SPARC | St. Petersburg Amateur Radio Club

Lagnaippe* Unique Tools – Who Knew

By Bob Wanek N2ESP on 03/12/2021

In preparing to do some rewiring in my shack, I investigated the use of crimp-on coax connectors. I ended up purchasing a crimp tool along with coax connector and Powerpole dies from DX Engineering. I can now easily install crimp-on connectors on a variety of coax cables. The die for Anderson Power Pole connectors will make their installation a snap as well.

In my research, I checked out a number of YouTube videos on the subject, I found this one very interesting.

What caught my attention were … Click for more

Tower discussion meeting this Saturday Feb 27th at 10am

By Pat AAØO on 02/23/2021

This is just a reminder that we are having a discussion on what to do about the tower for the club station. The meeting will take place outside DMI Research (6699 90th Ave N, Pinellas Park) at 10am this Saturday Feb 27th. All members are welcome, especially if you have tower, metalworking and/or pulley system experience.

There will be VE testing going on at the same time so please be quiet if you need to enter the building.

Related Images:

March 5th meeting in person

By Pat AAØO on 02/21/2021

SPARC Club meetings will return to being held in person beginning with the routine March meeting on the first Friday of every month. The first meeting, on March 5th, might be a little bumpy so we appreciate everyone’s patience as we all work through the kinks. Here are some useful points to consider when planning to attend:

The Executive Board and the overall majority of attendees for the January meeting agreed that an outdoor, carefully planned event would be something most would consider attending.
All CDC guidelines that can be

… Click for more

HamCation Forum Webinars

By Pat AAØO on 02/10/2021

HamCation is having the forums via webinar this year. The webinars require registration but it’s free. You can register at this link: https://www.hamcation.com/forums-speakers The forums take place this Saturday and Sunday, February 13th and 14th from 10am to 4pm Eastern.

Related Images:

Winter Field Day This Weekend!

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 01/27/2021

Winter Field Day is this weekend. Full rules can be found at the Winter Field Day website at https://www.winterfieldday.com. The event starts at 2:00 PM EST Saturday and goes until 2:00 PM EST on Sunday. Available modes are SSB, CW, RTTY, PSK31 and other conversational digital modes–not FT8 or FT4 according to their rules.

For the last several years we have joined with our friends at the Clearwater Amateur Radio Society and the Upper Pinellas Amateur Radio Club at the Clearwater Fire Training Center to setup for Winter Field … Click for more

February testing session full

By Pat AAØO on 01/25/2021

In order to ensure proper social distancing, the SPARC test sessions are limited. The Tuesday session in February is already full.

If you want to take an Amateur Radio exam, please check out our VE testing page for contact information to reserve your spot for a future session.