San Antonio Hams

The picture to the right was taken in March of this year when former President George W. Bush met up with Bob Hejl, W2IK, while the former President was touring the “Center For The Intrepid” where W2IK works.

The Center For The Intrepid is part of the BAMC military hospital complex in San Antonio where “Wounded Warriors” have physical therapy and are outfitted with the latest in prosthetic limbs.  

W2IK explained to Bush that the last time he had seen him was when he was doing emergency communications work at “Ground Zero” during the World Trade Center Disaster in 2001. After hearing that, Bush slapped him on the back and said : “God Bless you for being there. It’s an honor to shake your hand.”

After some small talk, such as W2IK explaining how he moved down to Texas in 2002, married a “good Texas woman” (Krissy, KD5YTN)  and how he knew it was a Texas residency requirement to root for a Texas football team, the former President finished his building tour.

Before I moved from Long Island to Texas, I had the privilege of doing something very rare. While a member of the Suffolk County Radio Club, I had the honor of actually operating from an antique, time worn, 10 foot by 10 foot wooden “shack”.

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This is NOT a simple, typical “field day”operation. This IS a serious over-night “real day – real deal” learning session.

A much shortened version of my full 3 day Jump Team Boot Camp will be offered ONLY IF there are enough interested hams in this area.

Note: My full 3-day boot-camp is still being held in late October but it’s been requested that I also hold a simpler one. We will go through the same basic steps needed to set up and run a complete emergency communications complex at a location where nothing would be standing.

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One of the reasons some hams don’t wish to participate in amateur radio contests is that they believe they can never win a top spot using simple equipment against thousands of stations.

There are several ways to answer this.

One, you aren’t competing against the big stations in most contests as they usually break down the entries in to level playing fields such as entries for high and low power levels, etc.

Second, you should be thinking of your own contest operation as a challenge to yourself and not to others, to see how well you can do based upon the set up you have and your choice of bands based on propagation.

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W2IK of San Antonio successfully scored as the top non-New Mexico station during the New Mexico QSO Party held this past February, thereby winning a plaque for his efforts. Using experience and knowledge in propagation aspects vs frequency and distance, he outscored by over 20% his closest rival, a ham contester in California.

Operating low power (100 watts), he also beat out all of the high power and mult-op stations from outside of New Mexico.

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    Bob Hejl – W2IK   World Trade Center Disaster First Responder

PTSD can happen at any time after an event. As in my case, even years after. There is usually a “trigger” (a word, smell, image, another experience, etc) which can set it off, and in my case it was just a thought that popped into my head. 

Allow me to explain.

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 Lost Maples SNA , in Bandera County north of Vanderpool, has been chosen as the location of the “Bexar Operators Group” (W5BOG) 2009 Field Day operation.  We will be concentrating on “primitive  camping techniques” along with our amateur radio operations.

Our rigs and LED lighting systems will be powered by several solar energy panels and a wind powered turbine which will charge banks of deep-cycle marine batteries, making this a 100% “Green Operation”.

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 A great ham radio event has been revived that will provide a weekend of fun and excitement to every ham that participates.  The New Mexico QSO Party, an operating event designed for new and experienced hams alike, will take place on the first weekend of February (Feb 7-8, 2009).

The purpose of this HF and 6-meter event (both of which every ham has privileges to operate on) is to get on the airwaves and have a great time with hams from across New Mexico and the nation.  Simply put, NM hams contact as many hams (inside and outside NM) as possible.  Non-NM hams contact as many NM hams (only) as possible.  Essentially, New Mexico hams will find themselves on the “other” side of the pileup, with stations across the country and perhaps world wanting to make contact with the Land of Enchantment for the duration of the event.  And what good operating event can’t be without awards?

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Due to availability problems at Garner State Park, Bexar Operators Group – “Operation Deep Freeze” have changed it’s location. We will now be operating from Choke Canyon State Park, near the town of Three Rivers. Our operation will be from the Calliham Unit and we have reserved a screened shelter. All operators are welcome. Bring a sleeping bag and personal grub if you wish to join in on this mid-winter field operation.

Click here for a PDF map of park.

The Bexar Operators Group will be operating W5BOG during the “North American QSO Party” on January 17-18th 2009. This is a SSB only contest.

See original posting below for details and contact info.

2009 “Straight Key Night” begins at 7:00 p.m. EST December 31, 2008 and runs for 24 hours through 7:00 p.m. EST January 1, 2009 (0000 – 2400 UTC January 1, 2009).

SKN is more of an operating event and not a contest and you don’t need to operate during the entire event. To participate, simply send “CQ SKN” or listen for CQs that have SKN in them. The object of this friendly event is to enjoy some good old-fashioned QSO fun, using straight keys and not keyers or computers. The emphasis is on rag-chewing rather than fast contest-style exchanges.

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