News from the Sterling Park Amateur Radio Club (SPARC)

Hi,

Pictures are posted to our web site for the class and the examination session.

https://www.qsl.net/sterling/Licensing/licensing.html

73, Gordon, NQ4K

Hi,

Another month has gone by quickly.  Our October meeting is next week. Wednesday, 3 October 2018.

We held the tech class and examination session this past weekend.  It was very successful.  The instructors were Paul, K4PDF; Earl, KB0NRK; Tod, KN4BGX; Bill, K4UPE; Henry, K2BFY; and Monte, KV4KS.  In addition
 to the normal instruction, Kevin, W4KLS, did a demonstration of EchoLink by calling into the class from Hawaii. It worked very well.

On Sunday afternoon we held the examination session.  The VEs were: Mike, WB8RND (the lead VE and coordinator); Red, N3TG; Duane, K4UW; Monte, KV4KS; Gordon, NQ4K;  John, KK4AHY; Earl, KB0NRK; Tod, KN4BGX; and Steve, KN4BGW.  There were 17 in the class and coming out of the examination there were 19 tech licenses, and 5 general licenses. A very successful event.

Moving onto the meeting,

Refreshments will be provided by Bill, K4UPE.

The presentation this month was going to be be Mike, WB8RDN, on his service in Puerto Rico with the Red Cross.  However another hurricane intervened and Mike deployed last Monday to the hurricane disaster area.  We are unsure when he will be back.

We moved the presentation scheduled for November forward and therefore, the presentation for this month will be by Earl, KB0NRK, on "Emergency Communications Backup Power."

If we have time, we can discuss a couple of items of club business.

First,  contest season is coming up and we can talk about contesting and tests.

Second, the Virginia QSO Party is in March and it is time to start the cycle.  We can always use volunteers to help out.  Some possible areas include soliciting funding for plaques or helping with getting hams on the air less active areas of Virginia.  In addition, we will have our initial discussion of VA QSO Party rules.

We will close the meeting with the Tech-Ten-Talk by the Tech Ten Talk Team.

See you at the meeting.
73, Gordon, NQ4K

Hi,

I have a Yaesu Elevation-Azimuth Dual Controller G-5400B and manual.

I do not need it and would like to pass along to someone who could use it.

I have had it sitting in my basement for several years.  I think I got it in one of these deals where you take the entire pile of equipment.

I do not have the rotator.  Just the controller.

If anyone is interested, please email back.














73, Gordon, NQ4K

Hi,

The club has plenty of opportunities for hams to become more involved in club activities.  In addition to being a good learning experience, it also benefits the club when more become involved.  Mostly this do not take very much time.

Some opportunities are:

  Be an instructor in our tech classes

  Assist as a volunteer examiner for our examination sessions.

  Help manage the Virginia QSO Party, a contest sponsored by SPARC.

  Sort QSO cards as a QSO card letter manager for incoming QSO cards.

  Help run our foxhunt.

  Give a talk as part of the Tech Ten Talk committee.

Or anything else you can think of.

Email or see me at the meeting and we can find something you might be interested in.

73, Gordon, NQ4K