SPARC | St. Petersburg Amateur Radio Club

Mid Florida DX Association Featured Program

By Bob Wanek N2ESP on 02/18/2016

Join in on our Friday, March 4^th meeting for a very special evening with Tony DeAngelo, N2MFT, President of the Mid Florida DX Association. Tony will present some of the club’s motivation, planning, execution and results for activation of National Parks as part of the ARRL yearlong program. MFDXA has already activated two National Parks and is planning more.

We will also hear about the Mid Florida DX Association’s other activities. One of their services is QSL card checking for DXCC awards credit. Tony will give us a little … Click for more

Antenna / Radio Smoked

By Bob Wanek N2ESP on 02/16/2016

Bad Antenna install — Photo by Klein PhotoGraphics

While visiting this year’s Hamcation® Stephan, K4SHK heard a loud bang like a cannon going off. It turns out someone setting up their antenna let it contact high-power lines. The area was roped off while the electric company powered down the lines to remove the antenna. Stephan reports no one was injured but the radio was hooked up at the time and most likely fried. Looking around the camping area, Stephan noticed another accident waiting to happen (See photo to right). These stickers are required on … Click for more

2015 SPARC Plug Award Winner Announced

By Bob Wanek N2ESP on 02/05/2016

John Toth, KI4UIP was awarded the SPARC Plug Award for 2015 at the After Holidays Party.

2015 SPARC Plug Award — Bob N2ESP (L) presents award to John KI4UIP (R). photo by AI4QP

The award is given for exceptional service to the club. Thanks John for all the extra effort you gave to make SPARC the successful club that it is. More photos of the After he Holidays party are available in the SPARC Gap.

Related Images:

2016 Dues are Due

By Bob Wanek N2ESP on 01/01/2016

Lighthouse Larry1 — Lighthouse Larry says Dues are due

The earth has made one more orbit around the sun, resolutions have been made and broken, and the national news shows a lot of white stuff up north. It must be time to transmit your $15 ($20 for families) dues to our treasurer. Due to prudent management of funds and increasing membership, we are able to keep our dues at the same level as previous years.

If you can’t make a meeting, dues can be sent to PO Box 2217, St. Petersburg, FL 33731.… Click for more

SPARC Ham Radio Bucket List

By Bob Wanek N2ESP on 01/01/2016

The challenge for 2016 is for each SPARC member to expand their activity in our hobby. To this end, the SPARC Bucket List below provides some potential growth areas. There are no prizes, just the personal satisfaction of learning a new skill or reaching a new goal.

Give a presentation at a club meeting
Upgrade your license
Help setup/takedown at field day site
Enter your first Radiosport contest
Win a contest award
Elmer a newbie
Write a SPARC GAP article
Write a SPARC Web site article
Confirm a new DXCC

… Click for more

A New R7 Vertical, Two Working FSK stations and One Step Closer on the K3 Remote Station…

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 12/29/2015

Today (12/29/2015), several SPARC members met at the SPARC Clubhouse to work on several projects to help with contesting and other activities at the W4GAC station. Bob N2ESP, John KI4UIP, Dave KR4U, Ron KP2N and Tom NY4I worked on various projects that needed to be done for this weekend’s ARRL RTTY contest. While John, Dave and Bob wrestled the Cushcraft R7 antenna into position outside and ran coax, the rest of us worked on tweaking the Elecraft K3 to work on RTTY FSK mode. For a reason that would … Click for more