News from the Sterling Park Amateur Radio Club (SPARC)

Hi,

It is time for the monthly meeting for June on Wednesday. This month has gone by very quickly.

I had a full month. Worked on Virginia QSO Party and updated plans for Herndon Festival (4-5 Jun) and Field Day (25-26 Jun). Also worked the CQWW WPX CW contest this past weekend (only 20 QSOs on 40m).

Refreshments will be by Jim, AF4MO.

The presentation will be by Bill, KJ4VTH, on "JT65 Digital Mode." At the last two meeting, several people commented they have tried JT65 and found it to be very usable. It will be interesting to learn some more about it.

We have several items of club business.

Herndon Festival is coming up this weekend. We finalized our plan at the last meeting, except for a few minor items. First, Red, N3TG, mentioned using the Dulles repeater and, although I was initially negative about it, I think it offers some advantages and we should do that. Secondly, I remember not being able to understand who was talking last year, so I added tactical call signs to the plan. See http://www.qsl.net/sterling/HerndonFest/HerndonFest.html.

The Virginia QSO Party awards ceremony is on Sunday, 12 Jun, at the Manassas Hamfest. We should quickly go over who will be there to help with the award of the plaques. We recently emailed a list of the the plaque winners to club members. You may have noticed that FARA won both the Club plaques, completing a several year effort to outscore CVCC at the Club Combined Score competition.

Field day is coming up at the end of the month - 25-26 Jun. Paul, K4PDF, pointed out that the field we normally use was just planted and therefore not available. Jim, KF4PQL, coordinated with the school for the use of another area at the school. This will require some thinking about how to position our antennas and equipment. This will be a big change.

Finally, we should nominate and elect officers for next year. If there is anyone who is interested in assuming responsibility for President, Vice-President, Sterlingfest Chair, Herndon Fest Chair, Field Day, Virginia QSO Party or other post, please let us know.

June is a busy month for SPARC. Please come by the meeting to help with last minute planning and enjoy the camaraderie.

73, Gordon, NQ4K

We had our monthly meeting on May 4th at the Claude Moore Community Center. We had 16 members and two guests at the meeting.

We had a brief business meeting to discuss plans for the club's participation in Herndon Fest and Field Day. Herndon Fest is coming up on 4 and 5 Jun. We will operate an information booth and amateur station on the 4th and provide radio support to the festival's 5k/10k races on Sunday. Work assignments and duties were finalized. Gordon, NQ4K, distributed copies of the initial plan. They'll be reviewed one final time at the June club meeting.

Plans for Field Day (25 & 26 Jun) were also revised. We will operate a Class 3A station along with extra VHF/UHF and GOTA transceivers. Antenna set-up will take place Friday evening (Jun 24th) and radio operations will begin Saturday afternoon at 2:00 PM (local).

After the brief business meeting, Jim, KF4PQL, and Kevin, W4KLS, led a workshop on the construction of a 2-meter J-pole antenna. Following design articles which are available from a number of sources, we built at least four working antennas. Once built, they were tested on the SPARC antenna range (an MFJ analyzer). We had a lot of fun making a simple and practical antenna.

The next meeting will be Wednesday, June 1st, 7:00 PM, at the Claude Moore Community Center. See you then.

73,
--MARK KI4OBT

Hi,

It is time for the May Club Meeting. Should be a very full evening.

I had a great month. Did not get on the radio. Worked on Virginia QSO Party. We had a great log scoring party on 23 Apr. See http://www.qsl.net/sterling/VA_QSO_Party/2011_VQP/Pics/Log_Scoring/2011_Log_Scoring.html.

In addition, 5 members (Eric, AJ4LN; Dick, W2YE; Don, K7CS, Duane, K4UW: and Gordon, NQ4K) got together to network and test the computer logging setup for Field Day at Eric's QTH. We learned a lot, got the computers to behave and realized that we will need a N1MM training class before field day.

I also emailed the Herndon Festival coordinator about moving our booth location away from the powerline and towers. Also talked to the race coordinator about our support to the race. These should be fun activities again this year.

Refreshments will be provided by Bill, WF1L.

This month Jim, KF4PQL, and Kevin, W4KLS, lead a "Build a 2M J-Pole" hands-on class. I know they have been talking about this for a couple of months. I am not sure I know what a j-pole is and am looking forward to helping building one, or two, or three. hi, hi.

We also have some club business.

We will continue reviewing our plan for Herndon Festival and Race.

We will review the plan for Field Day.

Finally, and most important, we will nominate Officers for next year.

See you at the meeting.

73, Gordon, NQ4K