News from the Sterling Park Amateur Radio Club (SPARC)

Hi,

Another month has gone by and it is time for our December meeting. Wednesday, 2 Dec 09 at 7:00 PM.

This has been an exciting radio month for me. I worked 4 contests in Nov. ARRL SS CW (40M only, 10 QSOs, 200 pts), WAEDX RTTY (80M only, 57 QSOs, 1,596 pts), ARRL SS Phone (15M only, 52 QSOs 2,652 pts), and CQWW DX CW (40M only, 137 QSOs, 28,356 pts). In addition, I moved a Butternut vertical from the ground to my roof. Still need to work on the radials a little, but it loaded up nicely on 40M for the CQWW DX CW contest. Next is to hook up an old Collins 30L-1 amplifier. The folks on the Wednesday night 6M round table pointed me to a web site where I ordered a T/R relay for the interface between my transceiver and the amplifier. Received it in the mail but have not put it together yet.

We should have a good meeting this month.

Henry, K2BFY, is providing the refreshments.

We will review the activities for the Virginia QSO Party. Time to start thinking about publicity.

Finally, if there is time, we can watch a few videos, we did not have enough time for from last month.

See you at the meeting,

73, Gordon, NQ4K

Hi,

One of the big US contests is this weekend. 2009 CQWW DX CW. Lots of people will be on the air. The rules are at: http://www.cqww.com/.

This is one of the contests that SPARC enters as a club. Your part in
this endeavor is to work a few stations and send in a log with "Sterling
Park ARC" as the club name.

Please take the time to get on the air for a few minutes and make a few
contacts. You can tell us about it at the next club meeting and
participate in the unique experience of having Dick, W2YE, or Don, K7CS,
tell us that they make 100 to 1000 times more contacts.

If you are not a very good CW person (as I am not), then try some the the automated CW programs. I use CTWin ( a free program) that automated the sending of the CW. I also use CWDecorder, which does a reasonably good job of decoding the CW. With both programs running I can make CW contacts (abet slowly).

73, Gordon, NQ4K

Hi,

One of the big US contests is this weekend. 2009 ARRL November Sweepstakes Phone. Lots of people will be on the air. The rules are at: http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules/2009/novss.html.

This is one of the contests that SPARC enters as a club. Your part in this endeavor is to work a few stations and send in a log with "Sterling Park ARC" as the club name.

Please take the time to get on the air for a few minutes and make a few contacts. You can tell us about it at the next club meeting and participate in the unique experience of having Dick, W2YE, or Don, K7CS, tell us that they make 100 to 1000 times more contacts.

For the new members who just got their license, this is an easy contest to work because there will be so many stations on the air that you can work. If you need help getting started, send an email and we can help you through the first couple of contacts.

73, Gordon, NQ4K

The monthly SPARC meeting was held Nov 4th at the Claude Moore Community Center. There were 18 members in attendance. As is customary, the meeting began with member introductions and discussion of ham activities in the past month. Special congratulations to Bruce, KJ4MFF, for successfully upgrading to General class and to Gordon, NQ4K, for his certificate in the CQ WW contest.

Bill, WF1L, discussed preparations for the upcoming special event station to take place in the W&OD RR caboose in Herndon. The station will operate Dec 12th and 13th on HF and VHF (on 2m). An inverted-V will be used for HF bands and Bill is seeking antennas for the VHF station. Our operation is at the same time as Herndon's Holiday Model Train Show.

The discussion then turned to club participation in contests. Gordon and Dick, W2YE, encourage members to participate and submit logs. Upcoming contests include the ARRL Sweepstakes in November (both CW and phone) and the ARRL 160 meter and 10 meter contests in December. Results for 2009 Field Day have been posted and SPARC posted a 10th place finish in category 3A with 2,217 QSOs.

Preparations for next year's Virginia QSO Party continued at this meeting. Gordon has begun soliciting for plaque sponsors and growing costs will require a small price increase for the 2010 awards. Two rule changes were discussed and approved: satellite QSO's will specifically be allowed and mobile stations must identify themselves as "mobile" so that proper scores can be determined.

The meeting ended with a viewing of the Icom video on the K3LR super contest station. "Ham shack" is an understatement and the antenna farm at this Pennsylvania station is incredible. If you missed the meeting and would like to see the video, it is available on the Icom web site. Enjoy.

The next club meeting will be Dec 2nd, 7:00 PM, at the Claude Moore Community Center.

73,
--MARK KI4OBT

Hi,

Another month has gone by and it is time for the Nov meeting.

I had a good ham radio month. My major accomplishment was working the CQWW DX SSB contest. I only worked 15M for 97 QSOs and a total of 15,812 points. It was fun.

This month, the refreshment service will be from Dick, W2YE.

We have a few items of Club Business to go over. First, we can review our club participation in contests. The Club participates in a eew contests as a club each year and it is a good time to review these contests. Next we can discuss the Virginia QSO party and finalize the Party rules.

If we have any time left, we can watch some videos prepared by ICOM on the W1AW station and the the K3RL superstation

I missed the meeting last month so I am looking forward to seeing all of you again,

73,
Gordon, NQ4K