If you find web links from SanAntonioHams.org leading to bogus pharmacy drug sites popping up in a Google search, don’t trust them. They are not legit. Someone from another country has managed to hack into the ColdFusion code on the server where the main site is hosted, foisting some bogus web links upon us. I’m working with the hosting service to get those removed.

The news blog area was NOT affected, only the front hard coded portion of the site. These guys were very devious, and it screwed up some of the valid pages also.

– Lee N5NTG Webmaster.

SanAntonioHams.org is celebrating it’s 10th year of existence this year in 2013. But there are still some hams out there who don’t know they can sign up (for free) and post their own stories, or that of their clubs, totally free on SanAntonioHams.org.

You would  think that by now every Ham Club in Central South Texas would be aware that this website is allowing other hams from any ham club to post their own articles, photos and calendar events, but apparently that’s not so.

Now while this site is aimed at Ham Radio events and activities located in Central / South Texas, if you have an event that is happening elsewhere, but you feel it would be of general interest to hams residing in this geographical area, feel free to register as a user and contact the webmaster (Lee N5NTG) to bump your editing privileges up high enough for posting to this site. Read the rest of this entry »

I need some help getting my quad on the tower. It’s built, but I can’t be on the ground and on it at the same time. Getting a bit old to climb, so I really need someone who can stand on top of the crankup at the 20 foot level and do some bolting of the spiders to the boom and then orient the boom to the rotor control box. Would only be working at 20 feet or so and I have a new belt. Know anyone who could help?

I’m in the Pipe Creek area and would gladly pay for gas for some help.  Probably only take a couple of hours or so.

Mike Goins, K5WMG
wmgoins@gmail.com

Every week, we delete close to 50+ new spam user registrations on this blog, mostly from @126.com or @163.com domains.  When we had the free classified ads feature activated on this site, these idiots would flood us with bogus ads from India, make money from home scams, and other bogus stuff.  Now they just register and find out there isn’t a place for their stupid ads.

If you register as a user on this site, please give us your name & call sign (if applicable) when you sign up.  Otherwise, if you have some weird looking email address that doesn’t make obvious sense to us, we’ll delete you along with the bogus registrations each week. We do encourage new users who are either ham radio operators or interested in ham radio topics.

However, if you contact us at info@sanantoniohams.org and ask to be bumped up in “status” so you can post your own articles (ham related please), we’ll know you are a real person because we’ll confirm that before raising your status on this blog.

We encourage new authors to register & write / post their own news articles, but newbies will continue to have their postings moderated until I get to know the author and build up a trust factor between us.

Lee N5NTG
210-771-7075 (voice/text okay)

We emailed out nearly 400 copies of the April 2012 San Antonio Newsletter tonight, and then had quite a few bounces from folks who didn’t update us with their new email addresses.  Oops!  Of course, it has been more than 6 months since our last edition, and things change.

So if you didn’t get a copy already, please send email to subscribe@sanantoniohams.org to be added to the list.  We’ll send you a separate copy just to catch you up to date, and put you on the list for the next edition.   Double check your spam folder, and whitelist info@sanantoniohams.org to ensure delivery.

VIEW THE APRIL 2012 NEWSLETTER HERE

We really will try to start putting out a newsletter once a month, with the headlines & happenings around Central Texas.  If you know of an event, or have a story about something going on that is ham radio related, please contact us at info@sanantoniohams.org, or better yet, register as a user on this website, and we’ll bump up your editor priv’s to allow you to post your own articles!

Lee Besing N5NTG
Webmaster
SanAntonioHams.org
210-771-7075 cell (voice / text)

For the past couple of years, I’ve had a free classified ads section on this website.  Every day I get multiple submissions for ads to be posted, but all ads require moderation.   The main reason I set it up for moderation?  999 out of every 1,000 ads submitted are SPAM.   The ads are from India, from folks trying to earn $77/hour from home by posting ads, Scam Ads, and in general, ads that have nothing to do with ham radio or the person posting being a ham radio operator.

We’ve had no new legitimate ads posted within the past 90 days, just SPAM ads.  Got 4 more of the bogus ads over night last night.  

Read the rest of this entry »

KE6LGE Al Fields Driving Taxi #32 in San Antonio

Al Fields, KE6LGE, member of the Hill Country REACT Team, has taken his people & radio skills to a new height!

Those of us who worked the Tour de Cure these past couple of years, have grown familiar to hearing his melodious voice on the air as net control on the ham radio.     Now, you hardly see him at ham radio  events or meetings, because he’s busy taking folks from point A to point B and then to point C, or back again.  

He’s become an ambassador to San Antonio, picking up rides from the SA Airport, or bringing them in from outlying towns and cities.  Al now drives for Yellow Cab, in a brand new Toyota Sienna mini-van, yellow of course.

Al, who is a former law enforcement officer from both here in San Antonio and Southern California, runs what is called a “micro-node” transmitter from his Taxi, connected to IRLP.  He uses his Motorola 1250 HT to access the micro-node or local repeaters when not driving passengers around.  Al is running on the simplex UHF frequency, 445.500, with no pl tone, but you need to be within 50′ of his taxi (moving target) or connect to another IRLP node to reach him.

Al still operates a fixed base IRLP node at his house, over near Marshall High School on Eckert Road, using the same simplex frequency 445.500, but with a PL tone of 100 required for access. 

Read the rest of this entry »

On Wednesday, April 14, 2010, AARO’s own Luke Ham (KF5CSK) achieved the Boy Scouts of America highest rank, Eagle Scout. 

Shown with Luke are his proud parents, David (KF5BGT and also an Eagle Scout) and Lisa Ham.   Click on photo for larger view.

During tonight’s Bexar County ARES  Training Net,  Lothar briefly mentioned the garage door problems those of us living near the intersection of 151 and Potranco Road (San Antonio, TX) are having.    As Lothar correctly stated, the issue is a conflict between a new radio communications tower put up at the NSA facility being built on Military Drive and garage door openers in the vicinity.

The NSA tower works on the LMR 390 Mhz frequency, which is shared with older garage door openers, including, as it turns out, my own. As NSA has stated in public, they believe they have the legal basis for operating on this frequency, and do not intend to stop operating on this frequency.   So, for those of us with garage door openers operating at that frequency, it means that your remote may not open your garage door until you are very close to it. In my case, I actually had to park in my driveway, get out of my car, and activate the remote standing two feet from the garage door. A bit of an inconvenience.

The Genie GIRUD-1T Universal Dual Frequency Conversion Kit alleviates frequency issues from the recently implemented Land Mobile Radio (LMR) communications system. The LMR system is used by military bases across the U.S. and was implemented as part of the nation’s Homeland Security efforts.

Most newer garage door openers operate on the 315 Mhz frequency to avoid this conflict. So if you are having these issues and would like some resolution, you can do one of two things: 1.) Purchase a new garage door opener that operates at that frequency, or 2.) Install a converter which will allow your existing garage door opener to operate on the new frequency.

Read the rest of this entry »

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