I received the following email on September 18 from Steve Eberhart, son of Bob Eberhart(SK), indicating that he was in the process of picking up his Dad’s former call sign that was held by the Society for many years.

Last year, the Society decided to pick up the call sign of Don Miller(SK), W9NTP, at the request of his Widow, Sandra Miller.

Hi John,

After my father, Bob Eberhart’s death the Blue River Valley Amateur
Radio Society (BRVARS) applied for and was issued his call sign W9JUQ. 
I now see that BRVARS has been issued Don Miller’s W9NTP call sign and
has turned back my father’s W9JUQ.

My current call sign is W9BOJ (General class) which was my mothers.
Today I applied for my father’s original W9JUQ call sign under the close
relative provision for Vanity call signs.  I anticipate the two year
wait being waved.  I know my father would have been very pleased that
BRVARS used his call sign for all these years and I also know that he
would have been a huge supporter of the club adopting Don’s call sign.

Thank you for honoring my father like you did.

Steve Eberhart

I think that our concerns over the disposition of the W9JUQ call sign can be set aside now that Steve will be picking up the call as his own. Sometimes, things just seem to fall right into place as they should.

John Walker, Secretary

BRVARS

Fellow Indiana Hams,

We have an opportunity to positively affect Amateur Radio for years to
come.  H.R. 1301, the Amateur Radio Parity Act, has unanimously passed
the House of Representatives and moved on to the Senate for
consideration.  All you need to do is spend two minutes of your time
to
send an email to your two Senators supporting the Bill.  By doing so,
you will have helped the future of Amateur Radio by guaranteeing our
ability to have an effective outdoor antenna in a deed-restricted
community.

The number of people living in such communities grows exponentially
each year.  Often, a ham homeowner has no choice but to live in a
community restricted by covenants.  There are nearly 3/4 of a million
licensed hams in the United States, more than ever before.  But that
may change if we are forced to live in a community that refuses to
allow an antenna.

Help yourself and help your fellow hams.  Go to this link:

https://arrl.rallycongress.net/ctas/urge-senate-to-support-amateur-radio-parity-act

Enter your zip code and follow the prompts.  The letters are there.

All you need to do is fill in the blanks, hit save, then send.

That’s it.  Under 2 minutes and you’re done.

If you haven’t yet done so, please do so today. Your voice counts!

Please be sure to share this message with everyone you know regardless
if they are a licensed ham or not.  We can use all the support that we
can get!

——————————————————————–
ARRL Indiana Section
Section Manager: Mr Brent A Walls, N9BA
n9ba@arrl.org
——————————————————————–

The weekly 220MHz repeater net runs every Thursday evening now at 8:00PM. You can join in on the net on the BRVARS 220MHz repeater located here in Shelbyville. The repeater frequency is 224.44 MHz. There is no PL tone on this repeater. Say you have no 220 MHz radio, then tune your UHF radio to either 443.900 or 441.350 MHz with a 77 Hz PL tone and you can get on the network through one of the UHF hub repeaters.

The National Weather Service is offering Severe Weather Spotter Training here in Shelby County on March 17 at the Indiana Downs, 4200 Michigan Road, Shelbyville, IN. All are encouraged to attend this session.

Spotter Training – Shelby County

33rd Annual Columbus HAMFEST

April 9, 2016

8:00 am – Noon

Bartholomew County Fairgrounds

Community Building

750 W County Road 200S

Columbus, IN 47201

Prizes awarded every hour

Grand Prize – Yaesu FT-7900 Dual Band Mobile

Talk in: 146.79 MHz (-600KHz, PL 103.5Hz)

Admission $5.00 at the door

Flea market space is available at a rate of $1.00/foot

Setup Friday, April 8, from 7 to 9 PM and 6 AM day of the hamfest.

Food available

VE Testing from 9:00am until 11:00am

For more information contact Matthew Bruner, KC9BWO 812-375-4860 kc9bwo@att.net

http://www.carcnet.net

HAMFEST

April 2, 2016

8:00 am – 2:00pm

Everton, IN on west side of IN Route 1 in the firehouse at the yellow flashing light.

Prizes awarded every hour beginning at 9:00 am

Grand Prize – Jetstream Dual Band Mobile Radio

Talk in on KB9RVR repeater 146.745 MHz, no PL tone

Admission $5.00

8 ft tables $8 per table

Setup at 6:00 am day of hamfest

Food available

For more information call Jack Catron Committee Chair at 765-520-1857

 Bicentennial Indiana QSO Party

Bicentennial Indiana QSO Party is Saturday, May 7th, 11AM to 11PM EDT.

This is a 12 hour operating event with the objective of activating all 92 Indiana counties and getting as many Indiana hams on the air as possible during the QSO Party on the 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meter amateur bands.

The goal for hams operating from Indiana is to work all 92 counties and as many hams in Indiana and worldwide as possible.

As part of the Indiana Bicentennial Celebration the HDXCC will offer a special certificate for working the following 15 counties: Clark, Dearborn, Franklin, Gibson, Harrison, Jackson, Knox, Orange, Perry, Posey, Switzerland, Warrick, Washington and Wayne, representing the 15 counties that made up Indiana on December 11, 1816 when Indiana was admitted to the union. See rules for detail on receiving the certificate.

A certificate will be awarded for any station activating one or more of the 15 Bicentennial Counties and submitting an entry. This applies to fixed, portable, rover and mobile stations making 25 QSO minimum is an aggregate from one or more of the 15 qualifying counties.

INQP allows a number of operating categories including: QRP, low and high power single operator, all-out club efforts, multi-operator high power and multi-multi (multi operator and multi transmitters) operation. Also included are mobile units and rovers moving from county to county and portable setups similar to Field Day. Plaques are awarded for best in Indiana, out of state efforts, and best individual county efforts!

The Indiana exchange is RS(T) plus the county, for all others States it is RS(T) plus state, for Canada RS(T) plus province or territory and all others it is RS(T) plus DX.

The INQP Club Competition offers Indiana Amateur Radio Clubs a great opportunity as a club operating event. This could be a membership operating activity, a club multi-operation or a portable operation from a rare county or straddling a county line.

The club’s aggregate score is the total score of the club members submitting contact-logs. At the end of the QSO party club members will submit their contact-logs electronically listing their club affiliation.

The club must be a legitimate Indiana Club. At least three members must participate, either as three individual single operator entries or a multi-operation entry listing three members or a combination of these entries.  All contacts made by club members submitting logs, must be made from a station located in Indiana during the INQP.

Digital logs are preferred for INQP entry submissions. Handwritten logs are accepted, but they have to be manually entered, so please use logging software if at all possible. The Cabrillo log format is preferred for log submission.

Top Club Competition Plaque will be awarded to the club with highest aggregate score and awards certificates for second and third place. We would like to encourage all Indiana clubs to consider putting together a club effort and get their members on the air for the INQP.

The INQP overlaps with a few other QSO parties and contests: the 7QP, NEQP, and the Italian ARI Contest. So, during the INQP many other stations seek contacts from Indiana to fill their logs. The more Indiana stations on the air that day, the more action for everyone!

Typically 80, 40 and 20 meters are the most common bands used during the INQP, with 40 meters being the best band to work Indiana stations. Check 80/75 meters after dark for activity.

INQP PowerPoint Presentation – The HDXCC has put together an INQP PowerPoint presentation that can be used as program material at your club meeting. http://www.hdxcc.org/inqp/publicity.html

See the HDXCC web site for detailed information on the INQP rules, entry categories, logging software links and operating information for the INQP: http://www.hdxcc.org/inqp/index.html

The Indiana QSO Party is sponsored by the Hoosier DX and Contest Club (HDXCC)