San Antonio Hams

2008 National Weather Service
Skywarn Recognition Day
December 6, 2008
0000-2400 UTC

SKYWARN Recognition Day was developed in 1999 by the National Weather Service and the American Radio Relay League. It celebrates the contributions that volunteer SKYWARN radio operators make to the National Weather Service. During the day SKYWARN operators visit NWS offices and contact other radio operators across the world.

Check with your local National Weather Service office to see if they are participating in this event or having an “open house”. It is not a contest, but rather an operating event. Amateur radio operators will be on the air from National Weather Service offices and from their home stations as well. Depending upon how many NWS stations a ham operator contacts they will be given certificates of varying levels.

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AARO has announced their annual Holiday Awards Banquet, to be held Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 6pm.  Location is their usual place, Grady’s BBQ, 7400 Bandera Road.

RSVP is required due to their need to order a certain number of dinners that night in advance.  Cost of tickets to this event set at $10 a person. Call Teri Thomas for reservations at 680-6841.

More info found soon at their club web site, www.AA5RO.org

AARO was forced to change their meeting location back in early 2008 after some change in management occurred at the University Hospital which apparently caused all non-hospital groups to be evicted, so to speak.  AARO was one of those affected.

Since that time, AARO had been meeting on the east side of town, in the American Red Cross HQ building on East Houston.

But starting with the November meeting on the 12th, they will be back to meeting on the NW side of San Antonio, but not at the hospital.  Instead, they will be meeting at Martha’s Mexican Restaurant, 5822 Babcock, on the corner of Babock Rd & Huebner, just a mile or two away from the hospital.  (There is a UPS store and a T-Mobile store in the same shopping center.)

More info found at their club web site, www.AA5RO.org

(But their website still shows the older meeting location of American Red Cross, as of the date of this posting.)

Our MS staff is supporting us (the hams)  favorably, they promised that van rental is available local in San Antonio, Austin, or Dallas box truck or SAG van. Hams picking up their SAG or Box truck would return it back to original pickup location where they got it, not drive back to Houston to return it.

Also MS will provide paid for hotel rooms (Crowne Plaza) on Friday night, plus the usual free bunks at the church camp on Saturday night.  We’re still working to arrange designated refueling gas stations around like last yr.

It’s our 25th yr & with registration already closed at 13,000 riders,  I don’t anticipate problems with the event, other than normal.   Some break points have been moved to new locations on the route due to size problems.

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Under the direction of Mike, AB5EB, a rather large contingent of boy scouts and cub scouts converged at Overlook Point near the Canyon Lake dam in Texas to see what amateur radio was all about. They got more than they envisioned as the diversity of amateur radio was revealed. The amateur radio operators, featuring Mike, AB5EB, Rich, N5RAG, Carlos, KE5DFK and Bob, W2IK, were ready and waiting with several stations that operated using several modes, such as voice, digital and slow-scan television.

Other events were offered such as two antenna building sessions where scouts built actual antennas from scrap materials and used them to make contacts.The most rewarding event was the merit badge class given by Mike, AB5EB. During the class, they learned quite a bit about radio communications, “Q” signals, etc and were each also required to make an actual ham radio contact.

Also covered were basics in fox-hunting using a homemade “tape measure” antenna, PSK digital operating basics, viewing slow-scan television pictures being sent by other hams, MARS, Military Affiliated Radio Systems were explained and as added bonuses, several scouts assembled short wave radio kits using point to point wiring and in the afternoon a “geo-caching” hunt was held where scouts used GPS units, under the direction of a scout dad, to discover hidden “treasures”.

Also available were food and refreshments sold under the direction of scout moms and dads as a fundraiser. Next year’s event promises to be bigger and better!

Below are more photos from the event.  For more information about the sponsoring group, please visit them on the web at www.KX5BSA.org

Bob  W2IK

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At SARO’s meeting last Friday, October 24th, the following members were nominated and placed on the ballot for election to the Board.

Only 3 positions were up for election, and 2 of the 3 incumbents were among those nominated.  The 3rd officer chose to decline nomination.

The five persons who will be listed on the Ballot, in no particular order since that choice was done after I had left the meeting.

• Dale Robinson KB5YSJ
• Mike Check K5UCQ
• Eric Olsen WB5ZJG
• Gary Tangrady K5GST
• Don Kirchner W5DK

Ballots will be mailed out in November, with a designated December deadline for returning via mail only.  New directors will take office in January 2009 for 2 year terms.

AARO has mailed out the ballots for their Board of Directors election.  Four vacancies are up for election this year, 3 normal vacancies for 2 year terms, and 1 unexpected vacancy caused by a resignation, for a 1 year term.

But to make it more fun, originally there were five AARO members on the ballot, but one nominee apparently withdrew prior to the printing of the materials and mailing of the ballots. So they have 4 members running for 4 slots, and AARO members get to decide who gets the 1 year slot, and other nominees get the 2 year slot.

Deadline to return ballots is November 12th, via mail or by bringing to their meeting that night.

Nominees are (in order shown on ballot)

• Teri Thomas KC5BJI
• Linda Robinson, KC5QPQ
• Benny Martinez, NU5P
• Charles Thomas, WA3PAY

More info found at their club web site, www.AA5RO.org

(But their website still shows the older meeting location of American Red Cross, as of the date of this posting.)

Rock and Roll Marathon

by Teri KC5BJI

Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo (Where is Rick Derringer when you need him?)

We came to the San Antonio Marathon in 1995 through Walt DuBose (K5YFW), who was our contact person out at Kelly AFB to Sam Idrogo, chairman of the organizing committee. Since then we have been providing communications support for both operations and logistics, and, thanks to you, bestowed the designation of one of its co-sponsors.

{Photo of Greg KD5VBG setting up for net control during the 2006 SA Marathon down in the bowels of the Alamo Dome – taken by Lee N5NTG}

And 13 years later we’re right back where we started. Kind of …

November 16, 2008 will be our first time to work with a new group,Elite Racing, Inc., this year’s organizer.  You can find more info onRock `n Roll Marathons by going to http://www.RNRSA.com/home.html where the course is profiled as “flat, fast and scenic” and they list San Antonio’s race as a qualifier for Boston’s upcoming marathon.So, in several ways, it’s a whole new ball game for us. Althoughsome things will ultimately remain the same (we have been asked to supply at least 35 ham radio operators), there are some major changes and new perks, too.

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Veterans Day Parade – Universal City

by Gary Tangrady, K5GST

In addition to the Motorcycle Marshals I have so far received responses from the following people that have volunteered for helping out on the parade. First I would like to say Thank You for all the support. It is truly overwhelming.If you are not going to be able to make it or things have changed, please drop me an email. In any event it looks like we will have plenty. Read the rest of this entry »

The first “MacGyver” antenna building session held during the 2008 JOTA operation at Canyon Lake, Texas was so successful that in the afternoon several scout moms cornered me and almost begged that I run it again so the afternoon group could join in on the fun.What was the “MacGyver” antenna project?

The scouts began at a long table where I dumped the contents of a large popcorn tin, which was filled with wire, plastic pieces, odd metal parts, tools, two 12 foot measuring tapes, a spark plug wire and other useful and useless items along with a scrap of paper which had a hand-drawn diagram of a dipole antenna with just a series of total length per bands scrawled on the top.

It was up to the scouts to find the proper pieces and share in the building of a simple dipole under the supervision and extensive verbal support, cheering and crying of the “MacGyver Special Assistance Team”.
The scouts measured and cut wire, stripped ends, put on PVC end insulators, a center connector was added, and put rope on each end. Imagine their surprise when we ran the dipole up the “flag-pole” masting and promptly made a contact to a ham in Oklahoma!

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