San Antonio Hams

We’ve put together a collection of photos taken during the December 12, 2009 Christmas parade in Sattler. We’ve already posted one story about it on this blog a day or so ago, the press release that thanked “Hill Country REACT and their unnamed volunteers” (which we then named).   But now, here are some photos from this event, mostly taken toward the back end of the parade lineup area.

We’re working on putting together another one of our videos, this time from footage taken during the parade, but all video editing takes time and computer resources, both which are frequently in short supply and high demand.

Here are our photos…

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Okay, the long wait is finally over!   We’ve compressed 24 hours of operation down to about 5 minutes, without using the fast forward button.  Amazing, but true!  Of course since we weren’t personally there the whole time to take photos and videos of every single operator, we weren’t able to include more than the three operators shown in the video (recorded live) plus a few others that had their photos taken and forwarded to us.

Most of the footage in the video was provided by Lee N5NTG, with some by Bob W2IK and Wade W5ERX.

Here is the YouTube link to this video…

Here are some photos taken during the 2009 Skywarn Recognition Day during the operations held at the Austin / San Antonio National Weather Service office in New Braunfels…  We’re working on a video as we type this blog entry, so check back later to see some area hams working the bands, without doing Kareoke…  See Video Here..

The following 9 hams worked at this year’s 24 hour event locally…

• Wade W5ERX  – REACT / GVARC
• Louis K1STX  – REACT / Chaparral ARC
• Bob W2IK   – Bexar Operators Group
• JC N5RXS  – SARC
• Pat AD5BR  – REACT
• Lee N5NTG  – REACT
• Gary K5GST  – REACT / GVARC
• Jeremy KE5ELI  – Chaparral ARC
• Al KE6LGE  – REACT
• Wade KE5ZOU – REACT

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We received an advance copy of the news release from the Canyon Lake Christmas Parade Committee about last weekend’s Christmas parade in Sattler (December 12th), written by Valerie Schroller of the Parade Committee.  She was the gal zipping around in that red golf cart taking care of everything and everybody who might have had their political toes stepped on for some reason during the parade. 

I got this from Valerie Schroller.  It went out to the Canyon Lake Views, the Hill Top Reporter, and the Herald-Zeitung.   She said I could forward it to anyone I choose, so I thought you might want to post something using it.  It says “unnamed volunteers”….here is the article and the rest of names of those “unnamed volunteers”.

– Wade Bolling W5ERX, President, Hill Country REACT Team.

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Tonight was the first meeting of the 2010 San Antonio Repeater Organization (SARO) newly elected Board of Directors.  Four (4) new directors had been elected by the members this month to serve a 2 year term of office.  Only about half of the SARO members returned a ballot in the election.  SARO mails paper ballots to every member in good standing (ie. their dues got paid) by the first of November.  Ballots are generally due by sometime in the 2nd week (this year it was December 11th).

Elected were Lee N5NTG, Pat AD5BR, Bob K5AUW, and Gary K5GST.  Their term of office is thru end of 2011.  Outgoing directors were Sharon Olson KB5KZD, Chuck Kenworthey WB5FWI, and Royce Taylor KA5OHJ.

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1) Object: This is a friendly meeting on the air using straight keys. The object is to simply have fun and enjoy making CW QSOs, preferably with a manual sending device. Any CW is permissible, but straight keys are preferred. Many stations also enjoy using vintage gear, but this is not required. Break out those old J-38s and break the rust off!

2) Date and Time: Every January 1 from 0000 UTC through 2359 UTC.

3) Exchange: Straight Key Night is not a contest; enjoy making leisurely QSOs with no special exchange. Participants are encouraged to call CQ with “CQ SKN” to attract attention.

4) Reporting: Send in a list of stations worked, along with your vote for Most Interesting QSO and Best Fist. Email entries go to straightkey@arl.org; paper entries may be sent to ARRL Straight Key Night, 225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111.

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Hill Country REACT Team is the sponsor of a new Ham Radio Repeater in the Canyon Lake area. 

The repeater is located about a mile southwest of Startzville and the antenna is up at about 1670 feet above sea level.  The antenna was measured as being about 390 feet up in the air on the tower, and the base of the tower is at 1280 feet above sea level.   

The repeater frequency is 444.450 mHz, positive offset, and with a 114.8 PL tone.  The repeater is intended to be for open use by all hams.

Testing has shown excellent coverage from north San Antonio up to south Austin, and all points between, using mobile radios.    The Trustee is Wade W5ERX, currently the president of Hill Country REACT.   He had the assistance of a couple other hams, including the newly appointed Comal County EC, Don Kirchner W5DK, and Gene Rowell WA5PAX, to build /prepare the repeater and finally install it at its new home.  The repeater is a coordinated frequency with the Texas VHF-FM Society and tower hosting is being provided by BKT Towers.

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Just announced today on the South Texas ARES Email List…

 I’m pleased to announce that Don Kirchner W5DK has stepped up to become EC for Comal county.   Thanks Don!

Tom Whiteside, N5TW
South Texas ARES Section Emergency Coordinator

Webmaster note – To learn more about Don, view his video on YouTube shown below… (just kidding, but Don is well known for helping out with the MS150, Tour de Cure, maintenance for multiple area repeaters and EOC installations, including the newest repeater at Canyon Lake on 444.450. – Lee N5NTG)

Charlie KC5NKK riding in UC PD Patrol Car

Received this thank you letter in the email box today from UCPD Lt. Steve Denton, who was in charge of the 2009 Annual Veterans Day Parade in Universal City, Texas. 

More than 2 dozen hams and other volunteers assisted the police department with establishing control of traffic prior to the parade beginning, moving barricades into place when instructed by radio, and telling residents or drivers that they shouldn’t turn onto Pat Booker Road once the barricades were in place.  It was the job of the Police Officers to enforce those rules, we just told folks what the rules were, then enjoyed watching the parade.   

We posted lots of photos earlier, following to the November 14th parade date, so here now is the thank you letter addressed to all the hams who helped…

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Skywarn Recognition Day was from 6pm Friday, December 4th thru 6pm Saturday, December 5th.   Bob W2IK was the key operator who worked the full 24 hours, reported we made more than 300 contacts, of which about 38 were other National Weather stations participating in the event.  Bob says this is about double the number of contacts that were made last year during the same time span.

We’ll add in a list of participating  hams in the very near future.. 

Here are the photos from N5NTG and W2IK.

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