The May 2019 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.
The April foxhunt (hidden transmitter hunt) occurred on Sunday the 7th of April, which turned out to be a beautiful spring day in Indiana (finally)! The hunters consisted of two teams, the first being that of Charles Ward, KC9MUT, Fred Gengnagel, KC9EZP and new-comer Bill Hopkins, K9WEH who decided to give it a try and rode along with Charles and Fred. The second team consisted of Don Glick, K9LI and his wife Julie.
Jim Pliett, K9OMA, Al Burke, WB9SSE, Annie Pliett, KA9YYI and Carole Burke, WB9RUS served as the fox for this hunt. They located on the western edge of Swiney Park near the baseball diamond. The high power fox consisted of a 40 watt mobile driving Jim’s quad that was located on the roof of his van. It transmitted for one minute every five minutes, starting on the half hour. The microfox was implemented using the 40 milliwatt microprocessor controlled package we use for most foxhunts. It transmitted CW on 146.340 MHz for one minute every two and a half minutes.
Where to hide it, where to hide it, where to hide it??? Hmmm, we spotted a corrugated steel retaining wall that caught our interest. It had vertical pipe-like features on either end that just beckoned to have a microfox dropped down inside where it would be hard to find. So that’s what Jim did. Being inside the metal pipe created a natural shielding effect which meant that one had to get within fifteen feet or so of the pipe to hear the microfox signal.
The April 2019 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.”
Minutes of the March, 2019 FWRC general meeting are now available for download.
The March fox (hidden transmitter) hunt occurred on Sunday the 3rd of March, a cold, windy, slightly overcast day that featured a bit of blowing snow. (C’mon Spring Training). The foxhunting teams consisted of the team of Jim Pliett, K9OMA and Al Burke, WB9SSE, the team of Steve and Linda Nardin, WB9’s SAN and LAN plus their grandson Alex, and the team of Don Glick, K9LI and his wife Julie.
The role of the fox in this little drama was provided by Charles Ward, KC9MUT, Fred Gengnagel, KC9EZP and Phil Hooper, AB9IZ. (This crew is widely referred to as “the Unholy Three” in God fearing foxhunting circles throughout the Midwest, and internationally, through Interpol, are known as der schlaue Fuchs).
They hid out at Waynedale Memorial Park, south of Lower Huntington Rd., across the street from Waynedale Elementary School. A nice little park.
The March 2019 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.”
Minutes of the February 2019 general meeting of the Fort Wayne Radio Club are available for download from the files section of this website or by clicking the link below:
The last week of January was a real struggle! Temperatures hit near record lows, pipes burst, water mains broke, and the Interstates were littered with semis that had their diesel fuel gel up. Schools missed up to four days. All this bad weather had us all wondering if having our first Fox Hunt of the year on February 3rd was going to be a bad idea! As it turns out, the weather was just great! Temps heading up into the low 50’s, and the sun was shining with a gentle breeze blowing.
The ‘Fox’ team of Linda and Steve, W9LAN & W9SAN, had chosen to hide out on the eastern side of Allen County at Woodlan K-12 school, just to the west of Woodburn.
At 1:30pm the foxes started transmitting. During the first transmission the fox was accidently set to low power. So although the fox signal was weak at the Cobin Memorial Park start point, the assembled hunters (the team of KC9MUT & KC9EZP, the team of K9OMA, KA9YYI, WB9SSE and ride along hunter Brian Mockenhaupt, and the team of K9LI and his wife Julie plus ride along hunter KD9ITZ) heard it and started heading to the east. Progress was halted for some (more than a half hour for the K9OMA team) by a Norfolk and Southern freight train that came to a halt across several of the grade crossings on roads heading east. (Accusations that the fox team had conspired with N&S engineer Phil Hooper, AB9IZ, to use his company’s trains to impede the hunters was later proved to be fake news!)
The February 2019 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.”
The Allen County chapter of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) invites all interested persons to attend its Feb. 21 meeting, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., at the main, downtown branch of the Allen County Public Library, The meeting will be devoted to severe weather and storm spotting. You don’t have to be a ham radio operator and you don’t need any prior knowledge of meteorology or communications.
Scheduled speakers include ABC21 Weekend Morning Meteorologist Caleb Chevalier, WANE 15 Chief Meteorologist Nicholas Ferreri, FOX 55 weekend Meteorologist Caleb Saylor, Fort Wayne’s NBC Weekend Meteorologist Jon Wilson, Allen County Office of Homeland Security director Bernie Beier, Consolidated Communications Partnership (911/public safety dispatch) director David Bubb, Allen County ARES team leader Jim Moehring and Allen County SKYWARN ham radio net manager Jay Farlow.
Although representatives of the National Weather Service (NWS) are not available for this meeting, we will follow the NWS SKYWARN curriculum with enhancements specific to Allen County. NWS does not plan to teach a spotter class in Allen County until autumn of 2019.
This event is free and only about 100 seats are available. If you plan to come, please register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/allen-county-storm-spotter-education-tickets-54685721465, so ARES will know if registrations approach the room’s capacity.
Anyone can help protect their community from weather threats like tornadoes. In just a couple of hours, you can learn how severe weather forms, how to distinguish truly threatening weather from scary-looking but harmless clouds, and how to report severe weather so the rest of your community can be adequately warned.
This meeting will be valuable to anyone who is interested in severe weather, including those who have previously received storm spotter training.