Kendall Amateur Radio Society

KB5TX

Welcome to KARS

Welcome to the Kendall Amateur Radio Society (KARS). We are a Texas nonprofit corporation organized and operated to advance the knowledge of the Amateur Radio Service in Kendal County and to the support the City of Boerne and the Kendall County Governments with emergency radio communications. The noun "Amateur" as used in Amateur Radio, describes a person and/or organization who engages in a pursuit, on an unpaid rather than a professional basis. We are affiliated with the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). See our administration page for additional information about our organization.

KARS was formed in October 1980. We are located in the South Texas Section (STX), in Boerne, Kendall County, Texas 30 miles NNW from Downtown San Antonio, on I-10 West. Our club call sign is KB5TX.

We have a paid membership of 60, and are growing for a number of reasons:

  • We offer a variety of ham radio activities to amateur radio operators in the Texas Hill Country and the greater San Antonio area.
  • We are not single focus. See Field Day, Community Activities and Club Activities. We have members active in traffic nets and ARES. Beyond public service, we use events to pass the experience of our older members to those younger and new to our Hobby..
  • We have subject matter experts in most aspects of our Hobby, and each is ready to help you. Our skills run from technology, to CW, Phone and Digital, working HF contests, chasing DX, 50 MHz, VHF and above.
  • We think we are congenial and welcoming. Want help getting started in Amateur Radio? We will help you.
  • We have 11 VEs and routinely test from Tech to Extra. Make an appointment when you think you are ready. Testing at KARS is open to any candidate.
  • Come visit us. We meet the first Thursday of each month at 1900. Follow this link for more information.

We are not a repeater club, but we have one of the most capable system of repeaters in the Texas Hill Country. We operate four, each using KARS' call-sign KB5TX. Our coverage ranges from Kerrville to the North West, Fredericksburg to North, to Blanco to the North East, Schertz on the East side of San Antonio, to Helotes on West side of San Antonio. Perhaps even a bit further into downtown San Antonio itself and to the South West of downtown.

  • VHF: 146.64 (-) pl tone of 88.5. DR-2 at 1970 feet MSL (110 feet AGL) on Tower Road at 29.86N, 98.77W. Six miles north of Boerne.
  • VHF: 145.19 (-) pl tone of 88.5. DR-1 at 1600 MSL near Sisterdale, TX at 30N, 98.43W Fifteen miles north of Boerne.
  • UHF: 444.9 (+) pl tone of 88.5. DR-2 using the upper UHF antenna on Tower Road, with Wires-X.
  • UHF: 444.925 (+) pl tone of 88.5. DR-2 using the upper UHF antenna at 1610 MSL near Sisterdale, TX at 30N, 98.43W..

KARS Net meets every Tuesday night at 7pm on the 146.64 repeater. All are welcome.
Hot News

Member Dues. Pay your dues electronically using Square. https://kendall-amateur-radio-society.square.site/.

Ice damage at Tower Road. Our VHF 146.64 mHz repeater is temporarily degraded due ice damage. Marsh - WA5UBO and helpers, Don -- KI5AIU, Fred -- KI5VRF, Greg -- K5KYR to assist, installed an extendable mast with a temporary vertical atop of it at about 42' in an attempt to improve the .64 repeater range. This allowed us to reconnect the Ringo Ranger to the APRS radio and get it back online. However our Tower Road repeater antennas can still be improved. We are working on finding a tower climber to do the required work.

Hit counter below was added in early 2021. We crossed 10,000 hits in mid-January 2022. We now have over 31,800 hits. Our hit counter was changed on 5 January 2023 to one much easier to read.

This website is current a/o March 28, 2023. Latest change - fixed index misdirection.

Meetings, Training and Testing

For those wishing to join KARS, download the membership application. Fill it out and bring it to our monthly meeting.

We normally meet at 7pm on the first Thursday of each month at the The Agricultural Museum & Arts Center which is conveniently located at 102 City Park Road, Boerne, TX 78006.

We have 11 Volunteer Examiners to facilitate examinations from Technician to Extra, however you must register beforehand so we know you are coming. See the link at left for requirements.

Contact Greg Collins - K5KYR, testing@kb5tx.org for an appointment. You do not need to be a member of our club to test. We are open to all.
Introduction The seed for Amateur Radio was planted in the 1890's, with Marconi experiments in wireless telegraphy. Soon he was joined by hundreds; now thousands worldwide. This page tells you what we are about 133 years later.
Radio Choices Many new to Amateur Radio wonder what radio to choose after their hand-held. Here is information about Yaesu, Icom and Flex, along with links to others. There is more about Flex in the Presentations folder. Think about your first station as making an investment toward the future. Try to make it a foundation upon which to grow.
Station Design for HF to 50MHz Our members operate stations from simple to elaborate. We can give you ideas for yours and help you with your station design. See station layouts at N7RF and at K5NOF.
Station Design for VHF The Hill Country has many locations that are good for VHF and UHF. With proper antennas and low loss coax, one can work much further than could be imagined.
QRP Want to get started in QRP? We do that. KARS past President, Bob Rosier - K4OCE, recently inducted into the QRP Hall of Fame, tells you how.
Weak Signal World & Digital New modes like FT4 and FT8 seem to be the fastest growing segment of our hobby. See this page for FT4 and FT8 updates from Dave Moore, N7RF. See this page also for an article about FELD-HELL by Mark Rosier, KE5GL.
Space KARS is fortunate to have Ken - KD3VK as a member. He is a member of a NASA team that established amateur radio hardware on the International Space Station and its ground stations. Here is "how to" information if you want to communicate with Hams aboard the International Space Station.
Contesting and DX This section encourages one to get on HF and to work contests.You will find an ARRL link to nine pages of information how to begin contesting along with all the do's and don'ts. This page also provides some "how to" ideas about contesting and working DX, plus how to find who is on the air and find current propagation reports.
Software LoTW & Club Log This subject discusses Ham software, how to get the rare one in the log and then how to get the confirmation. We can help you get started with LoTW and Club Log.
Repeaters The 444.9 and 146.64 are both DR-2 repeaters located ten miles north of Boerne on Tower Road. 145.19 is a DR-1 repeater installed at 140 feet AGL at near Sisterdale, TX.. A second DR-2 UHF repeater (444.925 (+) PL 88.5) is installed at 150 feet AGL on the same tower
Field Day

Forget all you once knew about Field Day rules. New for 2022 and onward: power limit 100W, home stations can work others for score plus any one else. Others can work as Class A, B, C. Scores from individual operations may be combined into an Aggregate Club Score by simply including the club name in their submission.

Club Activities This section tells you about various Club projects. Read about our Christmas Party for 2022, Mike's (WW5WM) visit to Malta, how Jim - W6TIR installed a new vertical at his QTH, Clubs' use of drones, Installation of Sisterdale repeater and fixing the LPA at K5NOF This is a "work in progress."
DIY (Do It Yourself) Our presentations folder became crowded, so we stripped out a collection of "Do It Yourself" projects developed by various members of KARS. Informational items remain in "Presentations & Discussion." Latest addition in DIY shows how KARS member Gavin, KI5MCD installed his Yaesu FT-857D in his Jeep Wrangler.
Presentations & Discussions We have frequent programs on a variety of amateur radio subjects.Latest addition: How to make coaxial cables with focus on using crimp connectors and water-proofing by Ben Koerner, K5AYR.
Links Here are links to various websites of interest.
  • If you want to hear how ship to shore CW was done before the "night of nights" on 12 July 1991, check out the Maritime Radio Historical Society.
  • Our web page is gaining a presence in our Country's schools. Lyndhurst, NJ STEM (Science, Technology, Electronics and Math) Club for Girls, have told us the radio history information posted on KB5TX.org was a big help to their club. A student Nicole, contributes an article telling about the development of the car radio. See it at - www.titlemax.com/articles/the-history-of-the-car-radio/.
Community Activities We have a strong association with Kendall Co. EMS, the Kendall County Sheriff's Department and other organizations. See our support for the Tour de Boerne bike ride through north Kendall County.
Swap Meet

Want to list something? Send text and picture to the webmaster at webmaster@kb5tx.org.

Administration.htm See this file for KARS Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws, membership application, meeting agenda template, mailing address and current list of Officers and Directors, and the script for the VHF net.. History of KARS included.
Ideas for Improvement Please direct your flaming arrows at the webmaster. webmaster@kb5tx.org A web site lives or dies depending on its content. Your ideas are welcome. Judging from the hit-counter, we must be doing pretty well. We passed 31,800 visitors on January 5, 2023.
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KARS -- P.O. Box 1732 -- Boerne, TX 78006

For more information, email webmaster@kb5tx.org