San Antonio Hams

This year’s San Antonio American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure bicycle event on May 14, 2016, will once again start / end at the Texas A&M University, located on the south side of San Antonio, near Loop 410 and University Way /  Zarzamora Rd  (outside the loop).  The start/finish line will be on the interior road just north of the primary building cluster as usual.  There will be multiple distance routes, with the shorter length routes splitting off to return to the finish line sooner.  The 100+ plus mile route is the most challenging, heading out toward Elmendorf before dropping south to Pleasanton and then curving up thru Poteet and near Somerset before returning to the finish line.    Last year we had nearly 1,200 riders.

Members of the Atascosa County Amateur Radio Club were the first to volunteer to help us out once again. Thanks

Ham Radio operators are needed to staff 9-10 rest stops, plus provide net control back at the University.   We may use a personal vehicle or two as turtle vehicles (using APRS if possible), plus 10 primary SAG vans/trucks which need to be ham radio operator equipped or driven for this event.

Volunteers get a free t-shirt.  SAG Vans are provided and fuel is provided, so no money for fuel or rent will be out of pocket for the drivers. Rest stop volunteers do not get their fuel reimbursed, sorry.  But you get to test out your Ham Radio Go-Kit setup, or just use your mobile radio and test the life of your car’s battery.  🙂

This event is on a Saturday, May 14th, and will run from around 7am to 4pm for the longer routes.  Obviously the rest stops closer to the front, or on the shorter routes only, will get released much sooner.  This is a one day event, covering parts of Bexar, Wilson and Atascosa counties.

Assignments will be on a first asked, first assigned basis.   I am making the opportunity available to help run the net control station and to get some net control experience, for those who are tired of doing the same ole stuff each year.  Also on a first asked, first assigned basis.

For more information, or to volunteer, please contact Lee Besing N5NTG via email at info@sanantoniohams.org or by voice/text to 210-771-7075.  Note that my current working shift is at night, so do not expect me to answer the phone before noon most days.

This year’s event will start / end at the Rolling Oaks Mall properties, located on the NE side of San Antonio, near Loop 1604 and Nacogdoches Road (outside the loop).  The start/finish line will be on the far north side of the property, furthest from Loop 1604.  There will be multiple routes with some overlapping areas to help keep it confusing.  🙂    Last year we had nearly 1,800 riders.  The routes go up toward Canyon Lake and over toward the Seguin area, so we cover 3 counties during this event.

Ham Radio operators are needed to staff 8-9 rest stops, plus net control back at the Mall.   We may use a personal vehicle or two as turtle vehicles (using APRS if possible), but the primary SAG trucks will not be ham radio operator equipped or driven for this event.

Last year, the organizers provided a $20 Valero fuel gift card to the ham working each stop (1 for each stop), to reimburse the volunteer for fuel used during the event.  This fuel card was not payment for services rendered.  In addition, free t-shirt and possibly even a free Fiesta Medal could be available.

This event is on a Sunday, April 24th, and will run from around 7am to 4 or 5pm for the longer routes.  Obviously the rest stops closer to the front, or on the shorter routes only, will get released much sooner.

Assignments will be on a first asked, first assigned basis.   I am making the opportunity available to be net control, to get some net control experience, for those who are tired of doing the same ole stuff each year.  Also on a first asked, first assigned basis.

For more information, or to volunteer, please contact Lee Besing N5NTG via email at info@sanantoniohams.org or by voice/text to 210-771-7075.  Note that my current working shift is at night, so do not expect me to answer the phone before noon most days.

The Alamo Area Radio Organization is pleased to welcome Juan Hernandez of Yaesu America KG6HKA Technical Support Specialist as our guest speaker for the April membership meeting.  The date and location has been changed to accommodate both the speaker and the venue capacity.

The April meeting has been changed to the first Wednesday of April, April 6th at 6:30pm.  Please come early to eat before the meeting starts.

This a special event with limited seating (120 seats) and will be held at a Blanco BBQ on 13259 Blanco Road, San Antonio, TX and starts at 630 pm.

AA5RO will return back to Mamacita’s Mexican Restaurant next month, on the regular 2nd Wednesday at 7pm.

If you find web links from SanAntonioHams.org leading to bogus pharmacy drug sites popping up in a Google search, don’t trust them. They are not legit. Someone from another country has managed to hack into the ColdFusion code on the server where the main site is hosted, foisting some bogus web links upon us. I’m working with the hosting service to get those removed.

The news blog area was NOT affected, only the front hard coded portion of the site. These guys were very devious, and it screwed up some of the valid pages also.

– Lee N5NTG Webmaster.