At the September, 2014 FWRC meeting, Jim Pliet, K9OMA, presented a home-brew, portable, 434 MHz beacon transmitter and receiver system. A PDF version of Jim’s slide deck is available via the link below. Photos from the meeting are available in our photo gallery.
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Photos (like the one below) of FWRC’s participation in the 2014 Maker Faire at Headwaters Park in downtown Fort Wayne are avaible in a new section of this website’s photo gallery.
As 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.
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
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ARRL Central Division
Director: George R Isely, W9GIG
w9gig@arrl.org
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August 30 and 31, members of the Allen County Amateur Radio Emergency Service provided communications for the 2014 Midwest Tandem Rally, which was based in downtown Fort Wayne and included rides toward Ossian on Saturday and Columbia City on Sunday.
Some still photos from the event are available in the website’s photo gallery and a short video appears below.
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The October 2014 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.”
