St. Petersburg Amateur Radio Club
Many of us use Alpha Delta coax switches in our stations for antenna selection. These switches use Arc-Plug gas discharge tubes as lightening protection. Spare Arc-Plug elements sell for $10 – $12 from the traditional ham retailers. Mouser Electronics sells them for $2.37 each in quantities of 10. P/N 576-CG21000.
Thanks to Richard K2UPS for this tip.
As you may recall, the club experienced damage due to the tornado in Pinellas Park last week.
Dave KR4U, John KI4UIP, Pat AA0O and Billy KN4LUZ were on site to work on the project (The author arrives late so anyone was had already left, please accept my apology for the omission).
The tower was bent just above the first section nesting point. With the help of a crane secured by Pat AA0O, the tower was safely lowered on Thursday 2/13 along with the … Click for more
Only 16 Days left to register to ensure your meals
Do you like operating in the field but hate dripping in sweat while setting up antennas? Does the idea of enduring another Field Day constantly fighting off every mosquito in Tampa Bay make you wish they held Field Day in January? Well, you’re in luck! Winter Field Day is an event very similar to the June ARRL Field Day except—you guessed it—it’s held in Winter. Specifically January 25 & 26, 2020. This is the third time SPARC is participating in … Click for more
Under the watchful eye of our station trustee, Dave, KR4U, some work occurred this weekend at the SPARC Club Station to support the Remote Station project, On Friday, station engineer John, KI4UIP and Don N4KII ran the rotor line and LAN drop from side one of the room over to the remote side (closest to the window). This allows the main network switch to go to the side that needs more LAN drops. Having the rotor cable allows the Green Heron RT-21 computer-controlled rotor interface to be next to the … Click for more
A few people have asked recently how to get started on the SPARC Remote station. For those that may not know, a benefit of SPARC membership is the ability to use the club station remotely via your PC. This is done via the free RemoteHams software. You can always find information on how to get started on our Remote Station page but I will summarize it here too. The complete RemoteHams Getting Started Guide is available as a PDF. I highly recommend reading this before you get started.
Assuming … Click for more