At the Orlando Hamcation on February 8th, SPARC members joined other hams from the Tampa Bay area to their annual pilgrimage to the Central Florida Fairgrounds. Hamcation never disappoints with its balance of swap areas, commercial vendors and seeing good friends.
Some SPARC members seen were:
Dave KR4U
Carol AB4YI
Lou KB4DSL
Fred W2SUB
Tom NY4I
Olev N4OHI
Ron W4RFA
Ryan AF4O
Alex KO4CEE
My apologies if I missed anyone.
We renewed our tradition of the Noon picture but this time since we have so many members that are also members of CARS and UPARC, we did a group picture with members from all the clubs.
Please join me in welcoming Dan “Nic” Nichols KZ0J to the SPARC board. Nic was nominated and elected at the February meeting for the spot vacated by Tom W4CU. You can email Nic directly at boardmember3@sparc-club.org.
As you may know, SPARC is a board-run organization per our bylaws. We rely upon the board to steer the business of the club. Please join me in wishing Nic much success.
Participating Clubs’ Banners [Photo by K2BHS]On January 25th & 26th, 2025, local ham radio clubs participated in the annual Winter Field Day event in Clearwater, Florida. The day started out as planned with people gathering at 8:00 AM–some even earlier–at the Clearwater Fire Training Center for Winter Field Day 2025. This was a joint effort between the Clearwater Amateur Radio Society, the St. Petersburg Amateur Radio Club and the Upper Pinellas Amateur Radio Club. This was the first time SPARC had been back in a few years for Winter Field Day and given the number of members from different clubs, it was great to have everyone back together again.
Due to the forecasted weather being a bit too chilly overnight (yes, I know, it’s called Winter Field Day but we live in Florida for a reason…), the decision was made to have Winter Field Day indoors this year. We setup in the standard inside configuration we use for ARRL Field Day.
Thanks to everyone that took pictures.
We had all three stations capable of operating SSB with 2 stations pulling double-duty as CW and one as Digital (PSK31). Being Field Day, we always have a great spread of food to keep everyone fed. Ron and Ruth Appel and their team do a great job of organizing the food portion of Field Day.
HF Operating
Summary
We managed to work a total of 1326 contacts on 6 different bands (2M not shown in the table below). We contacted stations in all the US sections/states except Hawaii as well as all but a few Canadian sections.
Ron N2SKH making some SSB contacts.Glen N4GRC and Bruce K2BHS operating
SSB (Phone)
We had approximately 1100 contacts on SSB (phone) with Jeff NE4C making 545 QSOs and Bruce K2BHS making 231 contacts. Other operators can be seen in the table below:
CW (Morse Code)
Dave KR4U made 124 CW contacts with Pat AA0O adding 59 CW contacts and Tom NY4I adding a few more.
Dave KR4U working the paddle at the CW stationThe short tower with the hex beam and wire antennasA close-up of the HexBeam
Satellite Station
All self-contained in a gator case, the Icom 9700 and other gear for the satellite stationThe Arrow antenna on a Yaesu Azimuth/Elevation rotator for tracking the satellites.
Using Ryan AF4O’s very portable satellite station, Tom NY4I managed to make 6 satellite contacts using RS-44 for SSB contacts and PO-101 for an FM contact
Education
Fred W2SUB introducing Field Day to guests
One of our important goals is to always introduce new people to ham radio. With either encouraging a new ham to pick up the microphone and make contacts, offer a few pointers on how to operate the most efficiently or introduce ham radio to someone for the very first time, education and training is why we do all of this (well the food is great too!). Fred W2SUB conducted his usual training sessions. While we do not get points for it like in Summer ARRL Field Day, points are not the motivator anyway.
Winter Field Day Objectives
Winter Field Day switched to an objective-based multiplier system. Possible objectives were as follows:
Operate 100% on alternative power
Operate away from home
Deploy multiple antenna
Make an FM satellite contact
Make a SSB or CW Satellite Contact
Send and receive at least one Winlink email
Copy the Winter Field Day Special Bulletin
Operate on at least six different bands
Use multiple modes
Operate the event QRP
Operate six continuous hours during the event
Of the above objectives, we achieved them all except operating 100% on alternative power and operate the event QRP. Jason N4BOZ sent and received a WinLink message on 2m from the site, Tom NY4I made a satellite contact on FM and SSB, Tom NY4I contacted a station on 2m 146.52 for the 6th band, we operated multiple modes with SSB, CW and PSK31, Tom NY4I copied the Winter Field Day Bulletin on Phone and CW and we operated 25 hours.
Oh the Food…
No one goes hungry at Field Day. Ron W4RFA and Ruth Appel lead a great team to help with the food. The clubs provided meals for Breakfast on Saturday and Sunday, lunch on Saturday (cooked by Dean N0OAC and Sarah N0UKS) and Sunday and Dinner on Saturday (along with the potluck). Other helpers included Karen Isak KQ4HNI, Beth Whidden (NY4I’s spouse) and Diane Friedman (K4SPF’s spouse).
The chow hall at dinner on Saturday
Results
So how did we do? With the change in the scoring, it is hard to compare the points to last year, but contacts wise, we made more QSOs this year than last (1146 QSOs in 2024 Winter Field Day). The following table gives the break down of the contacts, bands and total points including the objective multipliers. We will see in a few months how we did as compared to other stations in the 3I (inside) class.
Thanks to Bill Terry for the majority of these pictures.
The annual SPARC after-holiday party is coming up on Sunday February 23, 2025 at 2:00 PM at Kristina’s Cafe in St. Peterburg. Kristina’s Cafe is located at 3590 34th St N (US 19) in St. Petersburg. You will be ordering off the menu and paying for your own meal.
This is a tradition as the holidays are all very busy so this puts it later in the new year. Please email holidayparty@sparc-club.org to indicate you are coming so we have a head count. All members and spouses are invited to attend.
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, 2025. This is a joint operation with both the Clearwater Amateur Radio Society (CARS) and the Upper Pinellas Amateur Radio Club (UPARC). The event will be held at the Clearwater Fire Training Facility on Belcher Road south of Sunset Point Road in Clearwater. Prior efforts were a great success.
Winter Field Day is a 24 hour operating exercise where hams across the country go to the field, setup portable stations running on emergency power with temporary antennas. This event is not sponsored by the ARRL but the Winter Field Day Association. It has been operating since 2007 and gets bigger each year. There are several differences from the ARRL Field Day. Notably, there are only four classes of operation: (Outdoor, Indoor, Mobile and Home). We will be operating 3 HF stations capable of SSB, Digital modes like PSK31 and CW plus a satellite station. As with summer Field Day, you will work stations operating from home and also indoors in non-traditional settings. But when you work outside stations in Minnesota, please try not to comment on how it is a chilly 65 degrees here. They may not share your amusement. 🙂
We have the radio and computers secured and a pretty good handle on the supplies as this is the 7th event the clubs have done from this facility. We need people to help with putting things up, some people to help with food and of course, operators. Setup begins at 8:00 AM on Saturday 1/25. Three radios will be going 24 hours from 2:00 PM Saturday to 2:00 PM on Sunday so we need people that can operate. No experience is necessary. If you are brand new to ham radio, you are welcome to come out and with a little training; you get to operate the radios. If you are interested in operating portable, you will get first hand experience in how to setup a station outside with no other infrastructure. Additionally, if you are interested in Emergency Communications, you have the opportunity to setup in a unusual location, operating radios on generator power. Note that is just like people had to do in Houston and Puerto Rico after the hurricanes so if you are an EMCOMM operator, this event is tailor made for you. Plus you will be on the grounds of the premiere fire training facility in the area.
We have a great facility in the Clearwater Fire Training Center including access to the classrooms, rest rooms, etc. However, all operating is outside (tentatively but could change) with portable antennas. While this is winter in Florida, we hope the weather is nice but past year’s Winter Fields were cold and rainy so you never know what you will get.
Here is a Google Map to the location. This is centrally located to most club members in the county so we hope the facility proves to be a success for all.
The transceivers used are three Elecraft K3 radios (UPARC has three of them). We use computers for logging with the TR4W contest logger. Note this is a departure for SPARC as the standard at the club station is N1MM but you will find TR4W easy to pickup. It is also very forgiving to new operators and will not let you enter the info wrong. You are welcome to download TR4W and play with it to get used to the software but it is pretty easy to use. We will have more training on that at the January meeting.
Sign up is available now by clicking here so please save the date and plan on attending. Please sign up as soon as it is available. Don’t forget to bring anything you might need for the weekend (we recommend a camp chair and cool weather gear–more details on what to bring will be sent before the event).
