The Indianapolis Radio Club Newsletter

Founded 1914

”The oldest continuously meeting Amateur Radio Club in the United States”

 

Reporting news from the Annual Indianapolis Radio Club meeting held on Friday, May 13th, 2005, and other items of possible interest to amateurs.

This Newsletter is avalable as a word document or as a text document

[A Special Thanks to Mike Henney (KE9YA) and Bob Osterhouse (W9PSE) for taking careful notes at the May Club Meeting.  This issue of the club newsletter is based on their notes. --Ed]

 

May Meeting Highlights:

The May meeting of the Indianapolis Radio Club was held on Friday, May 13th, 2005 on the 1st floor of the Indianapolis Training Center.  Fresh coffee was provided by the Training Center, and the club provided several boxes of donuts and dozens of cookies.  A large group gathered prior to the meeting to enjoy the coffee, donuts, and good fellowship while catching up on the latest local radio news.  Members did an excellent job of signing in on the member checklist and updating email addresses.  Chuck Crist (W9IH), the club president, called the meeting to order at 7:30pm.   He extended a warm welcome to regular members, new members, and guests.  Chuck reminded those gathered about the club theme, to become “Radio Active in 2005.”  Members were asked to introduce themselves, and the introductions progressed in turn around the room.  The May meeting was well attended, with a majority reporting ARRL membership.    Barbara Crist (KB9BSV), wife of the club president, at the check-in table, distributed the engraved name badges that had been previously ordered to members.  Other meeting notes of interest appear below.  A summary of the program, titled” A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Ham Shack:  Robotics Today” presented by Dan Daly (KE9Y), a software engineer for Intellibot, is not available.

 

A Club Executive Board meeting was held on May 13th starting about 6:15pm, with the following Board Members in attendance:  Chuck Crist (W9IH), President; Dave Miller (K9RTT), Vice President; Mike Henney (KE9YA), Secretary; Joe Labraico (K9OOA), Director; Paul Bohrer (W9DUU), Director, Bob Osterhouse (W9PSE), Assistant Newsletter Editor and Door Prize Volunteer; and Ed Conder (N9IZN), volunteer club digital photographer.

 

Next Meeting:

Friday, June 10th, 2005.  Coffee time begins at 7:00 PM on the 1st floor dining area of the Indianapolis Training Center (ITC).  The business meeting will begin promptly at 7:30pm.  The program for the next meeting is the Club Auction.  For details, see the club web site at www.indyradioclub.org.

 

June Club Meeting Auction:

Our club Vice President, Dave Miller (K9RTT), arranges the program for each of our club meetings.  He indicated that the meeting programs are well in hand, but that an auctioneer for the June Club Auction is still needed.  Dave suggested that you plan to bring your neglected ham radio items for auction in order to give such items a new home.

 

Membership Drive:
The Membership Drive is continuing.    It covers the period from now through November 3rd, 2005.  Any IRC member that recruits 3 new IRC Regular Members will receive 1 Free Meal Pass for the 2005 December Annual Dinner meeting.  A New Regular Member is defined as someone who joins the IRC and who has not been an IRCmember since January of 2002.  [Extending a membership to include 'new' family members does not count.  Sorry!  --Ed.]

 

Dayton Hamvention Bus Trip:

Forty-one members signed up for the bus trip, so a few seats were still available at $15 per ticket at the close of the meeting.  Several entertainment events are scheduled on board the bus to enliven the trip for those who have purchased tickets.  We are all looking forward to a quick report on the trip at the next club meeting.

 

Club Station Report:

The Club is eager to obtain another HF rig for use at the club station.  It has been reported that Mike Fowler () may have an HF rig available.  Also, work is under way to get Ethernet into the ham shack.  More details on these two news items should be available by the next club meeting.  Our club station Chief Operator is Trevor Fulk (N9YM), who maintains the club station.  The equipment is located on the first floor of the Indianapolis Training Center, while the antennas are located on the roof of the building.  The station transceiver is a Yeasu HF unit, and the antenna is a directional beam for 10-15-20m that is mounted on a small tower and rotor on the building roof.  That makes its height about 150 feet above ground.  Tours of the club station are available following most Indianapolis Radio Club meetings.  The club station call is W9JP.

 

Club Website Meeting Planned:

A meeting to discuss a broad new approach to organizing and maintaining the club web site is being planned.  Although fraught with the difficulties of summer vacation schedules, the meeting is tentatively scheduled for late May.  Meanwhile, if you have suggestions for the organization or structure of the club web site, please pass them on to club president Chuck Crist (W9IH) or the club webmaster, Brian Stone (KC9GSA).  Chuck’s email address is indytrax@core.com.   Brian can be reached at labradog@speakeasy.net.

 

New Life Member:

Rudy Richardson (KN9C) is the newest life member of the club.  Congratulations, Rudy!

 

New Ham:

A new ham attended the May IRC meeting.  He is Ray and his call is KC9HMX.  Ray attended the Express ham class held at the Scottish Rite Cathedral.

 

Indiana QSO Party:

The Indiana ham QSO Party, held on May 7th was a success!  See the club website (www.indyradioclub.org) for details.

 

Club Secretary Duties Extended:
At the February 2005 Board Meeting, the duties of the IRC Secretary, Mike Henney, were extended to include the collection and dissemination of club Health and Welfare information.  Members are asked to report any such information related to club members to Mike, whose email address is.   Board Member Paul Bohrer (W9DUU) continues with his responsibilities for the Phone Committee.  Any information he receives on Health and Welfare through his Telephone Committee activites should be forwarded to Mike Henney at the email address previously given.

Announcements:

-The IRC June Auction is in the planning stage. Meanwhile, prepare to dig out your historical hardware items of special interest to others (technical term for junk) so that they might become someone else’s treasure!

-Summer Picnic is planned for Saturday, August 6th, 2005, at Joe and Betty Labraico’s place in along Westfield Blvd north of Broad Ripple. This is another great chance for fellowship and fun with other amateur radio enthusiasts near the end of the coming long, hot summer.

-Board Member Paul Bohrer (W9DUU) continues with his responsibilities for the Phone Committee.  Any information he receives on Health and Welfare through his Telephone Committee activites should be forwarded to Mike Henney (KE9YA) at his email address mickyh@peoplepc.com.  If you have any such announcements or information about which the Phone Committee should be made aware, please forward it to Paul.  His email address is w9duu@juno.com.  

-Volunteers are needed to teach an express Tech no-code amateur radio class at the ITC.  Interested volunteers should contact the club president, Chuck Crist (W9IH).  His email is indytrax@core.com.

-ARRL Field Day exercises will be held the last week of June at Fort Benjamin Harrison, according to information supplied by Tom Frank (N9JQH).  The approximate location will be at 59th Street and Lee.  The IRC is not organizing any activities for Field Day.  However, there will be plenty of activity by local hams. Field Day sites will be posted on the IRC webpage. The Red Cross Radio Club contact for Field Day is AB9FC.  We encourage you to find a group and join in!  The ITC Hamsters plan to participate in Field Day, 2005.  More details will be provided at a later date.  Meanwhile, please mark your calendar.

-Mike Palmer (N9FEB) reported that 89 hams for 10 counties participated in the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon.  He said that the Indianapolis 500 Parade will use 25 or more hams.  The Tour de Cure bicycle event on June 4th, from7:00am to noon still needs volunteer operators.  Mike also mentioned that the Marion County Siren net meets on the 146.700 repeater between 10:45am and 11:05am on Fridays, is still in need of volunteers to help identify inoperative sirens.  Click on the link under the Skywarn section of www.indyhams.org to see a map of sirens in Marion County.  Use the web site www.IndyHams.org to locate events that need amateur radio volunteers.  To volunteer, contact Michael Palmer (N9FEB) at 317-849-3602.
-“This Week in Amateur Radio International” (TWIARi) is currently being aired onWBCQ (shortwave) each Saturday afternoon at 4:00pm EST (2100GMT) on 7.415 MHz.  WBCQ (The Planet) broadcasts 50KW and server North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean.  Their website address is http://www.triar.org/twiari.html.
 
W9IMS Operation Planned:
Operators for station W9IMS are in place.  They plan to operate on the days leading up to and including the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race.  Special QSL cards have been prepared and will be sent upon request to all contacts.  Additional activities are planned for the USGP from June 17th , 18th , and 19th , and for the Brickyard 400 on August 5th , 6th , and 7th .  For more information, see http://www.qrz.com/w9ims.
 
Planning for Radio Commemorative to USS Indianapolis:

A committee has been formed to coordinate a radio tribute commemorating the 60th anniversary of the USS Indianapolis.  It will be part of a special operating event called “Warships on the Air.”  The USS Indianapolis Special Event Station will operate on Saturday and Sunday, July 16th and 17th.  This is a joint operation by the Indianapolis Radio Club, the Indianapolis Radio League, and RCA Radio Club.  Operating modes will be: CW, SSB and AM on the 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10-meter bands.  Operating slots will be 2 hours long with up to 4 hours consecutive operation permitted.  Please let us know if you can help operate the station so that the USS Indianapolis Special Event Station can be on the air the entire 48 hours of the special event.

 

Health and Welfare:

Some important Health and Welfare information that was reported at the meeting follows:

-Louis Rodenbeck  (W9WWV) of Mooresville has become a Silent Key.

-The son of John Farmer (N9CQ), of Avon, was hit by a truck and is in a coma.

All of our prayers are with the families of these hams.
 

Club Webmaster:

Brian Stone (KC9GSA) is the manager of our Indianapolis Radio Club web site (www.indyradioclub.org).  If you have content ideas or suggestions for the site, please contact Brian using his email address of labradog@speakeasy.net.

 

Monthly Club Traveling Awards Presented for April:

As reported by Mike Henney (KE9YA), IRC Secretary

- Mentor –Chuck Crist (W9IH)

- Homebrew –(none)

- QRP – Steve Wendt (KB9RDS), for his contact on 17m SSB.

- Digital – (none)

- DX – Wes (N9AJM) for his 20m SSB contact.

- Mobile (NEW AWARD!) to Dave N9KZJ for a 17m contact with PJ2.

 

Congratulations to each of the monthly club traveling trophy award winners!

 

Homebrew Award Selection Criteria:

Club Vice-President Dave Miller (K9RTT) announced that future Homebrew entries would be judged on the basis of the quality of construction and soldering, the schematic diagram, operating instructions, and for antennas, the antenna radiation pattern and SWR chart, if applicable.

 

Club Hats Available:

In celebration of the IRC’s 90th Anniversary, club hats with an embroidered club logo are available for purchase for $20.  The articles seen by this reporter were baseball style hats in several available colors, with black lettering, and appeared to be very well made. If you wish to purchase one of these hats, be sure to come to the next club meeting and bring some extra money! You will be helping to support your club if you buy one of these hats.

 

Amateur Radio Classes:

-An amateur radio class is in the planning stage, with the class date targeted for summer.  It will be an express class at the ITC.  Details are being formulated.  Please contact Chuck Crist (W9IH) if you know of potential students.  You can reach Chuck at his email address of indytrax@core.com.

-A small Radio Study Group is meeting at 9:00 AM on Wednesdays at the McDonalds at 116th and I-69 to discuss questions and answers on amateur radio.  All are welcome.  For more information, contact Tom Price (WB9UNG) at 849-6550, or Estel Hines (KC9GMV) at 765-289-8333.

 

Door Prizes:

A number of fabulous door prizes were collected by the club prize-master, Bob Osterhous (W9PSE).   These were distributed to randomly selected members of the IRC who were in attendance.  A list of prizewinners, as reported by Mike Henney (KE9YA), IRC Secretary, included: Steve (N9OT), Jesse (one of the ITC “Hamsters”), a guest, Gale (AA9WU), Bob (WD9RDE), Emma (another guest), Mike (WA9NCF), and Jim (K9RU).

 

You can learn more about the potential benefits of the door prize distribution process by attending the next IRC meeting!  Thanks to Bob Osterhous for doing such a great job locating interesting prizes for this exciting portion of the club meetings.

 

Puzzle History:

Puzzle #1 was solved by Robert Begeman (W9KVK), in February.

Puzzle #2 was solved by Robert Aubel (WV9V) in January.

Puzzle #3 was solved by Ed Conder (N9IZN) and Charles Sears (N9MEW), also in February.

Puzzle #4 is as yet unsolved, and is reprinted below.

Puzzle #5 is as yet unsolved, and is reprinted below.

Puzzle #6 is as yet unsolved, and is reprinted below.

 

A list of past puzzles and solutions is being developed and will be available on the club web site in the near future.  Each of the past puzzle solvers is invited to attend a monthly puzzle roundtable lunch meeting at a mutually agreeable time and place to be determined at the monthly club meeting.  If you have a solution to any of the unsolved puzzles listed below, or if you have an interesting puzzle and want it printed in a future puzzle article, please submit it to the IRC Newsletter Editor, at pricetr@comcast.net. A free lunch will be awarded to the first correct analytical solution received for any of the new or unsolved puzzles.  A tie-breaking prize drawing will be held if there is more than one correct solution received on the same day.  However, all who submit correct answers will be invited to lunch at the monthly puzzle roundtable.

 

Puzzle #4: (Unsolved):

Fold a rectangular piece of paper so that one corner exactly meets the diagonally opposite corner.  If the rectangular paper has a length of   b  and a width of  a  , what is the ratio (b/a) if the length of the fold is exactly the same length as the length, b,  of the paper?   Clue: the correct answer is (b/a) = sqrt(  (1+sqrt(5)  ) / 2 ).  All you need to do is show why!

 

Puzzle #5: (Unsolved):

Two large identical and perfect spheres are being prepared for an experimental radio antenna project.  A thin wire is to be strung so as to completely surround first sphere at its equator, and is cut so that it just fits snugly.  How much longer must a second wire be cut so that it will fit around the equator of the second sphere and stand above the surface by exactly 1 ft. at all points, if the diameter of the two spheres is  (a) 10 ft.?;  (b) 100 ft.?;  (c) 1000 ft.?;  (d) 7926 miles?

 

Puzzle #6 (Unsolved):

An antenna wire just fits around the Earth, which you may consider to be a perfect sphere with a diameter of 8000miles.  If 1 meter is added to the length of the antenna wire, how tall must the antenna tower be so that the wire just fits over the top?  

 

Any Additional News Items:

The editor would like to include three or four short articles in the May issue about your traditional Dayton Hamvention ritual, or your best bargain yet, or the newest hot item that caught your eye.  Details will be forthcoming at the May 13th Club meeting.  Also, if you have news that should be included in the next issue of club newsletter, please pass it on to your club newsletter editor, Tom Price (WB9UNG), at the email address pricetr@comcast.net.