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Things you need to know:

  • Fort Wayne Hamfest 2024 –
    Sponsored by the Allen County Amateur Radio Technical Society

    The 2024 Fort Wayne Hamfest will be held on November 16th, 9:00AM – 4:00PM, and 17th, 9:00AM – 2:00PM at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum and Exposition Center, located at 4000 Parnell Avenue in Fort Wayne (at the corner of Parnell and Coliseum Blvd). 

  • The next members meeting will be on Tuesday, November 19, 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 currently having controller problems. You can pickup the net using a hotspot.
  • Crossroads DMR Net is held every Monday evening at 8:00PM on Talkgroups 8710 and 3118. You can participate in the net through the Shelbyville DMR repeater on 441.4875 MHz.
  •  Indiana Statewide DMR Information Net every Tuesday at 8:00 PM EST. You can participate in this net on the Shelbyville DMR repeater on 441.4875 MHz, 3118 Talkgroup.
  • 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.
  • To be added to our mailing list, please send you contact info to [email protected]. You will then get email notifications and mailings concerning any future events of the Society.

Shelbyville Tailgate 2024

The Shelbyville Tailgate will be held on Saturday, October 5, 2024 at the Shelby County Fairgrounds. Hours are from 8:00 AM until Noon. We will be open for vendor access at 7:00 AM. This is a free event. No admission charge, no table space charge and you have your choice of setting up your wares for sale either indoors or out. Due to a scheduling conflict with the Fairgrounds, we had to move the event from the 3rd Saturday to the 1st Saturday. The ARRL website is still reporting the Shelbyville Tailgate for October 19, 2024. This is not accurate and is due to a technical glitch with their website. So far, they have been unable to make a correction.

BRVARS Member Viginia Hill Passes

Virginia “Ginny” Faye Hill, 78, passed away peacefully on April 20, 2023 surrounded by her loving family at the Franciscan Hospice House in Indianapolis. She was a resident of Shelbyville.

Ginny was born on August 31, 1944 at home in Fort Ritner, Indiana to Charley and Edna (Brown) Cook. She married Larry Hill on October 4, 1964 at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Leesville, Indiana . He lovingly survives after 58 years of marriage.

Other survivors include her children, David Hill (Beth) and Shelley Hill; grandchildren, Aaron Hill and Meagan Collier (Austin); 26 nieces and nephews; 56 grand nieces and nephews; and 43 great grand nieces and nephews.

Ginny was preceded in passing by her parents, Charley and Edna; and siblings, Henry Cook, Harry Cook, Rachel Garrison, and Ruth Ratliff.

Ginny graduated from Tunnelton High School in 1962. She later graduated from Porter Business College in downtown Indianapolis.

She worked as secretary for United Home Life for 3 years following her marriage to Larry. She was a homemaker to her family as her children aged and later went on to work as a substitute daycare worker at Johnson Memorial Hospital for many years. Ginny also was a Longaberger consultant for many years.

Ginny was a member of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Franklin and the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League. She was also a member of Indiana Good Sam and the Indiana Orchid Society. She loved orchids and wildflowers. She enjoyed reading and collecting Longaberger baskets.

The family would like to extend a special thanks to the staff at Franciscan Hospice House for their dedication in caring for Ginny in her final days.

A celebration of life service will be held on Tuesday, April 25, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, 4340 Leesville Road Bedford, Indiana 47421 with visitation starting at 9:30 a.m. at the church. Visitation will also be on Monday, April 24, 2023 from 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at Flinn and Maguire Funeral Home, 2898 N. Morton Street in Franklin. Burial will follow the service at Leesville Cemetery in Leesville.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church at P.O. Box 265 Franklin, Indiana 46131.

Online condolences and other expressions of kindness are appreciated at www.flinnmaguire.net

Public Service Opportunity – 500 Festival Mini Marathon

Hello Everyone –

You are receiving this message because you are an officer of an amateur radio club in the Indianapolis metro area.

Please allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Brent Walls and my amateur radio callsign is N9BA.  I am coordinating amateur radio communications support for the 2023 500 Festival Mini Marathon on Saturday May 6th.  This is one of the most iconic mini marathons in the nation and I need your help getting the word out to potential volunteers in your club.  To fully support this event, we will need 70+ amateur radio operators.

Amateur radio operators will be stationed at pit stops (medical and water), at mile markers, the finish line area and other strategic locations.  Our primary mission is to provide communications support to the medical and logistical operations for overall public safety.  This is a great opportunity to showcase our capabilities to the 500 Festival, public safety partners and the general public.

I would like to ask you to share this opportunity with your club members and encourage them to consider volunteering to support this event.  All they need is a dual band (VHF/UHF) radio capable of operating up to 6 hours (extra batteries).  Most assignments will be handheld friendly as we will use local repeaters for most communications.  The operational period for all amateur radio operators begins at 0630 and will be a staggered release no later than 1230.

Anyone interested in volunteering can use the link below to register as an amateur radio communicator for this event. 

https://forms.office.com/r/jM35QxffzD

Anyone with questions can contact me directly by e-mail at [email protected] and I will be glad to answer their questions.

Regards,

Brent Walls N9BA

Ray Scheffler(SK), K9GKZ, Radio Equipment Sale

Date:     Saturday, October 8, 2022

Time:     1:00PM to 4:00PM

Location:              116 West 350 South, Shelbyville, IN 46176

The family of Ray Scheffler, K9GKZ, is offering his radio equipment for sale on the date, time and location given above. All are invited to come and purchase the equipment. A list is attached in Excel and PDF file formats for your convenience.

There are three antenna towers with antennas and rotors. There are spare rotors and controllers in the radio room you can inspect for yourself. The towers are more than likely Heights aluminum towers in the 50 to 70 foot height range. The third tower is a wood telephone pole with a huge log periodic antenna and Yaesu rotor(very large rotor). There are several Tailtwister rotors and controllers. All of the towers, antennas, rotors and controllers are first offered as a single package. The buyer will be responsible for the safe removal. Please tender your offers to one of the family members that will be present that day.

Any equipment not sold on October 8, 2022, may be available at the BRVARS Shelbyville Tailgate on October 15, 2022 at the Shelby County Fairgrounds.

Only price negotiations and sales can be made with a family member. All sales are final.

Ray-Scheffler-Equipment-List_Final