This year's event by the American Diabetes Association, called the Tour de Cure, was a first for the ADA. They asked for assistance from the Ham Radio Community, and we responded. This was a two day event, starting Saturday, May 19th in San Antonio, with an overnight in San Marcos, ending on Sunday, May 20th in Austin. Hams from all over Central South Texas cooperated to provide better communications for this event.

To see photos taken by the webmaster, click here.

SARC's No-Code General Upgrade Session A Success!

On Saturday, February 24, the San Antonio Radio Club sponsored a VE session at Broadway National Bank. Many thanks go to Paul Guido N5IUTand David Freiberger K5OLE for all their help preparing for the event. We had 28 pre-registered candidates, and wanted to be prepared for an unknown number of walk-ins. (It turns out that our 4 no-shows balanced our 4 walk-ins.)

Congratulations go to 3 new Technicians, 18 new Generals, and 4 new Extras. 25 of 28 candidates were successful in earning new licenses or upgrades. Of the 18 Generals, 6 were paperwork upgrades (one of whom
wound up with the Green Team). We had one person who went from zero to Extra, and four more new hams.

Photo by Paul N5IUT - Hams taking test and being supervised by the Yellow and Blue Team VE volunteers.

We appreciate the Broadway National Bank allowing us the use of their facilities, and Paul Guido N5IUT for arranging our use of the bank. Paul did all sorts of things to help us be ready for a crowd, including making signs, doing web updates, and making behind-the-scenes arrangements. David Freiberger K5OLE did many things including transporting extra tables and chairs, getting a small printer/copier, and preparing hand-out materials. We gained some new members at the session, but David will need to share that count.

We invited all test candidates to join us at KCOMM to use the club station. Lee N5NTG and Bob W2IK were there to help. David K5OLE made sure the station was ready ahead of time. Thanks to you three, and thanks to everyone who was at KCOMM to make the newly licensed or upgrades hams feel welcome.

The following VEs and non-VE volunteers made the VE session possible. Although each of them has received separate thanks, be sure to thank the following volunteers for helping with the successful session.

Thanks go to all of you!
73, Pat Knight AD5BR

For more photos, visit http://w5sc.org/VESessionReport.html

2007 - New Bexar County ARES Emergency Coordinator Appointed

Dear Bexar County ARES,

As I mentioned at our January meeting, I would be turning over the position of Emergency Coordinator as soon as our ARES management could find a replacement. Our ARES system is managed by Jerry Reimer, KK5CA, Section Emergency Coordinator, and Ray Taylor, N5NAV, Section Manager.

It has been a pleasure working with everyone as we have seen Bexar County ARES become a welcoming, multi-faceted organization. During your brief involvement, many of you have become qualified to serve as EC. Indeed, I recommended several of you to our management.

After some reflection, our management has appointed Johnny Wallace, K5POP, as our new EC effective February 1, 2007. I am sure you will continue our fine cooperative spirit and join me in supporting Johnny in his new position. Johnny brings extensive emergency communications experience, and I know he looks forward to moving from his traditional assistant EC position where he has ably managed our relationships with NDMS, police, hospitals, and others.

I will continue to attend ARES activities whenever possible. I look forward to seeing you at those activities and to participating in this next phase of our expanding role in our community.

Best wishes,
Dogan Perese, AC5XK

2007, February 24 - First VE Session In SA For New NO-CODE Rules

It's Official! Morse Code Requirement Ends Friday, February 23

Circle Friday, February 23, on your calendar. That's when the current 5 WPM Morse code requirement will officially disappear from the Amateur Radio Service Part 97 rules. On or after that date, applicants for a General or Amateur Extra class Amateur Radio license no longer will have to demonstrate proficiency in Morse code. They'll just have to pass the applicable written examination. The appearance in today's Federal Register of the FCC's Report and Order (R&O) in the "Morse code proceeding," WT Docket 05-235, starts a 30-day countdown for the new rules to become effective. Deletion of the Morse requirement -- still a matter of controversy within the amateur community -- is a landmark in Amateur Radio history.

The SARC VE team will have a VE session at 9 AM Saturday morning, February 24, at a special location to accommodate the possible crowd of upgrading ham radio operators. Paul Guido N5IUT has arranged test
facilities for us at the second floor of Broadway National Bank, on the northwest corner of Nacogdoches and Loop 410. More details will be coming on SARC's web site at http://w5sc.org . PLEASE PRE-REGISTER at hamtest@gmail.com if you plan to test or do the paperwork upgrade.

The Federal Register today contains the FCC's new rules eliminating Element 1 code requirements for General and Amateur Extra licenses. It states that the new rules go into effect February 23. There will be NO AUTOMATIC UPGRADES. If you have a CSCE that is less than 365 days old, and it shows Element 3 General, you can present it to a VE session, along with your ham license, photocopies of both, your photo ID (drivers license preferred), and the session fee ($14 for most sessions in our area) and apply for your upgrade to General. This is a "paperwork upgrade."

If you have waited to take the General written exam until the code requirement went away, you can do so as of February 23. Technician licensees will gain Novice privileges on February 23. They will still be Technicians.

73,
Pat Knight AD5BR
SARC Club VE Coordinator

2007, January 16 - Texas Considers Outlawing Mobile Radio Operations?

by 73, Frank KR1ZAN   Garland, TX     

I'd like to empower everyone on this list with some useful information about the Texas Legislature. Go to http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/Home.aspx . On this page, you'll note a search feature at the top center of the page. Try "wireless" (without the quotes) and you'll get the current list of House and Senate bills which pertain to limiting use of "wireless" devices used in motor vehicles and others pertaining to use of "wireless" in school zones. There's another bill pertaining to authorizing custodians to communicate with children via electronic means (this bill should probably be modified to address incidental communications via radio, both licensed and unlicensed).

Note: While the following bills are strictly in the proposed stage at this point, and their intention is focused on curtailing the use of cell phones while driving a motor vehicle, the current wording could be interpreted as also prohibiting the use of Amateur Radio or CB Radio while driving a motor vehicle, dependin upon the attitude of the arresting officer. - Webmaster

From the Home page, you'll notice "My TLO" from which you can receive Bill Alerts and set up your own set of "Bill Lists" to make it easier for you to monitor what's going on. Search around the Home page and you'll find how to contact your own Representatives and Senators. Additionally, it's important to contact the bill's authors.

When the bill is assigned to Committee, sending emails to all the committee members certainly helps. Emailing, writing, calling and visiting your legislators to inform them about amateur radio is very important. Asking them to exempt amateur radio from laws, such as the ones you'll see when you do the search for "wireless", will help educate them on the importance of amateur radio. There's nothing currently directly affecting amateur radio when searches are done for "amateur radio", "radio" or "towers". In the past, some bills have been proposed which would have affected Hams. If anyone does any searches for other keywords and comes up with bills pertaining to Hams, I hope you'll list them here.

The 80th Legistature is just getting started. So, now's a good time to start monitoring and writing. Usually, SGLs announce the bills that affect amateur radio and provide direction on who to contact and what to emphasize. It takes a little time, but, is well worth it. This is not a one person job. You get involved as a citizen and help the Ham radio community.

2007, January 13 - SA Swapfest

San Antonio Radio Club's 2007 Swapfest is now concluded. From all reports received, it was bigger, better and friendlier than ever. Despite the bad weather north of San Antonio, the freezing drizzle that went on all day with temperatures remaining in the forties to prevent acual freezing (but it felt like it was), tailgating area wasn't real popular in the rain, but inside the building was dry and warm! Some folks from up north had problems arriving due to a F1 class tornado touching down in San Marcos near IH-35 and roads being closed in Austin due to weather. Many of the regulars were also out working at Ham Events, the Big Bend 50 in Big Bend National Park and the Bandera 100k Trail Run out in Hill Country State Natural Area.

VE Testing was held down at the Johnson Library near Medina Base Road and Loop 410, about 2 miles away from the Swapfest site. Twelve candidates tested, ten of them passed or upgraded. Some came from as far away as Houston or Corpus Christi.

Photo: Schuylar KE5VIP wins Early Bird prize, presented by J.C. N5RXS, 2007 Swapfest Chairman. Photo provided by David K5OLE

Door Prizes flowed like water, from the reports we received. (We were at the Bandera 100k Trail Run)

• Grand Prize: Gary Harmon, who has owned every radio made since Marconi was a teenager was thrilled to win the IC-718
• Early Bird: Schuylar KE5VIP (photo above) was absolutely ecstatic to win the Alinco dual band walkie talkie.
• Major Door Prize: You would have thought Linda Robinson won a trip to Hawaii rather than a logging software package.
• Other Prizes: Winners not reported to SAHAMS webmaster.

This year for the first time, the club mailed (via USPS bulk mail) about 5,000 flyers to area hams in Central and South Texas using ARRL's mailing list. They tried to eliminate duplicates (i.e. multiple hams at same address) in order to spread the news as far as possible. The club's new web site also helped provide more up to the date information and registration forms. Naturally, the SAHAMS web site also tried to help as much as possible.

The SARC club is looking into a change of venue for 2008 which would enable such features as having the VE testing on-site, rather than 2 miles down the road, hosting forums or training seminars in a more comfortable surroundings, paved parking to improve the tail gating outdoor activity, etc. We understand that the SARC webmaster plans to make some major changes / improvements to the Swapfest web pages on their website to allow electronic registration via PayPal and other features to be announced. Of course, when this is released, you will read about it here on this page as well.

2007, January 1 - South Texas High Altitude Radio Project (STXHARP)

South Texas High Altitude Radio Project / Experiment
Posted by John Teer, AK5Z (Harlingen, TX)

For those interested in following the progress or being a SPONSOR of a unique amateur radio experimental project in South Texas, plans are being made for the South Texas High Altitude Radio Project (STXHARP). The South Texas High Altitude Radio Project is a series of experiments using helium balloons to carry Amateur Radio equipment aloft and electronically track the flight of the balloon package from launch to recovery. The electronics package consists of an Amateur Television Transmitter (ATV) and an Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS) transmitter and cameras.

Ham radio is a hobby rich in experimentation. Many advances in communication technology can trace their roots back to a ham radio
operator who had an idea and ran with it. In that tradition, a group of hams in South Texas decided that they want to see for themselves what the Earth looks like from way, way up. Using ATV and APRS technology isn't new and neither is sending it aloft on a balloon or rocket. The reward is in the doing. This project combines many different things hams do for fun and what we learn can be used in an emergency when other communication methods are not available.

The experimenters hope to view live video images from the balloon camera and track the package via APRS as it makes its way across the South Texas Sky. They hope to recover the package at touchdown to view the pictures snapped along the way by the two digital still cameras onboard.

Flight Schedule 2007

• The test flights will be in the Rio Grande Valley during early 2007 and should have considerable long-range coverage. (Imagine your antenna being on a 90,000 foot tower.)
• The project flight will be Ham Radio Field Day in June 2007.

Flight Location

It is expected that the HARP package will be launched somewhere in Starr County (Rio Grand City (green icon) and climb to an altitude of 90,000 feet, then descend by parachute to a predicted recovery site in Willacy County (Raymondville - red icon). Frequencies for monitoring will be available on the STXHARP website as the preparations progress with recommendations of types of antennas to use, etc. For more informations, you may contact the Project Director at Director@STXHARP.ORG

At this point the project has been privately funded by the team. The balloons, helium and electronics are expensive and sponsors are welcome to underwrite the project. Sponsors may have their logos on the balloon and electronics package, the STXHARP website and team T-shirts. Sponsors may be clubs, organizations, commercial enterprises or individuals. If you would like to be a STX HARP sponsor, please contact the Sponsors' Coordinator at Sponsors@STXHARP.ORG.

If you would like to follow the progress of the preparations and then the report after Field Day, you may do so starting immediately at
http://WWW.STXHARP.ORG . You can tell each time you check the site if any new information or pictures have been added since the last time you checked the website by checking the date and time of the last update that appears immediately below the page title on the main page.