** W9IMS HISTORY **

In April 2004, the owner of The Saturday Evening Post and club member Beurt Servaas met with Indianapolis Motor Speedway CEO Tony George and on May 25, 2004, W9IMS became the Official Amateur Radio Club of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- the first time in history that a ham radio club has received this designation.

W9IMS conducts special event operations for all three races that make up the Triple Crown on Indy's legendary 2½-mile oval - the Indianapolis Motor Speedway http://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com . These events are the Indianapolis 500 http://www.indy500.com , the Brickyard 400 http://www.brickyard400.com , and the Indianapolis MotoGP http://www.redbullindianapolisgp.com Unfortunately, the United States Grand Prix http://www.usgpindy.com which was run 2000-2007 will not be returning to the IMS in 2008.

** 2004 INFO **

W9IMS talked with 7,766 people from 81 different countries during the three races.

** 2005 INFO **

W9IMS talked with 5,283 people from 70 different countries during the three races.

We had a special guest in the shack. Mike King, the chief announcer for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network and the voice of all IndyCar Series events, stopped by and talked with hams around the world. Those lucky hams also got their QSL cards signed by Mike. http://home.earthlink.net/~w9ims/2005/Mike_King_at_W9IMS.jpg

In addition, Mike King talked about W9IMS on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network during the live worldwide broadcast of the Indy 500! http://home.earthlink.net/~w9ims/2005/W9IMS_on_Indy_500_broadcast.mp3

One of our members, David Spoelstra - N9KT, had an interview with 2005 Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon! http://home.earthlink.net/~w9ims/2005/Dan_Wheldon.mp3

** 2006 INFO **

W9IMS talked with 7,537 people from 96 different countries during the three races.

We had a guest op for the 90th running of the Indy 500. Nine year old YL Extra Amanda Feriante and her family of hams from California visited us and worked stations from W9IMS! http://www.qrz.com/af6yl

** 2007 INFO **

W9IMS talked with 8,994 people from 91 different countries during the three races.

During the Indy 500 Special Event out guest op, Amanda Feriante, had interviews with the local radio and TV stations. Hear her on WIBC at http://home.earthlink.net/~w9ims/2007/Amanda_Fariante_WIBC.mp3 and see her (and some of our shack) on WXIN Fox 59 at http://home.earthlink.net/~w9ims/2007/Amanda_Fariante_WXIN.wmv

One of our members, Brian Smith - W9IND, wrote an article that was published in the November 2007 QST about our Indy 500 Special Event entitled "Girl Meets Brickyard - A Ham Radio Adventure".

It was announced that the 2007 USGP would be the last one run at the brickyard. That makes those USGP QSL cards you have quite the collectable!

On the plus side, we are all looking forward to the inaugural running of the Red Bull Indianapolis MotoGP race! The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has now come full circle because the first land-based vehicle race held there *was* a motorcycle race on August 14, 1909!

** 2008 SCHEDULE **

NOTE: There will be a *NEW* QSL card for all three races this year. It will be at least 90 days after the race before we have them to mail out.

Indy 500 - May 9-11, 16-18, 23-25. Our intention is to operate from 1500Z through 0300Z on the Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. We will also be on a lot during the weekdays during the month of May.

Allstate 400 at the Brickyard - July 25-27; Red Bull Indianapolis GP - September 12-14. Our intention is to operate from 1500Z through 0300Z on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the race weekends. There may be ad hoc operations starting the weekend before and during the week leading up to the race weekend. But other than the weekend of the event itself operation will be at the sole discretion of individual ops.

** FREQUENCIES **

W9IMS will operate on or near: 1.840, 3.840, 7.240, 10.140, 14.070 PSK31, 14.240, 18.140, 21.340, 28.340, 50.140, 144.240 SSB and 146.52 simplex FM. Watch for packet spots at sites such as DX Summit http://oh2aq.kolumbus.com

** EQUIPMENT **

W9IMS uses Icom 756 Pro 2s and 3s with a variety of commercial and home made amps. We have towers ranging from 110 feet to 180 feet. We have monobanders on 40m, 20m, and 10m. We have dipoles at 150 feet for 80m and 200 feet for 160m. We have a WARC dual bander at 110 feet. We use the excellent freeware programs N1MM (www.n1mm.com) and XMLog (www.xmlog.com) to log all our contacts.

** QSL INFO **

NOTE: There will be a *NEW* QSL card for all three races this year. It will be at least 90 days after the race before we have them to mail out.

There is a full color custom four-sided QSL card available for EACH race. There is a certificate on heavy photo paper available for working ALL three races. The cost for printing these comes out of our own pockets, so we must insist on an SASE for QSL cards and an SASE and a $1 for certificates! Any donations are GREATLY appreciated and will go directly into the fund for printing new cards.

NON-USA STATIONS - QSL direct or via the bureau. If you want a certificate, then you must follow the directions below for USA STATIONS FOR CERTIFICATES.

USA STATIONS FOR QSL CARDS - send your QSL card with an SASE (#9 or #10 Business Envelope -- our QSL cards are 3.5" x 5.5"). You may put multiple W9IMS contacts on one card and we will send you the corresponding QSL cards. i.e. If you list contacts for all three races, we will send all three cards back - MAKE SURE YOU PUT ENOUGH POSTAGE!

USA STATIONS FOR CERTIFICATE - send a listing of your contacts for the three different races along with a $1 and an 8.5" x 11" SASE. The certificate is on heavy photo paper.

SWL STATIONS - follow the directions above for USA or NON-USA stations and substitute an SWL report for the QSL card.

Please email W9IMS if you have any questions.

-David Spoelstra, N9KT