12/05/2025
St. Petersburg Amateur Radio Club
Check out the video on SPARC’s new YouTube page.
This past week the dual-band antenna was replaced because signals were somewhat degraded. The new 2m/70cm dual- band antenna is in place atop the building at 27th Ave N and MLK. The 220 antenna is a separate single-band antenna and continues to work well. With such a great repeater location, no wonder that these repeaters do such a wonderful job. Many thanks to the repeater team that keep things running.
Radio Propagation presented by Lu Romero W4LT, member of TARC.
Propagation is important to all of us especially in this low sun spot period. Understanding more about propagation on all bands help us make contacts regardless of mode or frequency.
The presentation includes angle of radiation, ionospheric layers, ground reflection, solar radiation effects, 2m ducting, sun spots, x-ray flux, ground wave and sky wave, multi path, 6m sporadic E, gray line, long path and more.
Lou has given this presentation at TARC and was well received. He is an entertaining speaker and has a very good grasp of the technology. Hope to see everyone at the January meeting.
Stop by the new SPARC YouTube page and check out the uploads, which include the latest clip from the SPARC Antenna Party last weekend. SPARC setup this new page to collect all the videos in one easy to access location.
Subscribe to the channel to receive notifications of additional postings.
Several postings were moved to the new page from their previous YouTube location. Look for the CERT presentation, 2017 Science Festival and SPARC Fest at Freedom Lake Park. Also SPARC Field Day and SPARC at Tampa Bay Ham fest.
Here is something that makes a ham club Great!
Check out the action as SPARC members put up new antennas at the club station. We had a perfect day with several teams working on different antennas and expanding the club’s coverage of the HF bands.
Oh, also, we have a new YouTube channel for club videos. Subscribe so you don’t miss new postings. We’ll add some of the older videos here too.
The weather was picture perfect. The station engineering team of Dave, KR4U and John, KI4UIP had the necessary tools and hardware ready. Then the SPARC Elves showed up at W4GAC/W4TA, and suddenly our station had the ability to work the “top band.”
Up went a 160M/80M fan dipole, extending virtually the entire western property line of our station. But not before a semi-permanent tower was erected to support the north end of the antenna. A robust pine tree anchors the southern end.
The center of the antenna was hoisted up the tilt-telescopic tower, but not before the rotor was swapped out for a rebuilt unit.
[L to R] W4CU, N4GD & KC1YL assemble 40M vertical dipole. (N2ESPhoto)
The following SPARC elves graciously gave their time and talents to make this effort a success: Norman, KA1IJA; Lisa, KC1YL; Bob, KC4SXO; John, KI4UIP; Rick, KK4WTE; Ron, KP2N; Dave, KR4U; Pat, KX4HL; Ed, NZ1Q; Bob, N2ESP; Dee. N4GD; Scott, N4RI; Tom, NY4I; Tom, W4CU; Bob, WA4OAB and Ed, WV6H.