06/18/2025
St. Petersburg Amateur Radio Club
Please join me in welcoming Dan “Nic” Nichols KZ0J to the SPARC board. Nic was nominated and elected at the February meeting for the spot vacated by Tom W4CU. You can email Nic directly at boardmember3@sparc-club.org.
As you may know, SPARC is a board-run organization per our bylaws. We rely upon the board to steer the business of the club. Please join me in wishing Nic much success.
I’m sad to report that we were informed that Leslie Johnson WA4EEZ became a silent key last week. Leslie was a club board member in 2005 and was later that year voted in as VP when the president resigned and positions were adjusted. She served as VP in 2006 and then served as club President in 2007 & 2008, after which she was given the President Emeritus title. In 2013, Leslie completed the impressive Worked All Counties award, working all 3,077 counties in the US. Leslie enjoyed contesting, particularly RTTY and I often saw her callsign on FT8. She was my first local HF contact just a few days after I got my license. She also ran the net on 6 meters. She will be missed.
Here is Leslie’s bio that she wrote for the SPARC Gap newsletter in March 2008:
I was first licensed in December, 1961–got my Novice and Technician at the same time…I had fun building my Novice rig: Heathkit HX-11. Wonder of wonders, it worked well!! Immediately got on 6 Meters with a Clegg 99’er (8 watts) and enjoyed the many 6 Meter openings at the time…and before long, the contest bug bit, and I entered the 1963 CQ World Wide VHF Contest…came in first in the Florida section…no computers in those days, and I recall spending many, many hours getting that log prepared for submission!
Got my General in 1977..13 wpm code and all, at the Orlando Hamfest that year…I automatically tried to adjust the key, and it all fell apart…talk about embarrassment and stress!! Fortunately, the examiner was a cool dude, and I got back on track! Had a long layoff from ham radio from about 1978 until 1999 (too busy working!!)…then Jim, W4APV talked my OM Roger(K4SHI) into setting up a station again, I heard HC8N on 10m, worked him, and I was off to the races.
My main radio enjoyment comes from rag-chewing and paper-chasing…also enjoy working towards many different awards, and my casual contesting contributes nicely to that! I had set a goal when I started back up in 1999, to get my basic DXCC by the end of 2000..finished it up on time Dec 18, 2000 (all 10m phone). Still working on it, of course!!
The modes I use are SSB, RTTY, PSK, Hellschreiber( HELL), and a little CW…
We had a request from a member paying dues for a membership card. Looking at the automated certificates on the ARRL contest website, I got the idea that we could do the same thing. You can now download your Membership Card or Certificate from the Members List. Find your callsign and click on it. Scroll down to the bottom to find the links for Certificate or Card, for this year or next(if you’ve paid next year’s dues). This will generate a PDF that you can print at home.
If you don’t see your name in the Member List, your dues are probably not current.
Dues are $20 for individual or $25 family/household membership, per year. If you haven’t paid yet, you can pay in person at the next meeting, via PayPal at https://www.sparc-club.org/membership-page/ Or via regular mail at:
St. Petersburg ARC
PO Box 2217
St. Petersburg, FL 33731
Dues are used to cover the club’s operating expenses.
We’ve setup a PayPal for the club to make it easier to collect dues. Dues are $20 for single or $25 for household membership per year.
PayPal payments can be sent to treasurer@sparc-club.org. Clicking on the email link will take you to the PayPal payment website. Please include your callsign in the note. If you send a payment to the email without using the link please select the “Send to someone you trust” (Friends and Family) option so the club doesn’t pay fees. If you need to select the “Goods and Services” option for some reason OR use a credit card to pay via PayPal (versus an existing PayPal account), please send an extra $1 per year so the club receives the full dues amount.
Dues can also be mailed to:
Do you have an interesting story of how or why you got into ham radio? We would love to feature your story on the SPARC website. You may have seen member spotlights in various radio magazines. Why not write a few paragraphs about your ham radio journey and send it to stories@sparc-club.org? You may find it featured on our website. Go ahead and brag a little—it’s ok.
Stories about what you do with ham radio (DXing, contesting, satellites, portable operation, etc) are welcome too. Don’t worry if you are not the best writer in the world. We can take your info and put it together into an article. Fear not, we will make you look good 🙂 A few pictures would be great too.
The more info we can get from members to share on the website the better. We all came into this service/hobby for different reasons and it always makes a good story. Break out that email program and start writing…