News from the Sterling Park Amateur Radio Club (SPARC)

Our monthly meeting was held Oct 7th at the Claude Moore Community Center in Sterling. We had 16 members attend. After member introductions and activity reports, the business agenda included several topics.

We reviewed rules for the 2010 Virginia QSO Party and agreed that no significant rule changes are required. There was some discussion on changing the operating times for the event and this may be revisited in the future. However, no changes will be made to categories, scoring, etc. Volunteers are needed to help out with different support functions including working on certificates, mailing, calling Virginia hams, and giving presentations. Contact Gordon, NQ4K, if you can help.

After our success at the Herndon Depot, Bill WF1L is planning another event at the station. This one will operate from inside the W&OD caboose. Details are still being planned for the event which will take place Dec 12th and 13th.

Bud, W4KSN, is seeking assistance with the Boy Scout Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) coming up the weekend of Oct 17th. Contact Bud if you are interested in supporting JOTA and have the gear to setup a portable HF station.

Plans for Sterlingfest, which took place on Oct 10th, were reviewed and finalized. Our station at Sterlingfest operated from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

Dick, W2YE, closed out the meeting with an excellent presentation on DX Packet Cluster. He provided samples of how to connect using telnet and take advantage of filters to obtain more useful views of the data. He also discussed the history of packet clusters and talked about the various nodes that support our local area.

Our next meeting is Nov 4th, 7:00 PM, at the Claude Moore Community Center.

73,
--MARK KI4OBT

The Sep 18th edition of The Observer in Herndon featured an article about SPARC and our special event station at the Herndon Depot and Museum. SPARC operated as K4H from the depot grounds to celebrate 150 years since the arrival of rail service to Herndon. The article begins on page 3 and gives a very positive report of our activity.

73,
--MARK KI4OBT

Despite a couple hours of light rain in the morning, our station at Sterlingfest on Oct 10th was a big success. We discussed amateur radio with several members of the community and even a couple prospective new members. We only logged a handful of contacts during the day, but highlights include a QSO with WW2SUB, another special event station operating from the USS Batfish (submarine) in Muskogee, OK (yes, I said Oklahoma). We also got into the Arizona QSO party and made a satellite contact via SO-50. The festival clown even stopped by the station and demonstrated his CW skills.

Special thanks go to Russ W3RST for supplying the generatior, Dick W2YE for the radio and dipole, and to Duane K4UW for photo support. Thanks to the many other members that came out to support the event: Jim KF4PQL, Gary K4SRX, Linda K4LDT, and Joe WB2SAI.

73,

--MARK KI4OBT

On, 10/7/2009 1:31 PM, Dan Blasberg emailed::

Map at http://bit.ly/Pmv1n

Dear Local ARC,

G and G Electronics of Maryland is having a "yard sale" this coming
Sunday, October 11th at our store location in Gaithersburg, MD.

Over the past 30 years of being in business, you all have seen our
displays at the various Washington area hamfests, but there is a store
(warehouse) too. We are downsizing the business and plan to move out
of the warehouse, so the idea is to reduce the inventory ASAP.

We will have all the goodies available that we can't physically
transport to hamfest , such as 1,000's of tubes, transformers, air-
variable caps, crystals etc. We'll also have our normal hamfest stuff
there in case you want some of these items as well.

Please announce this special sale on your club's email distribution
list, your newsletter, at you club meeting, or possibly on your
repeater.

Thanks and 73,

Jeff Goldman, K3DUA
G and G Electronics of Maryland
8524 Dakota Drive
Gaithersburg, MD 20877

PHONE 301-258-7373
FAX 301-977-5378

Reminder: SPARC will operate a station this Saturday, October 10th, at the annual Sterlingfest. We can use volunteers to help set up, operate, and close down at the end of the day. Setup time begins at 9:00AM and the event runs from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM. We always have a lot of visitors, so come out and help us promote amateur radio. See the SPARC web site for the event plan and a map showing the location of our station.

73,
--MARK KI4OBT

Hi,

Another month has gone by and it is time for the October SPARC meeting. Unfortunately I will not be there: I will be in Vermont at a wedding. Please be nice to Bud, W4KSN, our vice-president.

This was a light month for me. I worked the CQWW RTTY contest on 80M for 86 contacts. Was told that I had a lot of hum on my signal so I guess I will be putting some chokes on everything. Sat in a on few 6M roundtables hosted by Henry, K2BFY. And worked a little on getting a Clegg Venus 6M AM/SSB/CW rig on the air.

The agenda for this month is full.

Bud, W4KSN, will go over the Sterlingfest Special Event Station plan for 10 Oct.

Dick, W2YE, will review the rules for 2010 Virginia QSO Party.

Finally, Dick, W2YE, will give a presentation on DX Packetcluster.

In closing, I would like to remind all that we as a club try to participate in a few contests during the year. One of these is coming up in Oct. Please get on the air and submit a log.

24-25 October 2009 CQ WW DX Contest SSB

73, Gordon, NQ4K

Hi,

It is time to start thinking about the 2010 Virginia QSO Party.

I will assume that we will generally carry forward the primary roles we had last year but we could use a little more help with some of the major chores.

Dick, W2YE (Rules)
Henry, K2BFY (Electronic Scoring program, net notifications)
Jim, AF4MO (Participation Solication)
Bud, W4KSN (Publicity)
Gordon, NQ4K, Left over things

Paper scoring - the entire club the scoring party

Some of the left over things that we could use some help on are:

Solicitation for Plaque sponsorships and getting the plaques.
Presentations at clubs.
Certificate making and mailing (approx 400) - the entire club

If someone wants to volunteer to do some of these, please email me back.

73, Gordon, NQ4K