News from the Sterling Park Amateur Radio Club (SPARC)

Hi,

It is time for the November monthly meeting. Again the past month has flown by.

I personally did few ham related things this past month. Worked the CQWW Phone contest, started working on the plan for Technician Class and Exam, and started soliciting for sponsors for Virginia QSO Party plaques. A good month overall.

Refreshments for the meeting will be provided by Paul, K4PDF.

The presentation this month will be by Tom, WA2BCK. Tom was an active operator at our last two Field Days and he has volunteered to discuss "How to operate in a contest (i.e., SS, FD, and DX)." I know that I never do as well as I could and am looking forward to some good advise from Tom on how I could operate better.

We have several items of club business to discuss. These items are:

Finalize VA QSO Party rules (Dick, W2YE)

Plans for Herndon Caboose Special Event Station (Bill, WF1L)

Plan for Technician class and license exam (Gordon, NQ4K)

This should be a good meeting and I hope to see you all there.

73, Gordon, NQ4K

SPARC held their monthly meeting on Oct 6th at the Claude Moore Community Center. There were 13 members present.

Following member introductions, Dick W2YE provided a report on the QSL Bureau. Although there has been some turnover in letter managers this year, he currently has only two letters (B&F) that are not assigned. Please contact Dick if you can help out.

Ray, KD4RSL, provided the treasurer's status and reported that some expenses from Field Day and the Pizza Party still need to be paid.

Eric, AJ4LN announced that the Loudoun Amateur Radio Group (LARG) has an interesting guest speaker coming up in October. Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, formerly of the FCC Spectrum Enforcement Division, will be speaking at their meeting on Oct 16th. All hams are welcome. The meeting starts at 8:30 AM and is held at the Leesburg VFW.

Final details for the club booth at Sterlingfest were reviewed and several members volunteered to set up and operate an HF station during the festival.

Bill, WF1L, discussed plans to operate a station from the W&OD caboose in Herndon. The special event station on 2m will operate in conjunction with the Holiday Model Train Show on December 11th. We'll operate from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Gordon, NQ4K, and Dick, W2YE, discussed contests coming up in November. SPARC will participate in the following:

• 6 - 7 Nov: November Sweepstakes (CW)
• 20 - 21 Nov: November Sweepstakes (phone)
• 27 - 28 Nov: CQ Worldwide DX contest (CW)

Kevin, W4KLS, provided an excellent presentation and demo on EchoLink. This system uses Voice over IP (VoIP) technology to link amateur radio stations over the Internet. A large number of repeaters are available on EchoLink and can be accessed remotely via radio or a personal computer with EchoLink software. Kevin provided some good advice on issues with firewalls that must be configured properly to work with the software. Additional info can be found at http://www.echolink.org/.

The next SPARC meeting will be Nov 3rd at 7:00 PM at the Claude Moore Community Center. See you then.

73,
--MARK KI4OBT

Hi,

We had a very successful event.

Thanks to all for making this an excellent event. Dick, W2YE, Mark, KI4OBT, Russ, W3RST, Ray, KD4RSL, Gordon, NQ4K, and Duane, K4UW were among those there at the start, helped with the set-up, worked the booth, and stayed until the end.

Pictures are posted at:

http://www.qsl.net/sterling/Sterlingfest/Sterlingfest.htm

73, Gordon, NQ4K

SPARC:

 Here is the info about Saturday's LARG event that was mentioned at
the last meeting:

-------------------------------------------------
Title:      Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH At October LARG Meeting at VFW

Date:       Saturday October 16, 2010
Time:       8:30 am - 10:30 am
Location:       VFW Post 1177, 401 Old Waterford Rd NW, Leesburg VA 20176
Notes:      A SPECIAL Monthly Meeting on the Loudoun ARG will be held
on Saturday, October 16, 2010, at 8:30 AM in the VFW Post 1177 at 401
Old Waterford Rd NW, Leesburg, VA 20176

Riley Hollingsworth - K4ZDH will be our program speaker. All amateurs
and interested parties in the surrounding communities of northern
Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland are invited to attend.

Check:

http://www.k4lrg.org/Announcements/index.html for more details.
-------------------------------------------------

- Eric, AJ4LN, http://www.InvisibleRobot.com/

Hi,

Sterlingfest is today. See http://www.qsl.net/sterling/Sterlingfest/Sterlingfest.htm for more information. Setup at 0900, begin at 1100, and end at 1700.

Please come out to help out at the booth for a short time, work the radio, talk to passers-by, and be enthusiastic with other club members. Then take the opportunity to walk around the festival.

It looks like it will be a great weather day. Low 80's and no rain.

See you there,

73, Gordon, NQ4K

Hi,

Another month has gone by and it is time for our monthly club meeting.

I had a great month. The butternut vertical has been working well. I worked the CQWW RTTY contest for a couple of hours for 67 QSOs in between doing some home maintenance (window repair). Also bought a G5RV to replace the doublet made of stereo speaker wire, which broke once again.

Refreshments for this month will be provided by Mark, KI4OBT.

Kevin, W4KLS, has volunteered to give a presentation on Echo-Link. I am not sure I have seen echo link before so I am looking forward to learning more about it.

We have a lot of Club Business to go over.

Gordon, NQ4K, will briefly review our participation in the Sterlingfest Special Event Station.

Dick, W2YE, can briefly discuss SPARC participation in upcoming contests. We participate as individuals contributing toward a club score. See our web site for the major events.

Dick, W2YE, can lead a discussion of any changes we might want to make in the VA QSO Party rules for 2011.

Bill, WF1L, has volunteered to coordinate a special event station in the train caboose for the 5th annual Herndon Train Festival. However, he wants to ensure that the club is interested in supporting this activity.

It looks to be a busy meeting. See you there!

73, Gordon, NQ4K