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Posts published in “Club Gatherings”

UPARC in the Park April 2025

By Jack Kinney on April 12, 2025

On April 12, 2025, some members of UPARC got together to play radio at Honeymoon Island State Park. We activated Parks on the Air site US-1880 an attempted to reach our goal of 1,000 contacts for our W4AFC callsign. At least one of us was eager to get going as evidenced by a photo he sent.

I am not sure of the total count but would say at least a dozen people met up and there were at least five different stations setup. In the past UPARC has typically provided all of the equipment for a UPARC in the Park event. This time our President Ryan Rager AF4O decided that people would bring their own equipment and “run what … Read the rest

BREAKING NEWS – HAMS TO OPERATE OUTDOORS!

By Jack Kinney on April 6, 2025

Come out and join us for a mini field day event we call UPARC in the Park during a POTA (US-1880) activation. This will be a “run what you brung” event. Bring your portable operating station and setup to operate at the park. Have all your gear on hand, including a power source.

 … Read the rest

Winter Field Day 2025 Follow-up Report

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on February 10, 2025

On January 25th & 26th, 2025, local ham radio clubs participated in the annual Winter Field Day event in Clearwater, Florida. The day started out as planned with people gathering at 8:00 AM–some even earlier–at the Clearwater Fire Training Center for Winter Field Day 2025. This was a joint effort between the Clearwater Amateur Radio Society, the St. Petersburg Amateur Radio Club and the Upper Pinellas Amateur Radio Club. This was the first time SPARC had been back in a few years for Winter Field Day and given the number of members from different clubs, it was great to have everyone back together again.

Due to the forecasted weather being a bit too chilly overnight (yes, I know, it’s … Read the rest

New 2025 Officers Elected and Bylaws Changed

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on November 3, 2024

At the UPARC annual meeting held at NY4I’s QTH on Saturday November 2, the new slate of officers/directors for 2025 was elected:

  • President – Ryan Rager AF4O
  • Vice President – Alan Streitman W4UB
  • Secretary – Fred Botero W2SUB
  • Treasurer – Ron Appel W4RFA
  • Member at Large – Jason Esterline N4BOZ

Having a quorum of 41 members (either in person or by proxy), with the 2/3 majority needed to amend, all six proposed bylaw changes were adopted.

Below are a few pictures of the event. Just UPARC members and guests enjoying each other’s company…

… Read the rest

UPARC/CARS Monthly Breakfast Maxing Capacity

By Jack Kinney on February 25, 2024

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

Winter Field Day 2024 Announcement

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on January 5, 2024

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

UPARC Represents at Tampa Bay Hamfest!

By Jack Kinney on December 10, 2023

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

October 2023 General Meeting Recap

By Jack Kinney on October 31, 2023

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

UPARC Raises an Antenna a Long Time Coming

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on October 6, 2023

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

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