59^th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Hamfest

and ARRL West Texas Section Convention

March 15^th, 2014
Midland County Horseshoe Arena
2514 Arena Trail Midland, Texas

The St. Patrick’s Day Hamfest is hosted by the Midland Amateur Radio Club.

All the information about the hamfest will be posted on their website as soon as it’s available. In addition, our traditional flier will be mailed out in January. If you’ve registered in the last three years you should receive a flier.

Take advantage of our early bird pre-registration special through January 10!
Check out the details on the pre-registration page.

STRAIGHT KEY NIGHT! JAN. 1st

I learned during last night’s QCWA Sunday Night Net that their Christmas Party will be held after Christmas, on Saturday, December 28th, at the Sea Island Shrimp House located near Bandera Road and Loop 1604 (on the NW side of town).

Members start arriving around 11:15am and the meeting starts at 12 Noon.  There will be an exchange of presents, the “Chinese Style Auction” where one person choses a present, then the second person can chose one that has already been chosen, or select one from the table that hasn’t been opened yet.  Members were encourage to bring gifts of minimal value, such as  “white elephant” or “gag” style gifts to exchange with each other to increase the entertainment value.

Attendance is open to any licensed ham operator, or individuals interested in becoming a  ham radio operator. You do not need to be a member in order to attend their monthly meetings.

QCWA San Antonio Chapter 38 meets on the fourth Saturday of the month.  The monthly meetings usually take place at Sea Island located on Bandera Road just inside Loop 1604.  The restaurant is located inside Bandera Point Shopping Center across the street from H.E.B.  The restaurant’s phone is 651-7000.  The meetings start at 11:30 a.m. but many start showing up at 11:00 to order their lunch.

I also learned that the club now has their own website, www.QCWA38.info.

The rule proposal is RM-11708

Time is running out for comments on the ARRL proposal to modernize the FCC’s digital regulations.  The current rules date from the 1980’s before modern modulation schemes were available.  The end result is that we are limited in how fast we can send data by these rules.  Right now, the rest of the world (advanced technology societies such as Mexico, Haiti, and others) can use the latest digital techniques while we can’t.  The result is actually more bandwidth utilization due to slower speeds.

(http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/comment/view?id=6017477458) and comments can be filed until December 21.  The proposal would not increase the frequencies used for digital communications and would not result in any degradation to existing operations.  It would increase the efficiency of spectrum utilization by allowing digital messages to be sent roughly twice as fast so they would be on the air half as long.  It would also allow continued development of newer techniques that could be even more efficient.  Without the rule change, US amateurs will be shackled with an obsolete regulation while the rest of the world moves ahead.

I encourage you to fill your own comments with the FCC.  You can do so on their web site with an express filing which only takes a few minutes.

Jim Russell, NQ5L
ARRL STX SEC

The  Tour de Gruene is an annual 2 day bicycling event with all radio communications being coordinated by the GVARC  Ham Radio Club.  Hams are stationed at key / critical intersections or locations where rider safety may be at risk.  They are also stationed at break points to report on supply or rider pickup requests.

The 2013 event was held on Saturday, November 2nd, and Sunday, November 3rd.  (Next year it will be on November 8&9th.) I only worked the event on Sunday morning, so the attached photos were  from that date only.   I heard reports that what I experienced on Sunday was also repeated on Saturday, in terms of riders “jumping” off the bridge at River Crossing #4 to avoid “making a new friend” with an oncoming vehicle.    At the time this article was posted, you could still view the 2013 course maps online at this link.  The 2013 route was unusual, in that area road construction on the normal route force a major change in the route direction. In fact, they started up on River Road in Sattler, Texas, at the VFW Post (River Road & FM2673) instead of in downtown Gruene, Texas.
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I’m trying to catch up on my reports, so here is the report and photos from the October 31, 2013 Canyon Lake Halloween event held in Sattler, Texas.   There is about 2 miles of solid candy, both side of FM2673, all the way from the north end of Sattler, down past River Road, past First Victoria Bank (Now called Prosperity Bank), down to Old Sattler Road.  Businesses and community organizations stake out an area along the road, set up their tents, tables, signs, music and most importantly, their candy to pass out. Normal hours are 5pm-8pm, with setup starting around 4pm or so.  The ending hour is flexible, as folks start running out of candy to distribute.

Hill Country REACT Team members have been helping with this annual event for the past nearly 20 years.  The Canyon Lake Chamber of Commerce donates about 80 pounds of candy to the REACT Team to distribute. We display the Chamber’s sign as well as the REACT identification. All members are wearing the REACT Uniform.   A local ham, Carlos KE5DFK, likes to join us and usually brings another 10-15 pounds of candy to share with the kids.

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2014 Quarter One GVARC VE Test Session

The next regularly scheduled GVARC test session will be held on January 4th, 2014 at the New Braunfels Fire Department Training Facility located at 1311 Industrial Drive Suite A, New Braunfels, TX 78130.
The session will begin at 10:00am and conclude at 2:00pm, or when candidates stop arriving.

Please have these items with you when you arrive to take your test:

• $15 – Cash, check, or money order (We can’t accept plastic quite yet)
• Two forms of identification – State issued ID card, plus something like a CHL, school ID, passport, etc.
• Your currently held license or CSSE — if you have one.

Note:  This is strictly a testing session. No test material will be taught or reviewed.

The VE team will be monitoring the 147.000 repeater if you need any assistance in finding the testing location.

Please contact the GVARC VE Team if you have any questions.

More details can be found here… http://gvarc.org/2013/12/07/gvarc-qtr4-VEsession.html

JUMP TEAM BOOT CAMP 2014 (April 4th-6th)

CHRISTMAS PARTY
DECEMBER 17TH @ 6:30 PM – 8PM

PAPA DANTE’S RESTAURANT
8607 FM 1976, CONVERSE, TX 78109

RSVP: wx5us@satx.rr.com

We will be holding our Annual Awards presentation, enjoying good Italian food and having a great time with each others company in typical Unusual Suspect Spirit.   Our Christmas Parties have always been a GREAT time for all, so you will hate yourself if you miss out on the fun.

Please confirm you will be coming and  how many in your party.   Remember the Unusual Suspects are about FAMILY and AMATEUR RADIO.  Family members young and old are welcome.

Please RSVP because we need to give the restaurant an accurate head count prior to the event.

The 2013 AARO Christmas/Holiday Party will be held Wednesday, December 11^th at Grady’s BBQ on Bandera Road across from the Jefferson State Bank near Leon Valley. Dinner starts at 6:30pm, activities start at 7pm.

Admission price is $15 per person before the event, $17 at the door.  Your $15 includes one raffle ticket. Additional tickets will be on sale.   There will be some really nice prizes again this year (Door prizes include 2 Baofeng HT’s for the grand prizes).

Attendance is not restricted to members of the AARO ham club.

Thanks for your continued support of the AARO group.

73’s and Happy Holidays.
Stan Waghalter, Treasurer
KD5ZSY