Fort Wayne Radio Club

You’ve heard us talk about it. We’ve shared stories about the crazy people who run in the snow and freezing water! Now’s your turn to participate in this fun event yourself.

The Allen County ARES team will be joining other teams from NE Indiana in support of the Hoosier Ultra Fast Fifty (HUFF) 50K run at Chain O’lakes State park on Saturday, December 28th.

Here’s a link to a PDF file of the operator schedule as of the evening of Nov. 26. Pick out a time and a location and let us know if you can help.

Please contact me, KB9WWM at KB9WWM@arrl.net or Dan, N9WLW at n9wlw@yahoo.com. Let us know when and where you would like to be assigned.

Skywarn Recognition Day is fast approaching. The event runs from 1900 hrs Dec 6th until 1900 Dec 7th and will be held at the NWS Norther Indiana in North Webster.

Skywarn Recognition Day gives us the opportunity to operate the HF bands as a group from the NWS Office.

We are currently looking for volunteers to help with the event. We need operators for Friday evening, 1900 to approximately midnight, Saturday morning, 0700 to 1300 and Saturday afternoon, 1300- 1900. These times are negotiable. If you can come out at anytime to get on the air. We can use your help.

Contact me, KB9WWM@arrl.net, Steve Nardin, W9SAN@arrl.net, or Joseph Lawrence, K9RFZ@yahoo.com, if you can help us out and show your support for our Skywarn team!

Minutes of the November general meeting of the Fort Wayne Radio Club are available on this website. Use the link below or the “Files” option in the main menu.

{jd_file file==55}

The Fort Wayne Radio Club would like to extend an apology to recent 2014 paid members W9GT, K9DMA, and KC9CVI. These members paid in advance their 2014 dues, but due to a mixup with the tickets, did not get entered into the Club’s drawing for the BaoFeng HT.

We are very sorry for this mixup. In any future drawings, we will strive to make sure that everyone who pays early dues to be included in a drawing, does indeed get entered properly. The club is looking into ways to properly compensate these hams, and will be deciding on a path at the December BOD meeting on the 10th. We are pretty sure that only these three hams were not entered in the drawing.

Please plan on attending the Fort Wayne Radio Club’s annual Christmas Carry-in Pot Luck Banquet on December 20th from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church. We will be meeting in the large meeting room, Raasch Hall. This is always a well attended event, and very tasty, too! It is a good way to finish out a fun year of Amateur Radio operation. As in the past, the club will provide coffee, lemonade, plates, and silverware. There is also the Christmas Gift exchange for those who wish to participate. Bring a wrapped gift marked for either a man or woman (approx $10 or less in value) and include your call sign inside so the receipiant can thank you after receiving. All hams are invited, especially 2013 and 2014 members!

If you have some photos of this year’s activities, please send an electronic copy to me, Steve, W9SAN, at my e-mail, W9SAN@ARRL.NET. I would like to put together a slide show for the Banquet.

The club is going forward with plans to support the National Weather Service Skywarn Recognition Day operating event on December 6th through the 7th (Friday night and Saturday) at the NWS office in North Webster, along with other operators from around NorthEast Indiana. If you can help, please contact myself, W9SAN, Jim, KB9WWM, Joseph, K9RFZ, or Jay, W9LW.

Thanks for everything you do for Amateur Radio and the club! Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday!

Photos from the 2013 Fort Wayne Hamfest are available in our photo gallery. Take a look!

FWRC President Steve Nardin, W9SAN, draws the winning ticket

At this year’s Fort Wayne Hamfest we used a new “Incentive” idea to get people to pay next year’s dues ahead of time. We held a drawing for a dual band BaoFeng HT with programming cable and software, speaker mic, and charging base. Tickets for the drawing were distributed as one “free” ticket for an individual or family membership, either renewal or new, and extra
tickets for $1 each (no limit).

The result was fantastic: we have now 59 memberships already paid for next year! Plus the extra tickets sales have actually paid for the transceiver itself, so for the club it was all positive
cash flow! Wow! With a result like this, we are already planning something even nicer for next year!

SPECIAL THANKS:

Special thanks to the following for their help with this incentive:

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Thanks to all who participated in today’s severe weather activity. Please send any reports and photographs of damage to the National Weather Service as soon as possible, to help the NWS detemine where to send survey teams tomorrow. Send reports and photos the the following address:

w-iwx.webmaster@noaa.gov

Thanks again!

ARRL Indiana Section Manager Lou Everett, WA5LOU sent out the information below via email to Indiana ARRL members.

The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette ran a 928-word feature story about ham radio in its November 15, 2013 issue. The story, including two photos, took up most of the front page of the the newspaper’s, “Weekender” feature section.

The story features interviews with Jim Boyer, KB9IH, who is chairman of the Fort Wayne Hamfest. It quotes Boyer talking about the continuted relevance of ham radio in today’s digital age and about the hamfest.

It also quotes Carole Burke, WB9RUS, on the role of girls and women in amateur radio.

And the article contains extensive information about the role of ham radio in emergencies, including references to the Amateur Radio Emergency Service and SKYWARN.

The entire article appears on the Journal Gazette website.

Fox hunters search among briars for a hidden radio transmitter. More photos in this website’s photo gallery.

Sunday, November 10, 2013 marked the last foxhunt of the (2013) season. It was a crisp late Fall day with a bit of a breeze, but the sun was more or less out. The day attracted foxhunters Steve Nardin, W9SAN, Linda Nardin, W9LAN, and their grandson Alex, the team of Charles Ward, KC9MUT, Fred Gengnagel, KC9EZP and Phil Hooper, AB9IZ, the team of Jim & Kim Machamer, KB9’s DOS & DOT, and lone hunter Robert Dean, KC9UHU. This motley crew were hole-up in the Off-Track Betting Parlor parking lot, as usual, anxiously awaiting the bleating voice of the fox.

For this hunt the role of the fox was played by Jim Pliett, K9OMA and Al Burke, WB9SSE. Their usual partners, Annie, KA9YYI and Carole, WB9RUS were at Jim & Annie’s QTH preparing goodies for the after-foxhunt cookout & bonfire that routinely caps-off the end of the foxhunting season, but they were with us in spirit.

Jim & Al were located deep within the Mengerson Nature Preserve about a half mile north of Stellhorn Rd. just off Schmucker Dr.

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