Jan 23

At the Board Meeting in January the board members elected the new officers for the coming year.

  • President is Royce Taylor, KA5OHJ
  • Vice President is Chuck Kenworthey, WB5FWI
  • Secretary is Lyle Turner, KB5SU
  • Treasurer is Don Kirchner, W5DK 
  • Directors Stan Stanukinos, KA5IID
  • Scott Renwick, WB5ZJI
  • Gordon Dial, K5SUZ
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Sep 6

Morris E. Sullivan KG5CP went to be with the Lord on September 4, 2011 in San Antonio, Texas. He was born on March 14, 1931 in Harlingen, Texas to Morris D. Sullivan and Rosa Mae Hack Sullivan.

Mr. Sullivan served in the Korean War with the U.S. Marine Corps and in the Vietnam War with the U.S. Air Force.

He was a volunteer firefighter for the N.W. San Antonio Volunteer Fire Dept. and was also involved with Rainfall Net on HAM Radio, which reported rainfall to the National Weather Service. He was an accomplished woodworker and avid gardener. He was a computer enthusiast, having technical aptitudes and capabilities to troubleshoot the most difficult of problems.

Mr. Sullivan loved dogs, and held a special place in his heart for his canine friends. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Nellie Selk Sullivan; daughters, Debbie Spencer (Walter), Sue Hosack (Curtis), Cathy Letson (Tony), Brenda Sullivan (Larry), Sherrie Sullivan (Chris); son, Wayne Sullivan (Renee); 8 grandchildren; and 6 great-grandchildren.

SERVICES A Graveside Service will be held on Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 2:00PM at Mission Burial Park North, 20900 IH-10 West, San Antonio, Texas 78257, with military honors. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society , 8115 Datapoint, San Antonio, Texas 78229.

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Apr 22

Due to the normal restaurant being closed for Good Friday after 3pm, the board has decided to postpone the date of  tonight’s meeting until next Friday, April 29th, at 7:30pm.   We’ve put a sign on the restaurant door, with permission, to advise any members who might not have received (or read) their email notice sent out this afternoon.

– Royce Taylor, President, KA5OHJ

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Dec 17

Where: Hill Country State Natural Area – Bandera County Texas

When:  January 8 and 9th, 2011

What:  Tejas Trails – Bandera 100k Ultra Marathon

Start: 0700 hrs Saturday, the 8th

Finish: 0700 hrs Sunday, the 9th (radio operations typically stand down at 0430 hrs, when the last aid station closes down)

The 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!

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 with Safety and SAR operations!  Operators support Race Control, Aid Stations and the HCSNAP Coordinated Horse Patrol! Operators will stay in constant contact with the Aid Station Captain and/or Race Recorder, in order to keep the Database up-to-date.

Needed:  We need 10 or so licensed Amateurs to assist with this event. The more the merrier! Minimum 50 watt dual band portable/mobile EmComm type set-ups required in case we need to go simplex, if the repeater fails to produce.  Most communications will be done with 5 watts or so through the hilltop repeater, but just in case of a catastrophic failure of the repeater, we can go to simplex. All the Aid stations allow close proximity of your vehicle, so proper crossbanding can be utilized!

Even if you can only help out for a part of the event, we can still use you!

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Jan 20

The SARO President’s Corner

I would like time to thank all of the Directors, Committee Chairpersons, and numerous other members who have given of them selves so freely throughout the past year.  As your president I look forward to serving this organization again in 2010.

You’re new and returning Officers and Board members are Vice-President – Gary Tangrady, K5GST; Secretary – Dale Robinson, KB5YSJ; Treasurer – Mike Check, K5UCQ; Directors – Bob Rodriguez, KA5AUW; Pat Knight, AD5BR; and Lee Besing, N5NTG.

The 2010 Committee Chairpersons are: Membership – Pat Knight, AD5BR; Maintenance – Gordon Dial, K5SUZ; Engineering – Stan Stanukinos, KA5IID; Public Service – Royce Taylor, KA5OHJ; Public Relations and Newsletter – Gary Tangrady, K5GST; Web Master – Lee Besing, N5NTG; and Net Control Coordinator – Herm Hartel, N5CNH.

The first quarterly general membership meeting will be on Friday January 22 at 7:30 p.m. We will be at a new location the “El Jalisco Lindo Grill” near the intersection of Wurzbach Rd. and Watercress Dr. this is one block southwest of Bandera Rd. on Wurzbach Rd. The address is 5309 Wurzbach Rd. Suite 115.  Please note it is not necessary to purchase a meal to attend the meeting.  The restaurant is happy to host SARO and we will not have to contend with the mariachis.

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Dec 15

logosaro_smTonight was the first meeting of the 2010 San Antonio Repeater Organization (SARO) newly elected Board of Directors.  Four (4) new directors had been elected by the members this month to serve a 2 year term of office.  Only about half of the SARO members returned a ballot in the election.  SARO mails paper ballots to every member in good standing (ie. their dues got paid) by the first of November.  Ballots are generally due by sometime in the 2nd week (this year it was December 11th).

Elected were Lee N5NTG, Pat AD5BR, Bob K5AUW, and Gary K5GST.  Their term of office is thru end of 2011.  Outgoing directors were Sharon Olson KB5KZD, Chuck Kenworthey WB5FWI, and Royce Taylor KA5OHJ.

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Dec 14

CanyonLake_444.450Hill Country REACT Team is the sponsor of a new Ham Radio Repeater in the Canyon Lake area. 

The repeater is located about a mile southwest of Startzville and the antenna is up at about 1670 feet above sea level.  The antenna was measured as being about 390 feet up in the air on the tower, and the base of the tower is at 1280 feet above sea level.   

The repeater frequency is 444.450 mHz, positive offset, and with a 114.8 PL tone.  The repeater is intended to be for open use by all hams.

Testing has shown excellent coverage from north San Antonio up to south Austin, and all points between, using mobile radios.    The Trustee is Wade W5ERX, currently the president of Hill Country REACT.   He had the assistance of a couple other hams, including the newly appointed Comal County EC, Don Kirchner W5DK, and Gene Rowell WA5PAX, to build /prepare the repeater and finally install it at its new home.  The repeater is a coordinated frequency with the Texas VHF-FM Society and tower hosting is being provided by BKT Towers.

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Oct 24

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.

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Oct 9

One View of the 2009 BikeMS: Ride to the River

ms150_2009_alamo_to_the_river2By Milton Johnson – N5HMJ

The structure of the BikeMS Amateur Radio volunteers has changed over the last two years, without really changing.  What does that mean?  

In 2008, the final year of the Bike to the Beach, we had 81 Amateur Radio Volunteers not counting the Motor Marshalls who have their own organizational structure.  This year we had 64 volunteers.  Any school of management will tell you that a group that big is too large to effectively manage. 

Fortunately, the group has informally functioned around teams, and beginning last year we formalized the teams with team leaders which this year broke down as follows:

  • Breakpoint Team: Bob Rodriguez-K5AUW;
  • Net Control Team: Shane O’Neal-NS5D;
  • Safety Team: Curtis Rabenaldt-N5QPN;
  • Medical Team: Neil Martin-WA5FSR;
  • Officials & Logistics Team: Alfred Horn-KG5QW;
  • SAG Team: Gordon Dial-K5SUZ and Milton Johnson-N5HMJ. 

Coordinating and organizing these teams was the task of KG5QW, K5SUZ and N5HMJ. 

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Oct 9

Some of the crazier hams like to be Motorcycle Marshals on the BikeMS events, and Don W5DK, found a way to mount a camera on his helmet while he rode his Honda Goldwing during the event.  This 5 1/2 minute bit of footage was taken during the storm toward the end of the course on Saturday.   You can see the rain coming down hitting him and the camera, and see the lightening strikes zapping the camera.   The first minute or so has no sound, but the rest of it has the sound of the rain and motorcycle noise.

Thanks Don and the rest of the M&M’s for being out there with us making the event safer for all the participants!

Here is Don’s original version…

…and here is the version I “fixed up” for him afterward…

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