San Antonio Hams

Wade KE5ZUO on Talk-in, JC Smith N5RXS, wanting to resell empty tables

San Antonio Radio Club’s event chairman, JC Smith N5RXS, reported on the air, Saturday morning at 6:15am, prior to opening the doors, that all vendor tables had been sold out already!

Wow!  In fact, JC placed several calls were placed on the air searching for hams who had rented tables, but hadn’t yet shown up to claim them, so that he could resell those empty tables to folks who forgot to advance register!  Amazingly enough, it seems that some hams will pay to rent a vendor table, just to get in the door before the general admission, so they can scout out the better deals and buy before the crowd starts rolling in.  This practice is discouraged, but it happens, and then it leaves empty tables that could have been used by another ham.

One of the challenges we faced this year, was the SARO 146.94 repeater being used for talk-in, failed around 6:20am, just after we had started making announcements.    We were actually then hitting the Austin’s .94 repeater, so we changed to simplex and kept on going.    Bob K5AUW set up his mobile for crossband on simplex in the beginning, then we changed over to using my radios (as discussed later).  The .94 San Antonio repeater stayed down the rest of the day.

Pat AD5BR, in charge of the VE Test Sessions, reported to me that she had 17 pre-registered folks for testing, but that 25 showed up.  She had a full room, due to only having seating for 16 at a time, allowing room for the VE’s to stand along the walls monitoring and handling the paperwork.

Gary K5GST had a table with membership info about 3 clubs, SARO, REACT and GVARC, collecting memberships and donations for the 147.14 repeater fund.

Craig & Mel from KComm were there selling stuff from their multi-table display, and I saw lots of stuff heading out the door that appeared to have come from their tables, so I assume they got paid for first.

The other “new” vendor this year was CLEAR Wireless Internet, and that was represented by Lee, N5NTG (me).    I was outside the front doors, the only vendor outside, doing double duty as both a vendor and as the  official talk-in station.  Hill Country REACT members used my radio running off my emergency go-kit batteries (until we got AC power working outside) from the table where I was also displaying and advertising CLEAR WiMAX wireless Internet services for sale.  Had lots of folks stop by to get information and ask questions, and even signed up some new customers.  Also had at least one local guy stop by to ask questions and get some help (about CLEAR)  from me.

Below are some photos I took during the event.  Since I was pretty much tied to my booth, I didn’t get as many taken as normal, but I did get some relief to allow that activity to happen.

Enjoy the photos…