The Indianapolis Radio Club Newsletter Founded 1914 “The oldest continuously operating Amateur Radio Club in the United States” April 2008 Newsletter Upcoming Meetings: May 9: Antenna Forum, discussion about analyzers and possibly TVI. June 13: Annual Auction [][]Highlights of the April 11, 2008 meeting: Vice President Dave Miller, K9RTT, called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. Dave started self introductions around the room. There were 45 present for the meeting, including 3 prospective hams. Steve, KB9RDS, and Jim, K9RU, talked about the Indiana QSO Party coming up on May 3. The club station, W9JP, will be used for this event. Dave, K9RTT, talked about the annual bus trip to Dayton that is coming up again this year on May 17. It will have the same pick up points: Southern Plaza at 6:30 a.m., and at Peddler’s Mall at 7:00 a.m. Point your browser to http://indyradioclub.org/bustripdayton08.htm for more information. [FIELD DAY]The Radio Club will be hosting a field day site this year, using the W9JP call. The field day site will be the Marion County Fair Grounds. More on Field Day later in this newsletter. The scheduled technician classes scheduled for the week of April 14 may not happen, due to the fact that only 2 people are signed up so far. []Next, the evening’s featured program began with Richard, WB9LPU, presenting the history of home brewing, as related to ham radio. There has always been home brewing in ham radio. In the early days, one had to “home brew” their gear. In the 30’s and 40’s, commercial gear was available, but pricey. Then, in the 50’s and 60’s, commercial equipment started to become more affordable, plus there was an abundance of military surplus gear. Kits also became available during this time period. Later, in the 70’s and 80’s, overseas produced equipment saturated the market and drove off U.S. manufacturers. More recently, in the 90’s and 00’s, homebrew is coming back, especially for QRP applications and there are some kits available, as well. New, digital circuitry and simple designs helped kits make a comeback. Kits by individuals, as well as by clubs, such as NorCal, N.J. QRP club, and Small Wonder Labs are becoming popular. There are also some larger companies involved with kits, such as MFJ, Elecraft, and TenTec. There are several levels of kits available, such as modular, where board level assemble is already done, and all the assembler needs to do is plug in circuit boards with no soldering necessary, all the way to a “bag ‘o parts” and instructions. Richard answered the question of “what to make?” with the reminder to make something useful or fun. Antennas are always good candidates for home brew, as well as keys and keyers, and test equipment. He also went over the various tools and test equipment needed. He said that good sources of plans and ideas include QST, QEX, CQ, and Nuts and Volts magazines, as well as various internet sites. He said that one place to get parts is still the neighborhood RadioShack, although some of their parts are fairly pricey. You can check out Richard’s web site at http://wb9lpu.googlepages.com/ for more information. [][]Ham Radio News: []SIGN UP NOW FOR THE BUS TRIP TO DAYTON [BUS DAYTON TRIP] Don’t miss out on the fun, as well as money savings, to be had on the annual IRC bus trip to the Dayton Hamvention. The bus will board on the South Side, at Southern Plaza at 6:30 a.m., and on the East Side, at Peddler’s Mall at 7:00 a.m. We will then make a short breakfast stop at Richmond, and be delivered to the main entrance of the show. The bus will be available for storage of your purchases, and will take us back to Indy, stopping again at Richmond for a relaxed dinner. The cost for the bus trip is $30. This fee only covers the bus trip. Show admission and meals are separate. To get signed up, contact club president Tom Chance, K9XV, by email at Chance_tom@emc.com, or by phone at 317-213-9240. Or, you can mail a check made out to the Indianapolis Radio Club for the number of bus seats you want multiplied by $30 to Tom at his mailing address of 9302 S. Mitthoeffer Road, Indianapolis, IN 46259. You can also get tickets at the next club meeting on May 9, but we encourage you to get your seats reserved soon, before they’re all gone! []W9JP WILL BE ON THE AIR FOR FIELD DAY 2008 For the first time since 1973, the Indianapolis Radio Club will sponsor a Field Day Operation. The site will be at the Marion County Fairgrounds, on Indy’s Southeast side. Set up begins at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 28, with operation starting at 1:00 p.m. local time and running until 1:00 p.m. Sunday. All are invited to participate, and are needed, since we will be running 4 stations, including a Get On The Air station. For more info go to http://indyradioclub.org/ircfdops.htm , or contact Jim Rinehart, K9RU (email k9ru@arrl.net or phone 356-1908), or Dave Jarvis, N9KZJ (email n9kzj@earthlink.net or phone 359-4738), or Tom Chance, K9XV (email k9xv@arrl.net or phone 862-8483). []INDIANAPOLIS VE Testing Schedule for 2008 June 7th July 12th (At a separate location with the Indianapolis Hamfest) August 16th Sept 6th October 4th November 1st December 6th Calling in advance to ensure testing availability is suggested but not mandatory. SPONSOR: Indianapolis Radio Club (W9JP) LOCATION: Indianapolis Training Center 2820 N. Meridian Street. CONTACTS: Gale Wuollet, AA9WU (h) 317-849-8449, or Dr. Jay Wright, KK9L 317-203-3335. All testing at the Indianapolis Training Center starts at 9:00 am and the last test will be administered no later than 11:00 a.m. []CEPT PULLS AUTOMATIC RECIPROCITY FOR GEN. AND TECHS >From CQ Magazine: The European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Authorities (CEPT) has withdrawn automatic license reciprocity from U.S. hams holding General or Technician Class licenses. According to the Radio Society of Great Britain, the CEPT's Radio Regulatory Working Group compared U.S. licensing standards against those of other CEPT signatory nations and determined that "the recently revised standards for Technician and General no longer have any equivalent in the European community of nations." Thus, according to RSGB, as of February 4, U.S. Generals and Tehnicians will have to formally apply for a reciprocal license before being permitted to operate in a CEPT country. Holders of Advanced and Extra Class licenses still have automatic reciprocity. []SOLAR CYCLE 24 OVERLAPPING WITH 23 >From NASA Science News for March 28, 2008: Three months ago, a new solar cycle began. This week, however, the sun surprised onlookers with three big sunspots from the previous solar cycle. Strangely enough, this is perfectly normal. Find out what's happening on the Sun in today's story from Science@NASA. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/28mar_oldcycle.htm?list716128 []ANNUAL ARMED FORCES DAY CROSSBAND TEST SCHEDULED FOR MAY The Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard are co-sponsoring the annual Military/Amateur Radio communications tests in celebration of the 58th anniversary of Armed Forces Day (AFD). Although the actual Armed Forces Day is celebrated on May 17, the AFD Military/Amateur Crossband Communications Test will be conducted on May 10 to prevent conflict with the Dayton Hamvention, scheduled for May 16-18. The annual celebration features traditional military to amateur crossband communications SSB voice tests and copying the Secretary of Defense message via digital modes. These tests give Amateur Radio operators and short wave listeners an opportunity to demonstrate their individual technical skills and to receive recognition from the Secretary of Defense and/or the appropriate military radio station for their proven expertise. QSL cards will be provided to those stations making contact with the military stations. Special commemorative certificates will be awarded to anyone who receives and copies the digital Armed Forces Day message from the Secretary of Defense. Point your browser to http://www.netcom.army.mil/MARS/docs/ARMEDFORCESDAYFinal.doc for all the details. []ATTENTION ALL YLs Those “wild and crazy guys” over at the W9IMS special event are planning to have a YL only “special event within a special event” on the evening of May 24, the night before the 500. They’re going to declare it “Chick Factor Night”, only allowing YLs on the air for several hours. The motto of the evening is going to be “All Chicks, All the Time!” This is a great opportunity for those of the fairer sex to get some experience working the pile-ups generated by the monster signals emanating from the Comm Center. Don’t worry if you’re new to handling pile-ups, there will be plenty of help available. []FEEL FREE TO SHARE OUR NEWSLETTER If you belong to any other radio groups, please feel free to share our newsletter with them. They can also sign up to be on our mailing list by filling out the form available at http://www.indyradioclub.org/rqstnewsletter.htm. SEND ME YOUR HAM RADIO NEWS If anyone has any items for the newsletter, please send them to Ken Bandy at kc9glq@arrl.net []Signals from the Past: >From the April, 1979 Indianapolis Radio Club Amachewer: Jerry Lucas, W9BS found another ham at an eating place. He was leaving Arby’s at 86th and S.R. 421 when a woman fell and was injured. Jerry was in the act of calling for aid over his 2 meter rig when the manager approached and identified himself as William Dawson, WB9TOF. Oh yes, the woman injured was very grateful for the help when the first aid arrived. Upcoming Area Radio Events: * Saturday, May 17 Annual IRC Bus Trip to Dayton Tickets are $30 each, and available at the next meeting. Bus ticket does not include admission to the show. Current IRC Officers: · President: Tom Chance, K9XV - ..EMAIL k9xv@arrl.net · Vice Pres.: Dave Miller, K9RTT - ..EMAIL dmiller@ivytech.edu · Secretary: Ken Bandy, KC9GLQ - ..EMAIL kc9glq@arrl.net · Treasurer: Judy Gardner, AA9GW - ..EMAIL aa9gw@juno.com · Chief Operator: Steve Wendt, KB9RDS - ..EMAIL kb9rds@arrl.net · Dir. at large: Jim Rinehart, K9RU – EMAIL k9ru@arrl.net · Dir. at large: Tom Price, WB9UNG – EMAIL pricetr@comcast.net · Dir. at large: Hank Wolfla, K9LZJ – EMAIL hwolfla@insightbb.com · W9JP Trustee: Don Hemenover, N9DOO – EMAIL don9doo@lightbound.com