05/05/2024
St. Petersburg Amateur Radio Club
Originally licensed as WN2JTL in 1968. License and interest lapsed until 1984 when relicensed as N2ESP. I currently hold an Extra class license and a BSEE from the Florida Institute of Technology.
I am past President of the St. Petersburg Amateur Radio Club (SPARC) and trustee of W4TA, the club’s contest station. I’m also a member of Florida Contest Group, an ARRL Volunteer Examiner, member of the ARRL A-1 Operator Club, frustrated DXer, 10-10 member (40586) and charter member of the Radio Shack Battery of the Month Club.
Station QTH is a small island (USi: FL285S Coquina Key) on the shores of Tampa Bay (Pinellas County / EL87qr). Station consists of an Elecraft K3/P3 (100W) into a ZeroFive GP-1040 Vertical/Ground Plane or an 80M Horizontal Loop. QSL via LoTW.
SPARC participated in the St Petersburg Science Festival again this year. The photos below show our hobby can still draw a crowd. Thanks to Leslie, WA4EEZ and Roger, K4SHI for the loan of their HF transceiver and Ron, KP2N for loaning his power supply. Making this effort a success were: Dave, KR4U; John, KI4UIP; Dee, N4GD; Ed NZ1Q; Bob, NB2G and Bob, N2ESP.
Yes, it’s time for an antenna get together.
The plan is to remove the log periodic antenna from atop the storage containers, followed by the mast, rotator and thrust bearing. If you would like to help (or supervise) in this effort, the party starts at 10:00AM on Saturday (9/8) the day after the next SPARC meeting.
Hope to see you there.
Our trusty tower team consisting of John, KI4UIP; Donn, N4KII and Dave KR4U were at it again. Today (9/27) the tower tilt mechanism was mated with the telescoping tower. The tower mounts to the base with two large bolts that also serve as hinges when the tower goes from horizontal to vertical or vice versa. Once the third leg is bolted to the base, the tower can then be extended to a raised height of approximately 54 feet.
Final installation details include adding tower grounding, installing the rotor, mast, and … Click for more
Today (9/20) the crew of Dave, KR4U; Donn, N4KII; and John KI4UIP installed the tower tilt assembly on the concrete base. Notice the ancient Egyptian influence used in keeping the heavy mechanism above the threaded rod so as not to bend the rods. Now we get to prepare the tower while the concrete base continues to cure.
Today (9/13) we poured concrete. Four yards (16,000 lbs.) of mud, 200 pounds of re-bar, followed by
by eight ¾” threaded rods. Everything went as planned. As we wait for the concrete to harden, we can now come up with a plan to relocate the log periodic antenna that is currently atop the Glen Martin tower that is mounted on the shipping containers.
