Dave KR4U reported that he was contacted by Duke Energy with an update on the RF noise at the station. Duke went to the site with a “corona detecting camera” presumably to detect any arcing on various power components. This corona is the electrical arcing kind, not the drinking kind nor that other one in the news lately. They found 12 leaking insulators! Duke has ordered the parts and will contact Dave again once they are replaced. That will hopefully significantly reduce the noise level at the club … Click for more
Posts published in “Club Station”
As you may recall, the club experienced damage due to the tornado in Pinellas Park last week.
Dave KR4U, John KI4UIP, Pat AA0O and Billy KN4LUZ were on site to work on the project (The author arrives late so anyone was had already left, please accept my apology for the omission).
The tower was bent just above the first section nesting point. With the help of a crane secured by Pat AA0O, the tower was safely lowered on Thursday 2/13 along with the … Click for more
The recent tornado that passed through Pinellas Park on Thursday February 6th was not kind to SPARC. While this damage pales in comparison to people that had trees fall on their homes; nonetheless, the tower at the club station suffered some damage such that it will not crank down. The tower appears to have bent at the base of the joint where the sections overlap. One element on the log periodic antennas appears damaged as well.
Further behind the club station, you can see from this picture … Click for more
W4TA, the SPARC Contest Group, continues its winning ways by taking First Place in both the West Central Florida section and ARRL Southeast Division as well as Third Place in USA/Canada in the Multi-operator, Single transmitter, Low power category of the 2019 RTTY Roundup.
Posting a score of 88,788 points were: Paul KA4IOX, Rex KB8ESY, Ron KP2N, Dave KR4U, Bob N2ESP, Dee N4GD, Don VE3XD, Tom W4CU, Johnnie W4TSP and Leslie WA4EEZ.
If you are interested in joining this elite group of operators in the 2020 RTTY Roundup, save January … Click for more
Radio teletype (RTTY) may be a technically ancient mode of communication in these days of sophisticated digital modes, but it can be a lot of fun. Members of SPARC’s contest team proved that by winning 1st place Worldwide and 1st place North America in the Multi-Operator High Power (Multiple Transmitter category in the 2019 running of the Makrothen RTTY Contest. With a total score of 3,003,769 points consisted of 652 QSOs, each having an average distance of 2,902 mi (4,607 km).
Member taking place in this record setting … Click for more