Fox-hunting season starts under water

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Steve Nardin, W9SAN searches for a hidden transmitter along the St. Joe River. More photos from the February , 2020 fox hunt are available in this website’s photo gallery.

So, here it is February, 2020, the centennial year of the Fort Wayne Radio Club. And February marks the start of another season of Foxhunting. One initiative worth taking on this year is to grow the ranks of foxhunters in and around Allen County, and we hope to accomplish this as the year goes on.

We hunt the wily fox on the first Sunday of the month, February through November. (We take December and January off to get the blood flowing again in our frozen fingers and toes). Each hunt starts from Cobin Memorial Park on south Coliseum Blvd next to Lakeside Golf Course. The fox itself can be ensconced anywhere in Allen County. The fox actually consists of a foxhunting team serving as (high power) fox for that particular month plus a microfox that they have cleverly hidden (usually) close to the location of the high power fox. The high power fox typically transmits about a 30 watt fm signal using a yagi on 146.430 MHz for one minute every five minutes, while the microfox transmits about a 40 milliwatt frequency modulated cw signal for one minute every 2 ½ minutes. Once the foxhunters identify the general location of the fox using the high power fox signal, they dismount and track down the microfox with hand held DF equipment.

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Allen County Severe Weather Seminar announced

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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.

Repeater disconnected from Echolink

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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.

2019 FWRC Christmas banquet sees great turnout

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(Click any image to see larger versions.)

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.

Ken Helms, K9ZT, SK

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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.

November fox hides in remote environmental preserve

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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.

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Officers elected for 2020

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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

Two education opportunities for storm spotters

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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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