Operating

2022 Year in Review

By Pat AAØO on 12/26/2022

Sunset at DMI before December 20th VE session

During my research for the update to the SPARC History page, I came across the Year in Review post from our previous Club President Bob N2ESP and that inspired me to write one for this year. I feel that SPARC had a great 2022 and 2023 is looking good too.

We started out the year with Winter Field Day, collaborating with CARS and UPARC, the event was setup at the Clearwater Fire Training center. Due to forecasted low temperatures and … Click for more

SPARC August Operating Event – North American QSO Party SSB

By Tom Schaeffer W4CU on 07/28/2022

SSB Operators needed: The SPARC Club Station at DMI will be fired up for the SSB edition of the North American QSO Party (NAQP) on August 20th. The contest starts at 2PM Eastern Time and runs for 12 hours. The North American QSO Parties are favorites of beginners and seasoned operators alike. Everyone is invited to participate. We would particularly like to see newly licensed hams and new club members get involved or just stop by to see what’s going on.

Details of the event can found at: https://ncjweb.com/NAQP/… Click for more

SPARC July Operating Event – North American QSO Party RTTY

By Tom Schaeffer W4CU on 06/30/2022

Following up on a successful Field Day, SPARC is planning to participate in the July North American QSO Party (NAQP). The NAQP takes place 6 times a year with 2 RTTY, 2 CW, and 2 SSB. events. The upcoming RTTY event will be held Saturday July 16 starting at 2PM Eastern Time and lasting 12 hours.

Details can be found at: https://ncjweb.com/naqp

Experienced operators and anyone wishing to learn more about RTTY or improve their skills are encouraged to contact either Rich AA2MF at: rcariello49@gmail.com or Tom W4CU at: tom_w4cu@yahoo.com.

Field Day 2022 Wrap up

By Pat AAØO on 06/28/2022

SPARC’s 2022 Field Day was a successful one. We had 40 people on the sign-in sheet and 21 operator callsigns made QSOs in the log. After removing duplicates we made 1,455 QSOs (statistics breakdown below). Band conditions made for slow going on Saturday but things really picked up Sunday morning.

Overall the stations worked well, having the same radio at each station made it easy to transition between them. We had some issues with the stats screen not keeping up with the QSOs, FT8 locking up N1MM occasionally, and sorting … Click for more

Field Day 2022 Signup

By Pat AAØO on 06/14/2022

SPARC Field Day will be on June 25-26th at our club station location, DMI Research, 6699 90th Ave N, Pinellas Park, FL. We’ll start at 9am Saturday with setup, the on-the-air operating event starts at 2pm Saturday and runs through 2pm Sunday.

We’ll be operating as 3-Delta with 1 station each on SSB, CW, and Digital(FT8, etc). We’ll be using Yaesu FT-1000 radios. Operation will be indoors with Air Conditioning.

If you are planning to attend, please fill out the form using the link below so we know how … Click for more

Upcoming Events Reminder

By Pat AAØO on 05/27/2022

Just a reminder of the upcoming events:

Saturday May 28th – WormFest – 7am @ Freedom Lake Park, https://w4orm.org/wormfest-2022/
Saturday May 28th – VE Session – 10am @ Lealman Fire Dept, contact AI4QP
Friday June 3rd – SPARC Monthly meeting – 7:30pm @ DMI
Saturday June 4th – Museum Ships Weekend – American Victory Ship, Channelside Tampa, contact KC1YL to schedule operating time
Sunday June 5th – Field Day dry run – 10am @ DMI
Tuesday June 21st – VE Session – 6:30pm @ DMI, contact AA0O
Saturday June 25th

… Click for more

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