Allen County ARES and Allen County Office of Homeland Security announced they will co-host the Allen County Severe Weather Seminar, Saturday, Mach 28, 2020, at the downtown Allen County Public Library. The co-hosts will announce speakers and registration in Saturday. The plan two sessions; a morning basic storm spotter course and an afternoon session of advanced presentations. See the flyer below.
The FWRC repeater on 146.91 MHz has been disconnected from the Echolink network. Paul Prestia, KA3OPZ reports that Purdue Fort Wayne, on whose campus the repeater is located, disconnected the repeater’s internet connection, because university staff believed our Echolink computer was hacked. Paul reports that the FWRC is working with Purdue Fort Wayne to resolve the issue and return Echolink services as soon as possible.
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Friday evening, December 13 saw a great turn-out at the annual FWRC Christmas Banquet held at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church. Forty six club members attended and participated in much good food, drink, comradeship and an exchange of presents. No one went away hungry. The club provided both fried and baked chicken plus beverages and cutlery. Attendees provided a plethora of carry-in dishes including meatballs, deviled eggs (of course), baked beans, various casserole dishes and (thanks to some artful prodding of Carole, WB9RUS, by Paul Prestia) even mostaccioli, the Field Day pasta dish said to be favored by Guglielmo Marconi himself. (Hopefully the mostaccioli showing up will establish an on-going FWRC Field Day and banquet tradition, along with the meatballs and deviled eggs). In addition, many yummy deserts made the way to the serving tables. It was scrumptious, and a good time was had by all.
Kenneth Allen Helms, K9ZT, who for years served as editor of Allen County HamNews, even after moving from Fort Wayne to Tennessee, became a silent key Nov. 20. 2019. He was 69. A brief obituary appears on a funeral home website.
The Fort Wayne Radio Club, Allen County Amateur Radio Technical Society and Fort Wayne DX Association are seeking a new volunteer to edit Allen County HamNews, which serves as the official organ for all three clubs.
Minutes of the November, 2019 general meeting of the Fort Wayne Radio Club are avilable for download.
The final Fox Hunt for 2019 started with a search for a good hiding place. On our way back from Toledo Julie and I came across the Blue Cast Springs Environmental Preserve, a part of the Acres Land Trust system, and is about 3 miles from Ohio on the East side of Allen County (basically at the corner of Bluecast Rd. and Old US 24 East). It looked promising, but we were concerned that we would not be heard from the starting point. A bit of scrounging and head scratching led us to construct a flimsy 28 foot support on which to put our homemade 4 element yagi to serve at the high power fox. We tried it out 9 days prior to the 3 November hunt , and our Sniffer pulled it right in from the Cobin Memorial Park starting point.
On the day of the hunt, 3 vehicles were ready. One vehicle had Jim, Annie, Al, and Carole, K9OMA, KA9YYI, WB9SSE and WB9RUS; the second vehicle included Steve and Linda, W9SAN and W9LAN, and their grandson Alex, and the third had Spencer, KD9NRS. Missing were regulars Charles, Fred, and Bill, KC9MUT, KC9EZP and K9WEH.
Continue readingMinutes of the October, 2019 general meeting of the Fort Wayne Radio Club are available for download.
At its general meeting October 18, 2019, the Fort Wayne Radio Club elected the following slate of officers for calendar year 2020:
President – Carole Burke, WB9RUS
Vice President – Paul Prestia, KA3OPZ
Secretary – Al Burke, WB9SSE
Treasurer – Debbie Jenks, KB9DEB
Communications Manager – Charles Ward, KC9MUT
Board of Directors:
Steve Nardin – W9SAN
Clarke Derbyshire – KG9FM
Brian Jenks – W9BGJ
Spencer Cassady – KD9NRS
Storm spotters can refresh and increase their knowledge at events in this month and next. One is the official spotter training that the National Weather Service plans to conduct in Fort Wayne October 22. The other is the annual Indiana Storm Chaser’s Convention Nov. 16.
NWS spotter class
As Allen County HamNews reported last month, the Northern Indiana office (IWX) of the National Weather Service (NWS) will conduct a storm spotter class, beginning at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the Public Safety Academy, 7602 Patriot Crossing. That’s behind the Walmart and Menards stores, off Lafayette Street, south of Tillman Road.
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The October foxhunt occurred on Sunday the 6th of October, which again turned out to be a beautiful early Fall day in Indiana, temperatures in the mid 70’s, and a mostly blue sky with a pleasant breeze to make things comfortable following early morning showers.
Three teams were arrayed for this hunt. The first consisted of Charles Ward, KC9MUT and Bill Hopkins, K9WEH. The second team was formed by Steve & Linda Nardin, W9’s SAN & LAN plus their grandson Alex. And the third team included Don Glick, K9LI, his wife Julie, and her dad, Ed.
Jim and Annie Pliett, K9OMA & KA9YYI plus Carole & Al Burke, WB9’s RUS & SSE were the fox for this contest. They decided to check out the just recently opened Promenade Park complex downtown where the Wells St. and the Harrison St. bridges cross the St. Mary’s river. It is a very nice facility; the Parks Department did a nice job on this one.
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