SPARC | St. Petersburg Amateur Radio Club

Bell Labs Proves Existence of Dark Suckers

By Bob Wanek N2ESP on 06/30/2020

Alan, KO4CR, rebroadcasts an edited version of the Amateur Radio News Line on the SPARC repeater once a week after the evening net. The latest broadcast caused considerable discussion on the morning roundtable as well as the evening pre-net. For those who missed the broadcast, a copy of the article about “dark suckers” follows.

For years it has been believed that electric bulbs emitted light. However, recent information from Bell Labs has proven otherwise. Electric bulbs don’t emit light; they suck dark. Thus they now call these bulbs dark suckers. … Click for more

Copy the Field Day Bulletin…

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 06/24/2020

A normal task we always do on Field Day is to copy the W1AW special bulletin sent each year before and during Field Day. This activity simulates what you would do if in a real emergency and you were relying upon bulletins from the ARRL for information. So it is a good skill to learn. To boot, you get 100 bonus points for doing it.

The bulletin is sent in multiple modes (CW, digital (RTTY, PSK31 and MFSK16) and phone. This starts at Friday night at 8:00 local time with … Click for more

Field Day 2020 – What’s in a Name?

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 06/19/2020

As you may know, our normal Field Day at the fire training center is not happening this year. Many members are taking advantage of the rule changes to operate class 1D or 1E from home. One of the changes the ARRL made—for this year only—is the ability to aggregate our individual scores under one club name. Please note that you still just make contacts with your own call but when it comes time to send in your Field Day entry, in the spot for club name you can add a … Click for more

Coronas all around…RFI too?

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 06/08/2020

Dave KR4U reported that he was contacted by Duke Energy with an update on the RF noise at the station. Duke went to the site with a “corona detecting camera” presumably to detect any arcing on various power components. This corona is the electrical arcing kind, not the drinking kind nor that other one in the news lately. They found 12 leaking insulators! Duke has ordered the parts and will contact Dave again once they are replaced. That will hopefully significantly reduce the noise level at the club … Click for more

June meeting to be held via Zoom

By Pat AAØO on 05/28/2020

We still won’t be able to meet in person for the June meeting, so in an effort to include more people (who may not be able to reach the 2m repeater) we’re going to hold the June meeting via Zoom. If you’re unfamiliar with it, Zoom is a free software that allows for group video chats. You can download the software from http://www.Zoom.us Video isn’t required, but encouraged, you can use your computer’s audio or you can dial in with your phone.

To help get everyone setup and alleviate problems … Click for more

Saturday Presentation Series – Setting up N1MM and TR4W for Field Day

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 05/27/2020

With more people opting to operate from home this year, this is a Zoom online session presented by Tom NY4I on setting up N1MM and TR4W for Field Day. Many people are not used to setting this up for at the shared Field Day event, this is usually done ahead of time by others. But with operating from home, you might find a local instance handy for logging your Field Day contacts. This session will cover downloading, and installing each program and we will look at operating them both if … Click for more