San Antonio Hams

AARO has mailed out the ballots for their Board of Directors election.  Four vacancies are up for election this year, 3 normal vacancies for 2 year terms, and 1 unexpected vacancy caused by a resignation, for a 1 year term.

But to make it more fun, originally there were five AARO members on the ballot, but one nominee apparently withdrew prior to the printing of the materials and mailing of the ballots. So they have 4 members running for 4 slots, and AARO members get to decide who gets the 1 year slot, and other nominees get the 2 year slot.

Deadline to return ballots is November 12th, via mail or by bringing to their meeting that night.

Nominees are (in order shown on ballot)

• Teri Thomas KC5BJI
• Linda Robinson, KC5QPQ
• Benny Martinez, NU5P
• Charles Thomas, WA3PAY

More info found at their club web site, www.AA5RO.org

(But their website still shows the older meeting location of American Red Cross, as of the date of this posting.)

Rock and Roll Marathon

by Teri KC5BJI

Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo (Where is Rick Derringer when you need him?)

We came to the San Antonio Marathon in 1995 through Walt DuBose (K5YFW), who was our contact person out at Kelly AFB to Sam Idrogo, chairman of the organizing committee. Since then we have been providing communications support for both operations and logistics, and, thanks to you, bestowed the designation of one of its co-sponsors.

{Photo of Greg KD5VBG setting up for net control during the 2006 SA Marathon down in the bowels of the Alamo Dome – taken by Lee N5NTG}

And 13 years later we’re right back where we started. Kind of …

November 16, 2008 will be our first time to work with a new group,Elite Racing, Inc., this year’s organizer.  You can find more info onRock `n Roll Marathons by going to http://www.RNRSA.com/home.html where the course is profiled as “flat, fast and scenic” and they list San Antonio’s race as a qualifier for Boston’s upcoming marathon.So, in several ways, it’s a whole new ball game for us. Althoughsome things will ultimately remain the same (we have been asked to supply at least 35 ham radio operators), there are some major changes and new perks, too.

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Veterans Day Parade – Universal City

by Gary Tangrady, K5GST

In addition to the Motorcycle Marshals I have so far received responses from the following people that have volunteered for helping out on the parade. First I would like to say Thank You for all the support. It is truly overwhelming.If you are not going to be able to make it or things have changed, please drop me an email. In any event it looks like we will have plenty. Read the rest of this entry »

The first “MacGyver” antenna building session held during the 2008 JOTA operation at Canyon Lake, Texas was so successful that in the afternoon several scout moms cornered me and almost begged that I run it again so the afternoon group could join in on the fun.What was the “MacGyver” antenna project?

The scouts began at a long table where I dumped the contents of a large popcorn tin, which was filled with wire, plastic pieces, odd metal parts, tools, two 12 foot measuring tapes, a spark plug wire and other useful and useless items along with a scrap of paper which had a hand-drawn diagram of a dipole antenna with just a series of total length per bands scrawled on the top.

It was up to the scouts to find the proper pieces and share in the building of a simple dipole under the supervision and extensive verbal support, cheering and crying of the “MacGyver Special Assistance Team”.
The scouts measured and cut wire, stripped ends, put on PVC end insulators, a center connector was added, and put rope on each end. Imagine their surprise when we ran the dipole up the “flag-pole” masting and promptly made a contact to a ham in Oklahoma!

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Over 70+ Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts attended the JOTA event held this past weekend out at the Canyon Lake Dam.  Members of GVARC and other hams came out to support this event which turned into a mini-field day event.Scouts got to try three modes of communications, Voice, PSK31 and CW.  Only 20 meters was really working well, the other bands seemed unresponsive, at least thru the morning hours.

W2IK was there with his boxes of antenna goodies, and he challenged one group of scouts to build something “MacGyver Style”.   He got lots of blank looks from kids who had never heard of MacGyver, until one scout popped up and asked “wasn’t that the guy who plays the part of the guy in charge of the teams on Stargate SG1?”Despite the generation gap, Bob was able to explain that in this large Popcorn canister, were parts. Lots and lots of parts, with some junk tossed in for good measure. 

The challenge was to build a working dipole antenna out of these parts.And the challenge was met after a couple of hours, and the first contact was from Oklahoma.

I’m expecting a full report from W2IK with photos since he was there the entire time, and I was only there about an hour around lunch time, since I had been working the Triathlon instead that morning.  I’ll correct any errors / discrepancies in this report at that time.

Answer… 2 Triathlons with overlapping courses at the same time!

8 of Hill Country REACT‘s members worked the Texas Triathlon, state finals, on the north shore of Canyon Lake last Saturday morning (10/18). They used the SARO 147.14 repeater with no problems reported. Only one medical problem was called in, a slight case of “road rash” by one rider.  Otherwise the medical team was rather bored, all in all.

Further east down the lake shore, about a mile from our starting point, at an area frequently used by the Army or Air Force for their recreation purposes, a 2nd Triathlon called the Randolph AFB Rambler 120 was started.  Fortunately their riders only overlapped our course by a few miles, and their riders were moving in the opposite directions, but we still had to coordinate with the deputy sheriffs handling traffic control so they knew which riders where which group.

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Hill Country REACT members voted on Monday, October 20th, to change their monthly meeting date to the THIRD WEDNESDAY of the month, and to keep on holding the meetings up north of San Antonio, at the Bulverde VFD on FM 1863 & Cougar Bend.

Previously, they had been meeting on the 3rd Monday of the month, but alternating with Teleconference meetings or northside San Antonio Restaurant meetings.  Members felt that a in-person meeting still had value despite the fuel and time costs to drive so far.  With members driving in from Seguin, Canyon Lake and San Antonio, and other member coming from New Braunfels or Boerne, it was felt that the Bulverde VFD was still the most centrally located meeting place to use.

More info found at their club web site, www.HillCountryREACT.org

By H. Milton Johnson – N5HMJ

It was hot and windy!

Well the 2008 Bike to the Beach has been come and gone. On the weekend of October 3rd and 4th, over three thousand bicycle riders left the start line at the AT&T Center in San Antonio and started an approximately 160-mile, two day trip to Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi.

Shepherding the riders like guardian angels, was a cadre of volunteers that included sixty-seven of your fellow amateur radio operators. An operation on this scale requires providing the riders with medical teams, safety teams, mechanical repair teams, the pre-positioning of large amounts of food and water, marking 160 miles of course, an army of support and gear vans and a communications system that can function efficiently over the 160 miles.

This is one giant logistical operation and at the heart of logistics is communications. In order to deploy your resources you have to know where your resources are, where they are needed and be able to direct them to the point of need. It is the amateur radio community that provides the communications infrastructure, equipment and man power to make this happen. We have every right to be proud of the service we provide to our community during this and other events.

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Tomorrow and the next day, October 4th and 5th, over 70 hams will work together, driving SAG vans, manning Break Points, riding in police cars (front seat) as shadows, riding with medical supervisors and first responders, and handling net control.

And one crazy ham, Royce KA5OHJ, will drive a street sweeper from San Antonio to Beeville on Saturday, starting out shortly after 5am, and then repeat the process on Sunday by driving it along the side of the highway from Beeville to Corpus Christi.

Photo shows Royce sweeping BP2 on Day 1, which was a VIA park and ride parking lot with lots and lots of loose gravel. Photo was inserted after the event, despite this article originally being posted before the event.  It’s called editing. Click on photo for larger view.

The reason?  Valero Bike to the Beach. 3,000 bicycle riders who are riding from San Antonio, down Hwy 181 to Beeville on Saturday, then continuing on down the highway to Portland and then over to Corpus Christi.  10 break points (counting lunch) on day 1, 6 break points (counting lunch) on day 2.

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