The Indianapolis Radio Club Newsletter Founded 1914 “The oldest continuously operating Amateur Radio Club in the United States” December 2008 Newsletter Upcoming Meetings: January 9, 2009: Emergency Communications Meeting with Don West, W9DEW, from the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. Also Annual Chili Cook-off! February 13, 2009: Legacy Radio Highlights from the December Meeting: Outgoing club president Tom Chance, K9XV, started off the meeting with self-introductions. There were 86 members and guests in attendance. Tom stated that the club had had a great year, with several successful events in 2008, and we are all looking forward to 2009. Tom mentioned that the FCC has requested that the ARRL and ham operators assist in the transition to Digital Television transmissions. There will be test transmissions on December 17 and January 17, before the cut-over on February 17, 2009. At this point, Jerry Skoll, KC9DTB, told of his adventures on his latest boat trip. He left Annapolis on November 28, and Norfolk on December 7. The radio gear on this boat was a lot better than on his last trip. Jerry had about 50 contacts in all while he was out. He had several Indiana contacts, thanks to Mike, N9FEB, promoting his trip. Jerry plans for his next trip to plan his weekday contacts around the evening grey line for Indiana. There was a reminder about the chili cook off at the January meeting. Next, Chuck Crist, W9IH, introduced the evening's featured speaker, the Executive Director of the Indiana War Memorial, Brigadier General Stewart Goodwin. Gen. Goodwin said he was drafted in 1971, and has been in active duty ever since. He is currently Assistant Adjutant General of the Indiana National Guard. The General recognized all those in the room that had served in the armed forces. He talked of how the service is changing, for instance when Terre Haute lost it's fighter group, it got a unit that gathers and analyzes data gathered from unmanned surveillance planes around the world. The General noted that Indianapolis has more acreage devoted to honoring veterans than any other city in the United States. He also noted that Indy is second to only Washington, D.C. in the number of monuments. Indiana's involvement starts back at the Civil War. Only one state had more soldiers involved in the Civil War per capita. Indiana formed 10% of the Civil War forces. Then the General fast-forwarded to today, in Iraq, Indiana has more involvement than any other state. He stated that Indiana leads the nation in military recruitment. General Goodwin mentioned that in 1918, the American Legion put it's headquarters in Indianapolis due to Indianapolis being at the “crossroads of America” (railROADS). The General said that there was a new monument in the works to recognize the USS Indianapolis submarine. He also said that the world war memorial is available free of charge for funerals of veterans. Awards were presented next. The first award to be presented was for the “Oldest Ham” present. John Lee, W9GRE, was presented this award, at a young 78 years of age. Next awarded was the “Technical Excellence” Award. This year's recipient was Dave Gingrich, K9DC. The last award was for “Amateur of the Year”. The 2008 Amateur of the Year was the club's outgoing president, Tom Chance, K9XV. Next door prizes were awarded. Finally, the drawing for the blind draw donation prize of a Yaesu FT-7800 was made. The winner was Jeff Hammer, N9NIC, freshly back from a tour of duty in Iraq. Ham Radio News: IN-ARRL LOOKING FOR ITN NET MANAGER Received from Indiana Section Manager-Elect, John Poindexter, W3ML: We are looking for individuals who may be interested in an ARRL position. We have a need for an ITN Net Manager to handle the Indiana Traffic Net. This is the sideband net. Also, we are looking for a Net Control Station to take over the position that John Wallace AB9AA has held for over 40 years on the ITN. John would like to retire from the position. I, W3ML, would like to personally thank John for the service he has provided to Indiana and the National Traffic System. If you are interested in either or both positions please contact Jim Baughn, K9EOH at k9eoh@arrl.net INDIANAPOLIS VE Testing Schedule for First half of 2009 January 10, 2008 March 7, 2008 April 4, 2008 June 6, 2008 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. INARES PSK NET CHANGING MODES Beginning in January of 2009, the INARES PSK Net will be using Olivia 500 mode. Everything else remains the same: Time is 8:00 pm Indianapolis time on Tuesday evenings; Frequency is around 3.583 MHz. SEVERAL EMAIL NEWSLETTERS AVAILABLE FROM ARRL One of the many ARRL membership benefits includes many newsletters, such as the ARRL letter, ARRL Contest Update (a bi-weekly contest newsletter), the ARES E-Letter (sent monthly, containing public service and emergency communications news), the ARRL Club News, the ARRL Instructor/Teacher E-Letter and the VE Newsletter, just to name a few. To sign up for these newsletters, bulletins and notifications on the Member Data page of the ARRL Web site . FCC REQUESTING HELP FROM HAMS WITH DTV EDUCATION Earlier this month, the ARRL received a request from the FCC asking that ARRL members provide technical educational assistance to their communities concerning the FCC-mandated digital television (DTV) conversion scheduled for February 17, 2009 . According to ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP, Amateur Radio clubs across the country are being asked to develop and implement plans to provide information throughout January and February about the DTV conversion in their areas. The FCC is leaving it up to the clubs to decide how to do this, as local groups understand the communities in ways that the FCC does not. Each community is a little different, Pitts said, so plans carried out by the clubs will vary from community to community. Interested groups should contact their ARRL Section Manager. WB9LPU RECEIVES “BEST OVERALL KEY” AWARD Rich, WB9LPU, received a prestigious award from the Society for the Preservation of Amateur Radio (SPAR) for the Best Overall Key. Rich received the award for his QRP paddles for the PFR (Portable Field Radio® by QRP Kits). To read about the key and see a picture of it, point your browser to http://www.indyradioclub.org/eqreviews/bestpufferpaddles.pdf FREQUENCY CHANGE FOR CANADIAN TIME TRANSMISSION STATION CHU After 70 years of broadcasting Canada's official time, the National Research Council's shortwave station CHU will move the transmission frequency for the 7335 kHz transmitter to 7850 kHz. The change goes into effect at 0000 UTC on January 1, 2009. Broadcasting 24 hours a day, CHU is a part of NRC's system for disseminating official time throughout Canada. Listeners hear tones to mark the seconds, a voice to announce the time in French and English and digital data to set computers. The atomic clocks at CHU are part of the ensemble of clocks in the time and frequency research laboratories at the National Research Council Canada in Ottawa. The NRC clocks are used in conjunction with clocks in the time laboratories of other countries to construct the internationally accepted scale of time, UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). Time transmissions on 3330 and 14670 kHz are not affected and will continue as before. CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE MEMBERS RELEASE REPORT LAMBASTING FCC CHAIRMAN KEVIN MARTIN On Tuesday, December 9, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce -- the congressional committee that oversees the Federal Communications Commission -- released its majority staff report "on the bipartisan investigation of the FCC's regulatory processes and management practices." The report -- "Deception and Distrust: The Federal Communications Commission under Chairman Kevin J. Martin" -- stated that the investigation was prompted "by allegations to the effect that [FCC] Chairman Kevin J. Martin has abused FCC procedures by manipulating or suppressing reports, data and information" . WANTED: TECHNICAL SPECIALISTS >From Jim Osburn, WD9EYB: Starting in January I'll be the new Technical Coordinator (TC). I want to increase the number of Technical Specialists (TS) in the state so I'm sending this email to every ARRL affiliated radio club in the database with an email address to ask people to sign up as a TS. Please pass this email along to interested parties including your club president to announce at a meeting and your newsletter editor to print in your newsletter. I've created an online TS application at this link: http://www.wirelessinfield.com/tswebapp Thanks, Jim, WD9EYB WELCOME NEW MEMBERS New members at the December meeting: Reba Benson, N9QKQ Julie Fulk, no call 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 kj9b@arrl.net Signals from the Past: >From the December, 1950 Amachewer: The State of Indiana, Department of Civilian Defense has been contacted with regard to ham participation in Civilian Defense activities and in this respect a meeting Tuesday, the 12th is being attended by ham representatives of the club. Upcoming Area Radio Events: * March 14: Wabash Valley Amateur Radio Assn. Hamfest. Point your browser to http://www.w9uuu.org for more info. * May 14 – 16: Dayton Hamvention. Stay tuned for details on the Indy Radio Club’s bus trip to Dayton. 2009 IRC Officers: · President: Ron Cooper, WB9DKL - ..EMAIL wb9dkl@sbcglobal.net · Vice Pres.: Dave Miller, K9RTT - ..EMAIL dmiller@ivytech.edu · Secretary: Ken Bandy, KJ9B - ..EMAIL kj9b@arrl.net · Treasurer: Jay Willever, K9LJW - ..EMAIL k9ljw@arrl.net · Chief Operator: Steve Wendt, KB9RDS - ..EMAIL kb9rds@arrl.net · Dir. at large: Tom Chance, K9XV - ..EMAIL k9xv@arrl.net · Dir. at large: Bob Osterhous, W9PSE - ..EMAIL rosterhous@iquest.net · Dir. at large: Bob Begeman, W9KVK - ..EMAIL w9kvk@juno.com · W9JP Trustee: Don Hemenover, N9DOO – EMAIL don9doo@lightbound.com