San Antonio Hams

The 2-day San Antonio to San Marcos to Austin Tour de Cure bike ride, previously scheduled for the month of May, has been cancelled. The ride in Corpus Christi, previously scheduled for April, has also been cancelled.

I participated in a conference call with National American Diabetes Association officials earlier this week and this is what I have learned.

All ham operators and other volunteers who had planned to work the TdC event in May will now get a free weekend off.

The National American Diabetes Association has reorganized and restructured their offices across the country in an attempt to lower their financial administrative overhead. As part of that process, they laid off all of the ADA employees in the Austin and San Antonio offices, except for 1 or 2 persons.

They (Regional ADA office out of Denver) were discussing holding a possible one day event, combined for both Austin and the San Antonio markets, perhaps in the San Marcos area later this fall. No date or location has been announced as of today. The online info at the American Diabetes Association website for this event had not been updated as of the date of this post.

As I find out more information, I will be sure to pass it on to those interested and post it also here at www.SanAntoniohams.Org/blog

If you know of a rider who has already pre-registered for the ride, and has been fundraising for the ride, please tell them that they will need to contact the ADA office to find out the status of their registration and/or fundraising status.

The San Antonio ADA office number is 210-829-1765.

Lee Besing, N5NTG
FormerTdC co-chair for Ham & SAG Communications

American Legion Birthday to be celebrated worldwide,
March 11, on shortwave radio

Dear TALARC Members and Friends,

March 15 is the designated birthday of The American Legion. It is the day in 1919 when the first American Legion caucus, held by members of the American Expeditionary Force, convened in Paris. Much as the birthday of the United States is celebrated on July 4 – for the day in 1776 when rebelling patriots declared the independence of the British colonies and the spirit of America was born – March 15 is the day on which the Legion came to life.

Each year, Legion posts across the country hold events – public, private or both – to commemorate this anniversary. At the National Headquarters of The American Legion there also is an event conducted annually to observe the Legion birthday, and on a worldwide scale.

Members of The American Legion Amateur Radio Club (TALARC) will operate a special event station to commemorate the Legion’s 98th birthday. Operating from the radio room at National Headquarters in Indianapolis, ham radio operators at club station K9TAL will celebrate the Legion’s 98 years of service to America’s veterans with both members and non-member amateur radio operators around the world on Saturday, March 11, 2017.

Ham radio operators wishing to contact Special Event Station K9TAL should tune to 40 meters: 7.225 MHz (+/- 5 KHz) LSB; or to 2 meters: K9DC 147.315 Repeater at Indianapolis; or IRLP Node 9735; or, to EchoLink *CROSSRDS* Conference node. All operations will be conducted on Saturday, March 11 between 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Eastern Time [1800Z to 2359Z]. All amateur radio operators are invited to check in. American Legion posts with TALARC stations are encouraged to check in from around the country.

A full-color certificate and QSL card will be sent to all amateur radio operators contacting K9TAL, and to shortwave listeners providing signal reports, upon receipt of a 9-by-12-inch self-addressed stamped envelope to:

The American Legion National Headquarters
Attn: TALARC
700 N. Pennsylvania Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204

Membership in The American Legion Amateur Radio Club is free to all licensed radio amateurs who are current members of The American Legion, American Legion Auxiliary and Sons of The American Legion. Learn more at www.legion.org/hamradio.

73,

Marty Justis
President, The American Legion Amateur Radio Club