San Antonio Hams

As explained in the November issue of “QST” (page 66) the ARRL examined the use of ladder-line and did some rudimentary testing of this cable in dry vs wet conditions.

Unfortunately, their tests were not complete.

Start/Finish Line at the Lodge

Where: Hill Country State Natural Area – Bandera County Texas

When: January 9 and 10th, 2010

What: Tejas Trails – Bandera 100k Ultra Marathon
This event is three races in one, a 25k, 50k and 100k that incorporates nearly every trail on the 5400 acres of Hill Country State Natural Area.

This is a unique situation to train and test EmComm abilities in a remote environment, provide a service, as well as enjoy the Texas Hill Country!

After a meeting with the Race Director during the Cactus Rose 100 this weekend, we have found that the population of this race is anticipated to increase substantially from the 549 last year.   A new sponsorship of the event, will be bringing in more out of state participants.  Expect up to 800 this year for the three different races!

Please read the following information carefully so you know what is happening, and what is expected of our ham volunteers…

Duties: This is a 24 hour all weather event! Amateur operators man the Aid Stations and duties are basically like any other bike or running event (BP150, MS150, River Safari, etc), relaying supply needs, runner counts and times, and coordinating the Horse Patrol for SAR operations!  Operators support Race Control, Aid Stations and the HCSNAP Coordinated Horse Patrol! We are encouraging everyone to actually set-up stations within the Aid Station tent, or within a few feet.  Most Aid stations are situated in a manner, to which we could attach and additional EZ-up type canopy to facilitate station set-up! Operators will be required to stay in constant touch with the Aid Station Captain, in order to keep the Database up-to-date.

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Been a busy, busy weekend, and I’m behind on my postings… 

This past weekend was the Tour de Gruene bike event (tour and races) between New Braunfels and Canyon Lake.  I’ve got lots of photos and videos from this event, and Gary K5GST also has some to share.

Saturday night was Halloween night at Sattler, TX.  Got photos and videos from that….

Next weekend is another full scale deployed Mock Hurricane Drill, starting 11am Saturday, November 7th, and ending about 2.5 hours later.  Amazing how fast a hurricane (and recovery) can happen when you are running on “ham radio time.”   🙂

Also on last Sunday (November 1st), as a personal note, my dealership for Clear.com activated and I spent 4.5 hours at Clear’s HQ (6am – 10:30am) getting set up and entering my first customer orders.  Been working on the new website, www.wimaxsatx.com, but it’s not nearly done yet.  This is the new wireless hi-speed Internet that is now available to us in San Antonio, New Braunfels, Bulverde, San Marcos, and Austin, as soon as they finish installing about 90 more cell sites, that is. 🙂   They expect to have about 200 cell sites in the San Antonio area alone.

I’ll post more details soon!  Promise!

Lee N5NTG

To All,

Last night I received email from Michael Haertel, the son of Keith Haertel-KD5UYH, announcing the passing of his father.  Many of us know Keith from his volunteering for numerous Bike to the Beach events.  Many of you also know Keith’s father Hermann Haertel, N5CNH.  I know that our thoughts and prayers go to Michael, Herm and the rest of Keith’s family.

Sincerely,
Milton Johnson, N5HMJ

Funeral Arrangements:
Visitation on Sunday, Nov. 1st@ 11:00 AM

Quick answer:
Any Ham the blog administrator allows.

Practical answer:
Almost any ham radio operator who asked permission.

There are different roles, or levels of capabilities that can be assigned to a user who registered with this Blog and asked for higher privileges… 

I’ve recently relaxed the privileges a bit, to allow comments ro be posted without first registering or logging in as a user on the blog.  I’m running some anti-spam filters on all comments to reduce that sort of crap being posted, but I’m sure some will slip in eventually.

I’m still going to moderate them, but if you register as a user, once I’ve approved the first comment, all others get posted “live”, subject to my later editing or disapproving inappropriate content.   I received several comments saying they wanted to post a comment, but didn’t want to register first, so this change is in response to those requests.

Login User Names are typically your callsign, upper case, but can be anything.  These are case sensitive, so remember how you typed it. Passwords are automatically assigned to new users, and sent to you via email to verify your email address as well.  Your first “job” when you log in the first time, is to add your name and other info, and change your password to something you can remember easier.  I can’t see your password.  I can reset a password, but can’t view them.  There is an automated built-in option for handling lost passwords in the software, it will email you a new auto password, but you need to remember your user ID.  If you forget that, please contact me direct for assistance.  My info is at the bottom of every page.

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Members of the San Antonio Repeater Organization met Friday night at the Martha’s Mexican Restaurant, corner of Babcock & Huebner, for their quarterly membership meeting. About 30 members were in attendance, to hear the latest club news, learn about past and upcoming events, watch some videos about recent events, and nominate folks to run for the SARO Board of Directors.

The following five persons were nominated from the floor, and will run for 1 of 4 open positions on the SARO Board of Directors.

• Gary K5GST
• Bob K5AUW
• Pat AD5BR
• Linda KC5QPQ
• Lee N5NTG

Ballots will be mailed out to all members in good standing (i.e. you paid your 2009 dues) sometime in November, with instructions on where to return them by what deadline.    Ballots will be counted after that deadline, and the new directors will be seated after January 1st. At that time, the board will chose who will serve in what officer capacity. There are only 4 vacancies, 1 current director is up for his 2nd term, the other 3 directors either declined or were limited by term.

From the CQ/WorldRadio Online Newsroom…

Four well-known contesters en route to operate the CQ World Wide DX Contest this weekend from Bermuda were killed yesterday (Wednesday) when their plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Summerville Airport, South Carolina, on their way to Crooked Island, Bahamas.  The four, all regular operators of the C6APR contest station, were identified as Peter Radding, W2GJ/C6APR, the pilot; and passengers Ed Steeble, K3IXD/C6AXD; Randy Hargenrader, K4QO/C6AQO, and Dallas Carter,  W3PP.

According to the local Summerville Journal Scene newspaper, the plane crashed 250 yards east of the runway at Summerville Airport in Jedburg, South Carolina. The cause of the crash has not yet been determined, but Radding was a very experienced pilot. County Coroner Chris Nesbit told the newspaper that it appears the four were killed by the severity of the crash itself rather than the fire that followed. Autopsies are scheduled for today.

CQ WW Contest Director Bob Cox, K3EST, called the crash, “a real tragedy,” adding that “devoted hams and contesters were lost.” The C6APR team was featured in the cover story of April’s WorldRadio Online, and Steeble wrote an article in the April, 2007 issue of CQ about his experiences as QSL manager for C6APR and for a special Islands on the Air expedition, W2GJ/C6A, in 2006. As of this morning, comments from hams around the world had been posted on the Journal Scene’s website.

From press:
http://www.journalscene.com/news/Pla…rville-Airport
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/…8LpqgD9BFO1Q00

The October issue of the San Antonio Hams Newsletter has been emailed to about 300  hams on the subscription list, and with a few exceptions of those who have filled up their email box quotas (i.e. never read their emails), or have extremely tight anti-spam restrictions and forgot to “white-list” this email address domain name, and those who haven’t yet subscribed, you should have received it about 24 hours ago. 🙂

But if you missed the email, because of whatever reason, but are curious enough to want to read it anyway…  you can read it on-line at this link…

If you want to be subscribed to this FREE  electronic newsletter, please send an email to info@SanAntonioHams.org with subject “subscribe”.  

All I need is your name, email address and call sign to enter into my database.  I don’t share your information for other purposes, but you will get at least one email message a month in the form of the newsletter about ham radio related happenings.   I’ve been known to put out special editions for Silent Key notices with funeral arrangements, etc, when such info is provided to me.  From time to time, there may be material at the bottom which could constitute a commercial ad or sponsor ad, since I support this project out of my own pocket.

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Repeating this announcement since this VE Team will be testing on 10/24, this Saturday at the Great  Northwest Library branch…

QUARTER CENTURY WIRELESS ASSOCIATION
SAN ANTONIO CHAPTER 38
October 2009

Officers for 2009

• Larry Higgins  W5EX,  President
• Clay Laster  W5ZPV,  Vice President
• Chetto Cumpian  WB6BIE,  Secretary
• Terry Platt K5ADF,  Treasurer

Chapter on-air net every Sunday evening:

8:30 p.m.  local time
146.34/94   Repeater
Net Control:  Clay W5ZPV and  Danny WA5KRP

Next Meeting Date:

Date: October 24, 2009 @ 11:30AM
Location: Sea Island   210-651-7000,  located at 11715 Bandera Rd.
Restaurant is inside Bandera Point Shopping Center just inside Loop 1604  Time:11:30 a.m. but many start showing up at 11:00 a.m.
Program: Amateur Television
Presented by: Lother Harris  K5LEH

Notice: If any member needs transportation to the meeting, contact Larry W5EX  at 210-341-2910