San Antonio Hams

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.  

On Wednesday, December 23, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued an Instruction concerning MARS, effective immediately.

This Instruction gives the three MARS services — Army, Air Force and Navy/Marine Corps — a new focus on homeland security and a new name: Military Auxiliary Radio System.

 The Instruction is the first major revision to MARS since January 26, 1988 — as such, the first revision since the 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina, two major events that changed the way Amateur Radio dealt with emergency communications.

The DoD defines a “military auxiliary” as “an organized body of volunteers prepared to supplement the uniformed services or any designated civilian authorities by provision of specialized autonomous services when called upon or when situations warrant,” and gives the Civil Air Patrol and Coast Guard Auxiliary as examples of auxiliaries.

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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

Santa used Paul Guido’s Vision motorcycle on Saturday December 19th, 2009 to deliver gifts to seven family’s in San Antonio. 
Here is a video from the local station.  Click here, or on the image to play…

It is too funny that they called my Vision a Harley in the title.  It was 65 degrees and Santa was sweating quite a bit in his suit.

Background on Elf Louise The Elf Louise Christmas Project is dedicated to providing a little bit of joy to Bexar County’s (San Antonio) less fortunate children.  The project began in 1969 when our founder, Louise Locker, was a student at Trinity University in San Antonio.

She found that for many San Antonio families, Christmas just did not exist.   Louise began to look for a way to provide a few Christmas presents to some of these children. That first year, with the help of a friend, she collected gifts for children in 13 families.

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Calling all Traffic Net Control Operators!

The Central Texas Traffic Net needs your help.

Please contact Jeremy Davenport (KE5ELI) jeremy@heitx.com if you are interested in continuing to be, or becoming a Net Control Operator for the Central Texas Traffic Net (CTTN).

Stay tuned for the new net frequency in January. We’re looking at trying a couple other area wide repeaters, or using IRLP to link some together, to restore the former multi-county coverage area we used to enjoy on the old 147.14 repeater.

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.

Note: This post has zero to do with Ham Radio, but we thought it was strange enough, or perhaps just dumb enough, to share with our readers.  It really shows how stupid some folks can get…  Lee N5NTG

Original Story By Kim Wilmath and Robbyn Mitchell
St. Petersburg Times

TAMPA, Fla. December 18, 2009 — A turkey-frying stunt Friday by the MJ Morning Show injured a firefighter, destroyed a van and alarmed fire department officials, who say the intentional blaze was unauthorized.  Tampa fire spokesman Capt. Bill Wade said he was “very disappointed.” Officials from WFLZ-FM 93.3 were not available to comment.

The DJs used a crane to drop a turkey carcass through the open roof of a plumbing van that had a vat of burning oil inside.    An inflatable snowman stood near the van’s open side doors.    Clear Channel broadcast the whole thing live from its studio parking lot.

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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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