San Antonio Hams

We are fortunate that the Ham Radio community has members willing to help with multiple other non-profit or public service type events through out the year. 

Here is a (not so) short list of the major 2013 events that hams from the San Antonio metro area can usually be found helping with. Contact links for future events are included, but contacts for past events aren’t included since it’s too late for this year.  If you know of an event that ought to be on this list, please contact the webmaster by email.

• January 12-13 – Bandera 100k Endurance Run – coordinated by REACT
• January 12 – San Antonio Radio Fiesta  Hamfest (Schertz)  – coordinated by SARC
• January 19-21 – Big Bend 50 Run (Big Bend National Park)
• March 2 – MS Walk  – coordinated by SARO – Contact N5MYN
• March 2-3 – Heart of the Hills 36 hour Ride (HCSNA – Bandera) coordinated by REACT – Contact K5STX
• April 19-20 – CASI Ladies State Championship Chili Cook-off (Seguin) coordinated by REACT – Contact K5STX
• April 20-21 – Houston’s BP150 BikeMS (Houston – Austin) (2 days) – Contact N5NTG
• April 25 – Fiesta Battle of the Bands –  coordinated by SARO – Contact N5MYN
• April 28 – Wildflower 100 Bicycle Ride (1 day, San Antonio) – coordinated by REACT- Contact N5NTG
• May 4 – Special Olympics Spring Games Region 21 coordinated by REACT  – Contact N5NTG
• May 4 – Run for the Hills 5k Run (Bulverde) – coordinated by REACT– Contact K5STX
• May 11 – ADA Tour de Cure Bicycle Ride (1 day, San Antonio) –  coordinated by REACT – Contact N5NTG
• May 26 – 3rd Annual American  Hero 25k Run / Relay / Concert  – coordinated by REACT – Contact N5NTG
• June 8 – Texas Water Safari (Canoe race from San Marcos – Gulf Coast) (5 days) – Top of route assignments coordinated by SARO– Contact WB5ZJQ
• July 4 – Canyon Lake Fourth of July Parade (Startzville) coordinated by REACT – Contact K5STX
• September 7 – Children’s Transplant Bicycle Ride (Helotes – Boerne) coordinated by REACT- Contact N5NTG
• October 12-13 – BikeMS – Valero Alamo Ride to the River Bicycle Ride (2 days) – coordinated by SARO- Contact N5NTG
• October 31 – Canyon Lake Halloween Event (Sattler) – coordinated by REACT – Contact N5NTG
• November 2-3 – Tour de Gruene (New Braunfels / Canyon Lake) – – coordinated by GVARC – Contact K5GST
• November 9 – Universal City Veterans Day Parade (date may change to Nov 2) coordinated by REACT – Contact N5NTG
• November 17 – San Antonio Rock & Roll Marathon (date change updated 01/26/2013) – coordinated by AARO – Contact N5NTG
• December 6-7 – National Skywarn Recognition Day (24 hrs, New Braunfels NWS Office)  – coordinated by NWS – Contact K5STX
• December 14 – Canyon Lake Christmas Parade (Sattler, TX) – coordinated by REACT- Contact K5STX

For more info about the above list of public service events, or to volunteer for an event, please click on the CONTACT link for the specific event, or contact info@sanantoniohams.org.

We’ll work on getting all of these events, plus any others as they get listed, into the calendar on this website.  In the meantime, if you want to voluteer, don’t be bashful! It’s lots of fun, and a different way to make new ham radio friends!  If you know of an event that wasn’t listed here, but should be, please contact us to get it added into the calendar.

October 13-14th – BikeMS – Valero Ride to the River bicycle event (2 days) – The event will start at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, and the route runs out thru LaVernia to Seguin & over to New Braunfels for a finish line at the Comal County Fairground. Sunday’s route starts at the fairground and runs back thru Seguin & LaVernia via a similar route to the AT&T Center finish line.

Hams are needed for a variety of assignments.

• SAG Driver / Navigator (background check & DMV check for driver is required)
• Break Point Hams (7-8 Break Points each day)
• Shadow Hams for race officials (Tour directors, medical, police car, etc.)
• Motorcycle Safety Marshal’s – Coordinated by John Perry & group
• Turtle Vehicle(s)

Fuel is provided for all drivers of an MS supplied vehicle, and certain other authorized positions requiring driving. Charlie Land KC5NKK is coordinating all ham radio related assignments. Contact Charlie by email at charlesdland@gmail.com or call him on his cell # 512-796-7565 to volunteer (email preferred).

Don’t be bored, volunteer for some upcoming public service events!

We’ve got a series of public service events happening in the next few months, surely one of them will tickle your fancy?  Hams are needed for all of these events.

• September 8 – Tour for Children bicycle ride
• October 13-14 – BikeMS Valero Ride to the River
• November 3-4 – Tour de Gruene race / ride
• November 3rd – Universal City Veterans Day Parade
• November 11th – San Antonio Rock & Roll Marathon Race
• December 8th – Canyon Lake Christmas Parade

Here are the details about each event….  Scroll down!

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Hams are still needed to fill a few key spots for this year’s BikeMS (MS150) event, being held on October 15th and 16th.  The event starts in San Antonio at the AT&T Center on Saturday, ending that evening in New Braunfels.  Sunday starts in New Braunfels, and ends back at the AT&T Center.

Spots still open are “Shadows” for event officials, police cars (ride in front seat, not back), and medical response vehicles. There may still be a few openings for SAG Drivers (Background check & DMV check required), SAG Navigators, or Rest Stop hams, etc.  Shadows simply ride along & provide communications for their designated official, sort of like a SAG’s navigator but you won’t be loading bikes in the back. 🙂   Shadow positions usually start earlier & end later than other positions, due to the need to link up & install radios before heading out on the route.

If interested, contact Charlie KC5NKK via email at charlesdland@gmail.com or Lee N5NTG at info@sanantoniohams.org.   Phone contact available at 512-796-7565 (Charlie)  or 210-771-7075 (Lee).

Hams have the opportunity all year round to use their communications skills & equipment to help out the community & have fun while doing it.  SARO is very active in these events, and helping out with others. There are three major bike tours originating near San Antonio, plus the big daddy of them all that runs from Houston to Austin on the third weekend of April. To keep up on what’s happening in the local  ham world, stay tuned to SanAntonioHams.org/blog.

If you know of any ham related events not included in the list below, please contact Lee N5NTG at info@sanantoniohams.org.  Better yet, why not register as a user on this site, then ask Lee N5NTG to bump your status up so you can directly post your own articles and photos?

Coming up Fall 2011, to a start line near us, will be the following events/ opportunities:

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Just received three dozen photos taken during the 2009 BikeMS Valero Alamo Ride to the River event on October 3rd, from Joe KA1MZY, the guy who helped provide us with some of the video footage that we incorporated into the long feature length video (33 minutes).   His YouTube.com ID is “Texas700” and I encourage you to check out his videos…

Here are his photos, mostly from BP#2, BP#4 and Lunch BP…

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I’ve finally completed the promised full length video that covers both days of the 2009 Valero Alamo Ride to the River, from start to finish.  

This video includes footage from 1 other ham, Joe KA1MZY, used to fill in some gaps where I was unable to be in two places at one time.  It contains “live, unedited” audio tracks from the ham radio featuring traffic between SAG vans and with Net Control.

I also knew that I had “skipped” taking photos at BP #1 and BP #3 for some reason.   So I found some photos from the LaVernia United Methodist Church’s website for BP #3 (they were the host location for the BP) and have included a few of them in the video.

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One View of the 2009 BikeMS: Ride to the River

By Milton Johnson – N5HMJ

The structure of the BikeMS Amateur Radio volunteers has changed over the last two years, without really changing.  What does that mean?  

In 2008, the final year of the Bike to the Beach, we had 81 Amateur Radio Volunteers not counting the Motor Marshalls who have their own organizational structure.  This year we had 64 volunteers.  Any school of management will tell you that a group that big is too large to effectively manage. 

Fortunately, the group has informally functioned around teams, and beginning last year we formalized the teams with team leaders which this year broke down as follows:

• Breakpoint Team: Bob Rodriguez-K5AUW;
• Net Control Team: Shane O’Neal-NS5D;
• Safety Team: Curtis Rabenaldt-N5QPN;
• Medical Team: Neil Martin-WA5FSR;
• Officials & Logistics Team: Alfred Horn-KG5QW;
• SAG Team: Gordon Dial-K5SUZ and Milton Johnson-N5HMJ. 

Coordinating and organizing these teams was the task of KG5QW, K5SUZ and N5HMJ. 

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I did a quick search on YouTube.com for MS150 and 2009 Valero Ride to the River, 2009 BikeMS, etc. and found lots of videos shot during our event by hams and participants. Below are a collection of some of the better ones I found.

Search for videos by Texas700, 33Chuey, and MrRamosDesigns. These three seemed to have lots of videos from our event. 🙂

Enjoy!

This video (4:52) was shot by Texas700 from BP #3 on Day 1

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More videos follow….

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Some of the crazier hams like to be Motorcycle Marshals on the BikeMS events, and Don W5DK, found a way to mount a camera on his helmet while he rode his Honda Goldwing during the event.  This 5 1/2 minute bit of footage was taken during the storm toward the end of the course on Saturday.   You can see the rain coming down hitting him and the camera, and see the lightening strikes zapping the camera.   The first minute or so has no sound, but the rest of it has the sound of the rain and motorcycle noise.

Thanks Don and the rest of the M&M’s for being out there with us making the event safer for all the participants!

Here is Don’s original version…

…and here is the version I “fixed up” for him afterward…