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OFFICERS

Tim N9CA, PresidentBill, N4GIX, Vice President

Jim, KF9EX, TreasurerRuss, KB9HO, Secretary

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Bill Young, N9QLSJohn Gianotti, W9WY

Ken Brown, KE9TCDan Ulloa, KD9ARDAdam White KD9JCX

OTHERS

Red Cross LiaisonBill, N9QLS

Trustee, Tim, N9CANewsletter Editor and

Webmaster, John, W9WY

From The Parade Standby Tim, N9CA, LCARC President

Freq Location147.000 Merrillville147.240 St. John442.075 Merrillville

All Lake County ARC Repeaters are open to all amateurs. All repeaters must have a PL of 131.8 set in order to access.

REPEATERS

Volume 67 Issue 12 December 2018

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Not Your Father’s Ham RadioIt has been said that the first phase of Amateur Radio was Spark.

The second phase was CW, AM, and RTTY, and the third phase was SSB and FM repeaters.

I would like all of us to think about what is attracting young people to become Hams today to our new fourth phase? I submit the answer lies with digital communications and programming code.

My own back story was that I was indoctrinated with CW and SSB through my high school Ham Radio Club and its station. Both were “cutting edge” to a young im-pressionable youngster. In 1967 at age 13 I received my Novice Class license. Like a baby chick, I imprinted on the “new” phases of Ham Radio.

I freely admit I don’t know how to; harness a team of horses to a Stage Coach, raise a barn, churn butter, shoe a horse, hand load a musket, live off the land, and the like, but 150 years ago that was common knowledge. Times change. Ham Radio is changing as well.

Our future Hams are drawn to programming code for; robots, Raspberry Pi, Linux Omega2, Arduino and dongles that plug into USB ports. This makes sense as it is all new and very creative territory to explore.

Costs are a factor here too. I had a pretty low budget growing up. My radios were fourth hand hamfest items. Today, an amazingly capable minicomputer like the Raspberry Pi Zero costs $5. While a dongle on Ebay or Amazon can be as cheap as $6.

It’s likely the new crowd to be drawn to internet related experimenting and communicating with; IRLP, D-Star, Wires, FT8, VoIP, EchoLink, and connecting to remote internet controllable Ham Ra-dio Stations they can operate without the $$$ investment. After all, they grew up with the internet and computers.

I also submit that most people instinctively wish to belong to something bigger than themselves that gives them something positive back. I believe Ham Radio offers that. Our hobby and Clubs stand poised to attract new younger members who will probably not fully embrace HR phases 1 through 3.

Let’s all look in the mirror. As Hams we need to talk up our hobby, blow our own horn, spread the word, and embrace the new technology that will attract new people to Ham radio’s phase four. Times change.

Next Meeting is our Year-End Holiday Celebration. Cake and refreshments will be served. Fri-day December 14th @ 7:30. REMEMBER TO TALK UP HAM RADIO & BRING A FRIEND!

73, Tim/N9CA

— Page 2 —Check out thethe LCARC website at www.w9lj.org and the Hoosier DMR Best Practices Guide at http://tinyurl.com/nbvo7xh

Meeting MinutesNovember 9, 2018 — Russ, KB9HO

Need Help?Call on these Elmers

Scan this code to go directly to our web page

w9lj.org

December Program

• Tim N9CA• Bill N4GIX• Bill Young N9QLS• Russ KB9HO• Andy W9FXT. • Also it was mentioned Mark K9MQ is an ARRL Tech Spe-

cialist and can be called on. The club has been informed that Bowman Electronics in Val-paraiso will do tower climbing and antenna repair. Give them a call at: (219) 462-7933 or stop and see them at: 504 Marquette St, Valparaiso, IN 46383

Annual Christmas Party. Come and have some cake and fellowship with your fellow club members. Gifts are not necessary.

turkey takes toll on hamBy WBØRUR, on the scene

SAUSALITO, NV – A local ham radio operator has been cited for careless and imprudent radio operating by the Federal Office Responsible for Monitoring All Transmissions (FORMAT).

This photo of “Chick” Brown shows him asleep in his shack, while cradling a dual-band HT.

Robert “Chick” Brown dozed off during the 40 meter “Thanksgiving Day Net,” a traditional radio gathering since 1942, where hams “check-in” to offer thanks for the bless-ings of the past year.

As Junior Thompson offered thanks on the net for the blessing of his Kenwood TS-990 due to a large worker’s comp settlement check, Brown’s VOX opened up and he was heard snoring with 1500 watts P.E.P. delivered into a 7-element Yagi.

In a prepared release, the National Radio Retransmission Legion (NRRL) defended Brown’s indiscretion, saying it was directly relat-ed to the amount of turkey consumed immediately prior to the net and that the broadcast was purely unintentional. (Reporter’s note: the chemical tryptophan-L, found in turkey, can induce sleep when ingested in large doses.)

FORMAT says agents immediately received world-wide com-plaints about “the buzz-saw noise” emanating from North Ameri-can shores.

NRRL spokesman Johnson Longfellow says the “…combination of turkey, dressing, cranberries, Watergate salad, and candied yams played the devil with Brown’s metabolism, placing him in a stupor seldom paralleled in the annals of modern medicine.”

For their part, the local ham radio club “Emergency Response Team” was called away from their Thanksgiving tables and placed into action to triangulate the origin of the signal and shut it down.

Brown has 45 days to file an appeal with the Federal Office Re-sponsible for Monitoring All Transmissions, but the sleepy ham says he’ll “…probably just pay the fine and move on, since Junior will spot me some left over worker’s comp money. And maybe I will try not to eat so much turkey next year.”

### https://hamhijinks.com/turkey-takes-toll-ham/

There were no formal minutes for the November club meeting as it was election of officers. The following individuals have been elected. Give them your support!

President - Tim McGillen, N9CAVice President - Bill Leaming, N4GIXSecretary - Russ McComb, KB9HOTreasurer - James Harney, KF9EXBoard of Directors

• Bill Young N9QLS• John Gianotti W9WY• Adam White KD9JCX• Kenny Brown KE9TC• Dan Ulloa KD9ARD

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FOR SALE: Got some radio gear for sale? Looking for some radio gear to purchase? Check out the new FOR SALE page on the club’s website — https://lcarc.weebly.com/for-sale. Scroll down to see the most current items or click on the ARCHIVE section to see items for sale in previous months. If you have something that has been sold, be sure to contact John, W9WY for information to have your listing removed. There is no charge for club members to list their items. This is a service for members.

Website of Interestclick on the links to go to the website

23 December 2014 | by Larry W2LJ | Share | | Leave a Comment (5)Undoubtedly, most of you are familiar with and may have watched (many

times!) the movie “A Christmas Story”.

I am hoping that all of you (or at least MOST of you) know that this story was written by one of the most famous Amateur Radio celebrities - Jean Shepherd K2ORS (SK - call re-issued). What you may not know, is that this story originally appeared as only one chapter in Jean’s book, “In God We Trust, All Other’s Pay Cash”. The story was also published in Playboy maga-zine (of all places!) under the title “Duel In The Snow, Or, Red Ryder Nails the Cleveland Street Kid”.

Shep, as he was affectionately known, had a long running radio program on WOR-AM radio in NYC when I was a kid. If I remember correctly, it began at 10:00 PM, so we had to listen to it clandestinely, with our trusty transistor radios tucked under our pillows with the earphone running to our ears - as this was way past our appointed bed time. On Christmas Eve of 1974 (when I was a teenager and could listen with no bedtime repercus-sions), Shep gifted his audience with a reading of this hilarious Holiday tale. Here it is for you to listen to - commercials and all!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

72 de Larry W2LJQRP - When you care to send the very least!

A Christmas Story – Shep style!by Larry W2LJ

In the mid 1970’s I had the unique pleasure of talking to Jean Shepherd on the 146.910 repeater. I was having my brown bag lunch between classes I was teaching and was just listening to the repeater when all of a sudden I heard “K2ORS listening”. Thinking he may have needed directions I responded. During the course of our conversation I found out his name was Jean (the french, not the female, spelling) and that he was headed for Chicago to work on a TV show. I thought for a mo-ment and asked “Did you ever write articles for Playboy and Car & Driver Magazine? He said yes and I knew it was Jean Shepherd. My claim to fame! -- John, W9WY

Want to hear Jean’s radio broadcast of ‘A Christmas Story:? Here is the link. Click on it.https://youtu.be/GkicEleOiTM?t=2017

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na9u field day gang scores big!!Tom, W8FIB with forward by Ed.

UNIDEN BDC536HP SCANNER. Marv's WV9O, sister Jackie would like to sell this scanner from Marv’s estate. She is asking $500.00. Contact Mark, K9MQ for more information. More info and pics on the club’s web site at: https://lcarc.weebly.com/for-sale.

Be sure to check the website often for items for sale. At the present time there is a SWR meter, and a Dual Band HT for sale (as well as this scanner).

The NA9U Field Day group was formed a number of years ago from LCARC club members who wanted to be more competitive in the Field Day event. While the club participates in Field Day, its focus has always been on giving new hams or hams who have not oper-ated in a while, an opportunity to get on the air in a semi-contest environment, as well as a club semi-social event . The NA9U group decided it wanted to focus on making contacts. They wanted to op-erate the entire 24 hour period; they wanted to focus on making the most points they could. In other words they wanted a true contest environment. This does not take anything away from the club’s ac-tivity but, in my humble opinion, adds to it. It offers one the ability to participate in a low key social / learning atmosphere, or a serious effort to win the contest! If you have experience in contesting and

would like to take that next step, contact one of us. The following was written by our fearless leader, TOM, W8FIB and details the NA9U 2018 results. – ed.

Returning from the Fort Wayne Hamfest this afternoon and checking the ARRL website, we see that the FD18 Results have fi-nally shown up in the ARRL Contest Results Database.

Congratulations NA9U/KC9TEW FD Gang for a great team ef-fort result!

The ARRL Central Division is formed by the three 9-Call-Area sections. This includes Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. The 2018 Field Day operation was carried out in the Central Division by 214 competing clubs or groups. A total 2,448 operators and other par-ticipants, operating 450 transmitters, made 94,402 contacts result-ing in total scoring points of 402,118.

The largest group was of 91 participants. The smallest group was 1. The average size group was 11.4. The NA9U/KC9TEW group, our group, was composed of 16 participants consisting of 10 licensed operators. So, our group was somewhat average for the Central Division.

The maximum number of transmitters of any of the 214 groups in the Central Division was 13. The minimum was one. The aver-age was 2.1. This would place the NA9U/KC9TEW group in the average category.

The most QSOs by any of the 214 groups was 3,695 and the smallest number of contacts was 3. In all classes and power lev-els, the overall ranking of the NA9U/KC9TEW group, with 1,875 contacts and 6648 points in 24 hours, is 9th place of all 214 groups (Top 4.2% in the Central Division).

Of the 214 total groups, including 2448 participants in the Cen-tral Division, there were 32 groups operating in the 2A (two trans-mitter) class. Of these thirty-two 2A operations, NA9U/KC9TEW placed 3rd. (Top 9.4% of the Central Division).

There were 8 Indiana 2A operations with 192 operators and 16 transmitters. NA9U/KC9TEW placed 1st in Indiana in our class!

In all classes and power levels, NA9U/KC9TEW placed 3rd in I n d i a n a out of 70 g r o u p s i n c l u d -ing 919 operators using 151 transmit-ters. (Top 4.2% in the state)

2 0 1 8 makes the 5th year since records have been available (1997-2018) for Field Day for W9LJ and NA9U that we have placed 1st in Indiana Class 2A. Our group of operators placed 1st in Indiana Class 2A in 2010, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2018. Additionally, we placed 1st in the Central Division in 2010 and 2014.

Some National statistics (US and Canada) include: NA9U/KC9TEW in all classes and power levels placed 118th

overall out of 2,902 groups including 35,316 operators and 5,921 transmitters. (Top 4% of operations in the country).

NA9U/KC9TEW in Class 2A placed 17th out of 328 Class 2A groups including 6395 operators and 656 transmitters. (Top 5.2% in the country).

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