San Antonio Hams

October 17th was the date of the 15th anniversary celebration at the Great Northwest Branch Library, one of many branches that is part of the San Antonio Public Library system.  This library is located off of Grissom Road, near Culebra & Tezel Rd.  

Because this branch is the site of VE Test Sessions every other month by Pat AD5BR, representing the SARC VE Team, the head librarian asked Lee N5NTG to put on a demonstration Ham Radio Station as part of their celebration.  SARC was already committed to being at JOTA over at McGimsey Scout Park in Castle Hills, so Hill Country REACT agreed to sponsor the station at this event.

Below are two videos that I made up from the raw footage and photos taken during the event. 

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From ARRL listing of Special Events Station Operations:   

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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On Saturday, October 10th, I made the not so short trip west on Hwy 90 to the town of DeHanis, Texas, looking for a bunch of crazy guys called ham radio operators who decided to hold a combination “field day” and “picnic” in the middle of the highway.   

Medina County Amateur Radio Club has a small (when compared to some SA clubs) but very active core group of ham radio operators, supporting 2 repeaters about 30-40 miles west of San Antonio.  One repeater is in Castroville, the other a few more miles west near Hondo.   They provide emergency communications support to their communities, plus public service communications for events like bike-a-thons, etc.

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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…

Here is the video you’ve all be waiting for. The video is about 9 minutes in length, with some narration and sound tracks left untouched.  Some titles added to explain what is going on, or to inform the viewer about all the work the ham radio operators are doing.   Would have liked to have included some photos or video of the ground to air lightening strikes at the Finish line, but we’re working with what I shot myself.

I inserted only a few still photos in the video, but not many, so if you want to see the photos, please visit the earlier posting made to this blog.  I’m willing to post more photos taken by other hams, if they send them to me.  <hint, hint>

Here is the video, courtesy of YouTube.com where it is hosted.

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In the beginning there was a plan, and the plan was deemed good!   Then Mother Nature decided to change the plans, and that’s where the flexibility and training of the BikeMS ham radio operators came into play.

My original assignment was to be SAG7 and supervise 3 other SAG vans (SAG #2, #14 & #25) for special duty between the Day 1 Start Line at the Alamo Dome and the entrance to Ft. Sam Houston base.   When that was done, we were to pop up to Sattler, TX and get staged  for the River Road segment of the route.

I was not originally supposed to be the “Turtle” bringing up the rear, but due to last minute changes on the route, the ham (Lyle KB5BSU) who was supposed be “Turtle” after marking the course with signs, got busy relocating signs to mark the new route and never made it back to the Alamo Dome in time for the start.  Then the Safety Officer declared River Road to be unsafe due to flooding in the area, and closed that segment of the route completely, shutting down BP6, 7 and 8 in the process.  (BP6 and 8 were actually the same BP, but rider were to pass thru twice.)

So that is how SAG 7 became the defacto “Turtle” to bring up the rear of the bike riders.  We had quite a few riders ride past the Alamo itself, only to decide they really didn’t want to ride in the rain all that much.  So they poised for photos of themselves in front of the Alamo, called their friends to come pick them up, and the Turtle moved on, looking for more riders needing help.    SAG #14 found a rider under the bridge at Broadway and IH-35 needing a flat changed, and SAG #25 picked up a couple of riders asking to be taking direct to BP1 for bike repairs.  SAG #2 decided to turn left into the base, instead of right to go around the base, but fortunately for him, the guard decided to let him and his wife drive their SAG van thru the base instead of shooting them instead. 🙂   

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Title: Chaparral Amateur Radio Club / Guadalupe County ARES
Location: 415 East Donegan, Seguin, TX 78155
Description: Monthly meeting of Chaparral Amateur Radio Club. All licensed Amateur Radio operators are invited to attend!
Start Time: 19:00 hrs
Date: 2009-10-13
End Time: 20:30