San Antonio Hams

I spent about 8 hours at the AARO Field Day at Raymond Russell Park, where they almost ended up with a Marachi Band for entertainment (band went to the wrong pavilion), then moved on to visit the KARS Ham Club in Boerne before swinging back down south around midnight to the SARC Ham Club in Shavano Park.

By the time I left SARC, still running on those 5 hour energy drinks, I started to head south to ROOST, knowing they would be still running full steam ahead even in the middle of the night, but sanity prevailed, and I advised my “extra” wife that I’d be heading home soon instead of visiting more FD sites this weekend.

I used my cell phone to make some videos and take some pics, but the phone battery died & had to be recharged after I left AARO, so no middle of the night pics from KARS or SARC to be shared.  I’ve been promised pics from other hams who were at those locations, however.

AARO did a 1 day only FD event, starting setup around 10am when the park opened (county park hours restricted how long they could stay there), and shutting down & leaving before midnight when the county park turned into a pumpkin one more.  They were running 6 stations in different modes (voice / digital / cw / satellite) on various bands, and had more antennas and generators than I’ve seen in a long time.

Most of the actual radio operators were taking it very seriously, but the bulk of the 50+ hams were just there for the workshops, free food & fellowship.  A few were experimenting with different antennas, mostly home brew, and learning new modes.  There were a handful of brand new hams show up, and AARO took extra time to show them the operations and get them talking on the air to make a contact or two.

Workshops also were conducted on various topics:

• Proper Soldering Techniques
• Building DiPole Antennas
• Quadrafillic (sp?) Antennas
• Anderson Power Pole

Click the link below to continue this article & see some of the pics I took.

Read the rest of this entry »

A few weeks ago, we were quietly told that Craig Kennedy, owner of  KComm The Ham Store, would likely be closing his doors at the end of March. 

 March 31st was to be the last parking lot tail-gate sale.   We were asked to keep the news quiet until all the final arrangemens had been made with the employees, etc., before publicizing the news. 

During the past couple of weeks, the word was spread by rumor, by email, by phone calls, during Ham Breakfasts, etc. that the store was closing. 

The San Antonio Radio Club, W5SC, has been holding their monthly meetings in the store, and had their club station setup for visiting hams to use while at KComm.  That era has also come to an end, with the club needing to move their equipment & trailer (in back parking lot) to another location, and to find a new meeting location.   I was told today, that April’s SARC meeting will still be at KComm, but starting in the month of May, the meetings are moving to Jim’s Restaurant on San Pedro & Ramsey.

Store on Gulfdale

Yesterday, we stopped by the store around 9am to find that it was the most crowded that we’ve ever seen it, including during a SARC Club meeting night.  

Craig was playing “lets make a deal” with old equipment, furnishings, anything that wasn’t nailed down to the floor or wall it seemed. 

It was our opinion that he likely did more sales that day in a few hours, than he had likely done all month.  Several folks commented that if Kcomm had seen this much business every weekend, we wouldn’t be there for the closing today.

When I got my ham license back in the late 80’s, Kcomm The Ham Store was located over on the NW side of town, on Mobud Street, just off Loop 410, between Evers & Bandera, in a small industrial complex. 

Read the rest of this entry »

From SARC’s website, as of 04/16/2011, San Antonio Radio Club extends dues-free membership to area active-duty military…

The following provision was made at a recent Board Meeting to SARC Constitution, Article VI – Membership

2. Military Membership in the Club of all active-duty military personnel will be at no cost for membership dues. This condition extends to only active-duty personnel assigned in the metro area and not to any other personnel not activated as active-duty, or to any retired personnel of any military service. This membership status will continue for as long as the active-duty person is assigned in the metro area. Upon reassignment away from the metro area, membership may continue if the individual maintains residence of record in the metro area. Metro area will be defined as Bexar and adjacent counties. [change 4-16-2011]

I don’t know the final figures for attendance at this event last weekend, but the main vendor hall area was packed!  I was there handling the radio talk-in, as I’ve coordinated for the past 15-17 years or so, plus I was a paid vendor in the back corner of the room as well!

It was really nice to see friends from around Texas that I hadn’t seen in ages, or since last year’s event in some cases. 

Here are some photos that I took from this year’s event, using my handy dandy Sprint HTC EVO cell phone…  (love that 8 mega pixel camera feature).

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Wow! This was a great Field Day! It was one of the best that I have attended with the club in my ten years. We worked 45 States and and 4 of 8 Canadian provinces! The states we missed were RI, Nevada, Alaska, Wyoming and West Virginia. Other than those states we only missed two other US sections North New York and Virgin Islands. So out of 71 ARRL in the US sections we only missed seven!!!! We had 444 QSO’s in the log which is way up! This is due mostly to the excellent PSK31 operators!! A big thanks to all that came out to make this so successful, safe and fun!!

Paul Guido, N5IUT

Field Day location for SARC will be the Shaveno City Hall, on NW Military, just north of De Zavala Rd, south of loop 1604.

City of Shavano Park
900 Saddletree Court, Shavano Park, TX 78231

See map info here

Don’t forget the SARC Field Day starting this weekend. There will be a partial setup starting at 3 PM on Friday. Need several trucks @ KComm to help load equipment out of the trailer. Setup will finish starting @ 9 AM on Saturday morning.

Everyone needs to bring lawn chairs, fans, insect repellent, coolers for ice, water, sodas, snacks. This event will officially start @ noon Saturday until noon Sunday, when the teardown will start.

There will be an evening meal around 6:30 on Saturday. We will need to try and get a head count (list will be there early on)

A reminder – those of you that signed up for specific items, please don’t forget them.

Rowena, KF5JCZ

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!

Read the rest of this entry »

David Freiberger K5OLE on top of the American Red Cross Bldg working on one of the antennas

Our friend, mentor and leader, David Freiberger K5OLE is gone. He passed away this afternoon after a very long battle, first with cancer, then with complications from the treatment of it.

J C Smith, N5RXS, will update us with the funeral arrangements when he can.

I’m attaching a photo of my friend, doing what he loved.

Sadly,
Shane NS5D

Additional info will be posted here as provided.  We encourage other hams who knew David, to post comments on this article to share your thoughts, memories, etc.  

David was recently the Bexar County EC (Emergency Coordinator), stepping down only due to his health issues, and was a former president of the San Antonio Radio Club. He was active in the STXDXCC Club as well.  His cheerful attitude helped a lot of hams do their jobs better.

Lee N5NTG
Webmaster for SanAntonioHams.org

Read the rest of this entry »

Wade KE5ZUO on Talk-in, JC Smith N5RXS, wanting to resell empty tables

San Antonio Radio Club’s event chairman, JC Smith N5RXS, reported on the air, Saturday morning at 6:15am, prior to opening the doors, that all vendor tables had been sold out already!

Wow!  In fact, JC placed several calls were placed on the air searching for hams who had rented tables, but hadn’t yet shown up to claim them, so that he could resell those empty tables to folks who forgot to advance register!  Amazingly enough, it seems that some hams will pay to rent a vendor table, just to get in the door before the general admission, so they can scout out the better deals and buy before the crowd starts rolling in.  This practice is discouraged, but it happens, and then it leaves empty tables that could have been used by another ham.

One of the challenges we faced this year, was the SARO 146.94 repeater being used for talk-in, failed around 6:20am, just after we had started making announcements.    We were actually then hitting the Austin’s .94 repeater, so we changed to simplex and kept on going.    Bob K5AUW set up his mobile for crossband on simplex in the beginning, then we changed over to using my radios (as discussed later).  The .94 San Antonio repeater stayed down the rest of the day.

Read the rest of this entry »