The Allen County, Indiana W5YI volunteer examiner team will hold an amateur radio licensing test session Saturday, May 7 at 9 a.m. at the Anthony Wayne Area Council office of the Boy Scouts of America, 8315 W. Jefferson Blvd., Fort Wayne. This is an open session that does not require reservations. The testing fee is $14. Applicants must bring two forms of identification, one of which must bear their photos. Applicants testing for a license upgrade must bring a copy of their current licenses to submit with their applications. The team also plans test sessions Saturday, August 6 and during the the Fort Wayne Hamfest November 12. The team has not yet decided whether to conduct a test session Field Day weekend in June.
Four Fort Wayne amateur radio operators who are also volunteer storm spotters in the National Weather Service (NWS) SKYWARN program spent several hours April 11 assisting residents with their NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) receivers.
Al Burke (WB9SSE), Steve Haxby (N9MEL), Howard Pletcher (N9ADS), and Jay Farlow (W9LW) worked alongside representatives of WANE TV, the Alllen County Office of Homeland Security, the National Weather Service and the Midland Radio Corporation at the Walgreens store on Stellhorn Road to configure NWR receivers.
The volunteers assured that the receivers’ specific area message encoding (SAME) and receive frequency settings were correct, so users would receive warnings that the NWS issues for their home counties.
WANE TV had promoted the three-hour event, which was duplciated at other locations in the TV station’s market area. The Walgreens store sold nearly 100 near NWR receivers during the event, which volunteers configured. Volunteers also assited other visitors who brought in their own equipment, some of which was not SAME-capable (and at least one of which was not even a receiver!).
More photos of the event are available in this website’s photo gallery.
2016 Allen County ARES VHF Contest
Purpose
- To promote FM Simplex operation.
- To provide a local, fun, fast contest with equipment most hams already own.
When
Saturday, April 16, 2016, 1200-1600 Local Time
The contest is open to all radio amateurs.
This contest is designed for hams to have fun over a short period. You don’t need to devote an entire weekend, just an enjoyable Saturday afternoon. So get a cup of hot chocolate, a comfortable chair, and sit down for a few hours to see who is on the air. There will be some rovers running around during the full contest period to keep activity going the entire time.
This is a low key contest, do not feel rushed, there is plenty of time for a short chat. You can move a participant to another band. Ask questions, meet someone new. The rules are simple, equipment requirements minimal. It is really a pleasant way to spend a few hours on the radio.
Rules
Frequencies: Limited to the FM simplex frequencies on the following bands. 2 Meter, 220 band, 440 band
No contacts are permitted on the calling frequencies.
Classes
- Base
- Rover
- Portable – Limited to 10W, with transceiver mounted antenna
Exchange
Call sign, your sequential contact number, and County/Township
Note: You should not use a separate set of sequential numbers for each band. Start at the beginning of the contest and keep going in order even if you change bands.
On Saturday, April 2nd, the weather decided to go absolutely crazy! We had very cold temperatures for April, the wind was hurricane force, and the snow was horizontal! It was totally out of character for the time of year, so when Sunday the 3rd rolled around, we were happy that the sun was shining brightly. The temps were a little on the chilly side and the wind was still rather strong, but the Fox Hunters that gathered that day were thankful for the great improvement.
At the start of the Hunt, four teams had gathered: Charles, Fred, Robert, and Phil in one vehicle, Jason and his daughter Kylie, the team of Al, Carole, Anne, and Jim, rounded out by Kim and Jim with our first ride-along of the season, new ham Chris, KD9FNM, aboard for his first Fox Hunt. At 1:30 pm, the Fox went on the air. Two of the four teams had difficulty hearing the Fox on the input of the 146.76 machine, which prompted a furious anti-Murphy response by the Fox to try a better antenna, which turned out to be broken. So the Fox went back to the on-glass antenna on a rather low to the ground Mini Cooper but running at 50 watts output. In the process, I had completely tore apart the boot on the Cooper and had to reassemble in the field.
Please join the Fort Wayne Radio Club Friday, April 15, at 7 p.m. for the club’s spring banquet. As usual, the banquet is a carry-in affair, with the club supplying both grilled and fried chicken, drinks (coffee and Crystal Light Lemonade) as well as place settings and utensils. We ask that all who join us bring their favorite main dish, side dish or dessert to share with their fellow hams and quests. It is always a fulfilling meeting! See you there!
The Fort Wayne Radio Club mourns the passing of past president Bill Kindred, WA9RAP. Bill died April 4 at Parkview Hospital. He was 86. Many amateur radio operators in Fort Wayne received their licenses with Bill’s help, either as a teacher or examiner.
Funeral service is 11 a.m. Saturday, April 9, 2016, at C.M. Sloan & Sons Funeral Home, 1327 N. Wells St., Fort Wayne, with calling from 10 to 11 a.m. Calling also from 5 to 7 Friday, April 8, 2016, at the funeral home. Burial in Catholic Cemetery. Preferred memorials to St. Mary’s Soup Kitchen or The Salvation Army.
According to FWRC secretary Al Burke, WB9SSE, the club will make a donation to either the Soup Kitchen or the Salvation Army in Bill’s name. The club plans to circulate a card for signature at the upcoming FWRC Spring Banquet Friday, April 15th.
The April 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.”
For 35 years, broadcast meteorologist Tom Skilling of Chicago television station WGN has hosted an annual severe weather educational event in an auditorium on the campus of Fermilab, a U.S. Department of Energy particle physics laboratory in the Chicago suburb of Batavia.
The event is very popular among weather geeks and the members of the general public. I’ve heard many people talk about it, but have never attended, because four hours seems a long drive for a half-day event.
This year, however, WGN will stream the entire event live on the Web. And the speaker line-up is impressive:
- Louis Uccellini, Director, National Weather Service
- Russell Schneider, Director of the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center, Norman, Oklahoma
- Chris Strager, Central Region Director, National Weather Service
- Donald J. Wuebbles, Harry E. Preble Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Illinois
- Doug Sisterson & Dr. Seth Darling of Argonne National Laboratory, authors of the book “How to Change Minds on our Changing Climate”
- Ed Fenelon, Meteorologist in Charge-National Weather Service-Chicago
- Mike Bardou, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, NWS-Chicago
- Brian Smith, Warning Coordination Meteorologist-National Weather Service Forecast Office-Valley, NE
- Sean Lewis, WGN-TV anchor/reporter
- Kimberly A. Smith, Director Emergency Preparedness, Commonwealth Edison
This year’s event is Saturday, April 2, from noon to 4:30 p.m. CDT. A free ticket is required and according to the event website, the tickets are gone, except for some that the station held back for promotional purposes.
But the station says it will stream the entire event live on WGNtv.com. You can also see tweets from the seminar with the hash tag #SkillingFermi.
If you can’t watch the seminar live, check the TV station’s website afterward. In past years, it has posted video segments from the event.
March 6th was a nice day – low winds, and decent temperatures (48F) for early March in Indiana. The sun was out, and the Foxhunt turnout was good: Five teams were vying for the elusive fox:
- Kim and Jim
- Steve and Linda
- Dave and Robert
- Charles and Fred
- Al, Jim, Carole, and Annie
After participating with the Foxhunt team for over a year now, Deborah and I were trying to figure out a way to be more devious than Charles. We scouted for locations the weekend prior, and came up with a lovely place out of the way: The historic Brunswick bridge in the southeast part of the county. However, it didn’t feel devious enough. Sure the location was tricky to get to, due to some road closures that forced you to circle behind the transmitter to get there, but it wasn’t quite “Charles-devious”. For that, the praise (or scorn) can be given to Deborah, who mischievously suggested that the transmitter shouldn’t be anywhere near the bridge. In fact, it should be right next to the high power transmitter.
The March 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.”