San Antonio Hams

BEXAR OPERATORS GROUP
TESTS NVIS ANTENNA THEORIES
DURING THE TEXAS QSO PARTY

A group of hams representing the Bexar Operators Group, and using the W5BOG callsign, drove over 100 miles to Garner State Park to operate during the 2008 Texas QSO Party (September 27-28) handing out contacts from Ulavde County.

While we were there, we also tested our camping/deployment abilities and did some tests of NVIS antennas at different heights.

Not wishing to get “soft”, we reserved a tent site to operate from rather than a cabin. Krissy, KD5YTN, set up the eight man tent while Bob, W2IK, began the station set-up using a 10×10 screened “EZ Up” as the main operating area.

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A Short Note On Hurricane IKE

de Bob Hejl W2IK – NNN0KSI – NNN0GBY2 Ecom STX

One of the advantages of preparing for a hurricane is that it may take a few days before it “concerns” your area. As the projected path of hurricane IKE became more focused on the Texas Gulf coast area, it became evident that I might be called upon to deploy as a MARS Ecom station to report conditions at whatever location I might find myself. I was, of course, going to use my station with one of my NVIS antennas due to it’s ability of having lower noise floor reception and wouldn’t be prone to too much of an increase in “static crashes” caused by distant lightening.

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