Yesterday we had our monthly UPARC-CARS breakfast at Another Broken Egg Cafe in Clearwater. We believe we had the largest turnout every with 21 people. If this keeps happening (which we’d love) we’ll need to find another place to meet! If you haven’t join us before, feel free to come out. Details about our next breakfast can be found at Monthly Breakfast with CARS – UPARC… Read the rest
Posts published in “Club Gatherings”
It was an absolutely beautiful day for Hamcation on February 10, 2024 at the Central Florida Fairgrounds in Orlando, FL.… Read the rest
Do you like operating in the field but hate dripping in sweat while setting up antennas? Does the idea of enduring another Field Day constantly fighting off every mosquito in Tampa Bay make you wish they held Field Day in January? Well, you’re in luck! Winter Field Day is an event very similar to the June ARRL Field Day except—you guessed it—it’s held in Winter. Specifically January 27 & 28, 2024. This is a joint operation with the Clearwater Amateur Radio Society (CARS). The event will be held at the Clearwater Fire Training Facility on Belcher Road south of Sunset Point Road in Clearwater. Prior efforts were a great success.
Winter Field Day is a 24 hour operating exercise where … Read the rest
The Upper Pinellas Amateur Radio Club was well represented at this year’s 2023 Tampa Bay Hamfest. Some of the usual suspects made an appearance and posed for a group photo.
There were plenty of vendors and fellow hams selling their wares.
Surprisingly some people actually made it out of the event without spending anything! I know, right? Hard to believe. A strike team is still trying to figure out how Ryan AF4O didn’t buy a single thing. A supercomputer in an undisclosed location is still trying to calculate the cause of this event.
This seems like a good time for the new Webmaster’s Award. The inaugural award goes to Fred W2SUB for the most un-amateur radio purchase at a … Read the rest
President’s Award
Karen Isak KQ4HNI
Karen received the President’s Award for the following:
Progression in Amateur Radio skills, outstanding attitude and great cookies!
Congratulations Karen!
Presentation
We had a terrific presentation on Flex Radios by Michael Walker VA3MW from Flex Radio. Flex is a great radio with some terrific capabilities!
Club Business
Dee W4DCH, head of the nominating committee checked with those attending to see if there were any nominations from the floor for the officer elections. Hearing none, the slate was locked for voting at our November meeting at John Chestnut Sr. Park in East Lake.… Read the rest
Ever since moving to Clearwater, club member Tom NY4I has been looking to raise an HF beam at his house. Having used a multi-band off-center fed (OCF) dipole, getting to a beam was key. The plans were modest. No large tower was to be installed just yet (that’s a future project). The HF beam would reside on a Glen Martin 5 foot roof tower mounted on a flat roof covering Tom’s outdoor kitchen. Tom opted for a Mosley MP-33-NW 5 band Yagi-Uda (“Yagi”) antenna at a height of 22 feet.
This project took place over several months. First was the project to install the requisite VHF/UHF vertical along with the aforementioned OCF dipole. Then came the KF7P entrance panel… Read the rest
On Saturday, September 23, 2023 the UPARC and CARS radio clubs got together for their monthly breakfast at Another Broken Egg Cafe in Clearwater. We had what we believe was the largest turnout ever with 20 people.
I’m not sure we could have fit another person in the room. Why break just one record when you can add another. This breakfast definitely had the largest appearance of XYLs ever in one place plus a YL friend of an XYL. We always love having the ladies show up at events!… Read the rest
UPARC members stopped by the QTH of Tom NY4I on Sunday August 20, 2023 to get ready for Tom’s antenna raising in September. Work included assembly of the Mosley MP-33-NW beam antenna and some projects in the shack. Thanks to the work party including (alphabetically): Alan W4UB, Bob K1NLS, Fred W2SUB, Jack N4KIN, Olev KO4WUB, Rob WD4IFT, Ron W4RFA and Ryan AF4O.
A few notable events included the beam assembly. Mosley sent the wrong instructions in the box so the team had to resort to watching a YouTube video to learn about the installation of the antenna. The team setup saw horses in the living room to assemble the elements with Fred W2SUB checking the video on his phone. I … Read the rest
President’s Award
Dee Hooker W4DCH
Dee received the President’s Award for service to the Upper Pinellas Amateur Radio Club and for being a past member of the Board of Directors. Congratulations Dee!
Presentation
There were two presentations: Awards and CW Key. The CW Key presentation was terrific. There were straight keys, iambic paddles, single lever paddles, keyers and more from vendors such as Bencher, Bengali, MFJ, Vibroplex, and more. It was great being able to try different styles of keys. You can see a few in the photo above. Sadly we didn’t get a photo of just the keys.
Meeting after the Meeting
After a morning of updates on the club and learning something new, some … Read the rest
UPARC and CARS came together for a successful breakfast at Another Broken Egg Cafe in Clearwater. If you haven’t joined us before please think about it. We meet on the fourth Saturday of the month. Check this link for dates/times:
https://uparc.org/events/list/?tribe-bar-search=breakfast… Read the rest