San Antonio Hams

Wade KE5ZUO on Talk-in, JC Smith N5RXS, wanting to resell empty tables

San Antonio Radio Club’s event chairman, JC Smith N5RXS, reported on the air, Saturday morning at 6:15am, prior to opening the doors, that all vendor tables had been sold out already!

Wow!  In fact, JC placed several calls were placed on the air searching for hams who had rented tables, but hadn’t yet shown up to claim them, so that he could resell those empty tables to folks who forgot to advance register!  Amazingly enough, it seems that some hams will pay to rent a vendor table, just to get in the door before the general admission, so they can scout out the better deals and buy before the crowd starts rolling in.  This practice is discouraged, but it happens, and then it leaves empty tables that could have been used by another ham.

One of the challenges we faced this year, was the SARO 146.94 repeater being used for talk-in, failed around 6:20am, just after we had started making announcements.    We were actually then hitting the Austin’s .94 repeater, so we changed to simplex and kept on going.    Bob K5AUW set up his mobile for crossband on simplex in the beginning, then we changed over to using my radios (as discussed later).  The .94 San Antonio repeater stayed down the rest of the day.

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The SARO President’s Corner

I would like time to thank all of the Directors, Committee Chairpersons, and numerous other members who have given of them selves so freely throughout the past year.  As your president I look forward to serving this organization again in 2010.

You’re new and returning Officers and Board members are Vice-President – Gary Tangrady, K5GST; Secretary – Dale Robinson, KB5YSJ; Treasurer – Mike Check, K5UCQ; Directors – Bob Rodriguez, KA5AUW; Pat Knight, AD5BR; and Lee Besing, N5NTG.

The 2010 Committee Chairpersons are: Membership – Pat Knight, AD5BR; Maintenance – Gordon Dial, K5SUZ; Engineering – Stan Stanukinos, KA5IID; Public Service – Royce Taylor, KA5OHJ; Public Relations and Newsletter – Gary Tangrady, K5GST; Web Master – Lee Besing, N5NTG; and Net Control Coordinator – Herm Hartel, N5CNH.

The first quarterly general membership meeting will be on Friday January 22 at 7:30 p.m. We will be at a new location the “El Jalisco Lindo Grill” near the intersection of Wurzbach Rd. and Watercress Dr. this is one block southwest of Bandera Rd. on Wurzbach Rd. The address is 5309 Wurzbach Rd. Suite 115.  Please note it is not necessary to purchase a meal to attend the meeting.  The restaurant is happy to host SARO and we will not have to contend with the mariachis.

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Reprinted from the CQ / WorldRadio Online Newsroom:

Some ham radio activity from Haiti is beginning to be heard, following yesterday’s devastating earthquake.

Father John Henault, HH6JH, in Port-au-Prince, made contact late Wednesday morning with the Intercontinental Assistance and Traffic Net (IATN) on 14.300 MHz, the IARU Global Centre of Activity frequency for emergency communications. Based on relays monitored at W2VU, Father John reported that he and those with him were safe, but had no power and no phone service. He was operating on battery power and hoping to get a generator running later in the day. He asked the station copying him, William Sturridge, KI4MMZ, in Flagler Beach, Florida, to telephone relatives with information that he was OK.

The following frequencies are in use for earthquake-related traffic and should be kept clear unless you are able to provide requested assistance:

• 14300 (IATN),
• 14265 (SATERN);
• 7045 (IARU Region II) and
• 3720 (IARU Region II) kHz.

Additional frequencies may be activated on different bands at different times of day, so be sure to listen carefully before transmitting to make sure you are not interfering with emergency traffic.

Just a reminder that the Bandera 100k Ultra Endurance Trail Run is coming up on the weekend of January 9th and 10th, 2010, out at the Hill Country State Natural Area.  Very poor cell phone coverage, but we’ve got a local 2 meter repeater that does fairly well, and we’ll be putting up a temporary Ham 440 repeater and UHF Commercial repeater.

We’ll be trying to communicate this  year between check points to net control using Packet as well as voice, trying to track runner numbers live as they pass thru a check point.   So far about 550 runners have signed up for this event, which includes a 25k, 50k and 100k (they do the 50k twice) trail run.  We aren’t talking running on paved streets, we’re talking cross country, over hill, over dale, round the tree, over the stump, thru the ravine; in other words, running thru stretches of trail  where even the horse patrol (yes, we’ll have them out there) and ATV Drivers can’t go.

Oh, and the weather?  What about it?  This event goes on no matter what the weather might be. It can be hot or cold, freezing, drizzling, raining, or sun shine, it won’t matter, the race goes on!  So come dressed / equipped to survive the weather, and just think of those poor chaps out there running after dark in their running shorts and LED headband lights.

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This is the model of the balloon we will be flying

On February 26th (2200Z) until February 28th (2200Z) The Bexar Operators Group, W5BOG, will be operating from the Choke Canyon State Park, located in Calliham just west of Three Rivers, Texas, in the sheltered (cabin) area.

We will be testing a balloon launched vertical antenna about 126 feet high. It will be stabilized by four guy-cords. A special based-loaded antenna balun (4:1) has been obtained for easier antenna matching. The ground radial system will have at least 4 full sized wires with possibly more.

We will also make a determination, based upon weather conditions and the number of people assisting, to use this vertical just for transmit and use a “beverage antenna” for receive and/or increase the vertical antenna height to 252 feet so we can better compete during this “top band” event.

Two, 9 foot meteorological balloons have been purchased for this experiment, just in case we screw up with the first “flight”.    Helium tanks will be purchased close to the flight-date.    Pictures of the step-by-step antenna setup and station operation will be taken for article submission in either “QST” or “CQ” magazine.  

Checking my mail box yesterday, I was quite surprised to find an envelope from the “Heartland DX Association”.

This club runs the Nebraska QSO Party, which is held in late April each year.

See: http://www.hdxa.net/  

I had competed in this contest in 2007 and was given a certificate for top score from Texas. In 2008, I again competed but never received a reply nor were any results posted. Since I never knew what really happened, I didn’t compete in the 2009 event.

You can imagine my shock when I just received a certificate for “Tops From Texas” for the 2008 contest!   In 2010 I will compete in other state QSO events and hopefully will get rewarded with more certificates, but in a more timely manner.     You should try a few of these contests as well as they are alot of fun!

Also see: http://sanantoniohams.org/blog/?p=821

  73 Bob W2IK

GENERAL CLASS LICENSE COURSE

A Saturday General Class License course, with examinations offered following the course, will be given by Atascosa County Amateur Radio Club, WA5AR, on Saturday’s Jan. 30th, Feb. 6th, Feb. 13th, and Feb. 20th from 10:00 A,M. until 3:00 P.M. with lunch from 12 noon until 1:00 P.M.

Classes will be conducted at the old Atascosa County Jail, 711 Broadway, Jourdanton, TX. (1/2 hour south of San Antonio on SH16 [Poteet Highway]). 

Study book cost of $20.95 and FCC examination is $14.00. Bring photo copies of your current license and photo ID. 

All classes of hams and non-hams are welcome to attend as a review at no charge. 

Contacts: Atascosa and surrounding counties: Hugo South,KK5BZ, (830)281-2408 or hugokk5bz@aol.com; Bexar County: Bob Rodriguez, K5AUW, (210)887-6618 or bobrod@flash.net.

San Antonio ham, W2IK, wins top honors, and this plaque, for his 2009 efforts.

Fellow Hams —

Happy Holidays!  I’m emailing you, as participants of last year’s NMQP, to announce the 2010 New Mexico QSO Party.  You are invited to participate in 2010’s event, which will be sponsored by the Valencia County Amateur Radio Association, and take place Sunday, February 7 from 8:00am MST until 8:00pm MST.

Last year marked the return of the New Mexico QSO Party after a brief hiatus.  Improved promotion, rules, and awards for the winners of various operating categories resulted in 127 participants…plus probably many more who didn’t submit their logs.  Specifically, 44 participated within New Mexico (including 7 mobile stations who activated a combined 24 of New Mexico’s 33 counties), and 73 participated from elsewhere in the United States.  Ten DX stations — from Canada, Lithuania, Azores, Czech Republic, Germany, and Romania — also participated and submitted logs.

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On Friday night, December 18th, Pat & I braved the traffic to join a couple dozen members of the Unusual Suspects Ham Club, an informal group of hams living in Central Texas, from as far north as Cedar Park north of Austin, down south to San Antonio.  Los Generales Mexican Restaurant on Nacogdoches Road, just inside Loop 1604 was the chosen place.  But when Greg N5XO scoped out the location in advance, they forget to tell him about the live entertainment with this really, really loud female singer who never took a break in the 2 1/2 hours were were there.

The dinner was scheduled for 6:30pm, fortunately some folks got there early enough to get the establishment to start clearing out an area big enough to hold all of us.  It was nearly 7pm by the time we were seated, and the food finally got delivered to our tables about 40 minutes later.

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