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.
Getting Ready for the Crowd [N2ESPhoto]SPARC completed another successful day at the St. Petersburg Science festival. Situated under a big oak tree on the breezy shore of Tampa Bay, SPARC station W4GAC was again on the air.
This year we focused on CW. We noticed in prior events that the sound of Morse code emanating from our tent caused people to ask “what is this?” We set up a simple 20M CW station and put CW guru Dave KR4U behind the key. In spite of so-so propagation, Dave was able to work numerous European stations, as there was a German contest underway. Domestically, the New York QSO party kept Dave busy with domestic QSOs. Dave’s brass pounding also peaked the interest of festival goers.
Dave KR4U at the CW Station [N2ESPhoto]
Once we got folks attention, a variety of code equipment was available for visitors to try. Most of the kids enjoyed tapping out their name on a basic code practice oscillator using a CW cheat sheet. When they found the tone pitch knob, many of them became musicians, changing the pitch of the signal as they sent some really ugly code. Another crowd favorite was a code key connected to a Morse decoder that Dee N4GD made using a Raspberry Pi computer. Send a letter in code and it popped up on the screen….cool. Finally an electronic keyer with iambic paddle provided a third alternative to keep the CW flowing.
Future CW Op Learns the Code [N2ESPhoto]Our booth was manned by Dave KR4U, Rex, KB8ESY, John KI4UIP, Bob N2ESP, Dee N4GD and Ed NZ1Q. In addition to answering numerous questions, we passed out a number of our SPARC brochures. The most frequently asked question was how far away have you talked? When KR4U replied “I’ve talked with Russia, Belgium, Spain, Germany, France folks eyes opened in amazement. When folks then asked “what was the farthest conversation you have ever had;” the answer was ½ way around the world… any further then you turn your antenna to go the short way. Folks were truly awestruck.
Future CW Ops at Work [N2ESPhoto]
All the SPARC participants agreed this was one of our best years at the festival, and offered suggestions for improvement next year. Dropping by for a visit were club members Kyle N4NSS, Molly KN4GFN and Bob WB4MCF. It’s a lot of fun to watch the kids quickly associate the dits and dahs with the alphabet and subsequently their name. Hopefully we planted the ham radio bug in one or two visitors and will see them on the air in a few years.
If you would like to join in the fun of next year’s Science Festival, contact one of the club officers.
Future CW Contester [N2ESPhoto]Dad lends new Op a hand [N2ESPhoto]
SPARC contesters enjoyed entering W4TA in the newly reestablished Makrothen RTTY contest. Makrothen is a Greek word meaning distance. In spite of poor propagation, the SPARC team made 541 QSOs with a claimed score of 2,203,706 points.
Tom W4CU running while Ron KP2N watches [N2ESPhoto]What makes the Makrothen different from the other contests we compete in is the method of scoring. Most contests are scored based on the number of QSOs times the number of “multipliers” worked in the contest. The points value awarded for each QSO varies with each contest. Different points value may be assigned to stations worked in a country different from yours, operating mode, or band. Multipliers also vary by contest. Typically each DX country is a multiplier; multipliers can also be established geographic radio “zones” worldwide. This type of scoring is biased in favor of population centers, with east coast US stations closer to Europe, with its large number of countries and the Caribbean with numerous small island countries.
Leslie WA4EEZ running as Tom NY4I looks on [N2ESPhoto]As its name implies, the value of a QSO in the Makrothen contest equals the distance (in kilometers) between the two stations. The information exchanged between the two stations includes the Maidenhead grid square in which each station is located. The four character grid square designator exchange gives a rough indication of each station’s latitude and longitude. This information is then used by computer logging program algorithms to determine the distance between the two stations. Hams regularly working DX are aware that it is more difficult to work stations on the lower frequency bands. To encourage the use of these bands in the contest, QSO point values on 40M and 80M are multiplied by 1.5 and 2.0 respectively. In the event both stations are in the same grid square, a value of 100 points is assigned to the QSO.
N1MM+ RTTY contest software [N2ESPhoto]This contest is run in three eight hour segments (8PM-4AM, 12PM-8PM and 4AM-12PM) that are separated by three eight hour off times.
SPARC members participating in this event were: Paul KA4IOX, Rex KB8ESY, Ron KP2N, Dave KR4U, Bob N2ESP, Richard N4BUA, Dee N4GD, Tom NY4I, Tom W4CU and Leslie WA4EEZ.
If you are interested in participating in any of the contests we enter, contact one of the folks above. No experience is necessary, we will provide an Elmer (mentor) to get you started in this competitive area of our hobby.
Besides this being the start of contest season, we also have some other events that you might want to check out.
On October 13 through October 15, there is the Makrothen RTTY contest at the club station. See here for more info….
On October 21, it’s the St. Petersburg Science Festival. Look for more info here and at the club meeting but this is a chance to spend a great day on the waterfront in St. Pete showing amateur radio to kids of all ages.
On October 28 in Palm Harbor, is the Upper Pinellas ARC Hamfest/tailgate. More info on that is here.
We also have the ever-popular Tampa Bay Hamfest on December 8th and 9th. More info on that hamfest is found here.
