San Antonio Hams

South Central Texas Partners…

The National Weather Service Austin-San Antonio TX office is now officially on Twitter.  Our first official tweet came out this morning, Monday, July 9th.  Like anything new we will have some growing pains as we take on this social media giant.

Follow us @NWSSanAntonio

As of right now our Twitter page is not set up to be a “warning” tool.  That may change in the future…but as of right now we will be placing graphics, outlooks, and links that you will hopefully find interesting and useful.  We are also looking to  utilize twitter for getting storm reports, damage pix, etc.

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Every week, we delete close to 50+ new spam user registrations on this blog, mostly from @126.com or @163.com domains.  When we had the free classified ads feature activated on this site, these idiots would flood us with bogus ads from India, make money from home scams, and other bogus stuff.  Now they just register and find out there isn’t a place for their stupid ads.

If you register as a user on this site, please give us your name & call sign (if applicable) when you sign up.  Otherwise, if you have some weird looking email address that doesn’t make obvious sense to us, we’ll delete you along with the bogus registrations each week. We do encourage new users who are either ham radio operators or interested in ham radio topics.

However, if you contact us at info@sanantoniohams.org and ask to be bumped up in “status” so you can post your own articles (ham related please), we’ll know you are a real person because we’ll confirm that before raising your status on this blog.

We encourage new authors to register & write / post their own news articles, but newbies will continue to have their postings moderated until I get to know the author and build up a trust factor between us.

Lee N5NTG
210-771-7075 (voice/text okay)

The annual 4th of July parade was held in Startzville,Texas, on the south side of Canyon Lake.

As usual for the past 20+ years, the members of Hill Country REACT, with assistance from the HCHams (Hayes / Caldwell County Hams), and a few others, managed the staging area, got everybody lined up in the right order, and merged in the units (like the USAF Band, the horses, & the local dignitaries) when the parade started around 11am.

The parade started with a fly over by the Combined Air Force (used to be Confederate Air Force) based in San Marcos.

We did shoot some video of the parade, with quality of questionable focus, using a new HD Vehicle DVR Recorder mounted inside the front windshield of my van.   Even though I had washed the van the night before, it sprinkled on the way up that morning before dawn, and perhaps some neighborhood birds decided to add their deposits on the way up as well. (Note to self: Wash the window before shooting video thru it next time!)   With the glare of the sun, sometimes the focus wasn’t as sharp as I would have preferred, or expected had I used a real video camera mounted outside the glass.  I’ll post that edited video later on, for those who care to watch it.  It’s clear, just slightly not as clear as I’d prefer, or maybe it’s just my eye glass prescription needing tweaked.  🙂

Here is a list of hams and other volunteers working on behalf of REACT for this event, followed by a gallery of photos taken by either myself or Jake Creamer.

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W4CTH @ Texas Water Safari

We just got the heads up about Joe Thompson W4CTH passing away today. Joe had a fatal heart attack at home around 2am this morning (7/7/2012). His wife & daughter were home at the time it happened.

W4CTH @ July 4th Parade

Joe was a active member of Hill Country REACT, Chaparral Amateur Radio Club (Seguin), and was the ARES EC for the Guadalupe County ARES group.Joe had  helped this year with Heart of the Hills Horse event in March, Net Control for the San Antonio Tour de Cure in May, the Luling Crossing Checkpoint for the Texas Water Safari in June, and the Canyon Lake 4th of July Parade this week.

From Louis N5STX –  His full name was Needham Joe Thompson!  Joe was EC for Guadalupe County ARES, Member of Hill Country REACT, Chaparral Amateur Radio Club, active with Bexar County ARES, RACES and MARS (AAR6TO < I believe)!  I believe he may have been the the County Liason Officer with RACES in Guadalupe County. Very active with the various ultra-marathons, bike events and the AERC Heart of the Hills event in Bandera.

Unknown to many, Joe was a retired Doctor, when on many of his traveled, still practiced/volunteered at a clinic in South Carolina and I believe one in Florida! <need to confirm this – I do remember him talking about this! Joe live for his grand children, frequently taking them to events around the country.

Service Information
Mass will be held on Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 1:30p.m.
St James Catholic Church
510 S. Camp St
Seguin, TX  78155

More details will be posted here as made available.  Our thanks to Louis K5STX for providing us with the notice a few hours ago.

It is with a sad and heavy heart, that I have the task to notify the Ham Community, that Joe Thompson – W4CTH became a silent key at 02:00 hrs the 7th of July 2012.

Joe was at home with his wife Mary Kay at the time of his passing!  His daughter was also on the property near their home!

Details regarding services will be passed to the community as they are made available!

Our thoughts and prayers are with Mary Kay, family and friends!

Dr Larry Becker W5VEO

Dr. Larry Becker W5VEO, a well known & active member of Kendall Amateur Radio Socity (KARS), was hit and killed Thursday night (6/28/2012) while riding his bicycle on the access road of Interstate 10 in Kendall County.  Larry was 69 years old, a ham operator & a dermatologist with offices in Boerne and San Antonio.He had last been spotted riding his bicycle along the IH-10 access road less than an hour before the accident by another KARS member, who said Larry had been wearing his trademark bright yellow jersey and a helmet. It was dry and still daylight at the time Larry was hit by the truck.

Around 7:15 p.m. on 06/28/2012, Dr. Larry Becker was struck by an unknown vehicle that fled the scene in the 39000 block of west-bound Interstate 10, a relative confirmed. A Department of Public Safety official said the impact of the crash threw Becker into a ditch and left his bike, a carbon fiber racing-style bicycle, in pieces. Officers at the scene said Becker had died from his injuries.

His wife, Dorothy made public pleas via the news media for information about the hit & run accident, asking for any witnesses or the person driving the vehicle to step forward.  The Kendall County Crime Stoppers put a hefty reward out for info leading the arrest & conviction of the guilty person or persons.

On Monday, July 2nd, after the word went out today about a $25,000 reward going out by Kendall County Crime Stoppers for info//capture of the person who ran down, killed, and hit&run Doc Larry W5VEO Becker, Col MedicalCorps US Army, at 7pm last Thurs late-afternoon — the perp decided to turn himself in.  Hams from KARS had been scouting out the area, looking for pickup trucks or other vehicles with a missing radio antenna (AM/FM was found on the scene) and damage to the right front / side of the vehicle.

Richard reports the following details:

1.)  There will be a viewing at David Vaughn’s Funeral Home, here in Boerne, 319 East San Antonio St., on Monday 9 July from 6-8pm. 2.)  The Funeral Service at 10:30am on Tue 10 July at First Baptist Church is still the same.  There will be a lunch at the church afterwards. 3.)   But, Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery has made room to receive Larry with Military Honors at 2:30pm on Tuesday 10 July 2012.

Our thanks to Richard McDaniel K4RMC & other KARS members for keeping us informed.