News from the Sterling Park Amateur Radio Club (SPARC)

Hi,

The new SPARC year has started and it is time for the September club meeting. This coming Wednesday, 2 September, at 7PM at the Sheriff Substation in Sterling.

Refreshments will be provided by Dick, W2YE.

Our principle activity for the meeting is a "Show and Tell."  Please bring in some ham-related item, or anything else that interests you, and tell us about it.

I plan on bringing in  a few items that I have to sell. And I will am thinking about auctioning an old desk microphone, a D-104/T-UG9.

We also have some items of club business.

We will go over the 2015-2016 Activity Calendar and try to finalize some dates.
And then in calendar sequence, we have several events coming up soon.

We will quickly review preparations for the upcoming tech class and examination session on 12-13 September.  I am coordinating the class and Red, N3TG, is coordinating the examination session.

We can go over preparations for the Foxhunt on Sunday, 27 September.  We have reserved the pavillion 1 for all day.  Mark, KI4OBT, had updated the web page on our web site.  In addition, I think we have a couple of volunteers (Dick Almarode, KE4RLA, and maybe Eric, AJ4LN) to run the event with some assistance and advice from Mark (or the other way around).

We will discuss the Sterlingfest Special Event Station.  I will not be there for this event (attending my 50th High School reunion), but I hope we have enough volunteers to host the station in my absence.  So far we have had some indication from Duane, K4UW, and John, KK4AHY, that they are available to help for part of the time. We still need additional volunteers to man the booth.

It is also time to begin thinking about the Virginia QSO Party.  Three early items are:
  1) Any rule changes. Maybe Dick, W2YE, can remind us of any outstanding proposals.
  2) The possibility of a new plaque for 19-25 year olds sponsored by K4AMG.
  3) Expanding the idea of have having several K4NVA portable stations and reducing our reliance on using Dick's, W2YE, station.

That is more than enough.

I hope to see you all there.

73, Gordon, NQ4K




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ALCON -

We will have a  BroadBand HamNet (BBHN) Workshop at the Prince William
County Central Community Library next Saturday - on 8 August.

The workshop will officially start at noon, but we have the community
room starting at 10 am for initial set up.  We plan to use the extra
time to set the room up and then set up the equipment and have informal
discussions as needed.

_This workshop will concentrate on BBHN applications and advertised
services,_ but if you have a Linksys router that has not been upgraded
to a BBHN router (or if it needs to be updated) bring it along and we
will help you get it ready.

We plan to demonstrate setting up the routers with a simple chat
program, how to set them up to act as an internet gateway, how to set
them up to send video using IP-Cameras, and how to connect them up to a
network attached storage (NAS) for file transfers, data access, and data
storage.

If time permits we will also explore using Voice over IP (VoIP) to
establish a networked telephone emergency communications system and the
high altitude balloon project that is coming up soon.

Also, if you are doing something special with your routers, please
consider sharing your results and plans.
You don't need to bring anything to the workshop - but if possible bring
your laptop PC, your router(s), a power strip or two, and a 10 to 20
foot, (three prong) extension cord.

There may be limited handouts available, so plan to take notes if you
want to have a record of how to duplicate the procedures that we will
cover, when you get back home.
The address for the first workshop is:

    Central Community Library
    Community Room
    8601 Mathis Avenue
    Manassas, VA 20110-5270

Whether or not we have another workshop on 29 August depends on how the
first date turns out, but one is scheduled, in case we do:


The address for the second (potential) workshop is:

    Bull Run Regional Library
    Community Room
    8051 Ashton Avenue
    Manassas, VA 20109-2892

_*Everyone is welcome.*_
73,

--
      Terry McCarty
         wa5nti