The Fort Wayne Radio Club is an organization of amateur (ham) radio operators in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Use the menu above to learn more or scroll down for the latest news!
Tue., May 1st, 2018, 7:00am MAY BOD MTG |
Sun., May 6th, 2018, 1:30pm MAY FOX HUNT |
Fri., May 11th, 2018, 7:00pm MAY GENERAL MEETING |
Mon., Jun 4th, 2018, 1:30pm JUNE FOX HUNT |
Tue., Jun 5th, 2018, 7:00pm JUNE BOD MTG |
FWRC participates in the annual ARRL Field Day event every June.
FWRC conducts a monthly fox (hidden transmitter) hunt from March through November.
FWRC members bring test eqiupment to one meeting per year for the club's annual "rig clinic."
Every August, FWRC hosts a free tailgate hamfest.
FWRC members participate in the ARRL VHF QSO Party from an upper level of a parking structure.
Volunteer examiners will offer amateur radio license examinations in Fort Wayne May 5. They will conduct the exams at the offices of the Boy Scouts of America Anthony Wayne Area Council, 8315 West Jefferson Blvd.
Despite the West Jefferson address, the office is accessed by taking the access road across from the entrance to Lutheran Hospital. The Boy Scout office is at the south end of that access road, just beyond Extended Stay America. The examiners will be in the basement, next to the Kitchen.
They will offer exams for all classes of amateur radio licenses. No appointment is necessary. Persons wishing to take exams may check in from 9 to 11 a.m. They will need $14 for the exam fee, a photo ID and a second form of ID. Amateurs who hope to upgrade to a higher license class must also bring a photo copy of their current license to leave with the application.
After May 5, testing will be available two more times in Fort Wayne this year; August 4 at the Boy Scout office and November 17, during the Fort Wayne Hamfest at the Allen County War Memorial Colisuem.
The third foxhunt of 2018 occurred on 8 April, 2018, a beautiful sunny afternoon. Two teams arrived at the starting point at Cobin Memorial Park in anticipation of the hunt beginning at 13:30 hours. The first team included Jim Pliett, K9OMA, Carole Burke, WB9RUS and Al Burke, WB9SSE. The second team included Steve and Linda Nardin W9’s SAN & LAN and their grandson Alex.
The fox function was provided by Charles Ward, KC9MUT, Fred Gengnagel, KC9EP, Bob Dean, KC9UHU, and Kevin Loughin, KB9RLW. They chose a little patch of woods just south of Pro Bowl West (on Goshen Rd.) and north of Glen Park, to hide the microfox. It was squirreled into the cleft of a tree branch about six feet off the ground wrapped in camo and almost impossible to see, even when you were a foot or so away from it.Prior to the foxhunt, Jim, K9OMA had been trying to diagnose the cause of 30 degree error in indicated direction of signal arrival exhibited by the horizontally polarized cubical quad foxhunting antenna mounted on the roof of his van. When he changed to vertical polarization, the bearing error was eliminated so he decided to try vertical polarization for this hunt. That proved to be problematic as it turned out.
The April 2018 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."
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The April 2018 issue of the Allen County HamNews in PDF format. |
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The second foxhunt of 2018 occurred on 4 March, 2018 on a brisk but sunny afternoon. Three teams arrived at the starting point at Cobin Memorial Park in anticipation of the hunt beginning at 13:30 hours. The first team included Charles Ward, KC9MUT, Fred Gengnagel, KC9EP and Kevin Loughin, KB9RLW. The second team included Steve and Linda Nardin W9’s SAN & LAN. And the third team consisted of Don Glick, W9LI and newcomer Rudy Wilfong.
The fox function was provided by Jim and Annie Pliett, K9OMA & KA9YYI plus Carole and Al Burke, WB9’s RUS & SSE. They located the high-power fox on the grounds of Carroll High School off Carroll Rd. just west of the Carroll High School Natatorium. It pumped about 30 watts into a cubicle quad mounted on the roof of Jim’s van.
The microfox was the standard microprocessor-driven CW transmitter producing about 10 milliwatts into a monopole. Ultimately, the microfox was hidden under one of the seats in the tennis court’s aluminum bleacher stands in such a way that it was almost impossible to see.
It’s once more time to dust off our roof-mounted mobile and hand-held direction-finding (DF) Yagis, check our DF receivers, and upgrade our maps of Allen County in preparation of the 2018 fox (hidden transmitter) hunting season. The first hunt of the season will occur in early February with hunts planned for the following dates through November:
4 February | 4 March | 8 April | 6 May | 3 June |
8 July | 5 August | 9 September | 7 October | 4 November |
Fox hunters gather near Daryl B. Cobin Memorial Park (in the former K-Mart parking lot) off Coliseum near the Lakeside Golf Course.
Each hunt starts at 1330, with whoever is serving as the fox transmitting a high power fox signal, strong enough to be heard at Corbin Park, on 146.430 MHz, for one minute. After that, the fox transmits a high-power signal every five minutes, immediately followed by a low-power (microprocessor-controlled) hidden fox transmission, also on 146.430 MHz, for one minute. The low-power fox transmission is a cw signal. Generally speaking, the low-power fox is camouflaged to make it difficult to detect visually.
Minutes of the November, 2017 general meeting of the Fort Wayne Radio Club are now available for download using the link below.
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