June fox had few hunters

Category: News

Published on Wednesday, 14 June 2017 11:55

Written by Al Burke, WB9SSE

Hits: 80

Well, the June foxhunt was minimalistic in terms of hunters because only Team-Steve & Linda Nardin, W9’s SAN & LAN and their grandson Alex, and Team- Charles Ward & Fred Gengnagel, KC’s MUT & EZP, were able to participate in this month’s contest. But no matter, they were primed and ready to go at the starting point at Cobin Memorial Park, twirling their Weber Rakes (a technical term for receive antennas) in anticipation of detecting and getting a bearing on the electro-magnetic waves launched from the fox’s antenna.

The services of the fox this month was provided by Don Glick, K9LI who was situated on the back porch of his QTH out in Grabill. Don was not able to acquire the micro-fox normally used these days for our fox hunts, so locating Don constituted finding the fox for this contest.

The signal was weak but readable at the starting point. But once detected and a bearing to the north-east established the chase was on, and both teams drove like Fernando Alonso at the Indy 500. It took about 50 minutes for the hunters to get localized to the Leo-Cedarville-Grabill area. Linda, Steve and Alex went all the way around Riverside Park and down route 1, while Charles and Fred took a slower, but more precise route.

In Cedarville, the W9LAN team came upon the MUT team executing a U-turn in the middle of the road. (After phoning an anonymous tip to the Allen County Sheriff’s department regarding apparent reckless driving), they followed the Charles team over Cedar Creek and spotted the location of the fox. Charles and Fred came to rest in a cloud of tire smoke, while the Linda-Steve-Alex team approached from the rear, and the chase was now on foot! Charles was first to discover Don and wife sitting on their back porch, so that team was deemed the winner.

Following the hunt everyone boogied over to the Tasty Freeze in Grabill for banana splits and other concoctions. As Alex was recovering from quadruple wisdom teeth removal he ate (according to him) only soft, tasteless food.

So, Charles and Fred will serve as the fox for the July hunt. Why not join us?

FWRC wins Indiana QSO Party!

Category: News

Published on Wednesday, 14 June 2017 11:38

Written by Steve Nardin, W9SAN

Hits: 75

The scores are in, and Fort Wayne Radio Club has won the club competition of this year's Indiana QSO Party!! This is mostly due to the excellent performance of Jack Shutt, W9GT, who also is the individual winner of the INQP. Way to go, Jack!!

With 167,000 points the FWRC has easily won with the second place Goshen and Kokomo clubs all beating the Indianapolis club.

To see all the scores and results, go to the link http://hdxcc.org/inqp/scores.php and read all about it!

Thanks to all that worked the INQP and submitted their logs. Thanks again to Jack for the biggest score in the state and helping to push FWRC over the top. This is the second win for FWRC as well, and we have the plaques to prove it, hanging in our Robison Park repeater shack

The June 2017 Issue of Allen County HamNews Is Now Available

Category: News

Published on Thursday, 01 June 2017 11:02

Written by Ken Helms, AB9ZD

Hits: 135

The June 2017 Issue of the Allen County HamNews newsletter is now available for download using the link below. This and previous issues are also available for download by clicking the "Files" link in the main menu and then clicking "Newsletters."

June 2017 issue of the Allen County HamNews
The June 2017 issue of the Allen County HamNews in PDF format.
2017-06-01  1.58 MB  174

May fox hides in Huntertown

Category: News

Published on Thursday, 25 May 2017 08:56

Written by Al Burke, WB9SSE

Hits: 90

The saying goes “April showers bring May flowers”. But the major rain we’ve experienced this May has also brought us floods. We thought that might be the case for the May hunt, but as luck would have it, the sun made its appearance on Sunday the 7^th. All in all it was a great day for a fox hunt.

Three teams were assembled at the Cobin Memorial Park starting point. They included the team of Charles, KC9MUT and Fred, KC9EZP, the team of Steve and Linda, K9’s SAN & LAN, and single hunter Don, K9LI.

The role of the wily fox was provided by Jim & Annie Pliett, K9OMA & KA9YYI. They located themselves in the Huntertown Family Park (the Huntertown Dog Park) north of Ft. Wayne, and they hid the microfox inside a piece of rotten wood in a copse of trees and underbrush.

The contest commenced at 1:35 p.m. with everyone hearing the fox from the get-go. First to arrive at the Huntertown dog park after about an hour were W9SAN and W9LAN followed by KC9MUT and KC9EZP, and then K9LI.

Once having localized the fox the teams quickly assembled their portable fox sniffers and commenced stomping about the park. After considerable searching amongst the flora and fauna, and not a little bit of digging, the microfox was found embedded in a rotten piece of wood. First to unearth the subterranean fox was Don. He was followed by Steve & Linda, and then by Steve and Charles. Among the comments heard were; “that darn poison ivy”,…” those nasty brambles”,… and of course “those damn ticks”. The good news, no mosquitoes!

Following the hunt the weary hunters relaxed and refueled at a friendly watering hole, the Willows Bar & Grill in Hunter town. A nice end to a pleasant day and enjoyable contest.

Why not join us next month (Sunday, June 4^th) as Don serves as the fox and hides it in some devious locale?

Scores

License exams in Fort Wayne Aug. 5

Category: News

Published on Monday, 08 May 2017 17:54

Written by Jay Farlow, W9LW

Hits: 185

The next volunteer examiner test session here in Allen county will be Saturday August 5. The test session will be held at the Boy Scout Office on the southwest side of Fort Wayne. Their address is listed as 8315 W Jefferson Blvd. but they are actually located at the end of Olde Canal Place, which intersects with West Jefferson at the entrance to Lutheran Hospital, just off I-69 at exit 302. We will be in the basement next to the kitchen.

We will be taking check-ins from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m. The W5YI volunteer examiner coordinator fee for 2017 is still $14; you will need a photo ID and a second form of ID as well. If you are testing for an upgrade, you will also need to bring a photocopy of your current license to leave with the paperwork.

The final test session of the year will be held at the Fort Wayne Hamfest in November. If you have any questions please call Tom Baker, N9TB, at 747-2714