San Antonio Hams

From Noon Saturday thru Noon Sunday by N5NTG – Lee Besing

I made a tour of three FD locations this year… I used to do this in previous years, but with fuel prices increasing, I had sort of slowed down a bit. But this year, I decided to spend the bux and go visit some of my friends. I had planned to visit two others, but one shut down earlier than planned on Saturday, and around 1am I decided I was too tired to safely drive all the way out to Boerne to visit Kendall County, so I headed home to get some sleep instead.

I started this with compiling a list of known locations around San Antonio, then we received contact from other clubs in Central and South Texas asking that we list their FD site, so we ended up with 13 locations. Click Here for a full list of 13 sites in or around San Antonio, as far west as Ulvade, north to Austin, South to Laredo and Southeast to Corpus Christi.

This report will contain photos from the three locations I managed to visit (GVARC, SARC, AARO) plus photos that were sent to me from other operators. Band conditions this year were sort of weak, so contacts appeared to be less than in some previous years, but the weather cooperated with us locally. The Bexar Operators Group set up down on Mustang Island, “roughing it” with a portable A/C unit sitting on the edge of his picnic table sticking out thru the sides of his pop-up shelter that they rigged around the table. His pop-up was the only one that didn’t blow away in the high winds that hit the gulf coast during that weekend because he rigged for the possibility of high winds at the start.

Photos are embedded in the 2008 Field Day Page here.

From Noon Saturday thru Noon Sunday 

using only Old Vacuum Tube Radio / Equpment by K5AXN – Jerry Barry

Jerry says… It’s time for my 8th annual Vintage Field Day. this is mostly a social event, so bring a yard chair and join the fun. The place may need mowing and I might be slow in getting the equipment set up, but come pitch in and have fun. This is a gathering of some old AM guys and some family, plus new friends, and not a contest, so come join us to discuss Ham Radio or the problems of the world. Enjoy some tiem under the big pecan trees down by Cibolo Creek near Marion, Texas. We will have Polish Sausage wrapped in tortillas and bottled water. Carol will play you Hammered Dulcimer. If there is a lot of rain, call first because this is near a creek bottom with the usual country / creek insects.

TALK-NET – PICNIC AND SWAP MEET FESTIVAL

MAY 31, 2008 SATURDAY – TIME 11:00 A.M. TO 1:00 P.M.

FREE HOT DOGS, DRINKS, AND CHIPS AT ORSINGER PARK  12230 HUEBNER

For more information, check in to the Tuesday night net on 146.42 at 7:30pm, or contact Andrew Watson at 210-422-5304 or BEXARTALK@GMAIL.COM

Close to 3 dozen hams showed up for this first annual event at Orsinger Park. Free foot long hot dogs, with buns almost long enough to hold them, plus all the toppings, chips and cold iced tea you could ever want. Click here to view some photos taken during the event by Lee N5NTG.

May 17-18, 2008 – Tour De Cure Hams

I’ve collected 673 photos from hams taken during the 2008 Tour de Cure event which rode from San Antonio to San Marcos on Day 1, and San Marcos to Austin on Day 2. Around 56 ham volunteers worked this event on Saturday, 53 Ham Volunteers on Sunday this year, a new record. We also drove 9 SAG vans on Saturday, 8 SAG vans on Sunday, manned 9 Rest Stops on Saturday, 6 Rest Stops on Sunday, plus we had around a dozen or so Motorcycle Safety Marshals on both days.

Photos provided by Lee Besing N5NTG, Joe Plano KA1MZY, John Trigg W5KXO, Eugene Bentz KI6MPA, and Phil Boggan KD5MMM as indicated. If you have photos to share, contact me for simple FTP instructions. Credit will be given to each source.

Photo at left, Day 1 San Marcos Net Control Station. L-R rear, Roger W5WIA, Sterling KE5KZE, Mike KD5OZM, front – Pat AD5BR

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May 10, 2008 – NAV3 – Armed Forces Day

Two pix of my “NAV3” operation for the Armed Forces Day Cross Band event. I contacted about 100 stations from my set up at Bullis Cnty Park, San Antonio, using one of the 40 meter “inverted V” antennas I’ll have for the N5D event next weekend. – Bob W2IK

May 10, 2008 – 2 Meter Antenna Shoot-Out

About a dozen hams showed up for ROOST Ham Club’s annual 2-meter Antenna Shoot-out. Homebrew antennas and commercial antennas were compared using the same transmitter and receiver to see what designs worked the best.

Click here for a collection of photos taken by Andy, KD5TNI.

May 7, 2008 – TSA Agents Become Ham Operators

A seven member VE Team lead by Pat AD5BR on behalf of San Antonio Radio Club, gave tests to 16 TSA agents and two other hams who wanted to try and upgrade. The test session was held during the week on a Wednesday morning, which created a challenge for Pat to find enough VE’s willing to take off work to handle this session.

TSA agents from all over the USA were flown in for a week’s worth of training, including studying for their ham radio license. 15 of the 16 passed their tech test, 1 tried twice but missed by 1 or 2 each time. One local ham upgraded to General while another tried for Extra without any luck.

After the test session was completed at the San Antonio International Aiport in the SA Airport Police’s training room, the participants got some hands-on work with stringing dipole antennas and other on-the-air practice.

Click here for more photos from this event.

May 3, 2008 – Special Olympics Spring Games

Actually, despite the perception you might get from this photo, Bob W2IK was not up to monkey business during the Special Olympics Area 20 Spring Games held May 3rd at Harlendale’s Memorial Stadium in south San Antonio. Bob set up his self-contained EmComm station on battery power, plus an inverted 40 meters dipole. While there were at least 4 pop-up awnings destroyed by the high winds that morning (winds gusting to over 30+ mph), Bob wisely had used metal stakes to secure the legs of his awning, plus used a pair of bungee cords to secure the top cover to prevent the wind from lifting it off.

Bob checked into the Navy Mars HF net before the start of Special Olympics, then allowed Schuylar KE5VIP to borrow his station while he explored the nearby facilities and looked for refreshments. This event is about the fifth time in a row that Bob has offered to help with this event, using K5BCR club call for Hill Country REACT as the special event call. Operators making contact could send SASE to the REACT Team’s PO Box address for a certificate to be mailed to them.

Click here for more photos from this event.

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April 20, 2008 – Wildflower 100 Bicycle Tour

About a dozen hams helped support the annual Wildflower 100 Bicycle Tour, which operated from Retama Race Track on the NE side of San Antonio, and runs multiple courses thru Bexar, Comal and Guadalupe counties. We’ve been promised an article about this event, but in the meantime, here are some photos taken by the webmaster. Click on photo for a larger view.

April 12-13, 2008 – BP150 Bicycle Tour (13, 000 riders from Houston to Austin)

About a 150+ hams helped support the annual BP150 Bicycle Tour, from Houston to La Grange on Day 1, La Grange to Austin on Day 2. 3 calls for life flight to pick up riders with serious problems, plus a few transported by ambulance on Day 1. No major medical calls on day 2. We’re working onan article about this event, but in the meantime, here are some photos taken by the webmaster. Click on photo for a larger view. We’ll put to gether a photo montage set of pages, separate from this page to keep from causing the load time to deteriouate for all viewers.

Lee, N5NTG, and his son David, KD5MTJ, were driving SAG 10, Alternate Turtle on Day 1, Express Route Turtle on Day 2. This was a tremendous effort with hams from Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and points between, setting up temp repeaters in areas that had little or no coverage normally, including digipeaters for APRS. Echolink and IRLP were used to tie in all repeaters each day, so that Houston Net Control was able to run the route up until the last segment of Day 2 when it closed with Austin. (And I’m not sure they weren’t still listening in, but they needed some sleep also.)

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