San Antonio Hams

An amateur radio operator from Australia, VK4ION, recently posted on her website a story about reading W2IK’s Emergency NVIS antenna construction plans and with some adaptation building her own portable ENVIS antenna system for emergency communications. Her website, VK4ION Emergency N.V.I.S. antenna, shows in detail, with many pictures, her construction of this antenna along with NVIS theories on how low antennas are perfect for local (under 400 mile) emergency communications. A photo of her ENVIS antenna is shown below.

Her report included comments such as when it was used during their “field day” operation it was the “hit of the show”. On her website is also a link to W2IK’s 4 part website on building the original antenna including the adapter for 80 meter and MARS operation. This antenna is the only NVIS antenna posted in the NAVMC MARS websites.

Bob W2IK

Sorry for the delays, folks.  Been a busy little bee lately and haven’t had time to post any stories or photos from last month’s Field Day events around the area…   I’ve gotten photos sent to me from the AARO FD event from at least 2 hams, and have access to photos from KARS, GVARC and possibly one or two others.    I keep extending invitations to folks to register and post their own stories / photos direct on this blog, but so far only a handful have accepted that offer.  I can only spend a finite amount of my time collecting and posting, in between family duties and earning a living.

I’ll try to get these up later this week.

73 de Lee N5NTG

Medina County Rest Area, Hwy 90 west of DeHanis

April 10, 2010 – Noon until all the antennas and equipment are stowed.

Come to the Medina County Rest Stop; U.S. Hwy 90, approximately 40 miles west of the Loop 410 and Hwy 90 intersection; approximately 7 miles west of D’Hanis.

Here is their PDF flier for the event.  2010 Spring Field-Nic

Contact Walter  Hock KK5LO for details kk5lo@swbell.net

The Bexar Operators Group (W5BOG) has unveiled it’s location for the 2010 ARRL Field Day event held on the last full weekend in June.

We will be operating from Choke Canyon State Park in the “Calliham Unit” based in a shelter (cabin). In keeping with the original philosophy of what Field Day should be, we will be testing several new antenna designs and operating our rigs using deep cycle batteries charged by several banks of solar panels. If there is enough wind, we will erect our wind turbine to generate power.

Our operating class will be either 1B Batt. or 1A Batt. Nothing will be pre-planned as this is a test of our emergency communications deployment capabilities. The last time we were at this location for a “Field Day” event was in 2007 when we made several hundred contacts using just a basic “Inverted V” antenna. (2009 – Lost Maples State Park, 2008 – Mustang Island) 

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Howdy Roosters,  I submitted our Field Day report online to the ARRL yesterday evening.  I will mail in our logs for our backup documentation.

Operating score:    1,605
Bonus points:         670
Total:              2,275

I bet we gave the Super Field Day folks a run for the money!  That’s a helluva score, guys.  You’ll notice under Club Name it says “None”: only clubs operating A, B, or F can operate under the club name – we were operating E.  I don’t really understand the distinction.

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Most of you missed tonight’s ARES meeting that was held in a conference room inside the secure City’s EOC building over in Brooks City Base on the SE side of San Antonio. 

About 2 dozen hams attended to do a debriefing regarding Field Day 2009 (i.e. discuss what went right, what went wrong, and how to make next year’s event even better.)   A common request was to “fix the outdoor A/C or move the event to October.”  In other words, it was hot out there that weekend.   We also discussed possible on-the-air training net topics to be covered over the upcoming 60 days during the Tuesday night training nets.

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GVARC reports that they did about double the number of QSO’s during this year’s FD as compared with last year, but then again, last year was a last minute shuffle from their “usual” place at the Comal County Fairgrounds over to Mike’s house on River Road with less than 2 hours to get set up for FD, and perhaps some members didn’t know how to find the new place (which was really comfy by the way).  Here’s GVARC’s Field Day results: 350 QSOs for 593 points ( last year was 184 QSOs for 234 points ). Plus the mutiplier of course. 

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Don’t know much about what happened out in Kendall County (Boerne) at this year’s Field Day event, but judging from the photos that Jim Mastrogiovani KK5RZ posted, it looks like they had fun doing it…  (That’s Jim with the cigar in the photo to the right.)

This location typically has lots of shade, with a huge metal roof overhead, but not sure how cool it was underneath.

Anyway, here are some of the photos from the KB5TX Kendall Amateur Radio Society Field Day event. 

Enjoy….

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Besides the deer, “Murphy” came out in force when the Bexar Operators Group, W5BOG, assembled for their Field Day 2009 operation at Lost Maples State Park.

Despite “Murphys” best efforts, the Group would not bend whether it be from the 108 degree heat, no wind to drive the wind turbine, lack of park water and sewage due to a clogged septic system, the searing sun which blasted our digital camera after only a few shots nor the nearest ice machine being 5 miles outside the park entrance.

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