News from the Sterling Park Amateur Radio Club (SPARC)

Hi,

We had an excellent time at the Nov 12 meeting.

Seventeen hams attended the meeting. John, N2PBY, attended his first meeting with SPARC.

Bob, W0YVA, gave a presentation on restoration of amateur radio equipment.  His briefing will be available on our web site on the activities page as a link.  We also looked at some of his equipment through pictures posted on his website at: http://www.isquare.com/personal_pages/ras-hardware.htm.

Bill, WF1L, discussed plans for the Herndon Caboose Special Event Station.  The event will be held on Saturday, 8 December 2012.  The radios will be supplied by Bill, WF1L. Dick, W2YE, volunteered to put up the antenna and run the transmission line on Friday, 9 December, in conjunction with the Herndon maintenance personnel.  Bill invited all to come out, see the model train show, and join us in the Caboose.

The club members held a discussion on the Virginia QSO Party.  Dick, W2YE, reviewed the proposed rule changes. The group consensus that there would be no rules changes for the 2013 QSO Party. Don, K7CS, raised the question of reducing the number of plaques.  The consensus was to keep the ones we had last year - no changes.  There were two exceptions. Tom, N4NW, had volunteered to coordinate a special award of a bottle of wine for selected plaque winners.  Probably only for those who are of legal age and will be at the award ceremony to accept the award.  Dick, W2YE, will contact Tom and ask him to coordinate the effort. Rich, W4BUE, from K4AMG Club, had recommended a youth award.  The group was not in favor of SPARC handling another plaque, but left open the option for Rich to handle the plaque.

Charlie, K3SR, recommended a good website for ham-related news. http://arvideonews.com/hrn/.

That was all for the meeting.

Gordon, NQ4K

Hi,

It is time for our monthly club meeting.  This should be a very interesting session.

Bob, W0YVA, has volunteered to come and talk about restoration of amateur radio equipment.  He has some pictures of his equipment posted on the web at "http://www.isquare.com/personal_page/ras-hardware.htm"

In addition, we have a few items of business to discuss.

First, Bill, WF1L, will discuss plans for Herndon Caboose Special Event Station during the annual Herndon Model Train Show.

Second, Dick, W3YE, will lead a discussion to finalize the Virginia QSO Party rules.

Hope you all can make it.  It will be a very interesting evening.

73, Gordon, NQ4K