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Posts published in “Club Meetings”

Homebrew Night on February 7th

For the last few years, SPARC has held Homebrew Night in February. No, we are not talking about beer. In a long tradition, Homebrew in Amateur Radio is the things you craft yourself that you find useful in some aspect of radio. This is an evening where club members can show the projects they have built over the past year. The loose definition of homebrew equipment is something you built from scratch or a piece of gear you modified to suit your purpose. It can be an antenna project, a useful accessory, a piece of software (yes, radio-related software counts as homebrew), some modification and others. We usually get a good assortment of gear so if you have something you have come up with (or even a kit you built from plans), you are welcome to participate.

The way this works is at the February 7, 2020 club meeting, we take the allotted time (usually 45 minutes), and divide it up by the number of people that wish to show something. You each get that amount of time to show us what you have. Bring your presentation on a thumbdrive to display on the TV screens. Some projects like antenna projects cannot travel well so pictures and whatever you have that will show the club what you did are fine. If you can bring your project to pass around and let members see it, all the better. So, now is your chance to put the finishing touches on your latest project.

If you plan to show something at Homebrew Night, please let Lisa KC1YL or Pat AA0O know about your project as soon as you can so we can get a count and schedule time.

*Thanks to Ed, NZ1Q for the original article for homebrew night.

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Get ready for the SPARC November Meeting

We will have a special presentation on Space Communications along with our yearly elections.

Jeff deGrasse, K4JJD will talk about space communications in the past, now and in the future. Jeff will discuss the history of ham communications in space. Then he will give us information on some of the various space communication techniques used today. Finally we look to the future and discuss developing technologies and how they will be used in future planned space missions

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Help Support SPARC at Science Fest

After a year absence due to station relocation, SPARC will again be exhibiting at the St. Petersburg Science Festival on October 19th. This event is designed to provide children hands-on access to the wide world of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math).

We need your help. We will be demonstrating “Worldwide Communications over Amateur Radio,” and will have an HF station running. We need CW and phone operators to man the station. We also need folks that can explain the excitement of our hobby to the public. If you are interested in being part of SPARC’s ham radio demonstration team, please contact Bob, N2ESP by clicking here.

If you like to chat with people, (after all we are communicators) this a great place for eyeball QSOs with potential hams. It’s also a lot of fun to watch the kids quickly associate the dits and dahs of CW with the alphabet and subsequently tap out their name on one of the code practice oscillators. Hopefully we can plant the ham radio bug in one or two visitors and will see them on the air in a few years.

The festival runs from 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM along the waterfront campus of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg so drop by anytime. Additional details on the festival can be found by clicking here. Hope to see you, the kids and grandkids at this fun event.

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SPARC Club Meeting Friday, Oct 4.

Don’t miss this special program with Alan Dewey, WB9JTK, President of JTK Communications, Inc. Alan will demonstrate how his company fabricates circuit boards for builders and experimenters using his desktop equipment. Since we expect the demonstration of his process will last one hour we will start on time and expedite the break and business meeting.

Alan will tell us about advances in PCB fabrication now that through-hole components are disappearing. With that we are experiencing greater challenges to test and prototype our electronic circuit ideas. It is just not possible to run hookup wire to surface-mount components with leads spaced only 1/2mm center-to-center. Advancements in 3-D printer technology and the development of improved conductive inks now makes it practical to drill, print, and solder, circuit boards right on the desktop.

Join us at Hobson Hall, 5th Ave Baptist Church, 7:30 PM. See you there.

PS  Don’t forget about the 50/50 raffle and give away table.  It should be filled with many items from a couple of ham estates.

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SPARC club brochure, latest update – rev 13

This is revision 13, the latest release of the SPARC’s brochure used at meetings, events and VE exam sessions.  One address received minor clarification.  Prospective members are encouraged to take a look,  print it to review or present to other prospective members.

2019_Sparc_3-fold r13

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Radio Clubs in the Park

>>> Please click here to sign-up <<< 

Our friends in the north, the Upper Pinellas Amateur Radio Club, have for a long time done a monthly foray into a local park called UPARC in the Park. This is to setup radios/antennas and just get together for some outdoor fun. Since we all enjoy getting together at the “Field Days” with UPARC and CARS, we decided to do a joint Radio Clubs in the Park.  On September 21, 2019, at Eagle Lake Park in Largo, we invite everyone to join us for Radio Clubs in the Park. CARS/SPARC/UPARC will once again team up to have a great day of operating in field type conditions. This is a more hands-on type activity and you are encouraged to bring any portable gear you have to setup. The setup and testing of gear is the important part. Of course, being hams, we will also have a picnic lunch with the clubs providing the main dish. Look for a sign-up sheet soon to put your name to bring something to make the picnic possible.  Planned activities include a transmitter fox hunt (so bring your HT, directional 2m antenna and any other gear for that). We will also have a satellite demonstration with maybe even a contact or two.

Make plans now to attend Radio Clubs in the Park on September 21, 2019 at 9:00 AM at Shelter #4. We will go as long in the day as we want to hang around. This is sure to be a fun even you will not want to miss.

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