Saturday’s Skilling Fermilab severe weather seminar to be streamed online

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Tom Skilling hosts the 36th annual Tornado and Severe Weather Seminar at Fermilab

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 fox hides in vehicle

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Fort Wayne Radio Club March 2016 fox (hidden transmitter) hunt

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.

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The March 2016 Issue of Allen County HamNews Is Now Available

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HamNewsIcon 2016 03The 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.”

allen_county_hamnews_2016-03.pdf

845.65 KB 2265 Downloads
March 1, 2016
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February 2016 foxhunt chronicles

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On February 7th, The weather was sunny but there was still a bite in the air when the Fort Wayne Radio Club began its first Fox Hunt of the year at 1:30 PM. The turnout was a good one: Five teams were gathered at the start point at Carrington Field on the city’s east side near the old K-Mart store. The foxes for this hunt was W9LAN, her hubby, W9SAN, and their grandson, Alex, and they had hidden in a rare commercial place (with special permission of the owner of course).

The fox’s lair was relatively close by the start, located at the Books, Comics, and Things store in Georgetown Square. With Linda’s minivan as the high power fox parked in the lot behind the store, we were certain that the hunters would make multiple passes around our site before the light bulbs in their heads would turn on and localize us. Boy, were we wrong! Several hunters homed in on us pretty quick. The first on the scene were Jason and Deborah, KC9UOQ & KK4QXC, followed closely by Charles, KC9MUT, and Fred, KC9EZP, with Phil Hooper, AB9IZ tagging along.

As the hunters swarmed around BCT looking for the low power micro fox, the property’s owner, Tracie, and my daughter, Courtney, were inside watching the insanity that was unfolding outside. Some of the store’s patrons thought that Homeland Security was hunting for a North Korean satellite, but were amused none the less!

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The February 2016 Issue of Allen County HamNews Is Now Available

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HamNewsIcon 2016 02The February 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.”

allen_county_hamnews_2016-02.pdf

906.35 KB 1964 Downloads
February 1, 2016
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Annual auction Friday

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Fort Wayne Radio Club annual auction takes place Jan. 15, 2016. Here's a photo from the 2015 auction

Mark your calendars for this coming Friday night, January 15. At 6:30 p.m. we will begin the Fort Wayne Radio Club’s annual auction at the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, 4700 Vance Avenue in Fort Wayne.

Full details are included in the January, 2016 issue of Allen County HamNews, which is available for download here. Please check it out for all the rules.

This is usually a lot of fun and this year we have the potential of a possible Powerball winner showing up and bidding a million dollars for a Collins rig or maybe just a brown bag filled with tubes, who knows?? OK, but it is a lot of fun.

The January 2016 Issue of Allen County HamNews Is Now Available

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HamNewsIcon 2016 01The January 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.”

allen_county_hamnews_2016-01.pdf

977.49 KB 2876 Downloads
January 1, 2016
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Operator positions still available for NWS special event station

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2015 SRN operator schedule 20151123

Operating positions are still available for the SKYWARN Recognition Day special event station at the National Weather Service (NWS) office near North Webster, Friday Dec. 4 and Sat. Dec. 5. The chart above shows operators who have already signed up to participate in the 24-hour operation.

All licensed hams from all of the 37 counties served by the northern Indiana NWS office, including technician class operators, are welcome to operate the special event station. 

The National Weather Service requires advance registration, however, for any person who wishes to operate at the NWS office. NWS policy prohibits anyone from “stopping by” unexpectedly during the operation.

To register for an operating time, contact Jim Moehring, KB9WWM at KB9WWM@arrl.net. Please put “SRD” or “SKYWARN Recognition Day” in the subject line of your message.