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Posts published in “Contesting”

Want to Learn RTTY?

If you would like to learn the art of radioteletype, aka RTTY, do we have a deal for you. The ARRL is sponsoring the North American QSO Party – RTTY. Starting on Saturday July 21st at 2:00PM local time, and running for 12 hours. We will be running two stations simultaneously at W4TA in class M2.

NAQP – RTTY is a fun contest as all stations are required to run 100 watts or less. This makes for a relatively even playing field, with advantages to stations with good antennas … Click for more

W4TA Scores to a Different Drummer in the FQP

The SPARC Contest Group, W4TA, just completed another running of the Florida QSO Party sponsored by the Florida Contest Group. The only good thing I can say about the propagation was that it sucked equally for all contestants. In spite of conditions, the FCG did everything in its power to pull off another successful event. Thanks for all the hard work.

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SPARC has a habit of keeping score to a different drummer. Yes we had QSOs–1263 to be exact. These break down as follows…

Band      Mode    QSOs     Pts          … Click for more

You’re Invited! Come out and Operate a Phone Contest on March 23 – 25.

The SPARC Contesters invite everyone to come out and operate the CQ WPX SSB contest starting at 8:00 PM on Friday, March 23. We will be at the club station to work as many stations as we can–all on phone. The WPX contest is a fun contest as we use a rare prefix (NY4) which makes us a multiplier and hence, a desired station to work. You can experience what it is like to operate on the “other side” of the pileup. Rates of 100 contacts an hour are not … Click for more

The SPARC Contesters are live on the air (and you can watch)

In yet another new feature to bring more contesting to you, you can now watch the SPARC contesters live in the shack. Click here to go to the Upcoming HF Events page here and you can watch a live bird’s eye view of the stations operating. It is video only (no sound). We will be down there until 1:00 AM Sunday morning.

You can also watch how we are doing with our real-time score board available here.

While we hope people can make it to the station, this is the … Click for more

SPARC Breaks Own Record in CQ WPX RTTY Contest

This past weekend (February 10th – 11th, 2018), the SPARC Contesters activated the SPARC club station again to participate in the CQ WPX RTTY Contest. You may recall that in last year’s effort, SPARC achieved the highest score in our history and had the top score in the 4th call area. We also had the 7th highest score in the US in the Multi-operator, Single transmitter category.

2017 Certificate (Note the score is the final score versus the 3.1 million we submitted)
2017 Certificate (Note the score is the final score versus the 3.1 million points we submitted)

The WPX RTTY contest, sponsored … Click for more

Winter Field Day 2018 Report – Field Day Fun at 70 Degrees instead of 93.

One of the first Field Days I ever attended (back in 1982) was at the Fairgrounds in Largo (home of the Renaissance festivals). At that event, the Clearwater Amateur Radio Society (CARS), the Metro Repeater Association (Metro) and the St. Petersburg Amateur Radio Club (SPARC) came together in the spirit of inter-club cooperation to put on a huge ARRL Field Day effort. This was complete with a great location, good equipment, operators to man the stations, great food and loads of fun.

View of site from fire tower (dipole support)
Click for more

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