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 uncommon. But we also stress introducing new people to contesting and will also work with anyone new to get them comfortable working stations. We have lots of “Elmers” around to help you out. When not operating, we always have people hanging around to discuss your latest project.
We need operators. If you can come out, please email Tom at NY4I@arrl.net so we know you are coming. We can create a schedule so even if you only have a couple of hours, you can get in and operate. Full rules on WPX contest are available here. Please bring your own headset or headphones. If you do not have a headset with a microphone, you can use the boom mic but you will want headphones so bring a set along —we have adapters.
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 next best thing to being there. This is a work in progress so your feedback is appreciated.
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 points we submitted)
The WPX RTTY contest, sponsored by CQ Magazine, uses unique callsign prefixes as a multiplier. So the more distinct prefixes used, the higher the score. This means that stations with a rarer prefix as desired by the other participants. This time we used the callsign of Dave KR4U. Using a rarer prefix means we predominately stayed on a frequency and called CQ—waiting for stations to call us. At times, this yielded 4 contacts a minute which is about as fast as one can make a complete RTTY contact.
The contest was organized by Ron KP2N with help from the rest of the team. Dave KR4U and John KI4UIP ( with the additional assistance of Donn N4KII) have been working hard on antennas and the star of the antenna farm in this contest was the new Force 12 Sigma 40 vertical dipole. We made use of the Log Periodic for 20 meters and the new 80/160 doublet for 80 meters. We even used the doublet as a receiving antenna when working 40m to help with any noise the vertical antenna picked up.
We had the usual assortment of goodies including our now customary Sunday morning bagels to keep the 9 people that operated well-nourished. Considering this was the same weekend as the Orlando hamfest, it is a fine testament to the dedication of the contest team that we were able to keep the station operating for the full 48 hours. So how did we do?
Our score and QSO totals were similar to last year but with us adding 100,000 to last year’s points for a total points total of 3,284,788 points. That was made up of a total of 1941 QSOs and 700 unique prefixes (multipliers). Bob N2ESP led the contact count with 548 QSOs. Rounding out the top 5 operators in QSOs was Scotty N4RI, Ron KP2N, Dave KR4U and Tom NY4I. Other operators included Paul KA4IOX, Rex KB8ESY, Leslie WA4EEZ and John KI4UIP.
The Real-time Score Display showing on a TV at the station
If you were at Field Day, you may recall our real-time score display on both the big-screen TV at the station as well as available on the SPARC website. This was in-use again with one of our usual contesters, Tom W4CU even checking the score while on vacation in Hawaii.
Tom W4CU and his YL Joy in Hawaii.Leslie WA4EEZ operating the RTTY station
Here, you see a few action shots of Bob N2ESP and Leslie WA4EEZ running stations. As this is a RTTY contest, it is mostly point and click using the computer to decode and send the RTTY signals. When 3 different stations as all calling at once, it gets very intense and it is always fun to have rare DX call us.
Bob N2ESP makes contacts while Leslie WA4EEZ looks on…
Speaking of rare DX, on Friday night, Dave KR4U mentioned he had been trying to bust through a pile-up on 30m at home to get the Kosovo station z60A on RTTY. During his first shift at 8:51 PM Friday, z60A called Dave on 40 meters. It pays to have the rare call in a prefix contest!
From the chart below, you can see the breakdown of contacts per band and our rate. As anyone that has contested with us knows, we are competitive and like to keep track of these things, but we also like to have people that are new learn.
Showing our sustained rate per hourTotal number of contacts by band
We had two of our newer regular contesters, Paul Ka4IOX and Rex KB4ESY with us again. John KA4UIP also made some contacts (That is rare as John is the club fabricator/machinist and is usually found putting things together rather than operating—what would we do with John and Dave?). It is always great to see newer contesters continue to participate with us. Learning to use the logging software (N1MM) on RTTY is a new experience for us all (having switched from WriteLog last year). We learn together and get better each time. As we always say, all are welcome and no experience is necessary. We will stop everything to teach new people how to contest as that is what keeps a ready supply of contesters for years to come.
As we cannot all operate at the same time, we can even do non-contest things while we are at the station. On Sunday, Winston VE3YFB/W4 emailed Tom NY4I asking if anyone could help him checkout a Yaesu FT901 HF radio he bought at Orlando. Since we were at the station, I said to bring the rig down and we could check it out. It was fun to tune a radio with the tube in the final amplifier. I hadn’t done that in awhile but it’s like riding a bike. It’s dip the load and peak the plate, right?. We checked out the rig and it was working well. While there, we also put a new set of UHF connectors on coax for the new 30 meter dipole. That is a great example that even if you are not contesting, just being there will expose you to different aspects of the hobby. We hope to see you all there next time.
Our next RTTY contest is on February 24. You are welcome to come down. It is a great time to hang out with fellow hams, learn a few things and just have fun.
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) [Photo by Josh KN4GFP]Folks gathering ready to setup [Photo by Josh KN4GFP]In that spirit, last week in Clearwater at the Clearwater Fire Training Center located off of Belcher Road, members of CARS and SPARC joined the members of the Upper Pinellas Amateur Radio Club (UPARC) to put an effort in for Winter Field Day. Yes, I said Winter Field Day. Winter Field Day was started several years ago to practice the same emergency communications abilities at Summer Field Day but with the understanding that not all emergency deployments occur in the late days of June. While WFD is not an ARRL event, it follows the same general idea. Go to a remote location away from existing radio infrastructure, use generators and see how many other hams you can contact in a 24 hour period. Our joint Winter Field Day was a huge, resounding success!
Three HF stations setup outside [Photo by Bob N2ESP]With three separate stations, we made 430 QSOs for a point total of over 13,000 (including 6000 bonus points). More importantly, we aptly demonstrated what can happen when three of the larger clubs in the area work together to conduct an event to support each of their members and the hams in Pinellas County in general. Of course, an event like this does not “just happen”.
Elmering on how to operate the stations…[Photo by Jeff NE4C]Representatives of the three clubs met for weeks before the event planning all the little details. We staged a “dry-run” where all the radio and computer equipment was setup and made operational. We call this thing we hams do wireless, but being short a few key cables can mean the difference between talking or not.
Roger KL7HOT and Alan N4AYE enjoying the Breakfast of Champions [Photo by Josh KN4GFP]Setup for the event started at 8:30 AM on Saturday morning, January 27. Approximately 20 people were present at the start to setup two wire antennas including stringing them from the fire training center towers used to train firefighters on high rise building fires.
Dipole support from fire tower [Photo by Jeff NE4C]
An additional vertical was setup as were three separate HF station locations and supporting computers.
Tom NY4I working PSK31 [Photo by Bob N2ESP]Generators for emergency power were setup as was a VHF talk-in station and a satellite antenna and tripod. Everything was set up by Noon and ready to go just in time for the first of four meals our wonderful cooking team provided. Lunch of hamburgers and hotdogs was served.
Glenn N4ESU and Steve N4FOY work 40m SSB [Photo by Bob N2ESP]
At 2:00 PM, the HF stations leap into gear making contacts with stations all around the country. Very poor HF propagation made it slow going limiting most contacts to 20m and 40m with mostly East coast and Mid-west stations responding.
Working the East Coast on Saturday [Photo by Tom NY4I]
Around 6:00 PM, it was time for dinner of pulled pork, side dishes brought for the potluck and desserts.
Good food, good fun [Photo by Tom NY4I]Hams eating ham [Photo by Jeff NE4C]Meal time [Photo by Tom NY4I]The contacts continued throughout the evening.
Several times during the day, a satellite contact was attempted using an Arrow antenna, a Yaesu FT-817 radio and a satellite tracking program on an iPhone.
Arrow Satellite Antenna [Photo by Bob N2ESP]After 5 unsuccessful passes (including a try at 2:00 AM Sunday morning), Tom NY4I made a mad dash after getting a few hours of sleep at home to pull into the site while an FO-29 pass was just starting. Everyone came together to bring the antenna to an open spot in the parking lot while Tom gathered up the FT-817. Then, when the satellite was at its highest point of that pass, NK1N from Hillsborough, NJ responded to our call for a successful contact at 8:20 AM.
Having our 1500 satellite bonus points in the bag, we settled into finish up making more contacts followed by a lunch of leftovers (pulled pork gets better with time). It looked like a storm was moving in around Noon so the decision was made to start taking down some antennas that were not used. The final station stopped at 12:30 PM and the antennas high on the fire towers were removed. The team proceeded to start dismantling the equipment, antennas, computers and other items. As usual, the site came down much faster than it went up. At the end, while waiting to help load some items, a bunch of us hung around just chatting and enjoying the camaraderie of the day. It was an incredibly fun time all weekend and if you missed it, I do hope you plan on attending next year.
Equipment waiting to be loaded into a vehicle. Looks like a DXPedition, doesn’t it? [Photo by Tom NY4I]As we pulled out of the site right at 2:00 PM, the aforementioned rain started to fall proving the decision to tear down early ever more prescience.
Below is an image browser of all the pictures I have been sent. Please feel free to browse. If you have any pictures I am missing, please send them to webmaster@sparc-club.org.
SPARC received word that we did well in last year’s RTTY Roundup, Multioperator Low Power category.
First in the West Central Florida Section
Second in the US & Canada
Winning the Southeast Division
Operators enjoying this victory are: KA4IOX, KB8ESY, KP2N, KR4U, N2ESP, N4GD, N4KPJ, N4RI, NY4I, VE3XD, W4CU and W4TSP.
Final tweaks on the 40M Vertical DipoleDave, KR4U Connects Surge Arrestors
Not to be out done, the 2018 Roundup just ended. Some new antennas and software enabled the W4TA team to beat last year’s score. This year’s team consisted of many experienced operators as well as some first timers. Operators braving this year’s cold weather and poor propagation were: KA4IOX, KB8ESY, KP2N, KR4U, KX4HL, N2ESP, N4BUA, N4GD, N4RI, NY4I, W4CU, W4TSP and WA4EEZ. Helping us brave the chilly weather was a crock pots of chili provided by Tom, W4CU and Sloppy Joes courtesy of Ron, KP2N.
Dee, N4GD RunningDave, KR4U Works on TriplexerLeslie, WA4EEZ RunningPat, KX4HL Learning the Ropes on the Run StationRon, KP2N Cursing Propagation at the Mult Station
Lisa, KC1YL [L] Watches Leslie, WA4EEZ [R] RunningProblems with our triplexer prevented us from taking advantage of the log periodic antenna on multiple bans simultaneously. Dave, KR4U quickly diagnosed problems with the band pass filters, so our new 160/80M fan dipole was quickly put into service. The new 40M vertical dipole combined with the 160/80 dipole enabled the late night ops to run as well as search for multipliers on 40M & 80M throughout the evening. A few of the ops were new to contesting and N1MM+ software, so there was a bit of a learning curve. There was a lot of Elmering (mentoring) and hand holding for the first few QSOs, a small price to pay for bringing new blood into the Radiosport arena.
Many thanks to all those folks who worked on the station improvements that lead to another good effort by the SPARC Contest Team.
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 90th Avenue. The north end will terminate at a new “tower” to be installed at the north end of the property. Finally, a new 40M vertical will be installed on the tower atop the shipping containers.
Everyone is welcome. Workers, assemblers, hold diggers, supervisors, laborers, students, etc.
