duty, or to any retired personnel of any military service. This membership status will continue for as long as the active-duty person is assigned in the metro area. Upon reassignment away from the metro area, membership may continue if the individual maintains residence of record in the metro area. Metro area will be defined as Bexar and adjacent counties. [change 4-16-2011]

I don’t know the final figures for attendance at this event last weekend, but the main vendor hall area was packed!  I was there handling the radio talk-in, as I’ve coordinated for the past 15-17 years or so, plus I was a paid vendor in the back corner of the room as well!

It was really nice to see friends from around Texas that I hadn’t seen in ages, or since last year’s event in some cases. 

Here are some photos that I took from this year’s event, using my handy dandy Sprint HTC EVO cell phone…  (love that 8 mega pixel camera feature).

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For the past couple of years, I’ve had a free classified ads section on this website.  Every day I get multiple submissions for ads to be posted, but all ads require moderation.   The main reason I set it up for moderation?  999 out of every 1,000 ads submitted are SPAM.   The ads are from India, from folks trying to earn $77/hour from home by posting ads, Scam Ads, and in general, ads that have nothing to do with ham radio or the person posting being a ham radio operator.

We’ve had no new legitimate ads posted within the past 90 days, just SPAM ads.  Got 4 more of the bogus ads over night last night.  

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