Blanco, first established in 1977, is our link to the Armadillo Intertie, the other Cactus Intertie affiliate in Texas. It is located about 45 miles north of San Antonio, in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. The site houses the Richards Memorial Station operated in memory of benefactor and close personal friend, Mr. Ransom A. Richards, WA5JEC
This is where our experience with linked Amateur radio stations began. With the constant support of Mr. and Mrs. Richards, we established our first links to Austin and Corpus Christi. We assembled the station from cast off Citizens Band UHF radios. The links were marginal. Later upgrades have made them quite reliable to this day.
The snapshots below show some of the activities of our friends over more than 30 years. Volunteers transported a large donated tower and assembled a tri-band HF beam. Shown below is some of the original equipment mounted on a Hill Country stone water tank. We then moved to the top of a nearby hill, where we erected a 60' Rohn 25 tower and hauled in a work trailer to house the station. We later installed a second tower that extends to 160'.
The smaller tower below left carries an HF tri-bander and a wire antenna as well as VHF/UHF Yagis. The 160' Rohn 45 holds the repeater DB-410 and Sinclair link antennas pointing at San Antonio, Austin Bee Caves and Kerrville.
In addition to daily duties as a three-way relay and repeater station, Blanco serves as a contest station for Members.