Fort Wayne Radio Club

The August foxhunt occurred on 2 August on a beautiful, sunny, non-monsoony (for a change) day. Two hunter teams were available for this contest. The first team consisted of Jim & Annie Pliett, K9OMA & KA9YYI, plus Carole & Al Burke, WB9’s RUS & SSE. The second team consisted of Charles Ward, KC9MUT, Fred Gengnagel, KC9EZP and Robert Dean, KC9UHU. Both teams awaited the 146.430 MHz emissions from the fox at their starting point of Cobin Memorial Park.

Jim & Kim Machamer, KB9’s DOS & DOT served as the fox. Their high power fox consisted of a mobile rig driving a yagi, and they were located where the southern segment of Young Rd. abuts I-469. They placed the micro-fox up against the chain link fence that runs parallel to the west-bound lane of I469 where the northern segment of Young Rd. abuts I-469. I-469 bisects Young Rd, and there is no overpass or underpass that allows one to get from the north to the south segment of (the bisected) Young Rd. directly. In other words Jim & Kim were sitting in their van on Young Rd. just to the south of I-469 and could look across I-469 to the southern segment of Young Rd., and to where the microfox was located. Sorta sneaky.

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The August 2015 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.”

Minutes from the July, 2015 general meeting of the Fort Wayne Radio Club are available for download from this website, using the link below.

FWRC President Steve Nardin presented a proposal for installing high-profile repeaters at a new tower site during the July general meeting.

Broadcast radio station WLDE has offered the club space at 280 feet above ground level on its new tower in New Haven, near the geographical center of Allen County. Power (including automatic emergency power) and Internet access would be free. The club would have to provide a building for its equipment.

Steve also expressed concerns about existing sties for FWRC repeaters:

• The 146.76 MHz and 444.875 MHz systems on north Clinton Street at a site historically referred to as Robison Park might see a degradation of the noise level environment because of an AEP substation upgrade.
• The D-STAR system might lose its home at the Masonic Temple in downtown Fort Wayne.
• The Echolink 146.910 MHz machine is located at IPFW, where Steve expects the club to lose its internal contact and champion in the near future.

Steve proposed that the club:

1. Install new two-meter and 440 MHz antennas and feed lines at on the WLDE tower.
2. Construct a small building at the tower to house repeaters.
3. Move the club’s 146.76 MHz, 146.94 MHz or 146.91 MHz repeater to the WLDE site to become Fort Wayne’s high-profile two-meter repeater.
4. Move the D-STAR or 444.875 MHz machine to the same site.
5. Mothball decommissioned site(s).

The total estimated cost would be slightly more than $6,800, including new antennas, feed lines, building and the services of a professional tower climber. Steve suggested a number of ways that the club might raise the money for the project.

Steve displayed a PowerPoint file while presenting the proposal during the club meeting. Download a PDF version of the slide deck by using the link below.

Steve plans to write more about the proposal in the August issue of Allen County HamNews. He said the plan would require a vote by the FWRC membership “at some point in the future.”

The July foxhunt occurred as scheduled on 12 July, in a brief respite between monsoons. There were only two foxhunting teams available for this contest what with people decompressing after participation in the Three Rivers Festival parade the day before, replacing the brakes on their van, putting the finishing touches on their Ark, brewing up 55 gallon drums of DEET, and so forth. The two teams available to participate were that of Kim & Jim Machamer, KB9’s DOT & DOS, and the team of Carole & Al Burke, WB9’s RUS & SSE.

The role of the fox was provided by Charles Ward, KC9MUT, Fred Gengnagle, KC9EZP and Robert Dean, KC9UHU, commonly referred to within the foxhunting community as “The Devious Ones”, (for good reason). They hid out at a City of New Haven Park Department facility several blocks from Charles’s QTH near an out-of-service Parks Department swimming pool. They chose this spot in somewhat of a panic after having to abandon two other previously planned hide locations because those sites were under water. They employed the usual high-power fox plus a microprocessor enabled micro-fox which burped out about 200 mw of cw on 146.580 MHz.

Now, the Ward-Gengnagle-Dean crew outdid themselves in camouflaging that microfox. They put it inside an aluminum duplex service box, you know, the kind you routinely find in outside locations that are meant for waterproof service. The thing had a standard duplex recepticale installed so you couldn’t see the microfox inside. The microfox’s antenna extended down into about a 6″ length of standard plastic conduit with a stake on its lower end that was shoved into the ground. They installed it alongside several other electrical outlets grouped around a fence post so that the thing looked like it had been there for years. Absolutely devious!!

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