The April 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 of the March 27, 2014 general meeting of the Fort Wayne Radio Club are available for download, using the link below:
The weather for the (as originally planned) March foxhunt date (March 1) repeated what the weather did to us in February, i.e., it sucked. So the March foxhunt was delayed until the 8th where-upon three foxhunt teams gathered at our new foxhunt starting point of Cobin Memorial Park near Lakeside Golf course. The anxious hunters consisted of the team of Jim & Annie Pliett, K9OMA & KA9YYI plus AL & Carole Burke, WB9’s SSE & RUS, a second team consisting of Jim & Kim Machamer, KB9’s DOS & DOT, and a third team consisting of Steve & Linda Nardin, W9’s SAN & LAN plus their grandson Alex.
The fox crew consisted of Charles Ward, KC9MUT and Bob Dean, KC9UHU, and included a couple of IPFW student “Observers” from Bangladesh invited along for the day’s events by Bob. (Undoubtedly, their tagging along on the hunt almost for sure verified their belief that Americans are nuts).
The fox was situated near Soapbox Derby hill in Franke Park. The high power part of the fox was located in Charles’s fancy new (and unrecognizable) pickup truck which drove a yagi stashed back in the woods at the end of a long feedline. The low power part was a microprocessor driven microfox spewing Morse code on 146.430 MHz, hidden under a log, in the brush, in a nearby copse of trees.
Join us for the Fort Wayne Radio Club March, 2015 general meeting. The meeting gets underway at 7 p.m. in Raasch Hall at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, 4700 Vance Ave. (see map below). The presentation for the evening will be an introduction to home brewing (radio gear; not booze!).
If you have some home brew gear you are proud of, please bring it along and show it off and share your construction ideas and tips with everyone! Kits are welcome, too! We’ll see you Friday night!
{phocamaps view=map|id=1}
FWRC members will install two new repeater packages next week to replace existing equipment on 146.76 MHz and 444.875 MHz. The transition to new equipment will require the repeaters to be temporarily off the air, beginning sometime Monday morning, March 30. The repeaters should return to the air about 24 hours later, sometime Tuesday, March 31.
Al Burke, WB9SSE expects that the VHF repeater should have greater range after the change, because the new receiver has greater sensitivity than the radio currently in service and the new transmitter will feed a 150-watt power amplifier. replacement to require downtime
FWRC members will install two new repeater packages next week to replace existing equipment on 146.76 MHz and 444.875 MHz. The transition to new equipment will require the repeaters to be temporarily off the air, beginning sometime Monday morning, March 30. The repeaters should return to the air about 24 hours later, sometime Tuesday, March 31.
Al Burke, WB9SSE expects that the VHF repeater should have greater range after the change, because the new receiver has greater sensitivity than the radio currently in service and the new transmitter will feed a 150-watt power amplifier.
Governor Pence has proclaimed March 15 through 21, 2015 as Severe Weather Preparedness Week in Indiana.
The National Weather Service (NWS), in conjunction with the Indiana State Police, Indiana Department of Homeland Security, Indiana Department of Education, Indiana Broadcasters Association, American Red Cross, and Amateur Radio operators will conduct statewide tests of communication systems Thursday, March 19 at 10:15 a.m. and 7:35 p.m. ET.
IMO SKYWARN Quadrant Two will participate in both tests by standing up nets on the ACARTS 146.88 MHz repeater in Fort Wayne. Should the 146.88 MHz repeater be unavailable or exhibiting performance issues, the nets will take place on the back-up frequency of 146.76 MHz (the FWRC repeater). During the nets, net control station (NCS) operators will solicit check-ins. Each net will begin after the NWS issues test tornado warnings.
As Quadrant Two director for IMO SKYWARN, I encourage all stations to check into these nets from anywhere in the quadrant and to send simulated spotter reports, in a fashion similar to the ARRL’s annual simulated emergency test (SET).
This will also provide an opportunity to practice the quadrant net’s desired call-in procedure, which is for the reporting station make a single, short transmission containing the station’s call sign and one or two words describing the phenomena the station needs to report. For example:
“Whiskey nine Lima whiskey, wind damage.”
Stations should not include the words, “net control” or the NCS call sign in their calls. These are unnecessary, because during a directed net, the NCS will assume all calls are for the NCS.
When acknowledged by the NCS, the reporting station should make a “T.E.L.” (Time, Event, Location) report in a single transmission, for example:
“One zero one five Eastern, shingles blown off a one-story house, Allen County, Indiana, one point five miles northeast of New Haven, TEST MESSAGE, whiskey nine Lima whiskey.”
A station relaying a report from another net should add the report source, for example:
“One zero one five Eastern, shingles blown off a one-story house, Allen County, Indiana, one point five miles northeast of New Haven, reported by trained spotter kilo Charlie nine x-ray alpha bravo, TEST MESSAGE, whiskey nine Lima whiskey.”
Because these are tests, stations should make up any phenomena they wish, but I encourage all stations to use their actual locations at the time of the tests, so we can log the geographic coverage the net would have at those times.
Also, as in the ARRL SET, during Thursday’s tornado test, stations should include the words, “test message” in their reports, to avoid confusion by any citizens who might be monitoring the nets. Those words would of course not be used during a real SKYWARN net.
Important: The NWS will begin each test by transmitting a message over the Emergency Alert System (EAS) with product code “TOR” (tornado warning). This might result in normal activation of NOAA weather radios, cellular telephone Wireless Emergency Alerts, etc. Make sure your family members, friends and co-workers realize this will happen.
Officials will postpone the tests to Friday, March 20 if weather conditions warrant.
The March 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.”