By unanimous approval the membership approved the purchase of a Yaesu Fusion repeater at the March membership meeting. The repeater will initially replace the analog FM repeater that is in service on the 145.480MHz frequency. The Yaesu repeater is a dual-band unit that could possibly work in place of either our VHF or UHF repeater as needed. The new repeater is also dual mode as well. It works both in analog, FM mode and Yaesu’s Fusion digital mode. It can work either analog, digital or be in “auto sense” mode working with either analog or digital traffic as required. More information will be made available to the membership at the next meeting regarding the operation of this new repeater. We expect delivery from Yaesu in about 2 months time.

After spending several hours of voting on amendments to the proposed Constitution and By-Laws, the documents were approved by unanimous vote. The biggest changes to the Constitution and By-Laws had to do with equal opportunity and disbanding policies. These two areas are important in order to secure a 501-(C)7 status with the Internal Revenue Service(IRS). Once we attain that status we will then be able to apply for Grant monies if needed in the future. Outlays of the Society’s treasury for replacement repeater equipment and other items could far exceed what is currently available. Local agency sources for Grant monies will only accept applications from non-profit groups that have official 501 status with the IRS.

There was also a change in the annual membership dues from $10 per person per year to $20 per person per year with adjustments for additional family members. Once the new Constitution and By-Laws were accepted, a motion was made to offer a special deal to current members that they could prepay their dues for out years at the current $10 per person per year amount for up to 5 years. This offer to current members expires at the January, 2016 dinner meeting.

The new Constitution and By-Laws will be posted on this website for ready reference in the future.

Word came to us yesterday that the “100 Years of Radio in Shelby County” and the W9S special event station will be highlighted in next months issue of the ARRL Indiana Section newsletter. We will be the feature article in the newsletter. Pictures of the display and the special event station will be included with the article. We are being noticed around the State for this event.

Bob Burns, W9BU, ARES District 5 EC, needs to find a person to be the Shelby County ARES Emergency Coordinator. If you might be interested in the position, please read Bob’s request below. Contact Bob directly, if you are interested. There is also a link to the ARRL website that describes the job description in detail.

Bob said in his email “Do you know anyone who might be interested? It’s not a difficult job,
but it needs someone who is dedicated to serving the public through
amateur radio. The job description can be found here:

http://www.arrl.org/emergency-coordinator

If you know of anyone, please ask them to contact me.”
Thank you.
Bob Burns W9BU
ARES District 5 EC
Indiana Section ARRL
phone 317-410-7721
email w9bu@arrl.net

• The next members meeting will be on Tuesday, May 21, 2024, at 7:30PM. The meeting will be held at the Hopes Point Baptist Church, 1703 South Miller Avenue
  Shelbyville, IN  46176. Hope to see you all there.
• Ham Breakfast with the Hams:  Breakfasts are always held on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of each month at 8:30AM at the Shelbyville Denny’s restaurant located on the East side of Shelbyville at the I-74 and SR44 interchange. See you there.
• The Rush County Net is held every Monday evening at 7:00 PM on the 147.00 MHz repeater located in Rush County. The repeater has a 127.3 Hz PL tone. All check-ins are welcome.
• The Indiana Statewide DStar Net is held every Thursday evening at 8:00 PM on Reflector 24B. Our local DStar repeater is always on Reflector 24B on Thursday evenings.
• SSTV/CW NET You can catch up on your CW and Digital Slow Scan TV on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings at 8:50 AM on 144.36 MHz. If you are not fluent in CW, then we invite you to cheat a little and fire up FLDIGI and join on in. After CW we then fire up the Digital SSTV program EasyPal and send pictures back and forth over the airwaves.

The 2015 Spotter Training Class for Shelby County will be on March 3, 2015 at the Indiana Downs, 4200 Michigan Road, Shelbyville, IN 46176. Class begins at 7:00PM. All Shelby County Amateur Radio Operators are encouraged to attend.

With the special event now behind us, the fun of labeling and addressing almost 700 QSL cards is the opportunity in front of us. The cards are printed and ready for labeling. A few evenings the week of February 8th would probably work out just fine. We are able to use the large meeting room in the basement of the Grover Museum to setup and work through the labeling of the QSL cards.

I think the value in doing this whole special event project in association with the Grover Museum’s “100 Years of Radio in Shelby County” grew each time I got an email from a contact or opened the envelope containing their QSL card and read their recollections of years past spent with radios very similar to the ones in the display at the Museum. I think we did some real good for some folks out there who took the time to visit the Museum’s and the BRVARS’s websites to see pictures of the vintage equipment. Hearing from these folks that they had a radio just like the one in the display, or that they had built a radio like that with their dad when they got their first ham license was really great to hear and made all the work that went into the project seem small compared to the good that it did for a lot of folks.

Please try to help us out when we start processing the cards if you can. Send me an email at inprinter@att.net or just call me at 317.402.5000 if you can help out.

John Walker, Secretary BRVARS

Pictured is Pat Wagner, WA9AAV, working CW(Morse Code) from the lobby of the Grover Museum in Shelbyville. Numerous contacts around country have been made operating the CW mode of transmission.