FWRC elects officers, other club news

The FWRC October meeting was Friday night, October 17th. October is our typical election month, and the BOD for 2015 was chosen that night. Results were very close, but the following won the day, and will serve for next year:

Office Winner
President Steve, W9SAN
VP Carole, WB9RUS
Secretary Al, WB9SSE
Treasurer Bob, W8ST
Communications Manager Charles, KC9MUT
Director Linda, W9LAN
Director Tom, N9TB
Director Tom, KU8T
Director Terry, K9FMX

 

You know how they say that your vote counts? Well, some posts were decided by one vote! This was a very close election for the contested positions. Thank you to all that threw their names onto the ballot!

JOTA

The annual Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) is held the middle weekend of October for world wide connection between Girl Scouts and Guides and Boy Scouts. This year the Fort Wayne Radio Club put together two demonstrations for local scouts. At the Boy Scout office on West Jefferson in Fort Wayne, we did a short demo of ham radio using Echolink technology for Cub Scouts. This ran from 10:00 to Noon. Also, we did a much more extensive station and fox hunt setup at Camp Chief Little Turtle in Steuben County. The camp operation consisted of two HF stations, one on 40 meter CW and SSB, and a second on 20 meter SSB. It also had three hidden “foxes” and three direction-finding radio receivers for scouts to practice their skills. The operation ran from approximately 9:00 am to 4:00 pm on Saturday. There was a break for some really good camp food at lunch time.

The operation was a great success, and roughly 100 scouts passed through the communication table and the fox hunt section. I want to thank all that were involved in making this run so smoothly for the scouts:

  • Charles, KC9MUT
  • Mike, AC9BE
  • Rich, KC9PUX
  • Al, WB9SSE
  • Terry, K9FMX
  • Robert, KC9UHU
  • Jim, K9OMA

This was a great effort by the FWRC in showing off Amateur Radio Technology to a new generation! Also, it was a “shakedown” of the recently donated transceiver, the Yaesu FT-1000 Mark V, from W9INA, and it did not disappoint! What a sweet rig to operate!

October fox hunt

The October FWRC Fox Hunt was held on Sunday, Oct 19th, starting from the Public Safety Academy and using 146.430 FM simplex. The winners were Charles, KC9MUT, and Fred, KC9EZP.

See the Fox Hunt Chronicles for a full story on the hunt.

Operators needed for Boy Scout event

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We still could use a few more operators for this coming Saturday’s JOTA (Jamboree On The Air) event to link scouts worldwide via Amateur Radio. We will be meeting before 9:00am to start setup at Camp Chief Little Turtle in Stueben County, and we will be running till around 4:00pm. Breakfast and Lunch will be provided by the scouts.

If you are interested in helping out, please contact Steve, W9SAN at w9san@arrl.net, or Mike Boschet, AC9BE at michael.boschet@gmail.com, or Rich Gilson, KC9PUX, at signman359@grmail.com.

If you can help out at the Boy Scout office on West Jefferson, let us know ASAP, as it looks like we will not be able to support this other JOTA location.

Thanks!!

Also remember: FWRC meeting this Friday night at 7:00 pm. Program is by Jim Boyer, KB9IH, on Arduino applications for Amateur Radio

This Sunday: FWRC October Foxhunt. Starting point and frequencies to be announced.

Volunteers needed for Jamboree on the Air

OK, if you are interested in helping youth experience the fun of Amateur Radio, mark the date of October 18th on your calendar! The Fort Wayne Radio Club needs your help in supporting local Boy Scout troops in two locations, one here in Fort Wayne at the local Scout office, and another in Stueben County at Camp Chief Little Turtle. 
 
The operation will run from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm on Saturday, October 18th, the day after the club meeting. We will be helping the scouts in the following areas:
 
1.) At Camp Little Turtle, we will operate an HF station to contact other JOTA sites.
2.) At the Scout office, we will operate a VHF station to make use of Echolink or D-STAR, to connect with other JOTA sites.
3.) We will assist scouts working toward their communication merit badges.
4.) We will hold mini Fox Hunts to showcase radio Direct Finding technology.
5.) Answering questions about Amateur Radio
 
We will need plenty of volunteers to make this all happen! Please respond to one or all of the following:
 
Michael Boschet, AB9CE, at michael.boschet@gmail.com
Richard Gilson, KC9PUX, at signman359@gmail.com
Steve Nardin, W9SAN,    at W9SAN@ARRL.NET
 
Please RSVP quickly, as JOTA is only 2 weekends away!  TNX!

Wiley fox decieves hunters

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foxhunt cartoonAs summer wanes and we start getting into fall, the weather remains delightful with warm days and the leaves still on the trees. But it won’t be long. Sooner or later the leaves will start falling as the cool breezes give us a hint of what’s to come. But for now all of our stalwart foxhunters are enjoying this weather and so meet at Krueger Park on the 7th of September to commence another search for their ever elusive quarry. The hunters consisted of the team of Steve & Linda Nardin, W9’s SAN &LAN plus their grandson Alex, the team of Jim & Kim Machamer, KB9’s DOS & DOT, the team of Jim & Annie Pliett, K9OMA & KA9YYI plus Carole & Al Burke, WB9’s RUS & SSE, and lone hunter Bob Dean, KC9UHU.

Now the fox for this hunt was implemented through the devious services of Charles Ward, KC9MUT, Fred Gengnagel, KC9EZP & Ben Myers, N9IRX. These guys obviously watched too many Rambo movies cause they humped about two hundred pounds worth of battery, Yagi, feedline, base-station, tables, chairs, an SA-7 missile system, a Jacuzzi and various other accouterments well over a mile into the abyss known as the Eagle Marsh Nature Preserve south-east of the intersection of I69 and West Jefferson Blvd on the city’s south-west side. Specifically they were located beneath a high-tension tower on Trail 2 of the preserve and from there operated as the high power fox. The low power (microfox) was located another 1000′ into the preserve beneath another high-tension tower. The microfox fed a Yagi pointed straight up at the center of the tower. This seems to have caused some interesting effects regarding micro-fox signal strength during the hunt. More on that later. The fox emitted on 146.340 MHz, the input frequency for the Ft. Wayne Radio Club’s 146.940/340 repeater.

The foxhunters meet at Kreager Park out by New Haven and swapped lies while waiting for the fox to erupt. It did so promptly at 13:30 hours and everyone heard it to the south-west, so off we went. By the time we got down to the corner of Lake and Coliseum, all of the other hunters seemed to have disappeared.

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ARRL Central Division director urges members to act quickly on HR 4969

ARRL Central Division Director George R. (Dick) Isely, W9GIG, sent an email message today to all ARRL members in his division (which includes the Indiana section), urgently asking members to encourage their congressional representatives to co-sponsor HR 4969, the “Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2014.” Isely’s message appears below.

Subject: URGENT – More HR 4969 Co-Sponsors Needed

September 3, 2014

URGENT – We Need More HR 4969 Co-Sponsors

The ARRL is making good progress on obtaining U.S. House of Representatives Co-Sponsors for HR 4969.  However, we still need more so that we can press the FCC into extending the provisions of PRB-1 to include private Conditions, Covenants, and Restrictions (CC&Rs) attached to private residential property. We need many more ARRL members sending electronic letters, email messages, etc., to their Representative requesting their co-sponsorship NOW.  The U.S. House of Representatives has returned from its August vacation and this session will last about a month until they adjourn in October for election campaigning in their respective districts.

For an in-depth discussion of the rationale for submitting HR 4969, including a brief history of ARRL’s struggle to obtain a level playing field for Amateur Radio Licensees living in CC&R restricted communities, please access the HR 4969 link in the horizontal scrolling portion of the ARRL website homepage.
 
If you do not know who is your representative, this information is available here.  You will also find detailed instructions on how to communicate with your Congressman / Congresswoman.  

Due to the short remaining best time (rest of September) for making your request, please send email copies to me and our new lobbying firm – The Keelen Group – in Washington, DC. The Keelen Group’s email address is: help@keelengroup.com. Please put HR 4969 as the first word in your email Subject line.

On Monday, Sep 8th, I am flying to Washington, DC to personally lobby for this very important issue on behalf of all U.S. Amateur Radio Licensees.  A very large quantity of individual, well-documented, polite but firm, email requests will greatly enhance my efforts.

For the first time in the 12 plus years I have been your ARRL Division Director, I believe we have a pretty good chance to get the FCC to extend PRB-1.  The more individual messages sent to the U.S. House of Representatives, the better our chances of success.

Thank You –

George R. (Dick) Isely, W9GIG
ARRL Central Division Director

w9gig@arrl.org
dick@pobox.com

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ARRL Central Division
Director: George R Isely, W9GIG
w9gig@arrl.org
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