San Antonio Hams

March 6th 2010

The Hill Country REACT Radio Team assisted with the Heart of the Hills Endurance Ride held at the 5400 acre Hill Country State Natural Area located outside of Bandera, Texas.  Team Members Gary Tangrady – K5GST, Al Fields – KE6LGE, Wade Martyn – WB5C and Team Leader Louis Upton – K1STX provided communications for the 25 and 50 mile events. 75 participants total were tracked at 4 checkpoints through the multiple loop course utilizing 2m simplex and the WD5FWP repeater located in Pipe Creek.

About AERC from their website:”The American Endurance Ride Conference (AERC), a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation, was founded in 1972 as a national governing body for long distance riding. Over the years it has developed a set of rules and guidelines designed to provide a standardized format and strict veterinary controls. At the same time it has sought to avoid the rigidity and complexity so characteristic of many other equine disciplines.” For more information on the AERC go to: http://www.aerc.org/About.asp

The Heart of the Hills event has a long history in the Texas Hill Country and was under new management for the 2010 event. Through the connection of team member Joe Thompson – W4CTH, the suggestion was made to the management to include the Hill Country Radio Team team in the operation of the event to provide accurate tracking, extra eyes and added safety measure for the riders.  After a couple of phone calls and introductory meeting, the team agreed to assist with the event.  Before, during and after the event, many comments from the race participants and race management confirmed that the addition of the REACT Radio Team to the event not only save many man hours driving back and forth to keep track of the riders, but added a much needed safety element to the event.  The Hill Country REACT team was invited back for the 2011 event, more than likely with an increase role. For more information and membership information for the Hill Country REACT Radio Team go to www.hillcountryreact.org

Proceeds from the 2010 AERC Heart of the Hills Endurance Ride will benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

 The WPX contest is based on an award offered by CQ Magazine for working all prefixes. Held on the last weekend of March (SSB) and May (CW), the contest draws thousands of entries from around the world.

This is a great chance to get lots of “new ones” in your log and have fun while doing so. You don’t need to be an expert to join in and you will be competing on a level playing field as there are many categories to compete in such as low power with a simple antenna, etc.  Go to their website: http://www.cqwpx.com/ to learn more about the contest and the operating categories.

It’s a good “tune up” towards “Field Day” as it will help sharpen your ears in picking out weak stations or stations amid interference.

I will be operating as a single operator SSB and later on CW and hope you can work me!

Bob W2IK

Quoted from ARRL news:

In February 2010, the  (AHA) filed a request with the FCC for a blanket waiver of Section 97.113(a)(3) of the Commission’s Rules “to permit hospitals seeking accreditation to use Amateur Radio operators who are hospital employees to transmit communications on behalf of the hospital as part of emergency preparedness drills.”

On March 3, the FCC issued a Public Notice — WP Docket 10-54 — seeking comments if the Commission “should grant AHA’s request for a blanket waiver of Section 97.113(a)(3) to permit amateur operators who are hospital employees to participate in emergency drills that are conducted by hospitals for accreditation purposes and that are not government-sponsored.”Section 97.113(a)(3) specifically prohibits amateur stations from transmitting communications “in which the station licensee or control operator has a pecuniary interest, including communications on behalf of an employer.”

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The Austin Amateur Radio Club has announced that the 146.940 repeater will require a 107.2hz CTCSS (PL) tone to engage the repeater beginning April 1, 2010.

The AARC repeater is currently the last 146.940 carrier squelch repeater in Texas.

This is NOT an April Fools Day Joke, thus the reason for advance announcements far and wide.  You can program your radio now for using the 107.2 tone, because it will still work fine between now and then.

The repeater will also transmit a 107.2hz CTCSS (PL) tone for users wishing to use the tone squelch feature in their radios which allows them to hear only the Austin repeater.

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Below are a series of pictures from the Bexar Operators Group 160 meter CQ WW SSB contest. 

We traveled to the Calliham Unit of Choke Canyon State Park, about 15 miles west of the town of Three Rivers, which is about 80 miles south of San Antonio.

After checking in, we went to our screened shelter (cabin) only to find that they all had been completely refurbished since our last visit. All the cabins had large air conditioners and two beds! No more blowing up our queen sized air mattress or lugging our window AC unit in the summer.

As you can see, they allow pets, and our two dogs quickly staked out a bed they wanted. I began the task of setting up the radio gear while my XYL, KD5YTN, Krissy, completed her chores of getting the rest of the camping gear out of the truck and assembled.  

We had a problem and had a tough choice to make. It was a very windy day on Friday, with gusts over 25 mph. We decided to wait and see if the wind would die down, as was predicted for Saturday. So, we erected a 160 meter dipole antenna to work the first half of the contest. I would have preferred a loop, but we had neither the real estate nor the time to plot one out and set it up.
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Title: Houston-Austin BP150 Bicycle Event 2 Day
Location: Houston to LaGrange to Austin
Link out: Click here
Description: Info available from Milton N5HMJ or Lee N5NTG who are coordinating a team of hams from San Antonio to help support this worthy event. MS lets us rent our vans or trucks in San Antonio on Friday, equip and drive to Houston, pays for our fuel, provides a hotel room on Friday night in Houston, a cabin (shared) to sleep in Saturday night in LaGrange. They provide us free t-shirts, food, etc., and take real good care of their ham volunteers. Event is usually over around 5pm (or earlier) on Sunday evening.
Start Date: 2010-04-16
End Date: 2010-04-18

Title: Skywarn Training
Location: University of Incarnate Word, Lecture Hall
Link out: Click here
Description: The University of the Incarnate Word. the National Weather Service and the Urban Science Initiative, Inc. will join forces to present the fourth annual Severe Weather Conference on Friday, March 12 and Saturday, March 13, 2010 in the Bonilla Science Hall on the UIW campus.

There is no registration fee for the conference. We ask that you register so that we can provide you with conference materials and seating. You may register by downloading the registration form and faxing it to 210-493-8533 or by email to alex@urbansciencelive.org. We ask that you make your registration no later than March 1, 2010.

You may also register on-site the day of the conference however, we can not guarantee conference materials or available seating.
Start Date: 2010-03-12
End Date: 2010-03-13

Title: One Day Technician License Crash Course
Location: University of the Incarnate Word
Link out: Click here
Description: Lecture Hall, Bonilla Science Building, University of the Incarnate Word, 4301 Broadway, San Antonio, TX 78209

Sponsored by AARO Ham Club – Per Person Cost: $40 – Includes continental breakfast, lunch and fee for one 35-item, multiple-choice exam given at the end of the day. Does not include the study book.

To Register: Call (210)522-3008 or (210)680-6841
or E-mail jwallace at (@) swri.org

Anyone wanting testing at the end of the day, can pay the test fee for upgrading, etc. Please RSVP
Start Time: 08:00
Date: 2010-03-06

The National Weather Service in New Braunfels has announced they are moving their regional Skywarn Net away from the 147.14 repeater to the newer 444.450 UHF repeater that is located just south of Startzville, with an antenna up at 1670 ft above sea level.  That repeater has a tone of 114.8 and a POSITIVE offset.  The 444.450 repeater has very wide regional coverage, equivalent to what the 147.14 repeater used to be.  We’ve had folks from as far south as Wilford Hall on Lackland AFB in San Antonio, or north to south Austin on 6th Street.  Of course those contacts were made using 50 watt mobile or base radios.

This repeater will soon be hooked up via an IRLP node, but the trustee Wade W5ERX is still working out the bugs for that.   This repeater is being sponsored by the Hill Country REACT Team.

This Skywarn net is NOT to be confused with the local Skywarn Nets in San Antonio or Austin on the 146.94 repeaters.  In San Antonio, that repeater has a PL tone of 179.9 and a negative offset.  The Austin repeater has no PL tone required, but does have an output tone.

In San Antonio, most of the time, you will find one of the AEC’s (Assistant Emergency Coordinator) from the Bexar County ARES group running the local Skywarn Net, and the repeater has a tone that goes off periodically, sort of a beep, just to let you know something serious is going on even if you don’t hear anybody talking at the moment.

If the Net Control operator asks for specific types of reports, don’t call in with reports of “It’s not raining over here”, or “I just saw on TV that such and such was happening…”.  Don’t clutter up the frequency with chatter.

The Bexar Operators Group will be “Flying Pink” with a 9 foot pink weather balloon with an attached pink (ok, reddish pink) 260 foot vertical wire antenna during the 160 meter contest this weekend to show our support for breast cancer awareness.

We had a choice of balloons to purchase and chose the pink colored ones (boy, do they look small un inflated) and even chose the pink topped helium tank when offered a choice of others.

Pictures of our contest operation at Choke Canyon State Park’s “Calliham Unit” will be posted next week.

If you can hear us on 160 meters (probably around 1.85 – 1.9 mhz after sunset until dawn), please either post us on “DX Summit” or other internet resources or make a QSO with us!

A large, stamped -self addressed envelope, sent to the QRZ address of W5BOG will net stations contacting us a special QSL certificate showing our support for breast cancer awareness.

Bob W2IK – W5BOG