SPARC

May 2017 Meeting Recap

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 05/07/2017

This is our first recap of the meeting as part of the project to move information that would have been in the club newsletter to the website. This is a high-level recap to share the general topics discussed along with some info about the particular presentation for that evening. This is not to be mistaken for the official club meeting minutes. That is available in the Club Business section of the website. Links to other websites, etc that may be relevant to the presentation will also be included here.

Work continues on the repeaters with a new amplifier added to the 2m repeater along with the audio volume being increased. The repeater committee reports the repeaters are working and asked people to use the 220m and 440m repeaters more if they have the equipment.
The club station performed well in the Florida QSO Party with many people participating to activate the W4S callsign.
Bob N2ESP began a long discussion about Field Day involved asking what the membership wanted to do for Field Day. This discussion focused on a plea for participation from the members. The club needs people to stand-up and take action. Due to the normal 5 people being physically unable to do the work to put up antennas and stations, the club needs new people to get involved. The existing core crew wants people to help versus that core doing all the work. Field Day has been a social function with meals served but without more participation from the club members in the planning stage, Field Day will be scaled back to use the existing antennas and radios in more of a home station aspect than Field-style operating. The general feeling of those that usually participate was this is not optimal, but without more participation, this is a fact of life.The time to act is NOW. Email, call or use any other means to contact a club officers and say you want to commit to helping out on Field Day. The time for passiveness and just showing up is over. Without action, Field Day will not be the event the club has sone in the past. Tom NY4I wrote some items about Field Day but shared a plea that we are all amateur radio operators. He stressed the fact that we get out to Field Day and operate.
As part of no longer publishing a newsletter, the website was again promoted. Some features have been added such as automatic posting to the club’s Facebook and Twitter accounts whenever a post is made on the website. If you want to stay up to date and you use Facebook or Twitter, please follow the club on those services. For our Facebook page, click here. For Twitter, follow @SPARC_W4GAC
The June program will be about Field Day (whatever effort the above plea warrants). July’s program will be a mobile installation contest. Members will park in the front of the DMI building car-show style, open up their car and judges will evaluate their installation. There will be a prize for the best HF and VHF/UHF installation. Entrants installations will be judged on neatness, effectiveness, safety, good engineering principles among other criteria. Look for a future post on the club website about this event.

Tom NY4I Presenting at the May meeting [AI4QP photo]

The program for May was by Tom Schaefer NY4I on interfacing HF radios with computers. The focus was the DXLab Suite of programs, but the information applied to any radios. Tom spoke of USB interfaces, serial interfaces and other tips on how to get your HF radio connected. Tom had an Icom 7300 setup as a demo and showed how one can click on a DX cluster spot to automatically tune the radio to the right frequency as well as using the information from the radio to fill in your log. Tom also demonstrated an Elecraft K3/0 which can be used for remote operation. This can be done with RemoteHamRadio or software available from RemoteHams.

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FQP: A Big Struggle, A Big Success

By Bob Wanek N2ESP on 05/01/2017

By Bob Wanek N2ESP

This year, SPARC contest station W4TA participated in the Florida QSO Party with a special 1×1 call: W4S. 2017 marks the 20th anniversary of the FQP. In celebration, twenty Florida stations were given special 1×1 calls such that the proper suffixes, when combined together, spell out FLORIDA SUN as part of this year’s FQP spelling bee. That means that the rest of the country was looking for us.

Things started slowly for the CW station on 40M while the SSB station took off like a rocket on 20M. It’s safe to say propagation was equally poor for all event participants. Having amplifiers to drive our new antenna system enabled us to be heard around the country. We worked all 50 states and 8 of the 9 Canadian provinces, with a few DX countries thrown in for good luck. We were also fortunate to work SPARC member Lisa KC1YL who was at her northern QTH in CT. Thanks for the Q Lisa.

The FQP started Saturday at noon, and so did the food. Many thanks to Tom W4CU for the crockpot of chili and to Bob WB4MCF for the donuts. Sunday morning we were treated to fresh bagels courtesy of Tom NY4I.

KB8ESY (L) backup logging while N4GD (R) working the phone station [N2ESPhoto]

SPARC has a policy of encouraging newcomers to our hobby. We invite new hams and first timers to join us in the fun. While this can have a short term negative effect (on our score) the long term effect is very positive. In this sprit, Dave KR4U told us of his five minute QSO. We all looked at him in amazement, as Dave is a proficient CW operator. We all know that propagation was lame at best with lots of QSB. But five minutes? Must have been a lot of fills…FIVE MINUTES? Dave went on to explain that he was calling CQ FQP and a station returned around 5 WPM. Dave reduced his speed and sent our exchange. What ensued was hi, my name is … my QTH is… my radio is… my WX is… the typical newbie QSO. Dave recognized the situation and kept the QSO going…for five minutes. The toughest 2 points in our log, but worth 1000 QSO quality points. Thanks Dave for acting in the true amateur tradition.

KP2N (L) backup logging while KB8ESY (R) works the phone station [N2ESPhoto]

Operators participating in this event were Bob N2ESP, Dave KR4U, Dee N4GD, Johnnie W4TSP, Paul KA4IOX, Rex, KB8ESY, Ron KP2N, Scotty N4RI, Tom NY4I and Tom W4CU.

The final score indicated 613 CW QSOs and 733 SSB QSOs. A great showing for SPARC as we represented Pinellas County to the ham radio community.

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Random Lessons from 30+ Years of Field Days

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 04/26/2017

by: Tom Schaefer, NY4I

First, these are my own opinions, but I thought the club might enjoy some things I have picked up over the years. I have seen all of these things actually happen.

Going to Field Day is the best ham radio best decision you will ever make!
This one is only half-joking…The most dangerous place to be is between the Field Day site and the parking lot at 1759z on Sunday afternoon. Teardown starts at 1800z so it is the really committed (and tired) that hang around to help teardown.
You should rarely get to operate your own station. This is about elmering. The best Field Days are when you have new people that you help operate your radio or an adjacent station.
FD is a collective event. It is not 3 station members that bring their radios, man them around the clock and don’t let anyone else operate.
If you are afraid someone might break your radio, leave it at home. Field Day is a place the new people that may not be experienced on HF get to press the buttons and twiddle the dials on different radios. Your Icom 7851 does not belong at Field Day. Your radio will get dusty, there will be BBQ sauce on the display and it may need some cleaning when you are done. This is Field Day after all and things happen. Leave your prized possessions at home and bring your backup rig—but at least the one with good filters.
“Take my ball and go home” has no place at Field Day. If you lend your radio, antenna, generator, etc, it’s in it for the duration. If you get mad, go home and come back at 1830z on Sunday to get your stuff.
Someone will transmit on the same band on which another radio is receiving. It will happen. There are ways to prevent this (such as assigning radios to bands) but refer back to the item that all radios are shared resources used by whomever happens to be operating 20m at the time. Your job is to train them to operate and hand them the mic. Hang around to help answer questions but let them drive.
If you don’t plan out your antenna layout, the 20m CW station antenna will be too close to the 20m SSB station antenna. Interference is no fun but solving it is part of Field Day.
Mosquitoes suck!
Cigar smoke chases away mosquitoes. Find someone in the club that likes a good Fuente and sit by them. Just no Swisher Sweets—they stink.
It will rain. Plan accordingly.
If you do not reserve a year in advance, one of your kids will have the nerve to pick the fourth Saturday in June for a wedding.
You will learn things about what you can do under less than ideal circumstances. FD brings out the MacGyver in every ham. Solve some issue with the coax. Make a new coax choke when the balun fails. Twist wires together when the connectors come off the power supply wire.
Field Day is not a clean room. Perfect is the enemy of Field Day. Perfectionism has no place at FD. Save perfect for your shack at home. Yes, 100 feet of LMR400 technically has less loss than 100 feet of RG-8X, but at Field Day, we just don’t care. 89 watts out of 100 is better than having to drive home for the roll of LMR400 to put 93 watts to the antenna.
If you have booze, someone will get drunk. You have to deal with all its requisite issues.
Sitting on a run frequency calling CQ and working stations for an hour straight is just magic. You will never have an operating experience like running from a well-equipped FD station (meaning a good antenna).
The newspaper or TV station reporter you invited will arrive at Sunday morning right in the middle of your aforementioned 180 QSOs/hour run.
Everyone at the site should know to whom to refer the reporters when they arrive. Coherence and CW signals make good B-roll.
The bonus points will only materialize if you designate someone as the Bonus Point captain. Their job is to make sure someone gets all the bonus points.
- Did the satellite station make a contact AND give you the log?
- Did someone copy the W1AW bulletin? Exactly who is doing it and do they know to bring you the text?
- Does a specific person have the solar charged battery to make the alternate power contacts?
- Is there a sign-up book?
- Does everyone know they should direct new people to the check-in table?
FM Transponders for the satellite contact are useless. You will not get into the repeater. Use FO29 or another linear satellite with SSB or CW.
The more complicated the satellite antenna system, the less likely you will make a contact. The Az/El rotator with the dual beams on an H-Frame is cool, but an Arrow antenna or eggbeaters will do just fine.
In Florida–and the rest of the South–it will be unbearably warm and muggy. At 8000 feet in the mountains of Utah, you will need a coat and gloves as it will be freezing at night—yes, after attending Florida Field Days for years, I laughed when they told me to bring a coat at my first Utah ARC Field Day in in the mountains above Payson, Utah.
You are going to have to talk to strangers. Field Day is about emergency preparedness (and contesting) but it is mostly a very public display of amateur radio. If you see someone new, get up and talk to them. Invite them to the check-in table; ask if they are a ham; do they want to operate? If they are new, give them a brochure for the club. If you are not all that outgoing, make sure there is always someone that can answer questions. Be inviting and open to new people. Field Day is not the time for cliques.
The generator will run out of gas at the worst possible time.
The camaraderie you will experience is unique to Field Day. Field Day is a way for us to work together for a common goal. We all share a love of radio. Field Day allows us to hone our own skills, help others better their skills and test our endurance under less than ideal conditions. We all love to talk about the emergency aspects of ham radio when we need it for things like the Amateur Radio Parity Act, but you cannot say you are an emergency communicator if you cannot pull off Field Day. Field Day will test you, it will make you sweat but it will give you much in return.
Going to Field Day is the best ham radio best decision you will ever make!

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Join Us to Create a Pile Up

By Bob Wanek N2ESP on 04/09/2017

This month, join the contesters at SPARC Contest station W4TA as they use the special 1×1 call sign W4S in the Florida QSO Party. The object of the Florida QSO Party is for everyone to work Florida (67 counties) and Florida to work everyone.

This year is the 20^th anniversary of the FQP. In celebration, twenty Florida stations have been given special 1×1 calls such that when the proper suffixes are combined together spell out FLORIDA SUN (e.g. SUN = W4S & K4U & W4N). Working the right combination of these stations makes you eligible for the FQP Spelling Bee Award.

SPARC will be operating as W4S for 10 hours (April 29 1600Z (Noon EDT) – 0159Z (9:59 PM EDT) Sunday, April 30 1200Z (8 AM EDT) – 2159Z (5:59 PM EDT) 20 Hours total using both CW and SSB modes. If you would like the opportunity to work the receiving end of a pile up, please sign up with Ron, KP2N.

Additional information on the FQP can be found at: https://floridaqsoparty.org/

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New SPARC 220 MHz Repeater Installed

By Bob Wanek N2ESP on 04/09/2017

Ron, KP2N, and Dee, N4GD, installing the new WA4AKH 220 MHZ SPARC repeater. Please visit us on 224.660 MHz, no tone required.

KP2N (L) and N4GD (R) installing repeater

SPARC also has repeaters on 147.060 MHZ, no tone, and 444.475 MHZ (tone 146.2). When in the area check us out.

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N4NSS Gets Keyed Up

By Bob Wanek N2ESP on 04/09/2017

If you missed last Friday’s meeting, you missed a fine presentation by Kyle, N4NSS on his “sub-hobby” of collecting CW keys. The photos show Kyle in action at the SPARC meeting, as well as a close up of his collection. Click on title to display photos and click on a photo to enlarge it.

Thanks for sharing your collection with us.

Photos by AI4QP.