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)

The annual members meeting was held on Saturday, January 16th, at the Grover Museum in Shelbyville. The dinner was well attended with members, wives and friends present. The meal was prepared and served by members of Lewis Creek Baptist Church. It was a great meal topped off by a selection of tasty desserts.

Larry Hill, President, and John Walker, Secretary, both spoke after the meal and gave a review of the Society’s activities during 2015. The President then presented the Carl and Bev Mohr Amateur of the Year award to John Walker for his efforts towards promoting the Society and its activities during the past year.

The 224.440 MHz and 444.975 MHz repeaters are now back on the air. The 224.44 MHz repeater is part of the Central Indiana 220 repeater network. There is a net held on the network every Thursday evening at 8:00PM. The 444.975 MHz repeater is a new Yaesu Fusion analog/digital repeater. If you have a Yaesu Fusion radio you can use the repeater in digital mode. Otherwise, the repeater will work with analog FM as well.

Click on this link for updates on this project.

The new DMR digital, UHF repeater is now on the air. The repeater operates on 441.4875 MHz in digital mode only. This repeater is networked into the HoosierDMR.net repeater network which provides linkage to all of the DMR repeaters worldwide. You can find out about DMR at HoosierDMR.net or by Googling “DMR.” More information on DMR will be posted on this website in the next few days. In the meantime, if you already have some DMR radio equipment and want to get it programmed with the current software “plug”, please get in contact with either Ron Bush, KC9RMV or John Walker, K9SVL.

While we had the tower climber in the air we checked out both runs of available hardline that were not being used. Both runs checked out just fine. The decision was then made to install not only the UHF repeater antenna for the DMR system, we also installed a VHF/UHF antenna utilizing the other run of hardline. We now have a spare antenna system at 140′ that can be utilized as a backup repeater antenna or used for some purpose such as an APRS digipeater/igate system. This additional antenna system only enhances our resource position for future expansion.

The annual Members Dinner Meeting will be held on Saturday, January 16th, 2016 starting at 5:00PM. The Dinner Meeting will be held in the lower level meeting room at the Grover Museum. The cost per person for the meal is $13. You may call Brian Evers at 317-835-7301 to make reservations. You may pay in advance or at the door.

Society Secretary and Repeater Trustee, John Walker, proposed to the membership at the November 16 member’s meeting to purchase and install a DMR repeater in the Shelbyville area. After a presentation by representatives from the Hoosier DMR Net at the September members meeting about the DMR repeater system in Indiana, several local members purchased some DMR radios and began exploring the world of DMR digital radio. It soon became evident that it would be necessary to have a repeater here in Shelbyville in order to take full advantage of the DMR repeater network.

The Society will be purchasing a top grade Motorola DMR repeater that will work in the UHF band. Almost all DMR repeaters for amateur radio use function in the UHF band. Once all of the repeater equipment is procured, the repeater system will be located at Drake Electric with the antenna mounted on their tower. This is the location for the Society’s 2 meter Yaesu Fusion repeater.

Weather permitting, we are hoping to have this new repeater up and running before year’s end.

Over the past few weekends, Society members assembled antennas and raised a 50 foot tower for fellow Society member Guy Sever, K9ZB. Society members Bob Westwater, N9BK; Brian Evers, KC9UGG; Ron Bush, KC9RMV; Bill Price KC9ZMT; Pat Wagner, WA9AAV; Gregg Steele, K9CDB and John Walker, K9SVL all pitched in at various times and got the project completed. As you can see in the pictures below, the variety of antennas pretty much covers the entire number of frequency bands available to amateur radio operators. This was what you would call a very heavy lifting project, there was no walking-up this structure. You can also see that we made very good use of Bob Westwater’s pickup truck. This certainly turned out to be a team project and some very good ideas and suggestions along the way from those working on the project got this mission accomplished. This was a very good exercise in teamwork for sure.

Click on this link to see video of tower raising. Link takes you to N9BK’s, Bob Westwater, website where the video resides.