San Antonio Hams

Here is the video you’ve all be waiting for. The video is about 9 minutes in length, with some narration and sound tracks left untouched.  Some titles added to explain what is going on, or to inform the viewer about all the work the ham radio operators are doing.   Would have liked to have included some photos or video of the ground to air lightening strikes at the Finish line, but we’re working with what I shot myself.

I inserted only a few still photos in the video, but not many, so if you want to see the photos, please visit the earlier posting made to this blog.  I’m willing to post more photos taken by other hams, if they send them to me.  <hint, hint>

Here is the video, courtesy of YouTube.com where it is hosted.

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In the beginning there was a plan, and the plan was deemed good!   Then Mother Nature decided to change the plans, and that’s where the flexibility and training of the BikeMS ham radio operators came into play.

My original assignment was to be SAG7 and supervise 3 other SAG vans (SAG #2, #14 & #25) for special duty between the Day 1 Start Line at the Alamo Dome and the entrance to Ft. Sam Houston base.   When that was done, we were to pop up to Sattler, TX and get staged  for the River Road segment of the route.

I was not originally supposed to be the “Turtle” bringing up the rear, but due to last minute changes on the route, the ham (Lyle KB5BSU) who was supposed be “Turtle” after marking the course with signs, got busy relocating signs to mark the new route and never made it back to the Alamo Dome in time for the start.  Then the Safety Officer declared River Road to be unsafe due to flooding in the area, and closed that segment of the route completely, shutting down BP6, 7 and 8 in the process.  (BP6 and 8 were actually the same BP, but rider were to pass thru twice.)

So that is how SAG 7 became the defacto “Turtle” to bring up the rear of the bike riders.  We had quite a few riders ride past the Alamo itself, only to decide they really didn’t want to ride in the rain all that much.  So they poised for photos of themselves in front of the Alamo, called their friends to come pick them up, and the Turtle moved on, looking for more riders needing help.    SAG #14 found a rider under the bridge at Broadway and IH-35 needing a flat changed, and SAG #25 picked up a couple of riders asking to be taking direct to BP1 for bike repairs.  SAG #2 decided to turn left into the base, instead of right to go around the base, but fortunately for him, the guard decided to let him and his wife drive their SAG van thru the base instead of shooting them instead. 🙂   

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Title: Chaparral Amateur Radio Club / Guadalupe County ARES
Location: 415 East Donegan, Seguin, TX 78155
Description: Monthly meeting of Chaparral Amateur Radio Club. All licensed Amateur Radio operators are invited to attend!
Start Time: 19:00 hrs
Date: 2009-10-13
End Time: 20:30

2009 ALAMO RIDE to the RIVER
MY PERSONAL THANKS

The first BikeMS: Ride to the River is over and it was quite the event.  As you all know, Saturday started with rain and it continued all day.  The weather deteriorated all day forcing a multitude of changes such as the closure of the River Road Century Extension, the move of the Lunch location, the move of Breakpoint 4, and the re-routing of the course into New Braunfels. 

All of these major changes were forced after the start of the ride and all of them were made very smoothly.  These changes went smoothly in no small part to you, the Amateur Radio operators.  You reported to your locations on-time and prepared to provide communications. 

 The flexibility of the Amateur Radio community is it’s hallmark and you proved that again this weekend.  My thanks to the Breakpoint Operators, the Shadows for the officials, the medical team and safety team.  By providing essential communications under adverse conditions you helped to make this ride both successful and safe.

 As Saturday’s weather continued to worsen with extreme rain, fog and ground lighting strikes, the ride was cut short.  The SAG and Motor Marshal Teams were fantastic, getting hundreds of riders off the course in these extreme conditions.  Read the rest of this entry »

As of 12:36 p.m. Saturday September 26, 2009, Chaparral Amateur Radio Club aka Guadalupe County ARES would like to announce the re-birth of the .76 repeater!

As many know, the .76 in Seguin has a special place in history, and is close to the hearts of many in the area. It was important to many, that this repeater pair stay with CARC and in Seguin.

Special Thanks go to Jeremy Davenport – KE5ELI, Don Kirchner – W5DK, and David Floyd – WD5IEH for their contributions in time, equipment and expertise completing the project.

Over the last several months, this group of dedicated Amateurs has been working on this project, and today, the 146.76 was brought back to life, better than ever. The overall goal, upon installation of the new antenna (still 6 weeks from delivery) and some minor tweaks, is to have a strong and reliable wide area coverage repeater, that can be enjoyed by all, and provide valuable communications links during public service and disaster events!

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This morning, a few dozen hams gathered at the American Red Cross HQ on the east side of San Antonio, TX, to get their briefing, packets and their free t-shirt, for next weekend’s BikeMS Valero Alamo Ride To The River.  Most of those who missed the briefing, will be given their materials when they pick up their SAG vans or on site at their assignment the day of the event from Milton (SAG 5) N5HMJ.

Here are a few photos taken this morning….

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News flash!

SARC VEs get to hit the snooze alarm a few more times!

In case you haven’t heard, our city leaders thought the library hours needed to be changed. As of October 1, the Great Northwest Library will be opening on Saturdays at 10 AM. Since we don’t want to start the test session in the parking lot, we’ll need to change the SARC VE session time to start at 10 AM when the library doors open. 🙂

Thanks for those of you who have been helping us, for your continued service at our test sessions. If you’d like to help at any of upcoming sessions (especially the January one), let me know!

Our next VE sessions will be:

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I put together this video after the 2009 La Vernia Wildwest Hammerfest.  Probably missed some items, but here it it.  Featuring some well known ham radio operators and hundreds of bicycle riders who came out that day just so I could try and make this video.

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Yes, I know that this event was over a week ago, but I just uploaded the finished video clip from this event to Youtube.com.

About 250 athletes participated in this year’s event, despite the constant light rain. At least it wasn’t a thunderstorm, which would have caused cancelation. As it was, the event organizers did chop off 2 miles from the bicycle route, because that was one mile going up a very steep hill, and the riders would have then been traveling at high speed down a very slick paved street on the way back.  Despite what the logo above says, the planned bike route was only 12 miles, chopped to 10 miles due to weather considerations for safety.

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Around 5:30am on Saturday morning, 09/19/2009, way before the chickens even thought about waking up, there were a bunch of crazy folks talking on the 147.04 repeater, all saying they were heading toward LaVernia for some bicycle event. 

The San Antonio Repeater Organization (SARO) organized the hams for this event, which was billed as the 2nd annual event, even though it was the 3rd year.  Seems that last year (2008) the event got canceled due to a pesky hurricane that was threatening to hit the gulf coast of Texas, and that hurricane was going to use up the law enforcement resources needed by the event, plus the threat of extremely bad weather might have endangered the riders.

Originally, Gordon K5SUZ was slated to coordinate hams for this event, but due to the death of Liliane KC5AQP a couple weeks prior, he asked Eric WB5ZJQ and Lee N5NTG to take over the operation.   We were a bit short handed today, after a couple of last minute cancelations and no-shows, but we all pitched in and some did double duty to cover rest stops until we could shift another ham over to that location.  We had 10 SAG vehicles, but only 6 had hams riding in them, so we used cellular phones to try and coordinate the other 4 drivers.   We had 5 rest stops and 10 Motorcycle Marshals.   

Net Control was ran by the Manley Family, with Charles KD5EXS and Charlie W5BRC were most frequently heard as NCS, with Barbara KB5RLF covering their occasional need to take breaks.

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