San Antonio Hams

I had somebody send me this link to an article written by Carly Hallman about the history of car radios and I thought it might be interesting to our readers. – Lee N5NTG

https://www.titlemax.com/articles/the-history-of-the-car-radio/

Good evening.

I am a retired Marine writing a book about an October 1979 typhoon, fuel spill and fire at a U. S. Marine Corps training camp on the lower slopes of Mount Fuji, Japan. The incident left 73 injured — most of them Marines, many horribly burned. Thirteen died. 38 of the injured were evacuated from Japan to Brooke Army Medical Center.

Among the many people in San Antonio who rallied to help those Marines and their families were volunteer MARS operators who set up a station on the hospital’s seventh floor. They spent hours arranging phone patches for the Marines’ families — allowing them to avoid long-distance telephone charges while keeping relatives updated on their loved one’s health, and taking care of business in their hometowns.

The help made it easier for family members to remain by their Marine’s bedside — which doctors said increased patients’ likelihood of survival.

Would your club (sent ot SARC originally) by chance have any sort of historical records documenting this kind service? Might any of the volunteer operators who helped be available to share recollections?

I will be doing research in San Antonio from Saturday, May 21 until Saturday, May 28. Should it be possible to learn more about this aspect of the story of the Camp Fuji Marines, I would be most grateful for any available information.

More about me — and examples of my work — can be found at ChasHenry.com.

Thank you for your consideration.

Gratefully, and Semper Fidelis,
Chas Henry

Mobile: +1 703.303.3083

My husband has a ham radio license but is not active due to health issues. He has a lot of QST magazines that I thought maybe a group or newly licensed person might enjoy. I hate to just throw them out. If any interest please let me know.

Deanna Jennings, djennings6146@gmail.com

DUKE CITY HAMFEST ALBUQUERQUE

The weekend of September 21, I attended the Duke City Hamfest, along with about 400 other amateurs. While well organized, this size of an event, isn’t large enough to attract first-line vendors often seen at Dayton and Visalia. Nonetheless, the organizers did a great job with the various classes, including two excellent talks by Rob Sherwood, NCØB. With these thoughts in mind, here are my observations and comments.

That whole world of vendors has dramatically changed. In days past, the vendors could come and with the help of the manufactures cover their expenses, maybe make a little money, and would continue to support their mutual customers. This was a win-win situation. With the advent of the $100 + per night per person room costs and high transportation costs, it has become too expensive for the manufacturers, much less vendors, to attend a hamfest. This is not an ideal scenario.

Another big change is the resale market. Once upon a time, amateur radio gear tended to hold its value over time, as long as it was smoke-free, and well maintained. Good, bad or indifferent, Icom changed that with the introduction of the IC-7300! At a street price of $1,495, it literally blew away the used market place. However, there is a hidden issue, applicable to any, used, solid-state transceiver—replacement parts!

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Route 66 On The Air Returns

The 20th Annual Amateur Radio special operating event, known as “Route 66 On The Air” returns on September 7-15, 2019.

Organized by the Citrus Belt Amateur Radio Club of San
Bernardino, California in 1999 to celebrate the anniversary of Bobby Troup’s 1946 hit song “Get Your Kicks On Route 66”, the event now involves over 20 cities on the “Mother Road” being activated by
multiple Amateur Radio clubs and individuals.

Oklahoma and Texas will again activate portions of the Mother Road. Oklahoma expects to have special event stations in Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Elk City. Texas expects to have a station in
Amarillo.

The list of all the planned special event stations along the Mother Road can be found at:

http://w6jbt.org/?page_id=117

and the operating frequency guidelines can be found at

http://w6jbt.org/?page_id=25

John Robert Stratton N5AUS
West Gulf Division Director

2ND Annual HAMSTER Lunch and Learn Event

JULY 1ST 2017

Welcome to the HAMster Weak Signal Group Lunch and Learn. The purpose of this event is to bring a large group of HAMs together for some education and fun. We want to introduce you not only to the HAMster Group, but also to VHF/UHF Dxing. If you have never experienced the trhill of working stations on 2 metersa nd up 500, 1000 or even 1,500 miles, with daily contacts in the 100 to 150 mile range, then come join us.

Join us for Hot Dogs, Chips, Soda and VE Session with VHF/UHF training classes. Special Weak Signal Training by FLEX Radio, and the HAMster Group.

Flex Radio will be on hand to demonstrate the new products and advantages for VHF/UHF Weak Signal/EME/Meteor Scatter.

License Testing available for new hams or upgrades to your license will be held at 2pm. $15 per test taker. Please contact Pat AD5BR at HAMTEST@GMAIL.COM for details and to RSVP for the test session (not same address as used to register for the Lunch and Learn).

Raffle and Swap Meet
RAFFLE TICKETS $5 EACH OR 5 FOR $20

1ST PLACE: YAESU FUSION RADIO
2ND PLACE: K5VH 2 METER SSB OMNI ANTENNA
3RD PLACE PRIZES AND DOOR PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED AS WELL

TRAINING AND LUNCH IS FREE

Saturday July 1st 2017
8:am Kick-Off to 3:Pm

Event to be held at the American Red Cross, 3642 E. Houston St, San Antonio, Tx. (Please use the Houston St side entrance to enter the building.)

RSVP to: N5xo@144200.net
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Fellow hams:

My name is John Ralston, K0RVB, Net manager for the San Antonio Area Rainfall Net. At the risk of sounding dramatic, I send you the following official communication.

It is with a heavy heart that I inform you that Sunday, July 13^th, 2014, will be the last day for the rainfall net.  This decision did not come easily, was not made quickly and involved a great deal of communication with the National Weather Service and board members of the net’s sponsor, the San Antonio Radio Club.

The decision to end the net was based solely on our data presentation to the NWS and how they receive their main data stream for daily rainfall amounts. Their main source of receiving daily, timely rainfall data is from CoCoRaHs, a web based reporting model, giving the NWS real time data on a 24 hr model from 8a to 8a.

I encourage each of you to sign up with CoCoRaHs, at http://www.cocorahs.org/ if you have not already done so. Our rainfall reports can still be utilized by the NWS by reporting through the website.

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A few weeks ago, we were quietly told that Craig Kennedy, owner of  KComm The Ham Store, would likely be closing his doors at the end of March. 

 March 31st was to be the last parking lot tail-gate sale.   We were asked to keep the news quiet until all the final arrangemens had been made with the employees, etc., before publicizing the news. 

During the past couple of weeks, the word was spread by rumor, by email, by phone calls, during Ham Breakfasts, etc. that the store was closing. 

The San Antonio Radio Club, W5SC, has been holding their monthly meetings in the store, and had their club station setup for visiting hams to use while at KComm.  That era has also come to an end, with the club needing to move their equipment & trailer (in back parking lot) to another location, and to find a new meeting location.   I was told today, that April’s SARC meeting will still be at KComm, but starting in the month of May, the meetings are moving to Jim’s Restaurant on San Pedro & Ramsey.

Store on Gulfdale

Yesterday, we stopped by the store around 9am to find that it was the most crowded that we’ve ever seen it, including during a SARC Club meeting night.  

Craig was playing “lets make a deal” with old equipment, furnishings, anything that wasn’t nailed down to the floor or wall it seemed. 

It was our opinion that he likely did more sales that day in a few hours, than he had likely done all month.  Several folks commented that if Kcomm had seen this much business every weekend, we wouldn’t be there for the closing today.

When I got my ham license back in the late 80’s, Kcomm The Ham Store was located over on the NW side of town, on Mobud Street, just off Loop 410, between Evers & Bandera, in a small industrial complex. 

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This old style black & white movie about “Radio Hams” was done in the style of a news broadcast from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, a Pete Smith Specialty production.  Language is in English, even though the original poster wrote the submission in another language.  Movie is about 9:58 minutes long.  Has an interesting ending…

A blast from the 70’s, when “Radio” in “Radio Shack” still meant something…

Compared with today….

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