News from the Sterling Park Amateur Radio Club (SPARC)

Hi,

The October 2008 SPARC meeting is coming up this week. Wednesday night
at 7:30 PM.

This month has gone by very fast. Unfortunately I did not get on the
radio even once. Too many other things going on. Oh well, there is
always tomorrow.

Our Vice-President, Jim, AF4MO, has arranged for Randy Sly, W4XJ, to attend our meeting to talk about SKYWARN. Randy is very involved in amateur radio activities and belongs to the LARG. His is also the Amateur Radio Coordinator for Skywarn at the National Weather Service in Sterling. I hear folks talk about SKYWARN but have never had the opportunity to learn about it. This will be a very interesting talk.

In addition to the feature presentation, we have three items of club business.

Sterlingfest is coming up next weekend. So far the weather forecast is very favorable. The updated plan has been posted to our web site. We will clear up any final details for the special event station at the meeting.

Dick, W2YE, volunteered to lead a discussion about club contesting. We participate in a few contests as a club and the more participation the better.

Finally, Dick, W2YE, will lead the initial discussion about rules for the 2008 Virginia QSO Party. We usually discuss proposed changes at two meeting before we finally any changes. This should be a good discussion.

Please come to the meeting, learn about SKYWARN, and, most importantly, enjoy the camaraderie of fellow hams.

73,
Gordon, NQ4K

Hi,

Jim, AF4MO, arranged for Randy Sly,W4XJ, to discuss Skywarn and Dennis Bodson, W4PWF, to discuss RFI/EMI at our Oct and Nov meeting respectively.

73,
Gordon, NQ4K

Hi,

The 2008 Virginia QSO Party web page has been started and the planning calender posted.

In addition, the briefing presented at the 2007 Awards Ceremony was posted to the 2007 VQP page.

73,
Gordon, NQ4K

Hi,

Posted Sterlingfest plan and other information.

Added names of volunteers who will provide refreshments for meetings to activity calendar.

73,
Gordon, NQ4K

Hi,

This is a reminder of our meeting tomorrow evening.

Mark, KI4OBT, has a few suggestions for an additional activity. I especially like the 2nd one.

73,
Gordon, NQ4K

-------- Original Message --------
Thu, 30 Aug 2007 20:23:46 -0500 (CDT)
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2007 21:26:54 -0500
From: Mark Travis
Subject: RE: SPARC: Meeting on Wednesday, 5 Sep 07, at 7:30 PM
To: 'GorMil'

Hi Gordon,

Darn, I hate that I'm going to miss show and tell!! My daughter is doing study abroad and she lands at Dulles that evening. If her flight is late, I may stop in for a short while.

I have a few ideas for new activities:

1.) How about a fox hunt? If you remember that small transmitter (70 cm) that I have for my rocket, it would make a great fox. It's fairly low power, but we could limit the area, or maybe another member has a little bigger transmitter. We could end the hunt with a picnic.

2.) To encourage some youth involvement, how about sponsoring a radio club at one of the local schools. Loudoun has their science academy here in Sterling at Dominion HS and I think that would be a good place to start. We could teach the Technician level course and help arrange for the students to get to a license session or arrange one for the school. I might even be able to get a grant from my company if we schedule it with Engineers Week (I think it's in Feb).

3.) A couple of the other clubs meet regularly on one of the local 2M
repeaters. We don't need to do it every week, but maybe the 3rd Wednesday of each month (in between our regular meetings). We could also tie this in with number idea 2 since all the new Technicians will want to be active.

I'm certainly willing to help organize these if we want to do any of them.

Sorry I won't be able to make the meeting.

73
--MARK KI4OBT