San Antonio Hams

History is in the making for San Antonio Hams in 2009.    All of the major  Ham Clubs in San Antonio appear to be reaching agreement in coordinating a single Field Day location rather than holding a half dozen separate locations as had been done in the past.

AARO led the way, after losing their normal comfy spot over by the VA Hospital. They started the search for a new location, and thanks to our Ham Radio ties with the City of San Antonio, specifically our ties with the Fire Department, they found a new location to hold Field Day.   The City Fire Department offered them the use of their Firefighters Training Academy, located west of the downtown area near Hwy 151 and Callaghan Road, as the site of their 2009 Field Day event.

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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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(Hicksville, NY and Sacramento, CA, November 12, 2008) —

CQ Communications, Inc. has acquired WorldRadio magazine, CQ Publisher Dick Ross, K2MGA and WorldRadio Publisher Armond Noble, N6WR, announced jointly today.

CQ, based in Hicksville, New York, currently publishes CQ Amateur Radio, CQ VHF and Popular Communications magazines.   WorldRadio, based in Sacramento, California, has been published monthly since July, 1971, with a primary focus on the human side of ham radio.  CQ, a general-interest ham radio magazine best known for its support of DXing and contesting, has been in print since January, 1945.

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Basic talks are underway to help our “Wounded Warriors” find a new path within the military, unencumbered by their physical restraints. Bob Hejl, W2IK – NNN0KSI (MARS Ecom), who works at CFI (Center For The Intrepid) at BAMC/ Ft. Sam, has begun discussions with officials at BAMC and CFI for ways in which our soldiers can redirect their abilities by using amateur radio as a stepping stone with their next goal being communications careers within the armed forces or in the private sector after their military careers are completed.

Planned are a special events/demo station so soldiers can see the possibilities of communications and the vital roles they can assume during an emergency or in everyday military communications work. Tri- Service MARS operations will also be integrated so they can get an actual “taste” of  military communications in a relaxed atmosphere.

An amateur radio course will be offered with actual “hands on” operation using W2IK’s portable MARS Ecom station. After the classes have been completed, there will be on base testing so many can obtain their amateur radio licenses.

If any local ham or group is interested in this project, please write W2IK at alonestaryank@aol.com.

I recently received an unsolicited official looking manila envelope in the mail (not e-mail) from the Amateur Radio Service, telling me “Amateur Radio License Expiration Alert – It’s time to Renew!, Renewal Notice Enclosed”   It has a warning block saying “failure to renew will void your operating authority and could result in the necessity for you to be re-examined and the loss of your station call sign”

Today is December 1, 2008, and my license (N5NTG) doesn’t expire until March 24, 2009.  I’m not within the 90 day time window prior to my expiration date, so I can’t renew this early.

This friendly reminder service was a courtesy service of The W5YI VEC, Inc., one of two major VEC (ham testing) services in the USA.  This is a legit company, don’t get me wrong.    The other major VEC group is of course, the ARRL.   There is no clear intent to deceive in this letter, it simply doesn’t mention that you can do it direct for free.

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As of November 1st, AOL is closing down all of their web page services so as a result, W2IK’s 45 ham-related web pages will no longer be available through AOL. To keep most of these pages intact, they are being moved to a new address: W2IK.com    Please visit them often as they are sorted, upgraded and posted. Currently posted are the older antenna building pages, Ecom and family preparedness pages. Totally new pages will be added as time allows.

The first “MacGyver” antenna building session held during the 2008 JOTA operation at Canyon Lake, Texas was so successful that in the afternoon several scout moms cornered me and almost begged that I run it again so the afternoon group could join in on the fun.What was the “MacGyver” antenna project?

The scouts began at a long table where I dumped the contents of a large popcorn tin, which was filled with wire, plastic pieces, odd metal parts, tools, two 12 foot measuring tapes, a spark plug wire and other useful and useless items along with a scrap of paper which had a hand-drawn diagram of a dipole antenna with just a series of total length per bands scrawled on the top.

It was up to the scouts to find the proper pieces and share in the building of a simple dipole under the supervision and extensive verbal support, cheering and crying of the “MacGyver Special Assistance Team”.
The scouts measured and cut wire, stripped ends, put on PVC end insulators, a center connector was added, and put rope on each end. Imagine their surprise when we ran the dipole up the “flag-pole” masting and promptly made a contact to a ham in Oklahoma!

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