A heartfelt thank you to all our veterans on this Veterans Day weekend, and thanks for continuing to share your time and expertise with our local amateur radio community’s emergency services efforts!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
ARES, or Amateur Radio Emergency Services, is a program run in affiliation with the ARRL. The Hamilton County ARES program is looking for new volunteers and updated information on current volunteers, as well as Assistant Emergency Coordinator with IT experience. This is a great way to be involved in emergency communications if you can’t make the time commitment for the training and meetings required by our county EMA for RACES program participation (RACES stands for Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service). In addition, you can participate in both RACES and ARES. To get a local ARES application, email the ARES County Emergency Coordinator, Mike KD9BKU at kd9bku@gmail.com.
The net manager position has changed again. Matthew KD9WFK will be handling net management duties. If you are interested in running a new net on a repeater or are learning how to be a net controller, please contact him. You can reach him at kd9wfk@gmail.com.
Hams need your help to save 60 meters! The FCC has extended the deadline to file comments on the 60-meter band proposal. You have until November 28 to share your thoughts. ARRL strongly encourages all amateurs to submit comments expressing support for the current 100 watt ERP power limit (instead of reducing to the proposed power limit of 15 W EIRP). You can also support continuing secondary access to the current channels. For more info visit: www.arrl.org/60-meter-band.
FROM David KC9AAP: 2023 Field Day Results are in!Congratulations to the Piglet Radio team for scoring 44th nationwide in Class 3A, and 1st in Indiana for Class 3A, with 1,388 QSOs! (Class 3A signifies 3+ people using 3 transmitters at a temporary site.) Also, a shoutout to our friends on the W9SU team from Indy United ARC for a stellar 1st place nationwide in Class 4A with 4,873 QSOs!
FROM Dallas N9DAM: Time to put the 2024 marathons on your calendar! A SignupGenius is available for the two marathons. You can sign up now, and also choose a specific water stop if you wish.
FROM John W9KD: No new news on the Hortonville 2m repeater interference issue. There is a new website dedicated to the four K9EOC repeaters at: www.k9eoc.org. (Dallas N9DAM: A link to this is available from the CIARA website at n9eoc.org as well.)
FROM John W9KD: There is also a new email list called HamCoHam for buy/sell, Q&A, urgent DX and space weather alerts and other general discussion among the greater ham community in our county. This list is not affiliated with any club and is open to anyone to subscribe and post. Clubs are welcome to use it for meeting/event notices and net reports if they wish. You can subscribe at https://groups.google.com/g/hamcoham (and click “request to join group”) or via email by sending a blank message to hamcoham+subscribe@googlegroups.com.
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Thanks to everyone who has signed up to help the Good Samaritan Network of Hamilton County deliver holiday meals and toys this season! We still need one more signup for November 18, and two more spots for December 9th. These events start at 8 am at the county fairgrounds and involve delivering boxes of food and toys to homes in our county. It’s also a great way to involve your kids in charitable giving. I’ll be bringing my son along this year! Login to SignupGenius.com or click the link in the weekly HCEM newsletter to sign up. If you are not available until a few hours later, I’d encourage you to get on the Noblesville repeaters that day and ask net control if they could use some extra help. It’s always a busy day, and if a few people are sick or demand is high, we may be able to use your help later in the morning.
HCEM TRAINING
HCEM volunteers, it’s not too early to start thinking about 2024 training opportunities! You can log into Signup Genius to register for a lot of trainings already. In January alone, we have Classroom First Aid, CPR, First Aid Skills Practice, DNR Water Safety and Stop the Bleed classes. As a reminder, all HCEM volunteers must renew their CPR training every two years.
If you are not an HCEM volunteer but are interested in attending training courses like these so you can be ready for an emergency and help your community, visit www.hamiltoncounty.in.us/909 to learn about the programs you can get involved with as a county emergency management volunteer.
Dec. 4: Retention Pond Safety class. This will be an online class by the Department of Health at 9 am. If you sign up, you will also receive a link to watch the presentation up to two weeks later if you miss it.
Dec. 16: Cold Weather Ops class. 9am to noon. This class will review the winter season outlook and explain winter weather operations, plans, and procedures. See SignupGenius to register.
EVENTS
Nov 18-19: The Fort Wayne Hamfest & Computer Expo and the ARRL Central Division Convention will be held Nov. 18 and 19 at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. The is the largest hamfest in Indiana. It’s from 9am to 4pm on Saturday and 9am to 2pm Sunday, although I hear many vendors begin leaving by lunchtime. For more information, go to acarts.com.
Dec. 2: The 2023 joint CIARA/RACES Christmas Event will be held Saturday, Dec. 2 at the Forest Park Inn as a pot luck social/family get together. This replaces the monthly CIARA meeting. More details soon!
Marathon Signups
Sam Costa Half Marathon – March 23, 2024 – 8:00 am – 1:00 pm
Carmel Marathon – April 13, 2024 – 6:30 am – 3:30 pm