11/27/2024
St. Petersburg Amateur Radio Club
Many of us use Alpha Delta coax switches in our stations for antenna selection. These switches use Arc-Plug gas discharge tubes as lightening protection. Spare Arc-Plug elements sell for $10 – $12 from the traditional ham retailers. Mouser Electronics sells them for $2.37 each in quantities of 10. P/N 576-CG21000.
Thanks to Richard K2UPS for this tip.
In order to ensure proper social distancing, the SPARC test sessions are limited to 5 people. The Tuesday session in January 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.
Alan, KO4CR, rebroadcasts an edited version of the Amateur Radio News Line on the SPARC repeater once a week after the evening net. The latest broadcast caused considerable discussion on the morning roundtable as well as the evening pre-net. For those who missed the broadcast, a copy of the article about “dark suckers” follows.
For years it has been believed that electric bulbs emitted light. However, recent information from Bell Labs has proven otherwise. Electric bulbs don’t emit light; they suck dark. Thus they now call these bulbs dark suckers. … Click for more
A normal task we always do on Field Day is to copy the W1AW special bulletin sent each year before and during Field Day. This activity simulates what you would do if in a real emergency and you were relying upon bulletins from the ARRL for information. So it is a good skill to learn. To boot, you get 100 bonus points for doing it.
The bulletin is sent in multiple modes (CW, digital (RTTY, PSK31 and MFSK16) and phone. This starts at Friday night at 8:00 local time with … Click for more
As you may know, our normal Field Day at the fire training center is not happening this year. Many members are taking advantage of the rule changes to operate class 1D or 1E from home. One of the changes the ARRL made—for this year only—is the ability to aggregate our individual scores under one club name. Please note that you still just make contacts with your own call but when it comes time to send in your Field Day entry, in the spot for club name you can add a … Click for more
Dave KR4U reported that he was contacted by Duke Energy with an update on the RF noise at the station. Duke went to the site with a “corona detecting camera” presumably to detect any arcing on various power components. This corona is the electrical arcing kind, not the drinking kind nor that other one in the news lately. They found 12 leaking insulators! Duke has ordered the parts and will contact Dave again once they are replaced. That will hopefully significantly reduce the noise level at the club … Click for more