News from the Sterling Park Amateur Radio Club (SPARC)

SPARC held their monthly meeting on May 5th at the Claude Moore Community Center in Sterling. Sixteen members were present.

Our guest speaker for the meeting was Mike Gray, Plans Chief for the Virginia Emergency Operations Center. He provided an informative presentation on the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, including their ties with the amateur radio community. The Department of Emergency Management normally reports to the State's Secretary of Public Safety. However, during a declared state of emergency, they report direct to the Governor's office. In support of their mission, they run the Virginia Emergency Operations Center which functions as the state's 24/7 warning point. This center depends on reliable communications and they are equipped with satellite, VoIP, FEMA, and Civil Air Patrol systems. The center also include 4 amateur radio positions to support HF/VHF/UHF operation. Mike described the State's Mobile Command Post and Technical Support Unit. The command post maintains the state radio cache and is also equipped with three collapsible communications towers. Amateur activities are coordinated through the Amateur Radio Communications Auxiliary (ARCA). Chris Bruce, K9CLB, is the ARCA president. Operations involving amateurs includes HF nets, IRLP, and monitoring of several Virginia repeaters. Many thanks to Mike for making the trip to Sterling!

Following the presentation, we had member introductions. Jim, KF4PQL, announced that he has completed all the requirements for Navy MARS. Congratulations to Jim!

Scoring has been completed for all paper logs submitted to the 2010 VA QSO Party and results are being tabulated. Scores are available on the web site. At this time, we have received 341 logs.

Bud, W4KSN, discussed plans for the club's support to the Herndon Festival, June 5th and 6th. SPARC will operate a booth on Saturday near the train depot. We will set up HF and VHF stations. This is a great opportunity for us to discuss ham radio with the public. On Sunday morning, we will provide radio support to the 5k and 10k races with spotters at each mile marker along the course. Bud still needs a few volunteers for various positions. Please contact him if you can help out that weekend.

Gordon, NQ4K, presented our initial plan for Field Day which takes place Jun 26th and 27th. We will operate a Class 3A station on the practice field at Park View High School. Jim, KF4PQL, stated that we have received approval to use the field. We'll set up three tents/canopies to support the operations. Two will support HF operations and the GOTA station; the third tent will house the 10M/VHF operations. Details will be finalized at next month's meeting.

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

73,
--MARK KI4OBT

The Wednesday May 5, 2010 SPARC meeting will feature Guest Speaker Mike
Gray, Plans Chief from the Virginia Department of Emergency
Management/Virginia Emergency Operations Center.  Mr. Gray's presentation
will discuss the Virginia Emergency Operations Center and Amateur Radio.
Please attend!

Bud Aiello, w4ksn

Hi,

It is time for the May SPARC meeting.

The past month has gone be extremely fast. We held the VAQP scoring party at my QTH. Don, K7CS; Dick, W2YE; Red, N3TG; Henry, K2BFY; and Bud, W4KSN; and I scored about 40 paper logs. See the pictures and logs metadata at our web site:

http://www.qsl.net/sterling/VA_QSO_Party/QSOParty.htm

Refreshment for the meeting will be provided by Bill, WF1L.

We have three major items of business that will occupy our time at the meeting.

First, is coordination for Herndon Festival. This is one month away, but with schedules being as they are, it is not too soon for Bud, W4KSN, to remind us of the activities and the support required.

Second, we can review an initial plan for Field Day. This is less than 2 months away. We need to think about how we are going to squeeze continued improvement out of our field day activities. We have continually improved since 2002 with 2009 being our best effort. In 2009, our overall ranking was 90 of 2,612 total entries.

Finally, we can discuss the nomination of officers for next year. Elections will be at the June meeting.

I am looking forward to seeing all of you again.

73, Gordon, NQ4K