San Antonio Hams

I got up early this morning to check the status of a remote restore that I was doing for one of my company’s clients.   Everything was wonderful until about 8am when my computer started making a strange humming sound.   The hard drive light lit up even though nothing was actively accessing the drives (that I had initiated), the light stayed lit like something was really going to town.

Then the light went off, and the noise stopped.  Whew!

Except when I clicked the link to my email program, it said “searching for program…”   What the heck?    And when I opened Windows Explorer, it told me that my “D”, “E” and “F” drives were missing.    Now I know I hadn’t approved any vacation time for my hard drives, and that 500gb drive was probably less than a year or two old,  but it was gone!

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There was a software bug detected whereby hackers can illegally access an unpatched iPhone (prior to 3.0.1) by simply sending a loaded SMS message. The SMS message migiht appear to be blank, or have a small square character, but in reality it could have contained anything and appeared to have come from anyone.

If your iPhone got infected, your phone became a zombie. The attacker could take over your camera and microphone to watch / listen in live without your knowing, have access to any private information stored on your iPhone, and could then use your phone to contact and infect other iPhone users.   Until now, you had no protection, and if infected, your only option was to turn off your iPhone and take it in to the Apple Store or an Apple Tech to get it restored back to factory spec, risking the loss your data.

All the crook needed to know was the phone # of your iPhone.

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I was updating some of my wiring harness for my ham radio emergency go-kit, and needed to unsolder some wires from a LED switch to that I could try to reuse it.  I succeeded in getting the older wires removed and cleaned the solder off the terminals so that I could later reattach the connectors of my choice.

But something happened (this was 3am in the morning) and the soldering pencil (all 12 watts of it) decided to roll off the table and land on the inside of my left forearm.  

Ouch!   Those things are hot enough to melt solder, and hot enough to start burning their way thru my skin, especially the more tender skin on the inside of my arm rather than the weather beaten outer side. 🙂

Kids, don’t try this without adult supervision, and adults, don’t try it without adult supervision. 

I should have used my soldering station to put the pencil in while hot, but that was outside in my van from when we were installing the antenna and power lines for the radio, and (did I mention it was 3am?) so I didn’t feel like going out side to fetch it back inside just for a quicky task. 

Shame on me for taking short cuts and using my spare soldering pencil without taking proper precautions to ensure it didn’t get knocked off and start a fire or other hazard (like hitting my arm).

Six days later (8/5), and burn mark still very noticeable.  Not hurting as much, still keeping neosporin applied, plus those spray on bandages instead of tape on bandages.  Here’s a current photo.

I may have mentioned to some of you that I had switched 100% over to using Anderson Power Pole connectors a few years back. But unless you wanted to shell out some big $$ to buy those power blocks from West Mountain Radio to the tune of $55-$100+ each, you had to build your own power block splitters.

Local Ham Operator, Grumpy, WF5Y, has a home-brew flat panel with 8 Anderson Power Pole connectors, each with their own fuse, similar to the WMR version, and he was asking $50 each at the Austin Summerfest. 

But after visiting with the DC Power folks from Beaverton, Oregon, www.dcpwr.com, during the Plano Hamcom last June, I went to Wes Allen K7WWG’s web site to see what he had available.  I found an affordable solution in the form of a Red-Dee-2 8 port connector block (Model PS-8) that would allow me to feed power to 7 other devices.  The price?  $28 plus shipping.  

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Never know who is going to stop by. In March, I had President Bush chatting with me. In May, I met all of the San Antonio Spurs and they gave me an autographed basketball. This Friday (07/24) some of the “Hooter’s Calendar Girls” stopped by my place of work and served the wounded warriors chicken wings and autographed calendars. All I got was this picture.

It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it.

73 Bob W2IK

Today’s Small Texan Triathlon was sponsored / organized by Britton Bikes of San Antonio, TX, and had 137 entries.   

The route included a swim (actual distance was 1480 meters) in the Boerne City Lake (just north of Boerne, TX), a 45k bike ride that went north up thru Waring, TX, and back, and a 10k run that went over the dam behind the lake cross-country, then out on Ranger Creek Road to a turn-around point and back to the park. 

There was just enough water left in the lake (which is also used for Boerne’s water supply) for them to swim, once the swimmers waded out about 30′ from shore.  The swim route was altered from the planned 1500 meter course due to shallow waters in the lake. We had joked about whether “mud wrestling” qualified for a USAT sanctioned triathlon (it doesn’t). 

The event organizers had “swimmer helpers” waiting out in the water at the finish shore when the swimmers returned, to help the tired swimmers change from a horizontal swim position, to walking upright once more on the rocky / muddy bottom of the lake until they reached the concrete ramp. 

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Used my emergency go-kit today to run net control for the Small Texan Triathlon up in Boerne, TX. 

I took the photo (on right) while standing on the back ramp of the race director’s trailer used for running net control during this event.  I’ll post a separate blog entry with my photos from today’s event.  We were on the air from 7am until about 12:30pm for the event that had 137 entries.  1480 meter swim, 45k bike ride, 10k run, certified course.  Temp only got up to the low 90’s by the time we shut down net control, but we also had a fine light breeze, enough to keep us cool inside the trailer, but not strong enough to bother the athletes.

Using this go-kit with the bigger external antenna wWas perhaps a bit “over-kill” in terms of my actual needs since the 2 meter repeater we used was full scale on an HT antenna, but as I told one of the other hams, the big antenna in the air and the rolling toolbox with radios looks more impressive to the (non-ham) event organizers or other spectators.  I was able to charge 2 of my HT batteries using the DC-AC 300w power converter just to do it.  Didn’t actually need the extra batteries or HT’s charged, but I wanted a real life test.

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I live in a “ham friendly” HOA on the NW side of San Antonio, TX, and our neighbors are very active in the community fighting graffiti and other common problems.  We’ve got our own 24/7 private security guards that cruise the neighborhoods (all 7 subdivisions, about 5,000 properties) all hours of the day and night, plus keeping an eye on our 2 swimming pools and other facilities. The Great Northwest Community Improvement Association has nearly 21,000 residents in 7 subdivisions, 4,959 properties, non-gated, inside the city limits of San Antonio.

Yesterday, Saturday, 7/25, they held a “paint drive” to collect latex paint for the city.  The city then mixes and redistributes the paint free to folks fighting graffiti in their neighborhoods.

Here is a short video about their efforts…

KE5DFK (Carlos) and KE5HLS (Robert) under the Guadalupe Valley Amateur Radio Club call WB5LVI will operate from DL88 and DL89 August 21 thru August 26, 2009.

Bands:  6m 50.125 plus or minus 125Khz for the DL88 hunters.15m, 17m, 20m, 40m, 80m, 160m? SSB20m, 30m 40m PSK/RTTY. Two bands will be active at all times. Visitors welcome.

We will monitor the local 146.820 repeater with a 146.2 tone.   More info:  ke5hls@arrl.net or ke5dfk@yahoo.com   QSL:  SASE to the www.qrz.com address for WB5LVI

Information about the Bexar Operators Group, including what they have done and their planned events, can now be found at their new site: Bexar Operators Group – Home  

This club is an active amateur radio group and not a social club. Up coming events include participation in this year’s JOTA event which will focus on operating “green” with solar panels and wind turbines.

We also sponsor the annual “Jump Team Boot Camp”. All types of antenna testing and field operations are done in order to make members better operators in both contests and during emergency conditions.

This webpage also includes two links which will get you to W2IK’s old AOL webpages (45 of them) that were thought lost. Between the two you should find them all!

For further info, contact us through our new web page or at: W2IK@arrl.net