Presentations

Home Brew Night 2021

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 01/10/2021

The February 5th, 2021 SPARC meeting is Home Brew Night. No, not beer. This is where you show off projects related to ham radio you have made this year. It could be an antenna project, some accessory you built and modified in a unique way. It can also be interesting software projects related to ham radio you put together. This year due to our Zoom meetings, you will have to show what you did via your computer. If you have a webcam and can show the project, that will work. If you want to put together a few slides, that will work as well.

The way it works is we take the available time and divide it among the number of presenters equally. Please contact Lisa KC1YL @ kc1yl@yahoo.com with information about your project and show us what you have.

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Help Support SPARC at Science Fest

By Bob Wanek N2ESP on 10/06/2019

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.

By Ed NZ1Q on 09/20/2019

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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Parks on the Air (POTA) presentation by Pat, AA0O

By Ed NZ1Q on 05/04/2019

Here are the slides (.pdf) that Pat presented on Friday, May 3 at the SPARC meeting. It contains some great info for those who want to get started with Parks on the Air.

POTA Presentation – SPARC 20190503

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Don’t miss this Friday’s Club Meeting, May 3

By Ed NZ1Q on 05/01/2019

Pat, AA0O will present Parks on the Air (POTA) this Friday night, May 3 at the SPARC monthly meeting.
The presentation will explain the POTA program and Pat will bring along some of his equipment used in his quest to activate as many parks in the area as possible as well as tips on activating and hunting other activations.

AA0O will tell us about some of the local parks and his experiences. The presentation will include pictures from his activations and other participants around the country.
Learn how you can get active in POTA too. See you at the meeting.

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