The SPARC club used the ARRL Phone Sweepstakes to train new operators, and those who have not participated in the Sweepstakes before. We also conducted antenna evaluations. We did not expect a “Clean Sweep” which requires contacts with all 84 US and Canadian sections. But we got the sweep through a team effort of nine hams.
The team used only 16 of the 24 hours allowed. Additionally the sweep was accomplished used only one operating position – forfeiting use of a second mult (multiplier) position. Participating were: WQ4DVG, KO4WPO, KB9LXM, KA4IOX, N4GD,W4CU, AA2MF, W1BBU, and KR4U.
Posts published in “Operating”
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 out the PTT for the mic on SSB, other than that it was really smooth. We didn’t end up getting the satellite contact after 2 attempts, though during the 4am ISS pass we did hear him say “Welcome to the International Space Station” and have a QSO with a youth operator.
Thanks to everyone who helped make the event possible and to everyone who attended. Rich AA2MF for all his work setting up the computers and for the use of his equipment, Dave K4RU, John KI4UIP and Floyd KY4MG for getting DMI ready, Charles W4BPP for working on maximizing the bonus points and picking up food, Norm KI4IJA for cranking up the tower, Tom W4CU for keeping us on the best bands, Lisa KC1YL for breakfast, N4GD for sending the radiogram to the section manager and Ed NZ1Q for putting together the YouTube video, Bob N2ESP, Pete KB9LXM and Zack KO4WPO for photos.
-Pat AA0O SPARC President
Stats breakdown
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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 much food to get.
SPARC Field Day 2022 Signup Form
Please bring your own headphones. You’re welcome to bring your HT radios but please no HF radio transmissions on-site from personal radios.
Allow a few minutes after submitting the form for your callsign to show in the list.