News from the Sterling Park Amateur Radio Club (SPARC)

An email from Frostfest

All of us at RATS hope that you are enjoying a wonderful holiday season! Plans are well underway for Frostfest 2012 with many, many vendors on board, and many more yet to come! Don't forget to purchase your flea market tables and admission tickets at www.frostfest.com. You can save $1 on your tickets, and get in a half hour earlier than buying at the door. Purchase early so you'll get your choice of tables, too.

We look forward to seeing you at the hamfest on Saturday, February 4, 2012, from 8:30AM (8:00AM if you pre-purchase your tickets) until 3:30PM at the Richmond Raceway Complex. Get all the details at www.frostfest.com!

The whole Frostfest Committee wishes you a Happy New Year, and we hope to see you at Frostfest!

Hi,

Pictures posted at:

http://www.qsl.net/sterling/OSE/2011_Herndon_Caboose_SES/2011_Caboose_SES_Pics/2011_Herndon_Caboose_SES_Pics.html

If you have some more pictures, please send them to me and I will add them to the site.

73, Gordon, NQ4K

Hi,

Henry, K2BFY, will be running a special event station at the Herndon Caboose on Saturday, 10 Dec, from 1000 - 1600. He will be setting up a few minutes before.

This is in conjunction with the Annual Herndon Holiday Model Train Show.

Please come on out and join Henry for some conversation and visit the show.

Pictures from last year:
http://www.qsl.net/sterling/OSE/2010_Herndon_Caboose_SES/Pictures/2010_Herndon_Caboose_SES_Pics.html

73, Gordon, NQ4K

SPARC’s monthly meeting was held November 2nd at the Eastern Loudoun Station of the Sheriff’s Office. There were 20 members present.

Following member introductions, we had an excellent presentation by Paul Savidge, N4PSS, on the mission and operations of SKYWARN. The objective of SKYWARN is to improve weather safety by providing timely and accurate weather observations of on-the-ground events. SKYWARN is associated with the National Weather Service and consists of a vast network of volunteer weather spotters. Paul told us that they are looking for additional volunteers to work in the area as net control and desk operators. Many of the spotters are hams and reporting is often done via local amateur radio nets (including 147.300 in our area). Some basic training is required for volunteer spotters and this includes identifying specific storm conditions and how to report information. We'll explore arranging this training for interested SPARC members. Thanks to Paul, K4PDF, for coordinating this excellent presentation.

We continued discussions on rules and possible revisions for the 2012 Virginia QSO Party. Red, N3TG, proposed that we penalize mobile operators that do not identify themselves as mobile. This affects individual scoring as mobile contacts have a higher point value. We'll continue discussions on this topic at the next meeting. Based on the low amount of overnight activity in the contest, we also agreed to change the operating time of the contest from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM on Saturday and 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM on Sunday (Virginia local time).

We'll operate an amateur station from the W&OD caboose on Saturday, Dec 10th, in conjunction with the Herndon Holiday Model Train Show. SPARC will man the caboose and demonstrate amateur radio to the many visitors. Henry, K2BFY, and Bill, WF1L, are organizing this year's event. Details will be discussed at the December meeting.

QSL Bureau report: Dick, W2YE, reported that the bureau is operating fine and that nine SPARC members are serving as letter managers. See Dick if you'd like to volunteer.

The next meeting will be on December 7th at 7:00 PM, in the Eastern Loudoun Sheriff’s Station (46620 East Frederick Drive, in Sterling).

73,
--MARK KI4OBT

Hi,

It is time for our December monthly meeting. 7 December 2011 at 7 PM.

I have a good month. I worked the CQWW DX CW contest. Had a lot of fun. Unfortunately I missed both of the ARRL November Sweepstakes. Oh well, there is next year.

Refreshments will be by Don, K7CS.

We have two interesting presentations. Dick, W2YE, will discuss QSL'ing, a topic on which he is a long standing expert. Then Don, K7CS, will discuss Band Plans, a topic about which I know very little.

We have a few items of club business. First, we will ask Bill, W1FL, to refresh us on Special Event Station at 5th Annual Herndon Holiday Train Show which is this coming weekend on 10 Dec.

Next we can review the status of the VA QSO Party.

Finally, we can discuss the technician license class, more specifically who will volunteer to teach.

Should be an interesting evening.

See you there!

73, Gordon, NQ4K