Annual
Awards Banquet
The
Annual Awards Banquet is on Saturday, February 4, at Spring
Mill Inn. The room opens at
5 PM
and dinner starts at
6 PM
. Those planning to attend need to call Ann Harris at
275-3415 or email her at kc9ejo@insightbb.com
no later than January 28th so a head count may be given to the
Spring Mill Inn. The
cost will be $5.00 per person and children under 10 are free.
Dues
This
is another reminder that the club dues for 2006, which are
$20, are now due. Payment
can be arranged with Ann at 275-3415.
Early
Beginnings of our radio club
Frank
Chase, W9YJD, was kind enough to email your
secretary information on the start of the club back in the
early 1950s. Frank
was in the Navy and they sent him to school in
Rhode Island
to train him as a radio operator.
He served as radio operator for two years on two
cruisers. After
he got out he met Bill Jenkins and taught him code while Bill
taught Frank theory. They
both got their licenses.
They met Frank Carroll, W9QYQ, when they first got on
the air. Soon
afterwards they met Vance Lockenour,
W9CNL, Frank Anderson, K9BGF, and Kenny Kern, K9BEH and soon
were meeting at the Chase Chevrolet showroom on
J Street
. Soon after that
Bob and Jane Hartley also joined them.
At that point they decided to form the club to
encourage new Ham operators.
Their first Field Day was held at Bill Jenkins house
between Bedford and Mitchell.
They used two WW2 tank transceivers putting out about
five watts CW and scored very high in the state on battery
power. Other
Field Days were held at
Spring
Mill
State Park
and in a pasture south of
Orleans
which Frank Carroll located.
On that occasion they were attacked in the middle of
the night by a small herd of beef cattle that took down their
ten meter antenna and scared the daylights out of a few sleepy
Hams.
They
needed to raise some money after incorporating the club so
they started holding very popular Hamfests
at Spring Mill (secretary will report details on some of that
next month). That
lasted until Spring Mill wouldn’t allow that anymore.
At that point the club located the land we presently
have and immediately bought it.
That took all of the money and Bill Jenkins and Frank
came up with $200 to buy a burned out mobile home that became
the club building for several years.
Code and theory classes were held for prospective Hams
and with good success. The
club grew. Frank
Carroll died unexpectedly, a devastating loss to all and a
very popular Ham known all over the state.
The club applied to the FCC and secured Frank’s call,
W9QYQ, thus the origin for the club’s call.
There
were a few other Hams in the area but they didn’t seem
interested in joining the club.
Occasionally, TVI problems occurred but not often.
One story Frank related involved a neighbor lady
accusing one of the club members of causing interference.
She said she could hear his voice coming over her TV
set so she called the police, FCC and wrote the newspaper
about hearing the operator’s voice every time he turned his
radio on. After
that ruckus it was learned that he could not operate AM but
only had a CW 807 rig. The
incident was so funny that one of the members wrote a humorous
article about it and it was published in QST.
Technical
Forum
Mike,
KF9NP, is arranging for a technical program to be held after
the regular business meeting, hopefully each month.
For the February 7 meeting he is hoping to have a guest
talk about amplifiers or some other subject.
Miscellaneous
Notes
Classes
for prospective Hams will be starting in a few weeks.
Those will be conducted by Hal, W8AIR, Tim
Miller, K9US, and other volunteers, tentatively on Wednesday
and Thursday nights, two separate groups.
Plans for the second dish installation for Moody will
take place on Wednesday, January 18.
The Fox
Hunt will be January 21, starting at
3:30 P.M. Mike
, KF9NP, will be the fox.
A reminder will be sent later in the week to the fox
hunter email distribution list.
Newsletter - January
2006