As a 501c3 non-profit, KARS members provide assistance to Kendall County EMS, Boerne Police and
Kendall County Sheriff's Office along with other organizations local to Kendall County.
Jesse (W1BBT) did his second POTA activation at Guadalupe River State Park as part of the Texas State Parks
on the Air. The location sits at a trail head and got some foot traffic from inquisitive hikers.
Click here for pictures from the weekend.
In the beginning, the Museum had a single GVTC wireless modem inside the Art classroom. We began the expansion process a couple of years ago after a contractor ran an underground fiber optic cable from there to the log cabin.
With the expert help of Ben (K5AYR) and Mark (N5YZV), we installed mesh access points (APs) inside the cabin, and outside the cabin covering up the grassy area under the trees.
Later we added another AP with a high gain sector antenna outside of the Art classroom so that the Museum could run wireless point-of-sale terminals at the eastern gate (by the swimming pool)
for events such as Art Shows and Bierfest.
In the latest round of expansion, Jerry (W5MIG), Ben (K5AYR) and Dave (N7RF), with the help of museum director Russel Rust (who lives on Rust Rd right behind Al Walters’ ranch) extended the network from the cabin to the red barn with very compact 60-GHz building-to-building Ubiquiti bridge units. Inside the barn, we ran a splitter feeding an AP for barn events (parties, weddings, dances, bluegrass jams, etc.) and an outdoor 90-degree sector beam AP on the outside south wall of the barn for use during tractor pull events. We finished up on Thursday just in time for today’s antique tractor pull.
Russell assisted us by bringing a cherry picker over last weekend and running CAT6 cable across the barn rafters and also installed the mounting bracket for the tractor field AP on the outside wall of the barn.
60ghz Access Point Access Point on the backside of the barn
Winter Field Day is an exciting annual event for amateur radio enthusiasts, taking place on the last full weekend of January. The event is organized by the Winter Field Day Association which strongly believes that ham radio operators should practice portable emergency communications in winter environments. KARS will be participating in the event this year with plans to operate over the entire contest period.
Several members of KARS were involved in assisting the Boerne PD and Kendall County placing spotters in key locations to observe and report. Jesse (W1BBT) and Jim (W6TIR)
were located inside the EOC to operate net control and relay information while spotters were given the tactical callsigns:
Methodist - Greg (K5KYR) / Jerry (W5MIG)
Comfort - George (W5GRG) / Chris (KD5ZLR)
Alamo - Rick (N5RCT)
Sisterdale - Gavin (KI5MCD)
Kendalia - Rowland (K5TY)
Bergheim - Lloyd (KF5ZHW)
Pipe Creek - Marsh (WA5UBO)
Boerne Central - Ethan (KI5SLS)
Boerne West - Mark (KJ5CBL)
Boerne East - Dennis (KJ5EHE)
Additional assistance was provided by Don (KI5AIU) at the Sisterdale repeater ensuring we had a backup plan in the event the 146.640 repeater failed. The net provided key
information to Boerne PD, and Cheif Perez very much appreciated the effort of the entire KARS team.
Click here to view pictures of the various locations along with a time lapse video of the eclipse event as seen from the EOC.
Annular Eclipse - October 14, 2023
A station in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC)
A station on Main St to cover the Hill Country Mile Rod Run
A station at the Methodist Boerne Medical Center, Menger Springs, Boerne
* They could add additional assignments if we have enough interest from our members.
Winter Field Day is an exciting annual event for amateur radio enthusiasts, taking place on the last full weekend of January. The event is organized by the Winter Field Day Association which strongly believes that ham radio operators should practice portable emergency communications in winter environments. KARS will be participating in the event this year with plans to operate over the entire contest period.