San Antonio Hams

I may have mentioned to some of you that I had switched 100% over to using Anderson Power Pole connectors a few years back. But unless you wanted to shell out some big $$ to buy those power blocks from West Mountain Radio to the tune of $55-$100+ each, you had to build your own power block splitters.

Local Ham Operator, Grumpy, WF5Y, has a home-brew flat panel with 8 Anderson Power Pole connectors, each with their own fuse, similar to the WMR version, and he was asking $50 each at the Austin Summerfest. 

But after visiting with the DC Power folks from Beaverton, Oregon, www.dcpwr.com, during the Plano Hamcom last June, I went to Wes Allen K7WWG’s web site to see what he had available.  I found an affordable solution in the form of a Red-Dee-2 8 port connector block (Model PS-8) that would allow me to feed power to 7 other devices.  The price?  $28 plus shipping.  

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I live in a “ham friendly” HOA on the NW side of San Antonio, TX, and our neighbors are very active in the community fighting graffiti and other common problems.  We’ve got our own 24/7 private security guards that cruise the neighborhoods (all 7 subdivisions, about 5,000 properties) all hours of the day and night, plus keeping an eye on our 2 swimming pools and other facilities. The Great Northwest Community Improvement Association has nearly 21,000 residents in 7 subdivisions, 4,959 properties, non-gated, inside the city limits of San Antonio.

Yesterday, Saturday, 7/25, they held a “paint drive” to collect latex paint for the city.  The city then mixes and redistributes the paint free to folks fighting graffiti in their neighborhoods.

Here is a short video about their efforts…

Our regular readers will remember a posting we made earlier (June 12, 2009) about an Emergency Go-Kit Idea that involved some minor surgery to a Stanley Toolbox with wheels, by adding a couple of sealed lead acid batteries in the bottom compartment, a 12 volt 30 amp Pyramid power supply, a 300 watt DC to AC power converter, a home-brew battery charging circuit, etc.

I’ve made some more progress on this project, adding an external on/off  switch to control the exhaust / cooling fan on the side of the toolbox, and adding an external AC power plug on the other side to make it more convenient to plug in up to two AC devices to the emergency go-kit toolbox.   Of course, I suppose you could use a power strip to plug in more, but the circuit is limited to 15 amps and the converter will only handle 300 watts.  I’ve labeled the exterior plug warning of the limitations, and also have a surge reset button mounted nearby.

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Last Friday afternoon, I managed to take some time to get over to my favorite Sign Company, Art-Trig Corporation, in Leon Valley.  They’re located just off off Bandera Road 1 block south of Huebner Road on Sawyer Road.   I stopped by the carwash first to get the van cleaned up for putting my new signs on the windows, but shortly after I arrived at Art-Trig, it started raining!  🙁

Yay! for the rain, but Boo! for the timing.  I mean, just washed the van, needed to get the lettering installed, it hasn’t rained for days, but now it decides to rain?  Oh well, we needed the rain really bad.   Fortunately, the rain stopped for about 2o minutes and let them dry off the windows long enough to apply the lettering to the  back window and two rear side windows.   10 minutes later, here comes the rain again, heavier than ever!

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I wish to thank all of those readers who have expressed their concerns over the loss of my van last Sunday to the engine fire. 

The old van now has a new home in a junkyard somewhere in Texas, and I now have a new(er) van sitting in my driveway with seriously less mileage and years than the old van had on it.  

The new van is a late model Chrysler Town & Country mini-van with a factory installed alarm, dark limo tinted windows, sliding doors on both sides, and more option packages than I’m normally used to having.  At first, I was concerned about the black exterior causing the van to be too hot, but actually, it hasn’t been any hotter than my old van got on a summer day. Guess that’s why I always put that window shade in the front  windshield when not driving.  Those shades really work!

I sent out tweets and emails to various groups and individuals asking for input / suggestions on the best way to install the antenna in this type of vehicle. 

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I know the weather down here in San Antonio TX was a bit “warm” today, but my van thought it was really, really hot outside! 

So hot, that it caught on fire!  Literally!  

Something apparently exploded under the hood on the passenger side and it would appear that perhaps gas sprayed out onto the street at the corner of Nacogdoches Rd & O’Conner Road (NE Side of San Antonio) and caught fire while I was stopped at the light.   It was a smaller “pop” noise, sort of s like a gas powered lawnmower back-firing might sound, not a big bomb noise like in the movies.

The small explosion happened just as I was stepping the gas pedal as the light turned green.   I was the first car in line in the right lane with lots of traffic stacked behind me and beside me.  

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