SPARC

Tower discussion meeting this Saturday Feb 27th at 10am

By Pat AAØO on 02/23/2021

This is just a reminder that we are having a discussion on what to do about the tower for the club station. The meeting will take place outside DMI Research (6699 90th Ave N, Pinellas Park) at 10am this Saturday Feb 27th. All members are welcome, especially if you have tower, metalworking and/or pulley system experience.

There will be VE testing going on at the same time so please be quiet if you need to enter the building.

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March 5th meeting in person

By Pat AAØO on 02/21/2021

SPARC Club meetings will return to being held in person beginning with the routine March meeting on the first Friday of every month. The first meeting, on March 5th, might be a little bumpy so we appreciate everyone’s patience as we all work through the kinks. Here are some useful points to consider when planning to attend:

The Executive Board and the overall majority of attendees for the January meeting agreed that an outdoor, carefully planned event would be something most would consider attending.
All CDC guidelines that can be reasonably adhered to, will be. The meeting is being held outdoors, mask wearing is encouraged if you are near others, all will be asked to adhere to good social distance efforts to protect each other throughout.
Zoom participation: we will provide an audio/video feed to the regular zoom meeting but will not be able to take “check-ins” or have zoom participants respond to the larger group.

Meeting Attendance information

The meeting will be held in the church parking lot at our usual location, 4901 5th Ave. N. in St. Petersburg.
The meeting will start at 7:30ish PM based on everyone being comfortable and the AV equipment cooperating.
Please bring and wear a mask, and bring and use hand sanitizer.
Practice safe social distancing when chatting with your friends at the club, be sure to leave space between groups of chairs.
Chairs (no tables) will be provided from the church, but you are absolutely encouraged to bring your own more comfortable lawn chair if you would prefer.
Please avoid parking in the 2 spots closest to the building in each row. We will coordinate to block these spots off, or work with you to relocate, but if you could avoid those spots it will give all more room to spread out.
We will have a sound system and will have a presentation.
Please feel free to bring snacks and drinks but please plan on taking any garbage with you. We want to continue to be welcomed at the church by being good neighbors.
While CDC social distancing guidelines will be followed, ultimately you are the best one to determine if you should attend a meeting–even outdoors–with other people. Please take due care to keep yourself safe. If in doubt or if you are experiencing any symptoms, please attend the meeting via Zoom.

Weather Cancellation

We will update the website, send an email, and make announcements during the 6:00pm pre-net if we are unable to hold the meeting due to weather.

We are all excited to get things moving back towards normal, and while we are not there yet, we believe we can have a safe meeting. Although there are many that have not received their vaccine, and others who are just simply too high risk to attend, we want to make every effort to have a safe. fun meeting and cannot wait to see all of you again.

Be safe and take care,

SPARC

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HamCation Forum Webinars

By Pat AAØO on 02/10/2021

HamCation is having the forums via webinar this year. The webinars require registration but it’s free. You can register at this link: https://www.hamcation.com/forums-speakers The forums take place this Saturday and Sunday, February 13th and 14th from 10am to 4pm Eastern.

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Winter Field Day This Weekend!

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 01/27/2021

Winter Field Day is this weekend. Full rules can be found at the Winter Field Day website at https://www.winterfieldday.com. The event starts at 2:00 PM EST Saturday and goes until 2:00 PM EST on Sunday. Available modes are SSB, CW, RTTY, PSK31 and other conversational digital modes–not FT8 or FT4 according to their rules.

For the last several years we have joined with our friends at the Clearwater Amateur Radio Society and the Upper Pinellas Amateur Radio Club at the Clearwater Fire Training Center to setup for Winter Field Day. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, we are not setting up there and instead people are operating own their own. However, just like the past ARRL Field Day, there is an allowance in the rules this year to add your score to your favorite club. More on that process later.

Many people participate in Field Day (both summer and winter) by coming out to help setup or operate but may not be familiar with setting up the logging aspects. A few weeks ago, I conducted a Zoom session to show attendees how to setup various programs for Winter Field Day. I covered TR4W as well as the N1MM logging software. You can see a video of that session at the following YouTube link: https://youtu.be/F7CSWfjFzfA

As mentioned earlier the rule change that allows home stations to send their log in with a club name so the score is aggregated to that club. But this requires the submitted club name to be exactly like everyone else in the same club submits their log. To aid in standardization, I would recommend one of the following depending upon which club you want to submit your score under (spell it exactly like it is here):

Clearwater ARS/St. Petersburg ARC/Upper Pinellas ARC (This is the tri-club effort which I use).
Clearwater Amateur Radio Society
St. Petersburg Amateur Radio Club
Upper Pinellas Amateur Radio Club
Aardvark Wireless Group

It is imperative if you want your score to count properly that you spell this the same as everyone else in your club of choice. SPARC, St. Pete ARC, St. Petersburg ARC and St. Petersburg Amateur Radio Club will all end up in separate “buckets” and will dilute the club’s score. Spelling counts!

Another thing that is missing in doing Field Day at home is the social, camaraderie aspect. To help with that a bit, I have a Slack channel setup on the UPARC Slack channel we can use. Please feel free to join the UPARC Slack channel and stay in touch during the contest. Check here for more info: https://join.slack.com/t/w4afc/shared_invite/zt-hz1v87k7-E9BDIkOXjm4IUypQm4EyGA

Of course, everyone is welcome to setup in the field as you would do for any Water Field Day. You can still setup in a park or even your backyard. Again, read the full rules to understand he categories and other details about Winter Field Day.

Finally, I am planning a session in two weeks to show people how to submit their logs. This again follows the idea that not many people have experience with the particular quirks in submitting a Cabrillo log for Winter Field Day. You have just over 30 days to submit the log for Winter Field Day so this leaves us plenty of time. More info on that session will be shared later.

While it is not the same as being there, hopefully you can get on the air this weekend and make some contacts. That’s a 2:00 PM Saturday start time so “see you there”.

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February testing session full

By Pat AAØO on 01/25/2021

In order to ensure proper social distancing, the SPARC test sessions are limited. The Tuesday session in February is already full.

If you want to take an Amateur Radio exam, please check out our VE testing page for contact information to reserve your spot for a future session.

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Medical Research Opportunities from DMI

By Pat AAØO on 01/21/2021

Next week, DMI, the research organization where our HF station W4GAC & W4TA are located is conducting research on a product to treat migraine headaches. There will be a one hour Zoom meeting and the pay is $75.00 for qualified individuals. If you are interested in participating, call 727 548-9600.

The first week of February, they are beginning a study to inject antibodies for Covid for those who cannot get vaccine or the vaccine would not be that effective. Over 60 years of age, over weight, heart conditions, immune compromised due to meds or organ transplants. Call 727 548-9600 for eligibility screening.