The March 2023 issue of Allen County HamNews, the official newsletter of the Fort Wayne Radio Club, is available for download using the link below or the “Newsletters” menu item above.
The National Weather Service (NWS) plans to conduct a statewide tornado drill in Indiana Tuesday, March 14, at 10:15 a.m. ET.
Beginning at about 10 a.m. that day, the Allen County Skywarn® net plans to implement standby mode, during which a net control station will explain what will happen when the statewide drill begins.
When NWS begins the drill by activating a NOAA Weather Radio alert, the net plans to switch to directed net mode, as it would during a real tornado warning. At that time, the net control station will accept simulated severe weather reports, using time-event-location (TEL) format.
To make a simulated report a station should first transmit their call sign phonetically, followed by the type of report. For example, “Whiskey Nine Alpha Bravo Charlie, funnel cloud.”
When acknowledged by the net control station, the reporting station should then give a report in time-event-location (TEL) format, as suggested by the National Weather Service Northern Indiana office. For example, “Test message. At 10:15 a.m., A simulated funnel cloud was approximately one mile north of the intersection of Dupont Road and Lima Road in northeastern Fort Wayne. W9ABC.”
As usual, the net will occur on 146.88 MHz. If for any reason that repeater is unavailable, the net will operate on 146.94 MHz.
The National Weather Service Northern Indiana weather forecast office has announced in-person and virtual training for volunteer storm spotters in March 2023. The sessions train volunteers to participate in the agency’s Skywarn storm spotter program. They help the NWS issue appropriate severe weather warnings by providing essential information not available via technology such as radar and weather satellites.
The Northern Indiana office plans in-person training in:
- Dowagiac, Michigan, March 6, 6 p.m. ET
- Wabash, Indiana, March 15, 6:30 p.m. ET
- Paulding, Ohio, March 20, 6 p.m. ET
- Albion, Indiana, March 28, 6:30 p.m. ET
In addition, the office will provide the same information through online webinars:
- March 1, 6 p.m. ET
- March 10, 11 a.m. ET
- March 25, 1 p.m. ET
Registration for all of the above in-person and virtual sessions is available now on the NWS website.
If you’ve had the training before, you’ll want to know that the NWS recommends that spotters take the class at least once every three years. I take it annually to see the latest changes in the program and to refresh my memory.
Among other benefits, the training helps spotters know the difference between scary looking but benign weather phenomena and truly dangerous weather that the NWS needs to know about immediately.
The February 2023 issue of Allen County HamNews, the official newsletter of the Fort Wayne Radio Club, is now available for download from this website, using the link below or the “Newsletters” menu item above.
The first fox hunt (hidden transmitter hunt) of 2023 is scheduled for February 5 at 1:30 p.m. ET.
The event will begin near the Corbin Park trailhead, 742 N Coliseum Blvd in Fort Wayne, 0.7 mile north of the intersection with East Washington Blvd.
The Fort Wayne Radio Club is offering a free three-element tape-measure Yagi antenna with BNC connector to fox hunt participants.
The fox will transmit on 146.43 MHz FM. It will initially transmit on high power for one minute every five minutes. The fox will transmit on low power for approximately 2.5 minutes at time.
Participants communicate with each other on the FWRC 146.76 MHz FM repeater. The repeater might require a 141.3 Hz CTCSS tone if it remains troubled by interference.
After the hunt, participants plan to gather at a nearby restaurant to be determined.
Beginning hunters are welcome and experienced hunters are prepared to teach.
January 25, Fort Wane CBS affiliate WANE TV-15 aired a feature story, “The dits and dahs of Morse Code in the digital age,” about local ham radio operators and their enthusiasm for Morse code and straight keys.
The hypertext above links to a page on the station’s website where one can view the video, a written version of the story and several still frames.
WANE videographer Dani Hough visited the New Haven shack of Ken Rogner, N8KR while local members of the Straight Key Century Club participated in a special event. WANE news anchor Pat Hoffman, who produces a series of feature stories called, “Positively Fort Wayne” decided to base a story for his series on video his colleague recorded at Ken’s station.
The videographer’s visit resulted from a pitch sent to the station by ARRL volunteer public information officer Jay Farlow, W9LW, who also provided some of the video that Hoffman used.
The Fort Wayne Radio Club will meet February 17, 2023, and conduct an auction of electronic equipment.
Everyone is welcome to buy and sell. Send any questions about auction procedures to jimpliett@gmail.com.
Doors open at 6 p.m. Enter the church building using door number 2. If possible, arrive no later than 6:30 p.m., so someone will be at the door to let you in. Late arrivals might need to call for assistance on the 146.76 MHz FWRC repeater.
Once inside, proceed to Raasch Hall.
The Fort Wayne Radio Club will meet Friday, January 20, at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, 4700 Vance Avenue, at 6:30 p.m.
Steve Nardin, W9SAN will speak on “RFI Facts for Hams.”
Enter the church building using door number 2. If possible, arrive no later than 6:30 p.m., so someone will be at the door to let you in. Late arrivals might need to call for assistance on the 146.76 MHz FWRC repeater.
Once inside, proceed to Raasch Hall.
The January 2023 issue of Allen County HamNews, the official newsletter of the Fort Wayne Radio Club, is available for download using the link below or the “Newsletters” item on the menu above.
The Allen County Skywarn net does not expect to activate for this week’s winter storm, because the National Weather Service doesn’t typically winter storm reports as immediately as it needs severe weather reports.
We encourage spotters, however, to report winter storm impacts directly to US National Weather Service Northern Indiana via one of the following methods.
* Email the office at W-IWX.Webmaster@noaa.gov.
* Post a report on Twitter and include the string, @NWSIWX in your tweet.
The office will be especially interested in visibility reports (how far you can see in the blowing snow), snow depth reports (see this web page for instructions on creating valide depth measurements), wind damage reports and other impact reports.
Remember to use “TEL” format: Time of occurence, Event (what happened) and Location.