Posts published in “Club Station”

You’re invited to an Antenna Party Saturday

By Bob Wanek N2ESP on 12/11/2017

SPARC members are all welcome and encouraged to assist at the assembly, repair and erection of antennas at W4GAC. Starting at 9:00AM on Saturday 12/16, the tower will be lowered to replace the rotator. At the same time, adjustments will be made to accommodate the center support for the new 80/160 dipole. The south end of the dipole will be attached to a tree near 90^th Avenue. The north end will terminate at a new “tower” to be installed at the north end of the property. Finally, a new … Click for more

The MAK is Back

By Bob Wanek N2ESP on 10/16/2017

SPARC contesters enjoyed entering W4TA in the newly reestablished Makrothen RTTY contest. Makrothen is a Greek word meaning distance. In spite of poor propagation, the SPARC team made 541 QSOs with a claimed score of 2,203,706 points.

Tom W4CU running while Ron KP2N watches [N2ESPhoto]

What makes the Makrothen different from the other contests we compete in is the method of scoring. Most contests are scored based on the number of QSOs times the number of “multipliers” worked in the contest. The points value awarded for each QSO varies with … Click for more

Upcoming Activities

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 09/23/2017

Besides this being the start of contest season, we also have some other events that you might want to check out.

On October 13 through October 15, there is the Makrothen RTTY contest at the club station. See here for more info….

On October 21, it’s the St. Petersburg Science Festival. Look for more info here and at the club meeting but this is a chance to spend a great day on the waterfront in St. Pete showing amateur radio to kids of all ages.

On October 28 in … Click for more

One Day General Class Upgrade Workshop Forming

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 08/06/2017

Tom NY4I is forming a multi-club one-day General Workshop.

THIS IS NOT A CRAM SESSION. You must do pre-work from the book. Our goal is to work with the material you have learned by self-study, clarify some topics and teach you how to be a general. We want people to know what to do with their general class license when they get it.

We will start 6 weeks before the scheduled workshop day. Each student is REQUIRED to purchase a Gordon West General Class Study manual. The students have … Click for more

W4TA Late Entry Into NAQP RTTY

By Bob Wanek N2ESP on 07/17/2017

Due to a last minute cancellation at DMI, we were able to participate in the NAQP RTTY contest. Operators participating on the W4TA Multi-2 category team were: Ron KP2N, Bob N2ESP, Dee N4GD, Tom NY4I and Johnnie W4TSP. The team used N1MM+ logging software which incorporates the MMTTY RTTY engine. This facilitated the ability to display real time contest statistics on our big screen TV as well as live on our web page. We ended the contest early as thunder storms approached. Claimed score for this event was 446. Thanks … Click for more

W4TA Places Second in RTTY Roundup

By Bob Wanek N2ESP on 07/06/2017

According to the August 2017 edition of QST, W4TA placed second in the Multi-Single Low Power class in the 2017 ARRL RTTY Roundup.

1^st K9NR 103,851

2^nd W4TA 85,845 (908 QSOs and 97 multipliers)

3^rd WS9V 78,587

Way to go SPARC operators: KA4IOX, KP2N, KR4U, KB8ESY, N2ESP, N4GD, N4KPJ, N4RI, NY4I, VE3XD, W4CU and W4TSP.

If you would like to join in the fun, contact Ron KP2N for details on our next Radiosport event.