Fox hunt chronicles for July and August

Category: News

Published on Monday, 07 August 2017 21:20

Written by Al Burke, WB9SSE

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Well, it’s two for one with this edition of the Foxhunt Chronicles. The results of both the July as well as the August contest will be, well, chronicled here.

The July hunt occurred on Sunday 9 July with just a few of the usual mob of hunters able to participate. They consisted of the team of Steve and Linda Nardin, W9’s SAN & LAN, and single hunter Clarke Derbyshire, KG9FM. Their quarry, the fox, consisted of Charles Ward, KC9MUT and Fred Gengnagle, KC9EZP and they were holed-up at Dan Ward, W9WLW’s Ward Metal Plating facilities located in the industrial park north of Smith Field just off Cook Rd. Charles had obtained permission from Dan to use the property as a fox hiding site. The high power fox emanated from Charles’s truck which was parked back in the woods and essentially hidden from sight. The microfox was contained within a metal sleeve in the wall of one of a large collection of metal containers located behind the building, and used to store and move metal parts at the facility. Given the placement of the microfox, its signal was very weak. Steve, Linda and Clarke crawled around and about the metal containers and eventually found the microfox. Linda was the first to actually lay eyes on the little bugger. Interestingly, Clarke used a combination of body shielding and an improvised attenuator consisting of a cardboard tube wrapped in aluminum foil that he would place over his HT’s antenna to reduce the microfox’s signal strength when he got close to it.

Read more: Fox hunt chronicles for July and August

The August 2017 Issue of Allen County HamNews Is Now Available

Category: News

Published on Tuesday, 01 August 2017 21:35

Written by Ken Helms, AB9ZD

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The August 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."

August 2017 issue of the Allen County HamNews
The August 2017 issue of the Allen County HamNews in PDF format.
2017-08-01  1.75 MB  162

Field Day 2017 photos available

Category: News

Published on Wednesday, 28 June 2017 15:19

Written by Jay Farlow, W9LW

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Photos from the 2017 FWRC Field Day operation are available in this web site's photo gallery.

June 2017 meeting minutes available

Category: News

Published on Wednesday, 28 June 2017 15:11

Written by Jay Farlow, W9LW

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Use the link below to download the minutes of the June, 2017 general meeting of the FWRC.

June 2017 general meeting minutes
2017-06-28   English  101.69 KB  136

FWRC 146.76 MHz repeater down

Category: News

Published on Monday, 26 June 2017 21:06

Written by Al Burke, WB9SSE

Hits: 195

Well, they always say no good deed goes unpunished, and such seems to be the case with the BridgeCom Systems BCR50V repeater at Robison Park that forms the basis of our 146.16/.76 machine. We installed this hardware at Robison Park (and a similar UHF version of the machine for 444.875 MHz) over a year ago, replacing the GE Master II hardware that had previously served as our Robison Park hardware.

The BCR-50V is a modern micro-processor based system that provides state-of-the-art repeater capability features upgradeable by virtue of it being micro-processor based.  The system we installed was one of the first units developed by BridgeCom and so incorporated an early version of its operating system.  Several revisions to this software have been released by BridgeCom, and installed in our system as experience over time with the system revealed bugs, a process common with the maturation of new hardware.

Paul Prestia, KA3OPZ received a new version of software from BridgeCom after discussing things noticed by Paul, and by BridgeCom, at the Dayton (Xenia) Hamfest.  Paul just recently installed the (new software) upgrade to the Robison Park (146.76) hardware which caused the 146.76 machine to cease operating.  When he attempted to reinstall the previous version of the software, the system would still not respond. So Paul is currently working with BridgeCom to get to the bottom of the problem so that we can put the BridgeCom hardware back in service at Robison Park.

In the interim, Jim Pliett is attempting to utilize our Motorola based “emergency” repeater on 146.16/.76 from his QTH near Columbia City using a yagi, at 70 feet, aimed towards Ft. Wayne.  Depending upon how well this works, we may wind up installing the Motorola system at Robison Park until we can get the problem with the BridgeCom system resolved.