Join us February 1 at the SPARC monthly meeting for a presentation on ham satellite communications. Drew, KO4MA, AMSAT Vice-President Operations and Member of the Board will present and if conditions are right may be able to demonstrate a satellite QSO.
AMSAT is a worldwide group of Amateur Radio Operators who share an active interest in building, launching and then communicating with each other through non-commercial Amateur Radio satellites.
The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) was formed in 1969 as a not-for-profit educational organization. Its aim is to foster Amateur Radio’s participation in space research and communication.
Bob N2ESP, Rex KB8ESY, Tom NY4I and Frank KN4PZY so far have been operating the ARRL Sweepstakes at the newly relocated SPARC club station. This contest runs until Sunday night at 10:00 PM, but we usually break at night. The best way to ensure we are here is to check the camera where you can view the station in operating. You can always find that on the Upcoming HF Operating Events page. If you want to come down and operate or just hang around talking radio, stop by.
While Field Day “isn’t a contest”, for those that like to keep score, the December 2018 issue of QST has the 2018 Field Day results. The combined CARS/SPARC/UPARC event racked up a score as submitted with 1253 total contacts and a total score of 5180 in the 3A class (3 transmitters, club-portable). By way of comparison, among the other 3A class participants, that placed us 42nd in the country out of 304 entrants, 1st in WCF, 2nd in Florida and 5th in the ARRL Southeastern division.
They even managed to fit the names of all three clubs in the listings.
Full results are on page 71 and should be available on the ARRL website and your mailbox soon.
FT8 will be presented at the Nov 2 SPARC meeting. We’ll cover what it is, why it was created, what it’s used for and how to use/operate FT8.
The picture is an example of FT8 software, available for Free. FT8 has captured a large portion of the data/digital modes being used today on HF. There is always someone on FT8 on some band some where. FT8 is a development based on earlier generations of WSJT modes such as JT-65 and JT-9.
FT-8 is now being used for DXpeditions (VP6D, Ducie Isl. on right now) and in the future for contesting. Mark your calendars for Friday night, 7:30 PM, Nov 2 with SPARC’s new meeting place located at:
Hobson Fellowship Hall at the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church. The church is located on the northwest corner of 5th Avenue North and 49th Street in St. Petersburg. Please park in the large lot at the rear of the church, which is accessible from 6th Avenue North. Enter through the doors labeled “Hobson Fellowship Hall.” SPARC will no longer be meeting at DMI Research.
The SPARC Contest Team is proud to announce they placed second worldwide and second in North America in the Multi-Op High Power (Single Receiver) category. This was for the Makrothen RTTY contest run from the SPARC station over the weekend of October 14th and 15th, 2017. Our second place score of 2,023,660 points represents the total distance (in Km) between our station and the 545 stations contacted during the contest. The average distance for each QSO was 3,713 Km/QSO. Congratulations to team members Tom W4CU, Paul KA4IOX, Bob N2ESP, Tom NY4I, Ron KP2N, Dave KR4U, Dee N4GD, Richard N4BUA, Rex KB8ESY and Leslie WA4EEZ.
Please click here for a write-up Bob N2ESP did right after the contest last year. Congratulations to all that participated. We will be trying to grab the number 1 spot during this contest in October. If you would like to participate, please check this website for more info. The contest will be on October 12 – 14 this year.
The SPARC Contester–under the callsign W4TA–ran the North American QSO Party Summer RTTY contest this past week. This is a short contest starting at 2:00 PM on Saturday and going only 12 hours until 2:00 AM on Sunday. We ran two stations full-time even with being short-staffed. One of our regular RTTY contesters, Scotty N4RI, sadly passed away this month. Since the exchange for this contest is Name and State, in Scotty’s honor, we sent Scott and FL as the exchange. We were also missing a few others due to vacations and the like so the operators for this contest were: Ron KP2N, Rex KB8ESY, Dee N4GD, Tom NY4I, Paul KA4IOX, Leslie WA4EEZ and Bob N2ESP.
(l to r) Tom NY4I, a guest, Leslie WA4EEZ, Dee N4GD operating[Photo by George W1AAG]We made a total of 728 contacts with Ron leading the pack with 225 QSOs, followed by Rex with 122 and Dee with 101 QSOs. The equipment worked great as usual. Running two stations is always challenging as we have to rewire the antennas to put the Triplexer in line to allow both stations to use the log periodic antenna on the tower. Thanks to Ron KP2N for setting this up and putting it back.
Ron KP2N at the Yaesu station. Antennas switching panel in rear. [Photo by George W1AAG]Ron KP2N working 15 meters. [Photo by George W1AAG]Dee working 20 meters [Photo by George W1AAG]K3 Station [Photo by George W1AAG]
