They are known to most hams around the Indianapolis area as the "ICE group". In reality they are the W9ICE club from Hamilton County.
As I pulled up to the 60 x 60 foot square building on the rainy afternoon of September 10th, I was greeted by smiling faces and five (5) towers each supporting different antenna systems for the 6 meter through 70 centimeter Ham bands, Some were stacked arrays and others were multi-element yagis. No doubt; The game plan was.. GET the most gain on transmit & receive possible.
The smiling faces belong to; Dale -W9ICE; Ron- WB8ERB; Bruce- N8NQG; Jim- N8JLZ; Bryon- KE4OED and Eric- K9ZX, all members of the Indy Carmel Experimenters group. The contest was only several hours long by Sunday morning, and they had managed several hundred contacts on the 6 meter, 2 meter, 220 mhz and the 440 mhz bands.. Single side band (SSB) and CW are their thing with some very technical station set-up. Impressive was the Homebrew Power amplifiers at each band station. On 6m..1500 watts; 2m, 220 & 440...1KW each; and the logging system they used to keep track of all contacts and check for dupe's. It has taken this group several years to reach the level of equipment sophistication used and operating experience. This contest is one of endurance (almost two (2) days long) and technical understanding of the Ham bands being used...
If your interested in this type of amateur radio operation you can visit their website for more information...
Their website address is http://members.iquest.net/~schieman/w9ice.htm
Good luck in the Contest....
by: Chuck Crist, W9IH