Fort Wayne Radio Club

The FWRC annual Auction this coming Friday will feature several vintage radios. The club is selling three stations of vintage gear, and we would like to report that three other vintage rigs are also planned to be present.

The FWRC stations are a vintage Kenwood TS-520 radio with accessories and a Drake TR-3 Transceiver with power supply, matching speaker and D-104 microphone. Also, donated to the club is a Heathkit SB-104A station.

Here is a picture of the Kenwood station:

This Kenwood station has been checked out and it receives great. The transmitter has a little 120 HZ buzz, but otherwise works fine, and the CW works too. It has two filters, one for SSB and one for CW (500 HZ bandwidth).  In original boxes. The station is excellent cosmetically, except for the Electro Voice microphone, which has been through a war (but works fine). The digital display is very accurate. The remote VFO has not been tested, as the cable is missing. This rig has AC and DC power supplies, but the DC cable is missing as well. The tuner is great, and has only two knobs. It was tested with a long wire antenna and a 9:1 UNUN.

Here is a picture of the Drake station:

The Drake TR-3 is in good condition. The receiver is very weak and needs attention. The transmitter has not been tested. The D-104 mic is included. Original manual is included. All tubes light. The speaker includes an AC power supply. It is recommended that only some one familiar with tube circuits purchase and work on this rig. 

Here is the Heathkit station:

The Heathkit SB-104A is the solid state replacement for the famous SB-102 series. The tuner is home brew in a cabinet to match the SB series. Operational status of this station is unknown. Manuals are included.

Another FWRC rig to be sold at the auction is a Yaesu VX-170 HT with charger and speaker mic. This is a 2 meter only HT and it works fine.

The club also has a Century 21 CW transciever, if someone is interested, let me know.

Also coming to the auction are the following older rigs:

• Collins 75S-3B receiver
• Hallicrafters SX-100 receiver
• Halicrafters HT-32 transmitter

Condition of this gear is unknown; see it at the auction!

For more information, contact Steve, W9SAN, at w9san@arrl.net, or visit Paul Pestia’s auction website.

73, See you at the Auction!!

The January 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.”

It’s time for YOU to start planning for the upcoming foxhunting season. Foxhunts will occur on Sundays in the months February through November. We knock off for December and January. The dates established for 2017 are as follows:

• 5 February,
• 5 March,
• 2 April,
• 7 May,
• 4 June,
• 9 July,
• 6 August,
• 10 September,
• 1 October, and,
• 5 November

A foxhunt in any particular month can be rescheduled once within that month (due to weather, civil riots, Godzilla attacks or other unforeseen events). If the rescheduled hunt subsequently cannot be executed for whatever reason, then there will be no hunt that month.

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The Fort Wayne Radio Club will host it’s Christmas Banquet on Friday, 9 December at the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church (at the corner of Vance and Reed, across the street from Snider High School) starting promptly at 6:30 pm.  The club will be providing both baked and fried chicken, soft drinks, coffee, plates, cups and utensils.

As this is a carry-in affair attendees are asked to bring some other goodies in to supplement the chicken. It can be side dishes, salads, vegetables, desserts or whatever suits you’re fancy.  (You know, you can’t go wrong with meatballs and/or deviled eggs, you just can’t).

This year we will be entertained by a special guest. Her name is Ann Bigley and she is an accomplished music educator, teacher, pianist, choral director, vocalist, musician, actress, and, in her spare time the mother of club member Elizabeth Wolverton, KD9BCH.  Ann is all set to provide us with a program that will put us in the holiday mood.

We will also have a voluntary gift exchange again this year. Those interested in participating should bring a wrapped gift suitable for, and identified as for a man or woman, perhaps something an OM or XYL would appreciate. But it doesn’t necessarily need to be something related to our hobby.

The value of the gift should be limited to not more than $10.00 to keep things within reason.  (The only exception to this guideline is that if you intend to bring in ANY item of Collins gear, just be sure to mark it “For An OM, specifically WB9SSE”). It’ll make him happy, and you feel warm and fuzzy.

So please plan to join us for this evening of good food, good friends and good entertainment. Remember, Friday, 9 December starting at 6:30 pm at the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, corner of Vance and Reed Rd.

The December 2016 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.”

Two club meetings this week:

• Tuesday, November 15th, 7:00 pm,  ACARTS general meeting, 7:00 pm at the Salvation Army. The meeting will be a recap of the FW Hamfest which happened this weekend.
• Friday, November 18th, 7:00 pm, FWRC general meeting, 7:00 pm at the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, 4700 Vance Ave in Fort Wayne. The presentation for the meeting will be NPOTA, the National Parks On The Air event that has been going on for all  this year, run by the ARRL. Tom Rupp,  KU8T, will describe his activity in putting quite a few of the National Parks and other National locations on the air. Also, we will have an update on our WLDE repeater installation fund drive. It’s starting to get exciting!!

THANKS to everyone that renewed their membership before and during the FW Hamfest!! We have about 84 members that took care to renew. The Po Fung HT, 144/222 MHz FM rig was won by Jeff Brady,  N9JTB, at the Sunday drawing.

On an usually warm first Sunday of November, the Fort Wayne Radio Club held its final Fox Hunt of the 2016 season. The foxes, Linda, W9LAN, Steve, W9SAN, and their grandson, Alex, had chosen an Acres Land Trust location on Chapman Road in northern Allen County. This location includes the main office of the Acres organization. Pulling our Honda fox vehicle into the small parking lot, we assigned Alex the job of hiding the micro fox, which he located behind an old garage in a dead Elm tree, sliding it behind some the bark on the tree at about 5 feet above the ground. This height would prove to be just enough to allow the micro fox signal to be heard before hunters could localize the site.

At 1:30 pm, after turning all of our clocks back an hour to go back on Standard Time, the fox began transmitting. Since initial reception reports were weak, we increased power to 25 watts, swung the antenna in the direction we imagined the start point to be, and continued. Most were hearing us with enough strength to get a decent bearing and the hunt was on! Included in the hunt were 5 teams; the Burke-Pliett team of 4, the Charles-Fred team of 2, Jason plus daughter Kylie and Deborah, Jim and Kim, and a new team consisting of Brenda and Jim, KD9GDX & KD9GDY, hunting on their own for the first time after several ride along hunts. We kept transmitting every 5 minutes despite several interruptions by curious passersby’s, curious bees, and Alex’s new found bird calling skills.

Little did we know the drama that the hunters were enduring!

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