San Antonio Hams

Richard Jay Kilman, K5BBI, born Oct. 21, 1952 in Fredericksburg, passed away March 19, 2012, in San Antonio, surrounded by a host of family and an enormous amount of love. A compassionate man, he was the most awesome father, grandfather, brother and friend to multitudes of people all around the globe.

Rich was an active member, and former officer,  of the KARS (Kendall Amateur Radio Society) in Boerne, Texas.

Richard was the father of Ryan Birks-Kilman and wife Laurel of Kissimmee, Fla.; Kelly Kilman Anderson, and Katy Kilman of San Antonio. He was the grandfather to Alison, Erin, Katie, Cassidy, Lily and Sarah of Kissimmee, Fla; Mikayla, Kirstin, Rogan and Evelyn of San Antonio. He is also survived by sisters Mary Martin and Melanie Roller and husband Frank of Pipe Creek; and brother Ronald Kilman of Austin. He is also survived by five nieces and four nephews.

We emailed out nearly 400 copies of the April 2012 San Antonio Newsletter tonight, and then had quite a few bounces from folks who didn’t update us with their new email addresses.  Oops!  Of course, it has been more than 6 months since our last edition, and things change.

So if you didn’t get a copy already, please send email to subscribe@sanantoniohams.org to be added to the list.  We’ll send you a separate copy just to catch you up to date, and put you on the list for the next edition.   Double check your spam folder, and whitelist info@sanantoniohams.org to ensure delivery.

VIEW THE APRIL 2012 NEWSLETTER HERE

We really will try to start putting out a newsletter once a month, with the headlines & happenings around Central Texas.  If you know of an event, or have a story about something going on that is ham radio related, please contact us at info@sanantoniohams.org, or better yet, register as a user on this website, and we’ll bump up your editor priv’s to allow you to post your own articles!

Lee Besing N5NTG
Webmaster
SanAntonioHams.org
210-771-7075 cell (voice / text)

The 2nd Annual American Hero 25k Relay Run will be held on Sunday, May 27th, at Brackenridge Park in San Antonio, Texas.   Last year, hams helped with this last minute organized event, from Alamo Stadium, with the course being down into Brackenridge Park.  Due to planned construction at the stadium, and perhaps the need to avoid causing the traffic confusion into the Zoo area that morning, the routes have been changed and the start / finish will be at the Koehler Pavilion inside Brackenridge Park.

Contact Lee Besing N5NTG by email at info@sanantoniohams.org or by calling 210-771-7075 to volunteer.  Free t-shirts and food from the Spaghetti Warehouse.

HELLO EVERYONE AND HAVE  HAPPY EASTER FROM Corpus Christi ARC!!!

At the March 2012 CCARC Eyeball meeting,  discussion lead to a vote that passed by majority to change the Eyeball Meeting format. We will no longer have a set day ( First Thursday of each month) nor will we meet every month at Driscoll Children’s Hospital. Our Club has become, by popular demand, an EVENT instead of Meeting Club..

 The next 4 months have been planned already..

For April.. we will be caravanning up to the Belton Ham-Fest.. A group Friday afternoon and then   a second group early Saturday morning will be headed up. After the Saturday morning stroll thru the Ham-Fest at 3pm we will be meeting at the Ox Bow restaurant almost right next door to the Belton Expo. This will be our April 2012 CCARC Eyeball meeting.  Everyone come up and enjoy the Ham-Fest and the CCARC Eyeball meeting at the Ox Bow before the trip back.

 In May, the CCARC Eyeball Meeting will be at the 2nd annual Buccaneer Tail Gate, More info coming the APOC has moved to the shopping strip behind the old Luby’s on Alameda (Near DCH). Testing, Food, lots of “trash to treasures” stories to be told here!! More Info to com.. Stand By!!

In June, the CCARC Eyeball Meeting will be breakfast at the “STARTING LINE” of the First Annual CCARC “On the Air Car Rally/Mobile Net around the BAY”.. A full day, afternoon and evening of tripping around the bay , on the air and stops for fun things to do.. More Info to come.. Stand By!!

In July.. plans are under way and development of our FIRST Mobile Fox Hunt!! Working on the route and the hardest locations for all those foxes!! We’ll let you know about that one!!!

Hope to see everyone in Belton.. If you want to go, don’t have a ride give me a call .. we’ll get ya there!!!

Linda Peterson
DCH Disaster Services*W5LSS / W5DCH Trustee
361.442.9852 cell

Hello, I am reaching out to the HAM community for help.

My grandfather, George R. Matthews, was a HAM in San Antonio.  He has been silent key since the late 1980’s.  I have recently been trying to find out what his call sign was. 

I live in North Carolina and no one around here has any log books with his call sign information in it.  I have asked my mother, but she can’t remember.  I have no documents with his call sign information on it and only one picture of him in his shack.  That picture does not show his call sign either. 

He owned and operated Matthews Electronics at San Antonio International Airport up until he passed away.  I was hoping that maybe someone in the San Antonio Ham radio community may have information about my grandfather’s call sign.  Any help would be very appreciated.

Thank you

Bobby Bridgers, KK4ARX
kk4arx@gmail.com

photo courtesy of ARRL.org website

The holder of one of the best-known US Amateur Radio call signs, Frederick (Fred) Maia, W5YI, died of cancer Wednesday, March 28. He was 76 and was a resident of Arlington, Texas.

Fred was a leading Amateur Radio journalist for nearly 35 years and a pioneer of the volunteer examining program adopted by the FCC in 1984.

Maia published “The W5YI Report,” dubbed “America’s Oldest Ham Radio Newsletter,” from 1978 to 2003, and has been a CQ contributing editor since 1985. His regulatory affairs column, first titled “Ticket Talk,” then “Washington Readout,” offered news and perspective on FCC Regulations and ITU actions. His final column will appear in the May 2012 issue of CQ.

After the FCC adopted volunteer examining for all levels of Amateur Radio licensing in 1984, Fred became the first Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (VEC) appointed by the FCC. Fred subsequently founded The W5YI Group in 1986 to develop, publish and sell amateur and commercial radio license study materials. In the realm of FCC commercial radio licensing, Fred formed National Radio Examiners to provide examination services.

Maia served as President of the W5YI-VEC until his retirement in October of 2000 when he sold The W5YI Group study material products to Master Publishing, Inc. The retail operations were purchased by General Manager Larry Pollock, NB5X, newly appointed President of the W5YI-VEC and National Radio Examiners organizations. Maia continued writing “The W5YI Report” newsletter until July 2003

Read the full story here on ARRL.org.

This year, Hams Rule!  Yep, ALL communications go by  ham radio, other than some internal event staff communications using commercial radios at the start/finish line.   The 2012’s event is a 1-day event, starting & ending in Boerne Texas.  The routes are changed 100% from last year.

We’ll have eight (8) White 15-Passenger SAG Vans to staff with Hams, Eight (8) Rest Stops to staff with Hams, and two (2) repeaters to coordinate with.    All communications will be on 2 meters radio, using the 145.19 Boerne (KARS) repeater and the 146.98 Kerrville (Hill Country Amateur Radio Club) repeater.   Dual band radios are suggested to enable local SAG to SAG or SAG to Rest Stop communications off-net.

Contact Lee Besing at tdc@sanantoniohams.org or call him at 210-771-7075 to volunteer!  Don’t wait, assignments are going fast!   Lee will be attending the HCARC meeting on April 5th up in Kerrville to sign up their volunteers.

Actually, the exact title is “South Texas Tour de Cure”, and it’s starting / ending in Boerne, Texas, not San Antonio. But it will happen this year on Saturday, May 19th, as a one day event with 4 routes to choose from. There will be an 18 mile & 30 mile routes going south from Boerne into the Fair Oaks Ranch area, and the 60 & 104 mile routes go north from Boerne thru Sisterdale and Comfort, before the 104 goes NW to Kerrville and back around down past Camp Vista, Center Point and thru Comfort on the way back to Boerne.

We’ve suggested a new slogan for the new Tour de Cure routes…  “If you’re tired of flat, whimpy, boring rides, change over to the Tour de Cure for the hilliest ride you can ask for…” LOL   In other words… The ride is extremely hilly, with a need for extreme caution on the part of our Ham drivers and Motorcyle Marshals.   Roads are mostly narrow 2 lane paved roads with double yellow lines and no shoulders for the riders.  Speed limits are usually near 60mph on the open roads.   Cell phone coverage is very spotty in some areas!  I suspect we may be busier than last year in the SAG and communications venue.

This will NOT be a flat boring ride.

There will be some challenges caused by the hilly terrain. We’ve got APRS radios to install in all of our SAG vans, plus key supply trucks, courtesy of Austin Amateur Radio Club (Paul Fenrich KA5FZU is returning to run APRS). Mike Perez W5ZAP will be leading our valuable Motorcycle Safety Marshals and Curtis Rabenhalt N5QPN will be our route safety officer. Yup, we snagged up Curtis to volunteer this year!   I’ve driven the entire 104 mile route, and found we had solid APRS coverage on most of the course.  I was using my own 25 watt APRS unit with a full sized higher gain antenna, more power & antenna than our borrowed tracking units will have.

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We just had a conversation with Steve & Susan Shirk, the force behind the scenes of the BPMS150 BikeMS event from Houston to Austin later this month.   They still have a few empty slots to fill, mostly SAG Van Drivers & Navigators.    Our training date for Central Texas Hams will be this next Saturday, April 7th, from 10am-Noon, followed by a “free lunch”, up in San Marcos.  Contact Lee Besing by phone 210-771-7075 or email if you want to volunteer before that meeting.  After that meeting, they will be unable to accept volunteers due to the need to run DMV and background checks (on drivers only) and to reserve rooms for overnight accomodations.

Hams who are planning to work this event, are asked to attend this training / orientation event to learn about the changes in this year’s route & rest stops.  Yup, changes are in the winds, especially after the wildfires up near Bastrop.

If you prefer a more stable assignment, i.e. a fixed location or roaming “communications only” assignment, we can arrange for that as well.  We’ll put you in contact with Mike Hardwick, N5VCX, who is the head pooh-bah for ham communications.

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A few weeks ago, we were quietly told that Craig Kennedy, owner of  KComm The Ham Store, would likely be closing his doors at the end of March. 

 March 31st was to be the last parking lot tail-gate sale.   We were asked to keep the news quiet until all the final arrangemens had been made with the employees, etc., before publicizing the news. 

During the past couple of weeks, the word was spread by rumor, by email, by phone calls, during Ham Breakfasts, etc. that the store was closing. 

The San Antonio Radio Club, W5SC, has been holding their monthly meetings in the store, and had their club station setup for visiting hams to use while at KComm.  That era has also come to an end, with the club needing to move their equipment & trailer (in back parking lot) to another location, and to find a new meeting location.   I was told today, that April’s SARC meeting will still be at KComm, but starting in the month of May, the meetings are moving to Jim’s Restaurant on San Pedro & Ramsey.

Store on Gulfdale

Yesterday, we stopped by the store around 9am to find that it was the most crowded that we’ve ever seen it, including during a SARC Club meeting night.  

Craig was playing “lets make a deal” with old equipment, furnishings, anything that wasn’t nailed down to the floor or wall it seemed. 

It was our opinion that he likely did more sales that day in a few hours, than he had likely done all month.  Several folks commented that if Kcomm had seen this much business every weekend, we wouldn’t be there for the closing today.

When I got my ham license back in the late 80’s, Kcomm The Ham Store was located over on the NW side of town, on Mobud Street, just off Loop 410, between Evers & Bandera, in a small industrial complex. 

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From QRZ.Com comes the following information about another balloon launch that happened on March 29th.  This balloon isn’t using APRS, but has a QRP 10 meters CW beacon.   Thanks Greg N5XO for bringing it to our attention – Lee N5NTG

A long duration balloon mission that is using 6 Party Balloons to carry a 50 gram amateur radio 28.223 MHz CW beacon, is hoping to go around the world.  The ballon was released at 2330 UT (1930 EDT) March 29, from Annapolis in Maryland and started it’s journey heading SE at 6 knots. By 0300 UT, March 30, it had reached a speed of 60 MPH (96 km/h).  It has no APRS, just the 28.223 MHz CW telemetry system and it is hoped to locate it by signal strength and beam headings only. 

Note: Wind projections show the balloon heading east over the Atlantic Ocean, but with band openings, who knows? Even Greg N5XO might luck out and hear it… LOL

The mission is to give an insight into constant-pressure balloons and especially the use of common mylar party balloons as a fixed volume envelope. Unfortunately, these balloons have a high mass and so the theoretical maximum altitude no matter how many balloons are used is only about 26,000 feet and that is with no payload other than the fixed balloon mass.

The payload weighs about 50 grams. The team are targeting 6 party balloons 3′ in diameter which should give a float altitude around 16,000 feet. The Telemetry will be in CW on 28.223 MHz (USB DIAL) and will contain Battery voltage, inside and outside temperatures, and surface luminosity of the ocean/clouds. It has no GPS. The team will rely entirely on DF bearings and signal reports.

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