The Indianapolis Radio Club Founded In 1914 The oldest continuously meeting Amateur Radio Club in the United States The club was founded in 1914 and has met continuously since. The club is now a general Interest group that meets on the second Friday of each month, except July and August. The meetings start at 7:30PM followed by a program of interest to all. Programs cover a wide variety of interests; operation, technical subjects, talks by prominent Amateurs in our community as well as from other groups. Each December; the club hosts a dinner at which we present an award to the hard working amateur for Outstanding service to the Indianapolis Amateur community. We are currently meeting at the Indianapolis Training Center at 2820 N. Meridian. There's an amateur radio station in the center, which our club helps supply and maintain. Please attend our meetings and bring a guest. 2004 IRC Officers President: Chuck Crist - W9IH - 787-6674 Vice President: Don Hemenover - N9DOO - 870-1235 Secretary: Maria Chambers - KB9RLG - 357-6308 Treasurer: Tom Chance - K9XV - 787-1093 Chief Operator: Mike Carmer - KB9RBF - 357-6308 Director: Bill Goodall - K9DBY - 255-4749 Director: Don Fulk - KB9EQC - 846-8845 News Editor: (TEMP) Tom Price- WB9UNG Asst. News Editor: Bob Osterhous - W9PSE The AMACHEWER NEWSLETTER for September 2004 Reporting news from the club meeting held on Friday, September 10th, 2004, and other items of interest to amateurs. Next Meeting: Friday, October 8th, 2004 at 7:00 PM on the 13th floor of the Indianapolis Training Center; 2820 N. Meridian Street The September meeting of the Indianapolis Radio Club was held in the large room on the east side of the 13th floor of the Indianapolis Training Center. Club President: Chuck Crist, (W9IH), started the meeting at 7:30 PM, and thanked the ITC for providing the pre-meeting refreshmentss. Chuck announced that various old and new business matters had been acted upon by the club Board of Directors on behalf of the club prior to this meeting. This allowed the well-attended club meeting to quickly proceed on to the less formal agenda items reported in this newsletter. 38 attended the meeting. New Club Hams and New Calls: Ken Bandy, KC9GLQ, and son Kyle, KC9GLR Estel Hines, KC9GMV Michael Henney, formerly KA9MKR, is now KE9YA 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 tan baseball style hats with black lettering, and appeared to be very well made. If you wish to purchase one of these handsome 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. Broadripple Swapmeet a Success: A special thanks goes to Joe (K9OOA) Labraicho, Sr. and his wife Betty (K9OOB) for initiating and hosting the Broadripple Swapmeet on their grounds at 7373 Westfield Blvd. The August 7th swapmeet was well attended, thanks to the ideal location of the Labraicho residence and the excellent weather conditions on that day. Thanks are also owed to the many volunteers, headed by our club president, Chuck Crist, (W9IH) and his wife Barbara (KB9BSV), who organized the donated food items, and to all who attended or contributed to this enjoyable event. Incidentally, the ham stations operated by young hams of the community established 98 contacts while operating during the swapmeet. Steve Wendt (KB9RDS) coordinated the participation of members of the Kids Net. This group meets Sunday evenings on 146.10/70. They also operate a SSB net on 144.210 MHz. Contact Steve for details, or listen in! Antenna Building Class: Steve Wendt (KB9RDS) is holding an antenna building workshop on September 26. The session will focus on constructing 2m and 6m “J” pole antennas from half inch copper pipe. See the IRC web site at indyradioclub.org for more details, or contact Steve Wendt directly. Hamfest Calendar: -03 OCT 04: Hoosier Hills Ham Club; Bedford, IN; Contact Michael Wright, KF9NP PO Box 891; Bedford, IN 47421; Phone: 812-849-4230 . -03 OCT 04: Goshen ARC; Contact Sandy Swartzendruber, W9JOE;16722 CR 40; Goshen, IN 46526; Phone: 574-642-4263; Email: w9joe@arrl.net Hamfest Calendar (continued): -13-14 Nov 04; Indiana State Convention; Allen County AR Technical Society; Fort Wayne, IN; Contact: James Boyer, KB9IH; 3031 Wilderness Road; Fort Wayne, IN 46845; Phone: 260-489-6700; Email: kb9ih@arrl.net Amateur Radio Classes: -The Red Cross of Indianapolis Radio Club has started a 10 week class for prospective amateurs. See the IRC web site (www.indyradioclub.org) for more details. -A small group of four have been meeting at 11:00 AM on Wednesdays at the McDonalds at 116th and I-69 to discuss questions and answers on amateur radio. This session covers material for the Technician Class license and beyond, and will end when all in the group have attained their licenses. Contact Tom Price (WB9UNG), or Estel Hines (KC9GMV), a recent session attendee and Tech Plus licensee, for more information. IRC Constitution Review Committee: A small group is reviewing and consolidating different versions of the club constitution. The result of their work is available at the IRC web site (www.indyradioclub.org). Notice having been given at the last club meeting, the proposed changes will be presented and voted upon at the next regular IRC club meeting on Friday, October 8th. You can see the past and proposed documents at http://www.indyradioclub.org/irchistory.htm IUPUI Radio Club Open House: Trevor Falk (N9YM) announced that the IUPUI Radio Club is holding an open house on Saturday, September 18, 2004, starting at 10:00 AM, outside at the southeast corner of the Engineering Sciences building. Route 66 Radio Contest: This contest is aimed at making contacts with amateur radio stations located along the famous Route 66 in California. Please see the IRC web site (www.indyradioclub.org) for details. IRC Program: Vice President Don Hemenover (N9DOO) introduced Ron Williams (W9YZ), who spoke on “Amateur Radio for the Past 50 Years.” He amended the title slightly to “My 66 Years in Amateur Radio.” The second title enabled Ron to present many fascinating stories and artifacts that have been collected over his many years of involvement with amateur radio. He recalled visiting VanSickles Radio shop on Ohio Street in downtown Indianapolis in 1943, passing his radio test in 1950, following a radio class he took at Howe High School. Among his many adventures and experiences, Ron highlighted a DXpedition to Gibraltar, sponsored by Dr. Bert and Dr. Cory Servaas in 1973, through the Saturday Evening Post. Ron operated in Gibraltar as ZB2CS and returned in 1975 to operate as ZB2USA. Ron has operated as W9JVF, W9JP (as trustee for the club call), and is currently licensed as W9YZ. Among the many artifacts Ron brought to the meeting were a large certificate (DIPLOM) earned by contacting 50 Russian stations that were from 15 Russian States. In 1969, Ron received his DXCC for contacting 100 countries. That count is now up to 260. We are all grateful to Ron Williams for assembling his wealth of experiences into such an interesting program. Thanks, Ron! Door Prizes: A number of fabulous Free door prizes were once again distributed to randomly selected members of the IRC who were in attendance. To learn more about the potential benefits of the door prize selection process, be sure to attend the next IRC meeting. October 8th IRC Program: The IRC program for the next meeting on Friday, October 8th will be delivered by Tom Chance - (K9XV ) on the topic “Selection of Radio Gear.” This promises to be a topic of interest to both new and experienced hams alike. SK: The following note was received from Mel Peterson (WA9ZXS) by Don Hemenover (N9DOO), and forwarded, in turn, to the newsletter. “Don: My dad, Henry Peterson (W9ZRK) became a silent key on 8/16/04. I believe he was a life member of the Indianapolis Radio Club. I wanted to let you know so you could remove his name from your mailing list. I know you are one of the club officers, so I wanted to pass this on to you. 73's & Thanks-, Mel Peterson, WA9ZXS” Mel, all members of the club extend to you and your family our deepest sympathy upon learning the news about your dad, Henry Peterson (W9ZRK). Puzzle Diagram and Solution: A puzzle and associated diagram was presented to those in attendance at the club meeting. The Puzzle: Given a distant object of unknown height AB, on the other side of a river from your point of observation, determine the height, AB, and the distance, BC1, from the observer. * A Solution*: (1) Place a pole of height H1 at position P1 on the ground, and establish the position along the ground, C1, such that when sighting from point C1, the tip of the pole just appears to graze the top of the object AB at point A. (2) Likewise, with a second pole of height H2 at position P2 on the ground, establish the position along the ground, C2, such that when sighting from point C2, the tip of the pole again appears to just graze the top of object AB at point A. Measure lengths H1, H2, and distances P1C1, C1C2, and P2C2. (3) Distance BC1 and the height AB can then calculated using the following two formulas: BC1 = (H2) (C1C2) / ((H1/P1C1) – (H2/P2C2)) AB = (H1) (BC1) / (P1C1) An interesting feature of the solution is that it does not use the Pathagorean T heorem (c^2=a^2+b^2), nor does it use a table of Trig Tangents. A handout showing the details of the derivation above formulas will be available at the next club meeting. *Problem posed as an example of early Chineese Trigonometry in a diagram appearing on p.98 of The Norton History of Mathematical Sciences, Ivor Grattan_ Guiness; W. W. Norton & Co., New York; 1998. ISBN 0-393-04650-8. Solution steps and formulas developed by Tom Price (WB9UNG), author of this short note. Any Additional News Items: If you have news that should be reported in the next issue of club newsletter, please feel free to send it to your acting editor, Tom Price, at the email address pricetr@comcast.net. 73