Posts published in “Public Relations”

Another interesting email arrived at SPARC this week. A lady had “received” a message in Morse code she couldn’t decode. Strange you ask? True. She asked us for help in decoding the message. Forwarding the request to a few SPARK members, Ed NZ1Q, stepped up to the challenge.

Ed was given a phone number that connected him to the recorded CW message. Thirty seconds later, the message was decoded. It turns out that sender of the email was involved in a “learning challenge that involves solving [a series of] ciphers.” The result of solving the previous clues hidden in a series of movie clips, was the phone number given to Ed. Dialing the number, Ed heard a CW recording which contained the next clue. Ed decoded the message and relayed the clue (contents of the message) back to the originator. We received a quick thank you email for our timely response, and was off to solve the next cipher.

It was fun adding a link to the message chain. Where will the chain will lead? We may never know, but we may have found another way to promote ham radio to the public.

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As president, I get a lot of emails from folks who search on Google for the terms “ham radio” and “St. Petersburg.” Recently I received an email from a boat owner who lives in Seminole. He was having VHF radio issues on his sailboat, and was not sure what or where the problem was. Sailors, like hams are resourceful folks, resulting in the email to me. I forwarded the email request for help to the SPARC membership via the SPARC email reflector.

Within hours SPARC member Jack, W4GRJ, was making arrangements to meet with the boat owner. As an experienced ham and licensed charter captain, Jack was the ideal person to respond to this request for help. Jack was able to quickly identify and correct the problem.

Situations like this are familiar to Jack as he often solves similar issues for members of the St. Pete Yacht Club and Coast Guard Auxiliary. Jack noted that many yacht club member’s boats are equipped with marine SSB radios, and thanks to Jack, the owners now have the knowledge to properly operate them. As a result of Jack’s enthusiasm, some of his “customers” have developed an interest in ham radio, and ultimately attended a SPARC VE team test session.

I received a nice email from the boat owner thanking us for relaying his request for help to our membership and for Jack’s timely response. Jack has agreed to be listed on the SPARC web site as an Elmer (mentor) for maritime ham radio. Thanks Jack for all you do for our hobby.

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