Contesting

SPARC’s Winter Field Day Plans

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 12/13/2019

Only 16 Days left to register to ensure your meals

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, 2020. This is the third time SPARC is participating in … Click for more

W4TA World Champs

By Bob Wanek N2ESP on 11/13/2019

Radio teletype (RTTY) may be a technically ancient mode of communication in these days of sophisticated digital modes, but it can be a lot of fun. Members of SPARC’s contest team proved that by winning 1^st place Worldwide and 1^st place North America in the Multi-Operator High Power (Multiple Transmitter category in the 2019 running of the Makrothen RTTY Contest. With a total score of 3,003,769 points consisted of 652 QSOs, each having an average distance of 2,902 mi (4,607 km).

Member taking place in this record setting … Click for more

Are You Ready to RTTY…

By Bob Wanek N2ESP on 07/13/2019

As announced at the last meeting, will be participating as W4TA in the North American QSO Party-RTTY.

This contest begins at 2:00 PM local time on Saturday July 20, 2019. The contest continues for 12 hours, ending early Sunday morning. W4TA will be operating in class M2, i.e. two transmitters will be on the air at the same time, but on different bands.

This contest is a great chance for newcomers to get your feet wet in digital contesting. WARNING: RTTY contesting is addictive, so plan to stay awhile. … Click for more

Who Needs Propagation?

By Bob Wanek N2ESP on 06/24/2019

SPARC members were out in force for the 2019 Open Season QSO Party sponsored by Ten-Ten Net International, Inc. Using PSK 31, 5 watts and a flagpole antenna, Robert aka Dean, W8IM won not one but three certificates as shown below: 1^st Place QRP, 3^rd Place World, and 1^st Place 8^th call area.

Terrific effort Dean. Dean also noted that SPARC members Leslie, WA4EEZ and Dave, WS1ETI participated in the contest.

… Click for more

2019 Florida QSO Party Report

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 04/29/2019

Wyoming and North Dakota proved elusive during the 2019 Florida QSO Party.

Building on our half-time report, we completed the 2019 Florida QSO Party under very tough 40 meter conditions with 1185 QSOs. Our goal was to defend our 2018 Club win and get some new operators on the radios. We ran two stations—20 and 40 meters. 40 meters during the day was quite challenging as 10 and 15 meters are not much use nowadays. We had 630 CW QSOs and 555 SSB QSOs. Dave KR4U had the high … Click for more

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 … Click for more

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