Due to the weather, we will postpone today’s fox hunt to next Sunday.
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.”
To satisfy the growing popularity of the Ham Radio hobby, the Northeastern Indiana Amateur Radio Club will sponsor free classes leading to the exam for an FCC Technician Class license.
There will be eight two-hour training sessions on Monday evenings beginning March 9 in preparation for the FCC license exam to be held on Monday, April 13.
The classes will be held at the DeKalb County Annex Building, 200 East Tenth Street in Auburn. To obtain complete information and the schedule, contact Dave Southern by e-mail at kc9yy@yahoo.com with “License” in the subject line or by phone at 260-925-1673. Advance reservations are requested to be sure of adequate materials.
Amateur radio licensees are entitled to transmit on a wide range of frequencies and may use numerous modes of transmission including AM and FM voice, TV and Radio Teletype. Hams also enjoy using a variety of digital modes and can enjoy satellite communications including conversations with astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
The Ham radio hobby is growing worldwide. In the U.S. alone, there are more than 700,000 licensed amateurs. A proliferation of modestly priced radio equipment and the elimination of the requirement to learn Morse Code is credited with much of the resurgence of interest.
The class series will conclude with administration of the FCC exam on Monday, April 13 at 6 p.m.
December came and went…. cold, snow, and no foxhunt. Then came January…cold, lotsa snow, but still no foxhunt. And finally February arrived….still more cold and snow, but…. our intrepid foxhunters eventually came out of their caves and didn’t see the shadows of their yagis. So that meant that a foxhunt was on!!!
Thus for the February event, which occurred on Sunday, 8 February, (one week late because of, guess what, lotsa snow on the originally planned 1 February foxhunt date), three foxhunter teams gathered at the Off-Track Betting Parlor parking lot near Lima and Washington Center roads. They consisted of the team of Charles Ward, KC9MUT, Fred Gengnagle, KC9EZP, and Robert Dean, KC9UHU, the team of Kim & Jim Machamer, KB9’s DOS & DOT, and the team of Linda & Steve Nardin, W9’s LAN & SAN. In total seven rabid hunters.
Their quarry, the fox, was provided by Jim & Annie Pliett, K9OMA & KA9YYI plus Carole & Al Burke, WB9’s RUS & SSE. They travelled down to Klotz Park, near Southwick Village in south-east Ft. Wayne. From there they emitted the high-power fox signal on 146.430 MHz from a roof mounted quad with about 40 watts into the feedline. The low-power signal was loosed from a camouflaged micro-fox transmitter hung from a tree branch about 10 feet high in a copse of trees bordering a creek, and out in the middle of a show field, around 1000 feet from the Klotz Park ball diamond. (Let me tell you, tromping around in a snow field without snow shoes is hard work).
Please join us this Sunday, March 1st, for the first club Fox Hunt to run under new rules adopted at last Friday’s special Fox Hunt meeting. We will meet at the Parking lot for Carrington Field on Coliseum Blvd, just south of the old K-Mart store. This is very close to the geographical center of Allen County. This hunt will be on the 146.430 FM simplex frequency, with 146.76 as the intercom.
Since there is a possibility of heavy snow on Sunday, we will meet at 10:00 am on the 146.91 repeater and Echolink node on Sunday morning, to decide to go ahead with the hunt or postpone.
Look for the new rules in the March Allen County Ham News or on our website. Also look for information about new “Novice” fox hunts to be held on the Saturdays following club meetings. These will be geared for those who want to learn the ropes and get involved in Fox Hunting.
We’ll look for you all this Sunday!!
Have you paid your 2015 dues yet? March 1, we will only send e-mail bulletins to paid 2015 and beyond paid members. Please fill out the membership application in the back of the Allen County Ham News, or the application on our website and send to the Fort Wayne Radio Club PO Box, 15127, Fort Wayne, 46885-5127.
The National Weather Service (NWS) will conduct live, in-person SKYWARN storm spotter training in Fort Wayne Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. at the Public Safety Academy/Ivy Tech South Campus, 7602 Patriot Crossing (off Lafayette St. south of Tillman Rd.). As you might have read elsewhere, the Fort Wayne Radio Club will not hold its regular, monthly meeting in February and encourages its members to attend the SKYWARN training in lieu of its February meeting. If you already plan to attend, please scroll to the bottom of this article and use the registration link.
The NWS relies heavily on trained, volunteer storm spotters. Ham radio operators have strongly supported the SKYWARN program for decades and recently more and more other volunteers, who are not ham radio operators, have joined in. An important part of supporting the program is to receive NWS training and to keep that knowledge up to date.
I want to be as helpful as possible to the NWS and, thereby my community. That’s why I attend SKYWARN training every year, even though the NWS only expects spotters to attend at least once every three years. I find it helpful to refresh my memory from the previous year and to make sure I’m aware of any new information.
If you’ve never attended the training, and you live in the Fort Wayne area, this is your chance to do so without traveling out of town. If you have attended in previous years, this month’s training will be a good refresher. If you don’t live in the Fort Wayne area, you can find a list of other classes taught by the northern Indiana NWS office here.
If you know anyone who is curious about what storm spotting is, invite them to attend. Remember that while a ham license is helpful to spotters, it’s not at all necessary, especially in these days of smartphones and mobile Internet.
The NWS considers the in-person training to be supplemental to online spotter training available on the MetEd website (https://www.meted.ucar.edu/training_course.php?id=23). It recommends that all spotters complete the online training in addition to the in-person training and ideally, before the in-person session.
Finally, the NWS sincerely requests that all individuals register in advance for in-person training sessions. If you register in advance, your wait to check in at the session will be much shorter than if you don’t register in advance. I have already honored that request, by registering for the Feb. 17 session. You can register online for the Fort Wayne class at http://allen-in-spotter.eventzilla.net/ or you can register by phone by calling the Allen County Office of Homeland Security at 260-449-4663.
Remember that there will not be a usual club meeting this month, as we are encouraging all members interested in public service to attend the National Weather Service spotter training on Feb 17. Read more about the SKYWARN training here and please register in advance if you plan to attend.
At 7 p.m. Feb. 20, we will have a special meeting at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church 4700 Vance Avenue, Fort Wayne, to determine the future of the fox hunt program with FWRC. If you are an active hunter, or would like to be, or have suggestions for making fox hunting more fun, please plan to attend.
The February 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.”
The January 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.”