Stations active during ARRL Field Day — June 27-28 — are eligible to receive 100 bonus points for copying the special Field Day bulletin transmitted by W1AW (or K6KPH on the West Coast) according to the schedule below. You must include an accurate copy of the message in your Field Day submission. The Field Day bulletin must be copied via Amateur Radio; it will not be included in Internet bulletins sent out from Headquarters and will not be posted to Internet BBS sites.
Some of you might have missed the posting I made as part of the Plano HamCom report (part 2 of 2) that covered a new invention, the XBee-Pro ZB ZigBee, that allows you to use your computer to remotely reprogram your ham radio in your car, without either removing the radio from your car, or taking your computer out of your house to the car.
A pair of these 500mw transmitters, combined with the appropriate data cable to connect to your specific radio, allows you to run the standard software on your computer, thru a virtual serial port (created by the two transmitters) remotely up to 2-3 blocks away.
Many hams mount their radios securely inside their car / truck / SUV / whatever, and it’s a pain to remove the radio, bring it into the house, connect it to the desktop computer, reprogram it, and then reinstall the radio only to find out you programmed the wrong PL tone or offset, or forgot a frequency.
One transmitter connects to your radio with the appropriate data cable, the other connects to your computer (desktop PC or laptop) via a USB cable. The two tranmitters are covered under the 802.15 categoryin the 2.4ghz band, have 500mw of power, and during testing, were able to connect up to 3 blocks away. Shorter distances applied when the radio was mounted in the trunk.
Cost for the unit was about $110 / pair at the Plano HamCom. Al Fields KE6LGE of San Antonio bought a pair, so perhaps we can get him to demo this product at an area club meeting some time in the future.
Dispelling Myths about Field Day
Laughable assumptions are made every year at Field Day about which Part 97 and/or ARRL contest rules can be laid aside for the weekend. In addition valid questions come from folks who recently entered our Amateur Radio ranks. Here is a collection of a few. – HamHelpDesk.Com
The San Antonio Radio Club has invited the 3 hams running for the vacancy caused by Ray Taylor N5NAV retiring as South Texas Section Manager for the ARRL this year, to speak at their July membership meeting. Meet the 3 candidates who are running for ARRL South Texas Section Manager. One of these three hams will be the successor to Ray Taylor N5NAV:
Candidates will be asked / allowed to make a short presentation of their plans and visions for our section. The club meeting is open to the any ham radio operator interested in hearing what these three have to say, or in finding out more about the San Antonio Radio Club. Visitors are always welcomed.
W2IK writes: I have listed a few tips which may make your field day setups more successful and more enjoyable.
1. When setting up antennas within close proximity: If you are using wire antennas such as dipoles, and they run parallel to each other there will be interference on your HF operating bands in the form of hash so arrange them at right angles to each other and at slightly different heights. If you use wire antennas such as dipoles, try to stay away from trap dipoles and use full length antennas instead. You may also wish to run your dipoles in different configurations such as have one as an “inverted V” and another as a sloper, etc. An antenna cut to the exact band you are using will decrease interference to and from other bands. Do not use compromise or “all band” antennas. On HF, stay away from vertical antennas as they receive too much man-made noise from sources such as generators, etc.
2. When operating within a tight area, as required by FD rules, it also pays to use “band pass filters” such as those manufactured by ICE. I have a full set of these HF filters and they work great. They are only about $ 38 per band and drastically reduce interference from your other operating posts. If your pocketbook can’t afford them, use coax “stub” filters. The lengths of these and how to build them can be found at: http://www.k1ttt.net/technote/k2trstub.html They are simple to make and easy to use. Both systems have been used by the major DXpeditions all over the world with great success. On HF frequencies make sure each operating station is properly grounded. Do NOT use a common ground for all your operating posts.
Field day is just around the corner, so to speak, and if you aren’t already lined up to participate, what are you waiting for? This year we are holding a combined Field Day in San Antonio at the San Antonio Fire Fighters’ Training Academy on Callahan Road, near Hwy 151 (west of downtown SA, north of Hwy 90, inside Loop 410)
An invitation was made to all ham clubs / groupsin the San Antonio metro area, asking them if they wanted to participate.
In order to be a “named sponsor / participant”, your club / group must commit to sponsoring / staffing a station on the air for the full 24 hour period of the event. If you can’t handle that level of commitment, you can still participate, but won’t be named in the press releases, etc., as one of the sponsoring clubs.
And if you just want to come out to “play” with us, you don’t need to be a member of any of the sponoring clubs.
Okay, Day 2 of Ham-Com is over for 2009, I didn’t win any of the 18 Alinco HT’s or the 2 HF mobile rigs given away as door prizes, but I also didn’t get the (not so) free ride in the Plano EMS Ambulance like one ham from Longview did.
I was taking a tour of the McKinney ARC Net Control Station on Saturday morning (Plano Amateur Radio Club did it on Friday) when we heard sirens approaching the Plano Centre, firetruck and ambulance.
The Net Control operator asked me to go find out what was happening, since he needed to stay near the radio.
Seems that one of the attendees, an older ham in the 60+ age range, was sitting in a chair inside the flea market area and he apparently dozed off, was snoring, but suddenly stopped breathing. He was reportedly unresponsive when another ham observed his condition and tried to revive him, so 911 was called. They ended up transporting him to the hospital and I don’t know what the final result was.
Hams from the event, quickly and efficiently cleared barricades and established a path clear of traffic for the two emergency vehicles to arrive and depart. Naturally, they were using their HT radios on simplex to coordinate their efforts. A page was put out on the intercom inside asking if there were any other hams present from the Longview Amateur Radio Club who might want to assist / be aware of this other ham’s predicament and to get word back to any family members that might need to be contacted.
Friday, June 12th was Day 1 of the 2009 HamCom event in Plano, TX. www.HamCom.org is their web site.
Al KE6LGE and Lee N5NTG rode up and stayed there in the comfort of Al’s RV, parked outside the conference center in the shaded area of the parking lot.
This is the same RV we used last month for Net Control of the American Diabetes Association’s Tour de Cure bicycle event from San Antonio to San Marcos to Austin on May 30th and 31st.
W2IK | 
ARES, Disaster Response, General Ham Radio, MARS, Public Service | 
06 13th, 2009| 
1 Comment »
W2IK- NNN0KSI – NNN0GBY2, from San Antonio, Texas, will be donating 150 copies of his amateur radio emergency communications training course (on CD) so they may be given out at EmComm East, held in Rochester, New York in early October 2009.
In the past, he has given out hundreds of copies of this training guide, for free, to dozens of clubs, including REACT and ARES groups throughout the country and Canada, Pacificon 2008 (held in California last year), as well as two special emergency antennas of his design and plans, and authoring a special “white paper” for Communications Academy 2007 as per their request when health problems prevented him from giving a lecture.
He will also be donating one of his VHF emergency antenna kits to this event as a free raffle.
The Guadalupe Valley Amateur Radio Club will be again holding Field Day at WQ5C’s QTH on River Road. We’re planning on running a home station on emergency power, along with a temporary station, and possibly a “Get On The Air” station reserved for inactive hams. The highlight will be a cookout on Saturday evening. All area hams & their families are encouraged to attend.
The specifics:
Saturday, Jun 27: