News from the Sterling Park Amateur Radio Club (SPARC)

Hi,

Another month has gone by and it is time for our January meeting.  The meting in Jan will be postponed one day from Wednesday, 1 Jan, to Thursday, 2 Jan.

I had a good month.  However it was mostly family stuff and not ham radio related.  Did do a few contacts in the RAC Winter contest.

Refreshments for this month will be provided by Red, N3TG.

As we have been doing for several years, we will have a Show and Tell and a White Elephant Gift Exchange.

For the Show and Tell, please bring in something to talk about for a few minutes.  Preferably ham related, but could also be anything else that interests you.  I can remember Mark, KI4OBT, talking about model rockets, his other hobby; and Henry, K2BFY, talking about small things in Altoid Tins, among others.

The Gift Exchange is an opportunity to allow others the pleasure of some small item, perhaps that you have enjoyed in the pass or perhaps not. We all bring a small gift, preferably ham related, or electronic/electrical, or funny or whatever.  Inexpensive.  We put the wrapped gifts on the front table and do the white elephant exchange.

We have a couple of items of club business.  It is annual Dues collection time.  Our dues are $10 per year.  This first step is for you to tell our secretary, Eric, AJ4LN, that you are paying the dues.  This lets him add your name to our list of members for the year. Second is to give him the $10.  He can collect it and pass it along to our treasurer, Ray, KD4RSL.  If you forget, there is always next month.

We will also review the status of preparations for the VA QSO Party status.  This is coming up in March.

It looks like all is set for our Technician license classes on 8-9 February.  We have all the instructors lined up.  Jim, KF4PQL, made arrangements for the room. Red, N3TG, has lines up VEs for the examination.  Should be another successful event.

I may or may not make the event.  My older daughter is expecting her first baby, our 7th grandchild, on 31 Dec, so if it is a little late, I will be off doing other things.

See you at the meeting,
73, Gordon, NQ4K

Hi,

This is a slightly early announcement of the January 2014 SPARC Club meeting. Regular announcement will come out later.

The meeting in January will be held on Thursday, 2 January, NOT Wednesday, 1 January.

Since this is the first meeting after Christmas, we will be doing a White Elephant Gift Exchange.  We all bring a small gift, preferably ham related, or electronic/electrical, or funny or whatever.  Inexpensive.

See you at the meeting.

73, Gordon, NQ4K

Hi,

We now have instructors for all the classes.  Bill, KK4UPE, volunteered for T6, electrical components, and T7, station equipment.  Forrest, N4UTY, volunteered for T9, antennas and feedlines.

Thanks.

Hi,

We are in the process of organizing the club sponsored Technician License class and exam scheduled for February 8 - 9, 2014.

Red, N3TG, is handling the examination session. He has several people willing to help who have gotten their VE qualification. And he has received a couple of registrations for the examination.

For the classes, we have instructors for 7 of the 10 classes.  We need volunteers to teach the remaining three classes.

We use already prepared lesson plans/vu-graphs.  A copy is available on our web site at: http://www.qsl.net/sterling/Licensing/licensing.html.

Each class presentation consists of a presentation, which goes over the material and then a set of slides going over the exam questions.  We follow the slides and do not significantly deviate from them. It takes about 2-3 hours to prep for the class.  Basically, you have to actually learn the material that we should have learned before we took the tech exam ourselves.

The classes for which we need instructors are:

T6 - Electrical components, semiconductors,
   circuit diagrams, component functions

T7 - Station equipment, common transmitter
   and receiver problems, antenna measurements
   and troubleshooting, basic repair and testing

T9 - Antennas, feedlines

The draft class plan is attached.

If you would like to teach a class or two or three, please email back. If you have a schedule conflict for Saturday or Sunday, we can probably work around that by changing the order of the classes.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

73, Gordon, NQ4K

Hi,

The pictures have been posted.

Mark, KI4OBT, posted the foxhunt pictures.

http://www.qsl.net/sterling/Foxhunt/Foxhunt_Main.html


And the Herndon Caboose Special Event Station pictures

http://www.qsl.net/sterling/OSE/OSE.html

73, Gordon, NQ4K

Hi,

Our next class for preparation for the tech class license examination will be held on 8-9 February 2014.  More information is posted at http://www.qsl.net/sterling/Licensing/licensing.html.

Concurrently, we will offer an examination session for all license classes.  It will be during the afternoon of 9 February 2014.  More information will be posted at http://www.qsl.net/sterling/Licensing/licensing.html as it becomes available.

73, Gordon, NQ4K

Hi,

Another month has gone by and it is time for our December club meeting.  Wednesday, 4 Dec at 7PM

My radio month was short.  Worked the CQWW DX CW contest for 30 QSOs. Not much but my CW is not much either.  Also worked on the Virginia QSO party a little.  In general family and holidays occupied my time in November.

Refreshment for this month will be by Don, KC4RCG.

Our presentation for this month will be by Kevin, W4KLS, on a "Semi-new Radio Waveform."  We all know that Kevin now works for a commercial radio company, gets to travel to far-off places and play with new toys.  He will tell us about one of them.

The Herndon special event station at the Herndon Caboose is coming up on Saturday, 14 Dec.  One of the group leading that effort may bring us up to date on their plans.

Finally, the folks working on the Virginia QSO Party can provide an update on their activities.  I know that Bill, KJ4VTH, has started soliciting for plaque sponsors.  Red, N3TG, had volunteered at the last meeting to talk to the logging program developers about the change in the number of multipliers for 2014 (City of Bedford merged into Bedford county).

Unfortunately, I will not be at the meeting this month.  I have a business trip to San Diego.  Jim, KF4PQL, our vice-president, will be there.

73, Gordon, NQ4K