San Antonio Hams

Received the following list of prize recipients from SARC President JC Smith N5RXS today via email.  The San Antonio Radio Fiesta was held Saturday, January 10th, out in Schertz, Texas at the Knights of Columbus Hall at 509 Schertz Parkway.  The parking lot overflowed, the meeting room was jam packed, and a good time was had by all who attended.  More info soon as it gets posted to their club’s  www.w5sc.org web site.

Here is the list of prize winners.  Grand / Major prize winners did not need to be in attendance at the time of drawing in order to win.

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The SARC Board of Directors announced the 2009 Dues schedule which includes the “Early Bird Special” effective immediately. All members may renew their registration, or New hams may register as a new member, by paying only $12 for their 2009 dues.  Deadline for this special time limited offer is the date of the Radio Fiesta, January 10, 2009.  Regular dues rate is $15/household per year.  (Flat rate for all hams in same household.)  A PDF copy of their membership application can be downloaded here.

The SARC Board of Directors also set an “advanced admision price” for the Radio Fiesta of $4/person.   No deadline was stated in the announcement, but obviously you need to pay up before the date of the event.  Check out their website at www.w5sc.org for details.

Alamo Area Radio Organization (AARO) will hold their next monthly meeting on Wednesday, November 12th, at a new location, Martha’s Mexican Restaurant, located at the corner of Huebner and Babcock Rd.  Meeting starts at 7pm, dining is optional, but at your own expense.  See their website at www.aa5ro.org for details.

San Antonio Radio Club (SARC)will hold their next meeting on Thursday, November 13th 2008 at K-COMM The HAM Store. Meetings start at 7:00pm.  This month’s meeting will have a special program featuring the recent DX trip to Belize by Tom O’Brien. Three radio operators from this area made the trip.  November is also the month to elect officers for the 2009 year.The address for K-COMM is 10815 Gulfdale and is located near the intersection of US HWY 281 and Isom Rd.  See their website at www.w5sc.org for details.

Radio Operators of South Texas (ROOST) hold their meetings on the 2nd Friday of the month, which would make that November 14th at 7:00pm.  They serve a meal, so the club suggests bringing a donation of $5 and a side dish to help out.  Visit their website at www.w5ros.org for more details..

Hill County REACT Team (REACT) has changed their monthly meeting date from the 3rd Monday to the 3rd Wednesday, same location, the Bulverde Volunteer Fire Dept on Cougar Bend Rd and FM1863.  This month, that would set their date as November 19th, starting at 7pm. They will be holding elections for various officer positions during this meeting.  All voting is done in person, not by mail-in ballot, must be present to vote. Visit website for details www.HillCountryREACT.org

For the November meeting times for other ham clubs in the area, visit the Area Clubs Web Page Here.

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.