41st Annual CSVHFS Conference
Conference Details

Thursday Night Social

We have made reservations at Casa Rio - River House. Casa Rio was the first San Antonio business to open its doors to the River and take advantage of the River's setting. Your cost is all-inclusive; you will be served an individual deluxe Tex-Mex platter, and large platters of fajitas with all the fixin's will be placed on the tables for family-style service. You will be provided with all the coffee, tea or water you can drink. The only additional charge would be if you choose to purchase adult beverages; a "pay as you go" bar will be available. For those who wish to make it a family affair, youth 8 years old and younger will be charged less than half of the adult price.

Air conditioned buses will drop us off at the air-conditioned restaurant at approximately 6:30pm. After the meal, you can take a comfortable stroll up and down the cool, evening River Walk, or grab a seat on one of the many benches, and take in the sights and sounds until the buses return to Casa Rio at 9:30pm to pick us up for the trip back to the hotel. The hospitality room should be going great guns by the time we get back to the hotel at approximately 10pm.

Technical Presentations

Presentations aren't necessarily technical—they cover the breadth of the VHF/UHF ham radio hobby. Highlights in past years have been demonstrations of Software Defined Radio and Laser Communication beyond line-of-sight. Presentations vary from 15 to 45 minutes and step you through the highlights of the topic at hand, with complete texts published as articles in the proceedings. Your speaker is available for follow-up questions throughout the remainder of the conference.

Talks/articles will be listed here as they are added to the program: (check back for updates!)

Technical Program

Getting Started on VHF+ Program

Antenna Range

Friday morning, we have an antenna range in the hotel parking lot at which you can have your own antennas tested against standards and determine gain. If you are driving to the conference, bring your antennas from 50 MHz through 47 GHz for testing. Even if you don't bring an antenna for testing, watching the range in operation teaches you about antenna theory, performance, and construction techniques. The Antenna Range also has much fine conversation and socializing during the morning.

Noise Figure Testing / Pre-amp Workshop

You can learn much about Pre-amp design and performance by bringing a pre-amp for testing or tweaking. Fellow members, who are frquently engineering professionals, will assist you while you fine-tune your pre-amplifier for testing. It's fun and always increases your knowledge. Bring your pre-amps for 50 MHz through 47 GHz.

Testing of Passive Components and Devices

We all use passive devices, including relays, directional couplers, filters, coaxial cable adapters, coax jumpers, attenuators, dummy loads and the like. Something as simple as a bad coaxial connector/adapter can keep an otherwise viable system from working. We are offering to test your passive components through 24GHz. At this writing, a network analyzer good through 40 GHz is available, from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), and a SwRI Engineer will be operating the equipment and making the tests. Attendees wishing to test their bits and pieces are asked to package them in lots of 12; in order to insure everyone gets an opportunity to get some of their pieces tested, we will be testing up to 12 pieces per person and then moving to the next. You can go through the que as many times as you wish as long as the equipment is available. Planned sessions are from 0800 to 1630 on Friday, and 0800 to 1500 or we run out of items to test, which ever comes first, on Saturday.

Friday Luncheon

We are having a Friday luncheon on the 20th floor in the hospitality area. With the glass wall and a (hopefully) clear day, the view will be outstanding. This will compliment our speaker, Joel W5ZN, President, ARRL, who will be speaking on "some hot-button topic of the day" for our edification. Menu choices will be listed on the conference registration form.

Getting Started in VHF & UHF Weak Signal Operations Program

In keeping with stated CSVHFS policy and concern, we are offering an inaugral effort to entice new operators to VHF & UHF weak signal operations. Our target is everyone from new hams such as Boy Scouts to the "old-timer" who has worked all there is to work on HF and is searching for new challenges in amateur radio. Presentations will stress basic principles and operating practices unique to the higher frequencies. A "Cheap Yagi" workshop will be included at which attendees will build their own yagi. This will allow the "shack on the belt" crowd to break into the world of horizontally polarized communication. Our initial impression is that most of the attendees will originate from an area relatively local to the conference, but younger hams who are family members or relatives of the usual "grey-beard" CSVHFS attendee would be especially welcomed! Discounted conference rates are planned for "Getting Started" attendees, as this program will be offered on Saturday only.

Rover Row / Dish Bowl

All Rovers are encouraged to bring their completely outfitted Rovermobiles. It's a great way for the Rover to give a shack-tour. We will have a designated dog-pound for all Rovermobiles on Friday morning. While the Antenna Range is in operation, many attendees will come see how you conquered installation and configuration issues in your Rovermobile. Similarly, if you have a microwave dish, please bring it for show-and-tell in the dog-pound as well. By showing your handiwork, others will gain ideas and motivation to construct their own dish systems and give all of us more operators on the high bands.

Poster Sessions / Table-Top Displays

All day Friday and Saturday, a portion of the Dealer Area will have Poster Sessions for viewing. Our concept is that some times a topic may not have enough meat for a full presentation or paper. Further, many basic VHF/UHF themes can be reviewed (taught) via poster sessions or table-top displays. Tri-Fold poster boards are available at Office Max/Office Depot. Students often use them for Science Fair Projects. This is a new program area for CSVHFS. We need your creativity and effort to bring more content to the event. Think about a poster session or table-top display you could create for this year. Perhaps a big operating event. Or perhaps photos of a recent construction project. You are not limited to the poster boards, you may bring actual physical items for display on the table as well. The tables will be chaperoned for security. If you are a good teacher, consider covering some basic VHF/UHF topics. That way, your presentation can be used again in subsequent years. See the guidelines for Authors and Presenters for guidelines for Poster Sessions/Table-top displays.

Vendor Area

All day Friday and Saturday, an entire room will be available for vendors. Between talks you can peruse their wares. For dealers, we offer up to 6 tables free (waivers available) for your use with free electricity if required (please notify). If you attend as a dealer, you're guaranteed to have shoppers interested in test equipment, and VHF/UHF/microwave equipment and parts. For non-vending attendees bringing used equipment to move, we'd prefer if you'd bring your material to the Flea Market (see below). If you must have a dealer table, however, your space will be limited, so make your reservations early!

Dealers who have pledged their attendance include (watch this page—additions will be made as dealers are identified):

Additional dealers are welcome. For information, table waivers, electricity requirements or simply to be added to the list, please email info (at) csvhfs.org

Flea Market

Friday night from 7pm till 9pm, some of the lecture room will become a Flea Market of VHF/UHF/Microwave goodies. Expect much better than you'd see at your regular hamfest. Bring things to sell--you know the interest areas of our members!

Banquet

Saturday night has a delicious banquet full of conversation with your fellow attendees. All family members are welcome! The dinner portion is followed by a presentation on the after-action analysis of the destruction of space shuttle Columbia over Texas. Then we present the Chambers and Wilson awards followed by the States Above 50 MHz Program awards. Drawing for the goodies on the Prize Table closes out the banquet which is followed by a final session at the hospitality suite. Menu choices will be listed on the conference registration form.

The Banquet Goodies Table

The Central States VHF Society Banquet Goodies Table is famous for it's quantity and quality. Many generous donors make valuable gifts available for all banquet attendees. Everyone goes home with something and several are of incredible value! Please bring donations for the ham and ladies' prize tables. Please bring prizes and be generous with your fellow attendees.

Hospitality Room

We have a large space on the 20th floor overlooking the city that will be in operation Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. It is sponsored by VHF South. This is on the 20th floor, high above the surrounding area, with glass walls providing a panaramic view of downtown San antonio, some 12 miles distant. It is a great place to enjoy a beverage and some snacks with LOTS of conversation.

Meeting Room

We have a dedicated meeting room behind the "Getting Started" classroom. This will be available for any group meeting as long as it isn't already scheduled. If you have a group in mind and would like to schedule a meeting, please contact nd2x (at) arrl.net.

Parting Shots session

The "Getting Started" classroom and meeting room will be opened as one area for a Sunday morning gathering. Especially if you're staying around after the conference as part of a vacation, or don't catch your flight until after noon, grab breakfast from the extraordinary breakfast buffet offered by the Omni's four diamond restaurant and join the group for random discussions and conference decompression.

41st Annual CSVHFS Conference Conference Details