The Indianapolis Radio Club Newsletter Founded 1914 "The oldest continuously meeting Amateur Radio Club in the United States" Reporting news from the Indianapolis Radio Club meeting held on Friday, September 9. 2005, and other items of possible interest to amateurs. [A Special Thanks to Mike Henney (KE9YA) and Bob Osterhouse (W9PSE) for taking careful notes again, this time at the September club meeting while I was performing in a concert by the Carmel Symphony Orchestra. (My transmitter in this case is a slide trombone operating in the VLF frequency range of low F (174.6141Hz) through high G (554.9916Hz)). This issue of the club newsletter is based almost entirely on the note supplied to me by Bob and Mikes. --Ed] June Meeting Highlights: Meeting called to order at about 7:30pm at University of Indianapolis. Self-introductions were followed by President's announcements: Our 91st year – Get RadioActive! Bring a youth or Ham friend to the next meeting and get radio active! Please help Americans displaced by the recent hurricanes anyway you can. Hamfests coming up: September 17th Greenfield Hamfest October 2nd Bedford Hamfest, Talk-In on 146.73 Repeater (Negative offset, PL 107.2) November 19th – 20th Ft. Wayne Hamfest Board Meeting: An Executive Board meeting was held on September 6th at ITC and called to order at about 6:00pm. Next Meeting: October meeting will be held at the Indianapolis Training Center on Friday October 14th, 2005 at 7:00PM. Program is: "Ham Radio Microwave" which will be presented by our club Vice President, Dave Miller (K9RTT) and Jim Rinehart (K9RU). This meeting will also be our first annual Chili Cook-Off, with prizes to be awarded. For further details, contact Dave Miller (K9RTT) or visit the club website. The club web site can be viewed at www.indyradioclub.org. Club Elections To Occur at November IRC Meeting: November 11th is meeting when we have our club elections. The Nominating Committee consists of: Dave Miller (K9RTT) Tom Chance (K9XV) Ed Conder (N9IZN) Dave Jarvis (N9KZJ). Please see any one of them to suggest a qualified individual or to volunteer time to the club. Ft. Wayne Hamfest Bus Trip: The IRC is sponsoring a bus trip to and from the Ft. Wayne hamfest on November 19th . The estimated cost is $20 per person, with a total of 44 seats available. See Tom Chance (K9XV) to reserve a seat. IRC Blind Draw Donation Fund Raiser: A most enjoyable event—the Broad Ripple Swapfest—was held at the home and surrounding grounds of Joe Lobraico ( K9OOC) and family on August 6th. Ideal hamfest conditions prevailed for the day, especially for the winners of the blind draw. We are again grateful to Joe (K9OOC) and Betty (K9OOB) for their hospitality and generosity. The drawing for the Blind Draw Donation Fund Raiser for IRC was held at the August 6th Broad Ripple Swapfest. The results of the drawing were: 1st Prize: TenTec Jupiter was won by Jerry Allison (NZ9J) 2nd Prize: Icom IC706 MkIIG was won by Doug Faubion (K9TFC) Congratulations to the winners! On The Air Events: Jamboree On The Air (JOTA) October 15th and 16th . Boy Scouts around the world are having their annual JOTA. Contacts are not limited to scouts. Please support youth in amateur radio by making some contacts with the Scouts. Websites with more information are: http://www.scout.org/wse/jota.shtml and http://home.versatel.nl/worldscout/Jota/whatis.htm Program: "Ham Radio Astronomy" was presented by Malcolm Mallette (WA9BVS) and Jim Keeth (AF9A). This was an interesting program covering the use of home brewed and adapted commercial gear to serve as wide bandwidth receivers to detect astronomical bodies. For more, check out their website: http://radio.uindy.edu/ . Thanks Malcolm and Jim presenting this interesting program to the club! Random 50/50 Drawing: A 50/50 drawing was held at end of meeting ($1 per entry). The winner was Dave Jarvis, $22. Monthly Club Traveling Awards Presented for April: Homebrew – Malcolm Mallette (WA9BVS) for radio telescope QRP Contact – Ron Cooper (WB9DKL) Italy Digital -- Bob Osterhouse (W9PSE) Africa on 20m DX – Ron Williams (W9YZ) Europe Mobile – Dave Miller (K9RTT) Paraguay Mentor – Mike Henney (KE9YA) Health and Welfare: There were no new reports received this month.. It is requested that any Health and welfare notes be directed to our club Sect. Mike Henney- KE9YA for handling. Renew Your Ham License Electronically! By Bob Osterhous (W9PSE), June 18, 2005, Assistant IRC Newsletter Editor Remember to look at your license or QRZ.COM under your call to remember when to renew! You cannot renew before 90 days prior to your expatriation. Also of note is that QRZ will show a "red" notice on your sight when you hit the 90day renewal point. ARRL and others may remind you to renew but do not pay for any renewals. There are no fees currently. In fact I stayed in the QRZ site and went on to renew the Ham License with the FCC, here is a summary of the steps. I first read the ARRL notice letter on the back which they send to members, it sounded a little confusing but basically it is saying you need a FRN number from the CORES data base and a password you determine to get the FRN number. In the QRZ site I clicked on: FRN number and it took me to the CORES site. Fill in the info and follow the prompts. This will get you your FRN number and you supply the password. Be sure and print out the "FRN" registration to keep. After this you go to the FCC web site. (From within the FRN site) First item. Going to the "File, Online Filing," you enter your FRN Number and password (you just make up to get your number). Once logged in you see a summary of your license information. On the left side you see some options: Renewal, Address update etc. Hit "Renewal" and follow the prompts. At one point it asks about the FEE. There is no fee for Ham License, also there is no choice in the "BOX", it only says "NO," which seems wrong. Keep going and go on and fill in and follow prompts. On the next screens it shows there is no fee and all is OK. Also be sure and "click" on the left hand column bottom, where it shows your call listed, and then continue on. ( Do not hit the ADD unless you have more than one license.) Hit "continue" and follow the prompts. Print the Reference Copy Only of your "renewal" when prompted. (Type your name as signing) When it says "your renewal is complete," you can sign out of FCC site. After I signed out I was back to the QRZ.Com site and logged out of it. Thus the whole thing was done thru QRZ. You can also call up the FRN or FCC site, but this way you do not have to type any long site addresses. We filed on a Friday June 17th…the next day when I looked at QRZ it showed my license had been renewed and the 10 year future expiration date from my Birthday was posted. Just be sure you are rested and not in a hurry when you start to do your renewal. It takes about 10 minutes and you can go as slow as you wish. Good luck. Closing Note: I received by Renewed License in the Mail on: June 23, 2005…that was only 6 days after I renewed on line. The next day I received a mail copy of my FRN number. Just do it on line. Also QRZ now shows my FRN number but write down your password and keep it handy for 10 years from your renewal, or if you have a change of address or other to advise the FCC. 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.] 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 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. 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. Door Prizes: A number of fabulous door prizes are collected by the club prize-master, Bob Osterhous (W9PSE). These are usually distributed to randomly selected members of the IRC who are in attendance. You can learn more about the potential benefits of the door prize distribution process by attending the next IRC meeting in September! Thanks to Bob Osterhous for doing such a great job locating interesting prizes for this exciting portion of the club meetings. Announcements: Any Additional News Items: 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. The "Ama Chewer" contains date information that is out of date. If you can help with this minor update, please contact the editor.