SPARC Tower Damage from Pinellas Park Tornado

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 02/08/2020

The recent tornado that passed through Pinellas Park on Thursday February 6th was not kind to SPARC. While this damage pales in comparison to people that had trees fall on their homes; nonetheless, the tower at the club station suffered some damage such that it will not crank down. The tower appears to have bent at the base of the joint where the sections overlap. One element on the log periodic antennas appears damaged as well.

Further behind the club station, you can see from this picture taken by Pat AA0O how the high tension wire poles fared (yes, that pole appears to be leaning over).

Club members Dave KR4U, John KI4UIP and Pat AA0O (among others) stopped by to check out the damage. The wire antennas were taken down. Plans are underway for how to safely remove the tower from its base. Restoring this will be a big project requiring lots of volunteers so more on that later.

Related Images:

Published in Club Station

Tom Schaefer NY4I

Hello. I have been a member of SPARC on and off since 1992. I am the current president of the club. Formerly I was the Vice President under Ron KP2N and a board member for several years. I was heavily involved in the club station working with Ron KP2N, Dave KR4U and John KI4UIP. I was also a contributor to the SPARC Remote station which was used by several SPARC members to either augment their own stations or provide a station to use for those in HOAs or other living arrangements that kept them off of HF. We had quite a few users of the remote utilizing the RemoteHams software. I hope to strike a balance in SPARC between fostering operating skills, teaching new people about ham radio and also offer a great social experience to members that may just come to the meetings for camaraderie. As a general-purpose club, I believe SPARC can cater to all those aspects of our wonderful hobby. I hope you join me along the way...

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