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Posts published in “Repeaters”

SPARC Repeater Trustee Changes…

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 11/22/2024

On behalf of all the SPARC board and members, I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to Billy KN4LUZ for his service to the club as the repeater trustee of SPARC. Billy–while maintaining his role as SPARC net manager–has asked to step-down as trustee and in an act that makes being president easy, found his own replacement.

Alex KO4CEE was authorized by the SPARC board at its most recent meeting to become the trustee for the WA4AKH club repeater callsign. There are some housekeeping tasks to get the change made with the FCC but this should be done within a week or so [These are now complete – 9 Dec 2024]. We appreciate Alex taking on this responsibility and we trust everyone that uses the repeaters will exercise all due care in operating on those club repeaters.

Once again, thank you Billy! We wish you all the best and look forward to your net manager reports again.

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2 Meter 6:30 PM Net to start EXTRA Class Questions tonight

By Ed NZ1Q on 01/22/2018

Every night on the net members and non-SPARC members check-in to just chat about their day after handling any NTS traffic.  We also have a multiple choice question each night from the license pool.  On your check-in you can give your best answer or just take a guess. We do it just for fun and to help those that are thinking of taking an exam.

We just completed the General class questions and are now starting the Extra Class questions. Even if you are studying for the General Class, many of the question are similar and one can get a lot out of the discussions that follow.

All ham operators in the Tamp Bay area are welcome on the SPARC 2m repeater. The antenna is high up on a bank building just north of downtown St Pete and has great coverage of Pinellas and the surrounding counties.
Stop by the frequency anytime – 147.060, transmit offset +600 kHz and no tone (no PL) required.
Join us on “SPARC Net” every evening at 6:30 PM on the 2m machine.

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SPARC Repeaters get a new dual-band antenna.

By Ed NZ1Q on 12/23/2017

Check out the video on SPARC’s new YouTube page.

This past week the dual-band antenna was replaced because signals were somewhat degraded. The new 2m/70cm dual- band antenna is in place atop the building at 27th Ave N and MLK.  The 220 antenna is a separate single-band antenna and continues to work well.  With such a great repeater location, no wonder that these repeaters do such a wonderful job.  Many thanks to the repeater team that keep things running.

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SPARC Net Controllers Honored at May Meeting

By Bob Wanek N2ESP on 05/11/2017

At our May meeting, our net control operators were given certificates of appreciation.

Click photo to enlarge [AI4QP photo]
From left to right: Bob KC4SXO, Darell KV4HI, Tom AI4QP, Steve W4KET, Brad KM4LTG, Rick KK4WTE and Ron KK4KRC.

Not shown: Linda KI4RV, Dee N4GD, Leslie WA4EEZ and Bill WZ4GW.

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New SPARC 220 MHz Repeater Installed

By Bob Wanek N2ESP on 04/09/2017

Ron, KP2N, and Dee, N4GD, installing the new WA4AKH 220 MHZ SPARC repeater. Please visit us on 224.660 MHz, no tone required.

KP2N (L) and N4GD (R) installing repeater

SPARC also has repeaters on 147.060 MHZ, no tone, and 444.475 MHZ (tone 146.2). When in the area check us out.

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SPARC Members attend West Central Florida Section TECHCON

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 02/26/2017
Section Manager Darrell KT4WX discussing PICAXE Microcontrollers.

On Saturday, February 25, several members of SPARC made the trip to Sarasota for the 3rd annual WCF section TECHCON. This is a free technical conference put on by the WCF ARRL section technical staff. The location changes to various places around the section to allow the most section members to attend.

This year, there were two conference tracks. One focused on more introductory topics such as station design, antenna building, APRS and programable microcontrollers such as the PICAXE and the Arduino. Another track discussed more technical topics including the Amateur Radio Emergency Digital Network (AREDN) and HamWAN—both which allow creating high-speed data networks similar to WiFi but over greater distances and utilizing amateur radio frequencies (HamWAN was presented by SPARC member Bryan Fields W9CR.

NY4I, W4OQM by NZ1Q
Tom NY4I and Charlie W4OQM – Photo by Ed NZ1Q

One of the benefits of these meetings besides the technical content is the chance to discuss the technical aspects with other hams. During breaks, it is common to hear hams discussing how they are applying the things learned in unique ways that you would not learn just reading the material from a magazine article in QST. For example, the two networking topics might seem competitive but during the Q&A sessions, we discussed how to couple the mesh capabilities of AREDN for emergency data networks wth the long distance networking backbone capabilities of HamWAN can complement each other to serve the widest area.

If you missed it, make plans to attend next year’s TECHCON (around the same time in February tentatively planned for somewhere in Polk county.

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