SPARC

Florida QSO Party – Halftime Report

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 04/28/2019

We started the party Saturday April 27 at the club station at Noon. We had Bob N2ESP, Dave KR4U, Johnnie W4TSP, Dee N4GD, Tom NY4I, Rex KB8ESY, Ron KP2N and Glenn N4GRC as operators. We ran two stations the whole time with one on CW and one on SSB. Dave KR4U, Ron KP2N and Tom NY4I manned the CW station with the others working the SSB station. Our goal is to remain competitive with last year’s winning score as well as train a few new ops. Glenn N4GRC joined us for the first time making quite a few contacts.

According to last year’s log stats, we made 867 QSOs last year on the first day. This year we made 874 so we are on track for another great showing. I should mention that we call CQ the whole time as stations want to work Florida stations. The pile-ups waiting to work us were quite large. It’s quite a bit of fun to operate the station in the FQP. The FQP is broken up into two sessions both 10 hours each. Saturday’s session went until 10:00 PM and Sunday’s starts at 8:00 AM until 6:00 PM local time. You can still join us to operate. Just come down to the club station at 6699 90th avenue north in Pinellas Park anytime Sunday before 6 PM.

You can also check us out on the club webcam as well as track our score on the contest dashboard.

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Please sign up for Florida QSO Party

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 04/17/2019

We need operators for the FQP effort at the club station. This doesn’t require an all day commitment. Just an hour or so is fine. Please check the schedule here and claim a spot by emailing contesting@sparc-club.org.

As I have told many people, when not operating, this is also a great place for new people to ask questions of the other hams there. If you are trying to decide what radio to buy or antenna to install, this is the place to ask. Contests at the club station are instant elmering sessions as not everyone can operate at the same time.

It’s also a great way to get checked out on the club station so you can operate the remote station.

As always, bring your own headset.

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SPARC – Top Florida Club Station in 2018 Florida QSO Party

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 04/11/2019

While working on Tom NY4I’s tower project, Dan K1TO hand-delivered the above plaque for SPARC. It seems that in the 2018 Florida QSO Party (FQP), we WON the top Florida Club honors. The results from the FQP show the following:

You can find the write-up of the results here on the FQP site. Note while the list above shows those that operated in the log, many thanks to Ron KP2N for all his efforts to organize this effort. Ron suggested we switch to the Multi-op, Multi-transmitter low power class and it was a great choice obviously. I’m not sure if it was just a logging error that Ron did not appear but regardless; that was an oversight.

If you review the original article where Bob N2ESP reported on the 2018 FQP effort, Bob highlighted that we keep score less by how many contacts we make and more by how many new contest ops we help. Bob also mentioned Dave KR4U’s 6 minute slow CW QSO. What makes this even sweeter is even with our focus on training, we still won in a very close race. That tells me that mentoring new ops and winning are not mutually exclusive.

But now for our next trick…the 2019 running of the Florida QSO Party is on April 27th starting at Noon. We plan on operating both CW and SSB stations. FQP is unique among contests in that the hours are reasonable to still do other things on the weekend. The contest runs from, Noon Saturday until 10:00 PM and then again on Sunday from 8:00 AM until 6 PM. We need operators! If you like operating at Field Day and want to have fun with your fellow hams, please plan on attending. Please check the signup sheet here and email contesting@sparc-club.org with your desired time and if you operate SSB, CW or both. First responders get the prime spots.

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SPARC Scores High in 2019 RTTY Roundup

By Ed NZ1Q on 03/26/2019

The ARRL has announced the preliminary results for the 2019 RTTY Roundup held the first weekend this past January.

In the Multioperator, single transmitter, low power class the W4TA team finished third place overall and first in W4 land!

N8LRG 109,557
K9NR 103,360
W4TA 88,780 – First in W4 land

SPARC Members of the “W4TA Green Key Bunch” were Don, VE3XD, Leslie, WA4EEZ, Dee, N4GD, Tom, W4CU, Dave, KR4U, Rex, KB8ESY, Paul, KA4IOX, Tom, NY4I, Bob, N2ESP and Ron, KP2N.

For the first time we were also using the FT8 mode to make contacts. As other
stations using this mode reported that it was most useful Sunday afternoon
to contest end. W4TA picked up mult #100 (NP2Q) with 5 minutes left on the clock.

The next RTTY contest from the DMI station will be NAQP in July. Watch for details.

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Phone Contest – CQ WPX SSB March 29th @ 8:00 PM

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 03/11/2019

The CQ WPX SSB contest is a great contest for people that liked the fun of contesting during Field Day. This is a 48 hour contest with exciting runs where we call CQ most of the time. If you have ever wondered what it was like on the other side of the pile-up, this is the contest to find out.

We will use callsign NY4I which is a multiplier. That means other stations want to work us. Last year, my first hour run was 160 stations per hour. It is hard to describe the adrenaline rush one feels when working stations that fast. We will start at 8:00 PM on Friday 3/29 at the club station and go all through the weekend until Sunday night 3/31at 8:00 PM. We obviously need operators to do this level of contest. SPARC is inviting members of other clubs as well since we had so many people involved in our joint Field Day that liked working phone contests.

We need a schedule so please email Tom NY4I at NY4I@NY4I.com to say when you would like to operate. I can get a schedule online for ease of signup.

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Embroidered Club Shirts Now Available for Sale

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 02/26/2019

SPARC has made arrangements with a local uniform shop to supply custom-embroidered shirts for members. The shirts feature the embroidered club logo along with your first name and callsign. These are short-sleeve, collared pull-over shirts available in sizes from extra small to 5 XL. The shirt below is an example of the same shirt printed for the UPARC club in Palm Harbor. Of course, your shirt will have the SPARC logo.

Example of shirt (with UPARC logo instead of SPARC)

Pricing on the shirts is as follows (tax included):

XS to XL $24

2XL $25

3XL $26

4XL $27

5XL $30

How to Order:

Please download the order form here: SPARC Shirt Order Form

Payment must be made up front so it would be best to bring this to the club meeting.

Please consult the sizing chart carefully as since these are custom shirts, all sales are final. It would be best to measure a shirt that fits you well to be sure of the fit.

More information is available at the club meeting and we will be accepting orders at that time.

For questions, please send email to shirts@sparc-club.org