Month: June 2026

Young Reporters Race the Clock in Indianapolis’ Keating Journalism Competition

By Andrew Danielson

It’s a simple assignment.

Go to a location. Ask a stranger to tell their story. Write it down for publication.

Easier said than done.

But for student journalists, this is the challenge that awaits them at the Keating Competition.

Sponsored and organized by the Indianapolis Press Club Foundation, the contest brings 10 student journalists to downtown Indianapolis for two days of intensive mentoring and journalistic competition. These young storytellers are given the task of finding a story to write, edit, and submit in just a few hours. A judges panel then reviews the stories, awarding cash prizes and honors to the top three winning stories.

The ten finalists of the 2026 Keating Competition. PFW student and SCO editor Andrew Danielson (last from left) was one of the participants.

The Legacy of Thomas R. Keating

But the Keating Competition would never have been created without the life and example of Indianapolis journalist, Thomas R. Keating.

“He wrote a daily column about people,” Michael Sanserino explained. “His approach was that everybody had a story, everybody was interesting.”

Sanserino is no stranger to the world of journalism. He is the executive director of the Radio, Television, and Digital News Association as well as the President of the Board of Directors of the Indianapolis Press Club Foundation.

Sanserino, who competed and won the Keating Competition as a journalism student at Indiana University, explained that the Keating Competition tries to emulate the kinds of stories Tom Keating covered when he wrote a daily column for the Indianapolis Star.

“It was his job to find people and share their story with the rest of the world,” Sanserino said.

But sharing someone’s story comes with a lot of responsibility.

“As a journalist, you have a responsibility to that person and your audience to be as accurate and truthful as possible,” Sanserino reflected quietly.

Behind the Scenes: Planning the Competition

Organizing a reporting competition doesn’t happen overnight. It takes many meetings and many hands to make light work.

Lindsey Erdody, another member of the Indianapolis Press Club Foundation board and the chair person of the Keating Competition committee, plays a big role in helping plan out each year’s competition.

Erdody explained that some of the background tasks for organizing the competition include picking the date for the event, choosing topics the students will be reporting on, and picking professional journalists to serve as mentors and judges for the stories submitted by the participants.

“We do try to make sure that the mentors and judges are different so there’s no bias in the judging,” Erdody said.

For Erdody, being a journalist was an aspiration from an early age.

“I knew I wanted to go into journalism from a pretty young age,” Erdody said.

Attending Indiana University in Bloomington as a journalism major, Erdody herself competed in the 2011 Keating Competition.

She explained that her experience at the Keating Competition was both intense and exhilarating.

“It was a little intimidating,” she said with a laugh. “As a student journalist, I hadn’t really spent much time in Indianapolis. I’m from a smaller town in Michigan.”

But it wasn’t just coming to the competition that made Erdody a little unsure of herself.

“You don’t often get the chance to just sit there and make a connection with a professional journalist and get their thoughts on your work,” she explained.

Erdody’s fellow 2011 Keating Competition participant and IU – Bloomington colleague, MaryJane Slaby, shared a similar feeling.

““It’s stressful – It’s really nerve wracking,” Slaby said with a chuckle.

Slaby’s journey to journalism paralleled Erdody’s own path, starting in journalism as a kid in high school and eventually enrolling in the journalism program at IU – Bloomington.

Like Erdody, Slaby also viewed her experience as a Keating Competition participant as thrilling.

“I remember being just excited, but also really nervous,” Slaby said.

From Application to Assignment: How the Competition Works

The journey from student journalist to Keating finalist starts several months before the competition.

Students interested in participating in the competition must submit some samples of their journalistic work to the competition’s committee.

Application opens in August, and the competition is held in October.

Sanserino explained that, generally, the committee is looking for a few characteristics in this sample work.

“Broadly, I think we’re looking for strong writers,” Sanserino explained. “We’re looking for people who can use descriptive language, who can be colorful…”

But good writing isn’t the only criteria the committee is searching for.

“I think we’re also looking for people who are curious,” he said.

Sanserino emphasized that curiosity in the journalism profession takes time and dedication.

“I think being curious requires continued practice and asking questions and letting the answers be your guide,” he said.

Sanserino explained that the committee typically receives about 40 entrants each year. Once the committee has selected 10 finalists for the competition, the finalists receive an invitation to travel to Indianapolis for the competition. The committee provides some financial assistance to the finalists to reduce travel expenses.

Screenshot of the Keating Competition website (Indianapolis Press Club Foundation)

On a Friday evening, the Keating Competition finalists meet for a combined info and networking meeting. They are connected with an assigned mentor, a professional journalist who reviews their story submissions and goes over some key tips and tricks for getting good stories. The finalists are also encouraged to network with one another, learning about the people who will be their colleagues for these two days.

The next morning, finalists receive a story assignment and are given a location where they will report.

Once at the destination, students have a couple of hours to conduct on-the-street interviews.

At an agreed-upon time, they are picked up and return to their hotel, where they have a few more hours to write, edit and submit their stories to the judges.

On Saturday evening, the competitors are treated to a wonderful dinner hosted by the Indianapolis Press Club Foundation, where a guest speaker addresses the finalists.

At the conclusion of the evening, the competition’s three winners and their stories are announced, with a group photo of all the finalists held as a final memento of the eventful weekend.

A High-Pressure, Real-World Reporting Experience

The competition’s organizers were quick to point out that the Keating Competition is a challenging experience that can be quite stressful.

“When I’m talking to my own colleagues and explaining what the Keating competition is, they’re like, ‘Wow, that’s really stressful,’” Slaby said with a laugh. ““But I also think it just gives you such a confidence boost to say hey, this is a thing I can do.”

Sanserino agreed.

“Reporting and writing a story from scratch in just a few hours is a skill that is developed over time,” he said.

But that’s just the point of the competition – to simulate what the real world of journalism can be like.

“You know, pressure, discomfort, you’re gonna experience that as a journalist throughout your career,” Sanserino explained.

The Keating Competition organizers had some great advice for dealing with the stress of random, on-the-street interviews.

“The last question I always ask is, is there anything else you think I should know, or is there anything else you want to tell me?” Erdody explained.

“Kind of slow down and don’t rush through your questions,” Slaby emphasized. “Of course, get contact information as well for those follow-up questions.”

A Defining Experience for Young Journalists

Regardless of the story the student’s write or their placement in the competition, the Keating Competition is a formative experience that will help these young journalists prepare for a life-long career in storytelling.

“Win or lose, being a finalist is a really big deal,” Erdody said.  “We do get more applications than we can accept for it every year.”

Slaby agreed with that sentiment.

“I do think that Keating is one of those things where once you do it, it gives you such a confidence boost,” Slaby said.

Sanserino summarized the entire Keating experience: “I think Keating is one of those things that – it sticks with you forever,” he said. “It is an experience unlike any other.”

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Send Help: A Thrilling Comeback For Sam Raimi

By Elijah Noggle, SCO Cultural Critic

Send Help is the newest film from iconic and beloved director Sam Raimi, known for his original Evil Dead movies and the 2000s Spider-Man trilogy. He has built a reputation in the filmmaking word for his unique camera techniques. His last film, the 2022 Marvel Studios production Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, was his return to directing after over a decade, and reminded us why we missed him. His directing style is uniquely his in a way that’s always noticeable. And now we finally have a new film from him that is fully his own vision.

Send Help stars Rachel McAdams as Linda Liddle, a talented and hard-working, but disrespected employee at a marketing office, opposite Dylan O’Brien as Bradley Preston, her newly appointed, and rather entitled boss. After their plane crashes in the ocean on a business trip, the two find themselves on a desert island and must attempt to work together to survive.

One of the greatest things about this movie for me is that, like his other films, if you’ve watched his movies you’ll be able to tell that this is a Sam Raimi film. Even if you haven’t, his one-of-a-kind filmmaking techniques will definitely stand out to you. Most of his movies have a unique sense of humor for example, despite being known for horror films. This movie is more of a thriller with horror elements, but it contains what I consider to be some form of dark comedy at times.

I thought that was an especially engaging aspect of this movie. There’s also his deliberate, stylish camera techniques. There’s a particular shot in this movie I loved that feature a time-lapse/montage, with the same framing showing a character’s facial expressions changing over time. This movie benefits a lot from his particular brand of filmmaking, and would undoubtedly be worse without him at the helm. Personal style always elevates the overall quality of a film because you can see the creative passion from the people that made it. The film is also extremely violent at times, which is very in line with Sam Raimi’s earlier movies like the Evil Dead trilogy. That did not detract from the overall quality though.

The reason this film works is the core dynamic between Linda and Bradley. What happens when a vastly underestimated worker who has years of experience and essentially an ignorant nepo baby who was just handed this company by his father- end up stranded on a desert island together? Without giving too much away, Linda quickly proves herself and shows how prepared for this she really was.

Throughout the opening 30 minutes of this film they properly set up how her coworkers, and her superiors especially, just don’t respect her very much despite her arguably being one of the most capable people that works there. So when they get to the island you see a compelling juxtaposition between how they both handle this type of situation. And I have to say, without giving too much away, this film really goes to some unexpected places with this premise. It subverts the “deserted island” trope in some memorable ways. I also really want to praise the performances in this film. Rachel McAdams, in particular, is at the top of her game here, effortlessly conveying the pain and frustration Linda feels from the lack of recognition she receives from her peers, as well as her natural gift for adapting to stressful circumstances.

At its core, the film explores themes of workplace equality and the dangers of underestimating others – especially women. It underscores how persistent dismissal and lack of respect can build into something far more powerful. As the story suggests, those who are repeatedly underestimated may ultimately prove far more capable of pushing back than expected—for better or worse. That sense of being undervalued is a universal experience, making the film’s message both timely and deeply relatable.

Send Help was a real treat of a movie for me. A good old fashioned thriller with some comedy and horror elements that also had a compelling “moral of the story” at the center of it. It’s a more than worthy comeback for Sam Raimi, though a minor critique is that the ending, for me at least, was a little bit abrupt. But overall this still rightfully earns a 9/10 score for me.

By Art Leave a Comment

Ham Radio Field Day: How Operators Prepare for Power and Cell Service Outages

By Andrew Danielson

Spring seems to be in the air, with summer knocking on the door.

For many Americans, summer is the time for taking life a little easier, going on vacation, weekends at the lake, and soaking up the warm weather and temperatures.

But for amateur radio operators, summer, particularly the month of June, brings a chance to practice their emergency communication skills in a national event called “Field Day.”

“The purpose of Field Day is to get outside and to test kind of the EmComm side of amateur radio,” Adam Warrix, KD9NRT, said using the abbreviation “emcomm” to describe emergency communications.

Warrix is a past president of the Fort Wayne Radio Club. A science teacher at Snider High School, Warrix first received his amateur radio license in 2019 after observing ham radio’s use on a field research trip he had taken to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Amateur radio operators, also called “ham radio operators,” are individuals licensed by the federal government to own and operate personal radio stations.  These radio stations must be operated in accordance to federal regulation, as overseen and enforced by the FCC – the Federal Communications Commission.

Screenshot of Field Day locator page from the National Association for Amateur Radio

Before they receive an amateur radio license, ham radio operators must successfully pass required knowledge examinations covering electronic theory, radio signal propagation, federal laws governing radio transmission, and related material.

Upon successful completion of these exams, hams are assigned a federally-issued callsign. In Warrix’s case, his assigned callsign was KD9NRT, although there are many other combinations of letters and numbers available and used in the amateur radio service.

As of 2026, there are approximately 734,000 licensed amateur radio operators in the United States according to licensing statistics published on the website of the ARRL – the American Radio Relay League. In Indiana, the amateur radio operator population sits at just over 15,000 individuals.

One of the core reasons that the federal government allows and encourages the existence of the amateur radio service is their ability to provide radio communications during times of local and national emergencies.

But providing emergency communications doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and training. Field Day provides a perfect opportunity for ham radio operators to train and practice those emergency communications skills.

Local radio amateur Dr. Josh Long (callsign W9HT) explained that Field Day is all about identifying what assets are needed for a portable amateur radio station, such as what kind of antenna to use. 

Long is a young ham with plenty of experiences. A licensed amateur radio operator for 26 years, Long’s interest in radio communications was sparked by a Montgomery Ward receiver he was gifted by his parents as a child.

Now a professor of economics at Indiana Institute of Technology, Long currently serves as the director of the Central Division of the American Radio Relay League, a geographical area encompassing the states of Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana.

Long has personal experience using his amateur radio station to provide emergency communications.

In 2008, Fort Wayne was struck by a winter storm that included large amounts of ice. With power outages caused by ice buildup plaguing the city, the local chapter of the American Red Cross set up a temporary shelter in the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum for residents affected by the storm.

During the emergency, Long volunteered his services as a ham radio operator, helping pass general welfare messages via a portable amateur radio station he set up at the Red Cross shelter at the Coliseum.

Nationally, amateur radio has played a vital part in providing emergency communications for other parts of the county hit by severe weather.

In 2024, the American Radio Relay League posted a press release detailing the EmComm activations by ham radio operators following the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Those efforts included providing emergency communications support to towns and residents who had lost power and cellular service due to damage to the power grid.

In 2025, the American Radio Relay League detailed efforts radio amateurs made to provide emergency communications during the Jan. wildfires that ravaged portions of California in a press release. Some of those efforts included using amateur radio stations to report on weather conditions.

In between emergency communication activations, amateur radio operators practice their communication skills and abilities by participating in training events and exercises like Field Day. Field Day gives amateurs practice in not only learning how to set up portable radio stations, but also in the skills needed to communicate a message across the country quickly.

“It [Field Day] needs to test emergency communications,” Warrix said.

Field Day has been held annually since 1933 according to the American Radio Relay League. A mixture of competition, socializing, and EmComm skill training, Field Day has a lot of features packed into one event.

Long said that Field Day covered a multitude of training aspects when it comes to setting up a portable radio station.

 “It’s not just the technological stuff, it’s the environmental stuff like bugs or weather” Long said.

Several local amateur radio clubs in and around Fort Wayne, Indiana participate in Field Day, including the Fort Wayne Radio Club. In just the past couple of years, the Fort Wayne club has held its Field Day event on the campus of Purdue Fort Wayne as well as the historic Old Fort, a recreation 1812 War-era fort in downtown Fort Wayne.

But choosing a site for Field requires careful planning.

Field Day lasts a little over 24 hours, so amateur radio participants must request permission to stay overnight for their Field Day activation. The Fort Wayne Radio Club’s activations for Field Day also take into consideration public access for visitors to the site as well as technical operating parameters needed to make the activation successful.

But Field Day is more than a chance to practice one’s communication skills in a simulated emergency. It’s a chance for ham radio operators to socialize with one another and build community. 

One local amateur radio operator, Bill Rodgers (callsign K3HZP), has participated in Field Day since he was first licensed in 1959.

“We just set up in the field and operated it,” Rodgers recalled, talking about his first Field Day event over 60 years ago. “I remember going through the barbed wire fence to get to the field.”

That was when Rodgers was growing up in Pennsylvania. A retired electrical engineer with his doctorate in electrical engineering from Ohio State University, Rodgers continues to enjoy participating in Field Day, most recently with the Whitley County Amateur Radio Club.

Rodgers’ experiences are the very core of Field Day – setting up a radio station and joining one’s friends and acquaintances to test out radio communication skills and gear.

The reality is that emergencies don’t come for the asking (or the refusal). They strike at one’s home, community, and country, whether that happens in the height of summer vacation or the middle of the freezing winter.

While many Americans enjoy all that summer has to offer, ham radio operators will be busy at Field Day training and preparing, ready to help fill the communication void should an emergency happen.

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Fallout Season 2: A Thrilling Continuation of One of the Best Video Game Adaptations Ever Put To Screen

By Elijah Noggle, SCO Cultural Critic

Back in 2024, Amazon Prime Video graced us with what I would consider one of the best video game adaptations of all time- The Fallout TV series. Historically, video game adaptations (film or TV) have a reputation of being hit or miss, but Fallout is one of the ones that really stood out. It didn’t try to reinvent what Fallout was or ignore the source material (looking at you, Halo series).

It had a deep reverence for what came before and its new story fit perfectly into the established lore. And just to clarify before i continue, I haven’t played the Fallout games but I have a friend who has and they’ve filled me in on how the series fits into the established canon.

Now we have the heavily anticipated Season 2. After being teased in Season 1, this follow-up takes us to the area of New Vegas. This season takes a lot of inspiration and pre-established lore from the fan-favorite 2010 video game Fallout: New Vegas.

It’s a little hard to explain what’s going on in this season since there are actually a lot of plot threads. Or to explain without spoiling the first season. But basically in a broad sense, it expands the story of this series and the journeys of most of its characters. We get more exploration of many characters from Season 1 and more locations and lore about the wasteland.

One thing I can definitely say for sure is that this season has more impressive action sequences than the first one did. Feels a bit like the creative team and the studio were more willing to drop the budget for the special effects needed to craft these types of sequences. In particular, the scenes that feature Brotherhood power armor were incredibly fun to watch.

Without giving too much away, I’ll say, one of my favorite main characters this season was probably Cooper Howard aka The Ghoul. Cooper, much like in Season 1, is the lens through which we learn about what was going on over 200 years ago before the bombs dropped.

Those scenes were, again, some of my favorites not only because they give us so much context on how what was going on back then informs what’s going on in the wasteland, but they help us understand the juxtaposition between the dark and morally grey Ghoul as he is now, and the well-intentioned movie star he used to be. The ghoul is a stark representation of how the wasteland changes people. It’s hard to root for him as a person, but damn, he is a really compelling character that I hope Walton Goggins can win some kind of award for.

One of the strongest positives of this season for me was the connection to the game Fallout: New Vegas. (without spoiling anything too major) From what I understand about the pre-existing lore of the fallout universe, and especially what was established in New Vegas, this season of TV remains remarkably true to the details. The way these sets were designed, especially the Vegas strip itself, is so well put together and looks almost identical to the game.

Robert House, a character taken directly from New Vegas, feels completely in line with how he was portrayed in the game. Many of the factions from New Vegas like the New California Republic and Caesar’s Legion are well fleshed out, building naturally on what was established about them in the video game. Overall, another impressive showing by the creative team, further proving their deep appreciation and understanding of this franchise.

My biggest criticism of Season 2 is the pacing and overall structure of some of it. This season is juggling a lot of plot lines. Storylines that are being continued from Season 1, and some new threads. The issue is that it feels like the creative team had a bit of trouble properly balancing screen time for all of these plot lines. This results in a couple of them feeling less fleshed out, or less focused on than others. There’s a particular group established early on in the season that doesn’t even show up again until the final episode, and I found that strange, and slightly frustrating.

It is setting up a Season 3 and I know not everything can be fully resolved, but you may be disappointed at some plot threads being left on a cliffhanger by the end of the season. Despite these issues though, I do think that for the most part overall, the season’s overarching story does come together pretty well, and there are some really good payoffs to things that were set up throughout the season. The writing is still top notch and the season finale is one of my favorite episodes of TV I’ve seen in recent memory.

To conclude this review, I wouldn’t say Season 2 is quite as good as Season 1 in terms of overall quality due to the pacing issues, but it is still a very worthy successor and it comes highly recommended from me. I think I would give this at least a solid 8/10.

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Taking Flight: Allen County, Indiana’s Aviation History

By Andrew Danielson

Southwest of downtown Fort Wayne, the thunderous roar of jet engines pulses through the air at Fort Wayne International Airport. Passengers concentrate on gate departure and arrival times as they hurry through the long corridors of the travel edifice. A voice announces baggage claim details over the PA.

But Fort Wayne International isn’t the only airport in the city.

Across town, located off of West Ludwig Road, the buzz of a small single-propeller plane cuts through the air, sounding like an enormous dragonfly. Suddenly, a small white speck hurtles down a runway, sailing into the air in a graceful arc. Flight operations are in full swing on this crisp, clear day at Smith Field Airport, a small airport on the north side of Fort Wayne.

As I stood and watched that small airplane begin its flight into the wild blue yonder, I realized that I was seeing almost 100 years of aviation history. For this airport is the birthplace of commercial aviation in the Summit City.

Historic Hangar built in 1930

Smith Field: The Origins of Fort Wayne Aviation

Smith Field first opened as the Paul Baer Municipal Airport in June of 1925, according to the History of Fort Wayne & Allen County, Volume 1 (History of Fort Wayne).

The History of Fort Wayne article on aviation detailed how Smith Field was named after the first American ace (a pilot who shoots down at least five enemy aircraft) Paul Frank Baer. Baer had served as a pilot during World War 1, first in the French Foreign Legion. When the United States joined the war in 1917, Baer became part of the US military as a pilot.

Following the war, Baer was a hero of his hometown, the Summit City. It was only fitting that Fort Wayne’s first official airport should be named after this American hero.

However, that all changed in World War II.

A documentary by PBS Fort Wayne explained that in 1940, the Army Air Corps (the forerunner of the US Air Force) was building air fields across the country.

For Fort Wayne, the choice came down to either converting Baer Field (as Smith Field was then called) to an army air corps base, or building a brand new airport for the army.

The fear was that if Baer Field became primarily a military airfield, Fort Wayne could lose its bustling commercial air traffic. Baer Field was doing a roaring business, and Fort Wayne didn’t want to lose this valuable asset to the city’s economy and quality of life.

The final decision? Build a brand new air field on the southwest side of Fort Wayne.

At the time of its completion in 1941, the new air field cost $10 million according to the Fort Wayne Airport Authority’s website.

But the new airfield needed a name.

As explained in the History of Fort Wayne, the army’s tradition was to name these kinds of military installations after military aviators.

Fort Wayne residents, on the other hand, preferred to name the new airfield either after the Revolutionary War hero General “Mad” Anthony Wayne or the aviation pioneer and Fort Wayne native Art Smith.

In a compromise, it was decided to rename Baer Field in honor of Art Smith, while the new airport took on the name of Baer Field.

The decision was appropriate, as it honored two of Fort Wayne’s aviation heroes, Paul Baer and Art Smith.

Art Smith: Fort Wayne’s Aviation Pioneer

Art Smith was a rock star of the early aviation world.

The History of Fort Wayne recounts that Art Smith was the first American pilot invited to Japan. Smith had received an invitation extended by the Emperor of Japan to come put on exhibitions of flying.

In the course of his career, which included being a stunt pilot, military pilot instructor, and air mail pilot, Smith amassed an enviable number of awards and a network of famous friends.

The National Air and Space Museum records that Art Smith, known as the “Bird Boy” of Fort Wayne, received a tremendous outpouring of tributes upon his untimely death in an airplane crash in 1926. Tributes came from the giants of aviation, including Orville Wright, the first human to ever fly an airplane. Famed pilot Charles Lindbergh also paid homage, circling the city of Fort Wayne three times in honor of Smith’s legacy.

Today, a monument to Art Smith, at a height of nearly 40 feet, stands in Memorial Park in downtown Fort Wayne on the same location in which Art Smith first took off in his homemade airplanes.

Wartime Innovation at Smith Field

Perhaps one of the most intriguing elements of Smith Field’s history is the fact that it served as a top-secret military installation in addition to its commercial activities during World War II.

According to the History of Fort Wayne, the US military built and designed what is the predecessor to today’s guided missiles or weaponized drones, the TDR-1 Assault Drone. A twin-engine aircraft that could carry explosives and be guided by radio control via an early form of television, the TDR-1 was flown to Smith Field, electronics installed in the cockpit, and then shipped to the military via a rail line that ran alongside the airport.

TDR-1 missiles were unmanned, being remotely piloted. They saw action for a limited period of the war, being deployed against the Japanese in the Pacific Theatre. Eventually, the project was ended by the military for a variety of reasons.

Today, only one example of a TDR-1 assault drone exists in the world according to the History of Fort Wayne. That example is currently on display in Pensacola, Florida at the U.S. Naval Air Museum.

Historic Hangars and Rare Architecture

But Smith Field is not known for just its wartime efforts.

The airport actually hosts two historically significant architectural elements, both hangers.

Hangar 2, with its three large doors and spacious interior, was unusual at the time of its construction in 1930 as mentioned in the PBS Fort Wayne documentary. Its size was enough to accommodate the large passenger aircraft of the time, such as the Douglas DC-3, which could carry about 20 passengers.

But perhaps the most unusual and rare historic artifact at Smith Field is its Carousel Hangar.

The National Park Service describes the Carousel Hangar at Smith Field as, “…the only example of Clark W. Smith’s patented design ever built.”

The outside of the Carousel Hangar

Smith’s design was to build a rounder hanger that looks very similar to a grain silo. A door in the side can be rolled back, revealing the interior of the hangar and the carousel network.

The network itself consists of a series of long, metal tracks, sticking out of a central, rotating hub like spokes in a wheel. There are enough tracks to support up to four small planes.  

Scott Noble, a local private pilot who stores his small plane in this Carousel Hangar, explained the basic function of the hangar design.

He said that the carousel network can be rotated around the central hub (just like a carousel).

“You could put your airplane in this and then they would just move it to wherever they needed to,” Noble explained.

Scott Noble’s plane inside the carousel hangar
Detail of the central hub of the carousel

Basically, if a pilot wants to get his airplane from this hangar, they simply need to open the doors of the hangar, rotate the carousel until their particular plane is pointed to the exit of the hangar, start up the engine, and taxi out on to the runway.

One of the neat features of this carousel method of plane storage is that the entire assembly can be rotated by hand. It does take a little muscle to get the carousel moving, but the entire mechanism is remarkably compact and efficient.

Smith Field’s Role in Modern Aviation

Even though Smith Field is more than a century old, it continues to be a hive of aviation activity.

With the edition of a brand new terminal building in 2013, Smith Field only seems to be increasing both activity and size.

“Look at how big this thing is,” Noble said excitedly. “I mean, this is double or triple the size of what it used to be.”

New Terminal Building

The reality is that Smith Field serves a vital role in the aviation industry of the Fort Wayne area.

According to the Fort Wayne Airport Authority’s website, Smith Field has been designated the primary reliever airport for Fort Wayne International.

But what is a reliever airport you might ask?

As explained on the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) website, a reliever airport is, “An airport designated by the Secretary of Transportation to relieve congestion at a commercial service airport and to provide more general aviation access to the overall community.”

Basically, a reliever airport takes the pressure off a main commercial airport like Fort Wayne International. For example, while Fort Wayne International handles large aircraft and numerous commercial flights for passengers, Smith Field can handle the smaller planes of general aviation and private pilot flight traffic.

This isn’t to say private pilots can’t fly in and out of Fort Wayne International – it just means that private pilots and general aviation traffic have another option available to them for takeoff, landing, refueling, and storing their personal planes.

That’s good news for everyone. Fort Wayne International can keep an efficient flow of large commercial traffic coming in and out of the city while Smith Field serves all of the smaller airplane traffic.

But Smith Field is important for more than its reliever role.

Sweet Aviation, a local business owned by the founder of Sweetwater Sound Chuck Surack, currently operates out of Smith Field. According to Sweet Aviation’s website, the business provides, “…maintenance, charter, detailing, aircraft rentals, and robust flight training.”

Inside the new terminal building

In addition to Sweet Aviation, Smith Field also hosts the Aviation Center, which is home to Ivy Tech’s Aviation Maintenance Technology program. Built in 2012 at a cost of $2.3 million, the Aviation Center is a large facility – 21,000 square feet – and it provides both hangar and classroom space for Ivy Tech’s programs.

Beyond its commercial use, Smith Field also serves as the introductory location to young people to the world of flight.

The Experimental Aircraft Association’s Young Eagles program, which sees young people taken on airplane rides by private pilots, has several upcoming rallies scheduled for the airport,  sponsored by the EAA’s Chapter 2. Through this program, young people are introduced to the excitement of soaring into the sky and the world of aviation.

A Historic Airfield with a Modern Mission

Smith Field has so much to offer the northeast Indiana community.

Listed on the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places, Smith Field’s historic past is firmly recognized, an indelible testament to its honored service in times of peace and war.

But Smith Field also looks forward to the future, serving as the birthplace for the flight dreams of young aviators today, and the pilots and aircraft mechanics of tomorrow.

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Outdoor Warning Sirens: Obsolete Technology or Valuable Safety Devices?

By Andrew Danielson

Tornado siren.

For those of us in the Midwest, outdoor warning sirens, commonly called “tornado sirens” are a sound that is almost familiar, frequently triggering during periods of severe weather.

But with the advent of modern technology, such as severe weather alerts sent to one’s cellphone or broadcast on television, a debate has erupted in the public sphere.

Are tornado sirens effective tools that can save lives, or are they relics of a bygone and technologically illiterate past?

Following the deadly floods in the US last year, particularly in Texas, that debate has only intensified.

Screenshot of warning sirens test results from May 6, 2026 (Allen County website)

History of a Siren

Don Sell (WB9TYJ) is a licensed amateur radio operator and a recently retired professional meteorologist that provided aviation weather reports to air traffic control at Fort Wayne International Airport. He outlined some of the background history to outdoor sirens.

According to Sell, warning sirens got their start in World War II.

At the time, the sirens were intended to warn residents of incoming air raids. With cellular technology not even invented and television just starting to enter the family home, these blaring trumpets of alarm were new technology for the era.

Following the Second World War, the sirens changed purpose from warning of incoming raid sirens to warning of impending nuclear attack. It was the Cold War, and fears of a nuclear conflagration erupting between the United States and the Soviet Union provided a perfect use for the sirens.

Sell said that tornado sirens first came to be used as severe weather alarms following the 1974 tornado outbreak.

That outbreak of severe, damaging weather was no joke.

On April 3-4 of 1974, the central and eastern portions of the United States, as well as parts of Canada, experienced one of the most severe tornado outbreaks in history according to an article on the webpage of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The federal agency stated that the outbreak of tornadoes was so deadly that over 6,000 people were injured, with 335 “direct fatalities” and financial losses extending into the billions.

The Limitations of a Tornado Siren

But how effective a tornado siren may be in America today is up for debate.

Jim Elliott (KE9IWX) is another meteorologist that worked with Sell at the Fort Wayne International Airport providing aviation weather reports. He shares Sell’s hobby of amateur radio and provided some of the pros and cons of outdoor warning systems.

Elliott said that the sirens are intended primarily to warn people who are outdoors, such as folks enjoying an outdoor sporting or music event or perhaps walking across the PFW campus between classes. For these folks, a tornado siren would be perfect since everyone is outdoors and should be capable of hearing the siren’s warning wail.

But what about people in their homes?

Elliott said that sirens have limitations when it comes to warning people who are indoors.

“Today’s homes are well insulated,” Elliott said. “Sometimes, if I’m in my house, I cannot hear those sirens.”

The Financial Cost of a Tornado Siren

There is another angle to the impact of outdoor warning sirens, and that’s the financial cost of maintaining or repairing the current outdoor tornado siren system.

Last year, Channel 21 published an article about the Allen County warning siren system, interviewing Bernie Beier.

Beier is the county emergency management and disaster preparedness director, and a military veteran with combat experience having served with the U.S. Marine Corps.

Beier estimated that Allen County would need anywhere from $700,000 to possibly $1.2 million to totally update the current warning system, according to Channel 21’s article.

Finances are a common theme in the on-going national discussion about outdoor warning sirens.

Officials in Texas, following the deadly July, 2025 flash flooding that killed over 100 people, have been mulling over the prospects of installing outdoor sirens as a last line of defense to warn communities of rising flood waters.

NBC published an article discussing the possible effectiveness of outdoor warning sirens that were used in one Texas community, Comfort, which was downstream from the harder hit areas of Texas.

Comfort had recently installed a two-siren warning system, according to the NBC report. Comfort experienced no fatalities during the flash flooding – a stark contrast to the experience of communities lying upstream in Kerr County which did not have outdoor warning sirens.

NBC did clarify in the article that outdoor warning sirens are meant for folks outdoors, not asleep in their homes. Many of the fatalities that occurred in Kerr County were people who were indoors.

 However, the lack of victims in Comfort versus those in Kerr County suggests that possibly, outdoor warning sirens may have been a contributing factory in saving peoples’ lives.

How Outdoor Warning Sirens Function

Yet another aspect of tornado sirens is the technology used versus modern cellular systems. Today’s smartphones have access to emergency alerts, and public TV and radio stations will also broadcast severe weather warnings.

“Everybody has a cell phone,” Elliott said.

That proliferation of technology should mean that the majority of a community’s population will receive automatic alerts sent directly to their personal device, negating the need for tornado sirens.

But what if cell coverage is spotty or knocked out?

“Those alerts may not get through,” according to NBC. “Particularly in rural areas with bad service or in the night when phones are off.”  

Even modern technology isn’t fool proof. There’s debate on whether or not cellular and internet service are truly reliable.

“You’re dealing with cell towers, you’re dealing with cellular networks, you’re dealing with the internet,” Sell said. “How reliable is that when a tornado comes ripping through here and tears everything up?”

Warning Siren Upkeep

Efforts are being made by volunteers and warning siren officials to keep track of how Allen County’s warning sirens are doing.

Jim Moehring (KB9WWM) has been a licensed amateur radio operator since 2000, upgrading to the top-level amateur radio license “Amateur Extra class,” in November of 2001.

Moehring said that he was intrigued by emergency communications particularly after the 9/11 terror attacks that struck the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon.

Since that time, Moehring has become heavily involved with emergency communications provided by ham radio operators, particularly through a program called ARES – the Amateur Radio Emergency Service.

According to the American Radio Relay League, ARES “…consists of licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment … for communications duty in the public service when disaster strikes.”

Moehring has served on a variety of local and state-level positions with ARES. He currently serves as the emergency coordinator of Allen County, as well as the district three coordinator, which includes 11 counties throughout northeast Indiana.

One of the services that the ARES team in Allen County provides is to help with the monthly tornado siren tests.

Moehring explained that the radio amateurs in the ARES team collaborate with officials in Allen County in charge of the sirens, to test the performance and ability of the outdoor warning system.

Held the first Wednesday of every month at noon (except for times of inclement weather when the public may confuse a test with an actual weather emergency), Moehring said that the monthly tests are a good way for radio amateurs to test their equipment and to give back to the community.

“It’s part of our community service to do that,” Moehring said.

He explained that he has 10-12 operators who fan out across the county and listen to their assigned siren. Once the sirens have finished their activation, operators use their portable amateur radio sets to communicate to Moehring in an organized, on-the-air gathering called a “net.”

Operators report on the status of their assigned siren, including listing how long the siren was activated, whether or not the siren rotated (not all sirens are designed to rotate), and whether the siren had good volume output.

Moehring said that the warning sirens in Allen County are turned on and off remotely by officials via a series of tones sent over radio waves. 

He explained that one of the benefits of ham radio operators participating in the test is that officials can easily get a status report of many sirens in a short period of time.

“It makes the job of making sure the sirens are working much easier,” he said, “Because it takes us about 10 minutes to get all the reports in.”

Moehring said that sirens who don’t have a volunteer listening for the siren require officials to either send out a staff person to that site or call someone living near the siren. That can take up a lot of valuable time, so the service the hams provide is welcomed by officials.

Moehring shared a similar viewpoint when it comes to the effective of sirens to warn people indoors.

“They’re not effective for anything indoors unless you happen to be right underneath one or very close to one,” he said.

Are Sirens the Answer?

It’s difficult to draw a conclusion as to the effectiveness of the sirens. The expense of the system makes it prohibitive for counties and small communities to invest in the necessary resources required to maintain and update these systems.

On the other hand, it appears that alternative means of warning are not as bulletproof as could be wished. A damaged cellular system or failure of internet service providers could potentially knock out two of the most modern means officials have of warning citizens of impending weather dangers.

Perhaps the best way of viewing warning sirens is that they are an older technology that serves a useful purpose – to act as a backup and final means to warn residents of impending danger.

If residents have access to any other forms of technology, they should have those devices ready to go and be monitoring for severe weather as it approaches their community.

“The best way is through your local media – the radio, the TV stations,” Elliott said. “Also, the NOAA weather radio is a great source [of severe weather information] as well.”

For Sell, the reliability of modern technology and alerts all depends on cellular and internet systems remaining active and functional.

Whatever communities decide to do in regard to warning sirens, there will hopefully always be volunteers like Moehring who will support their communities with their radio sets and their volunteer service.

For more information on NOAA weather radio, please visit the following web link. https://www.weather.gov/nwr/

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