September 6, 2026
In this month’s meeting, Club President, Fred Botero, chose to recognize many individuals who provided outstanding support for the recent ARRL Field Day held on June 24-25. These hard working folks were all presented with the official ARRL Field Day GOTA pins in recognition of their hard work to ensure all of us were able to get on the air at Field Day. The pins are quite handsome, showing the ARRL logo with a large GOTA title on a gold and black background. They are something to be proud of and suitable for wearing on radio themed clothing, hats or at our events.
Three groups were recognized with … Read the rest
ARRL Field Day 2023 is in the books. This year we put up a lot of antennas and set up a lot of radios in some very hot and tough conditions to post a greater score than we achieved last year! In addition, we had some great food and learned a lot about being flexible in setting up our antennas when fire trucks were parked in our regular OCF dipole antenna spot.
Registration for meals is now closed.
But you are still welcome to come out–just plan on bringing your own meals.
ARRL Field Day is a combined event to test our ability to setup radio communication under less than ideal conditions–think temporary antennas, generators and radio gear. Our event this year is a combined event with two clubs—the Clearwater Amateur Radio Society (CARS) and the Upper Pinellas Amateur Radio Club (UPARC). The date is June 24th starting at 2:00 PM until Sunday June 25th at 2:00 PM. Setup generally begins in earnest at 9:00 AM on Saturday morning. The location for all of this is the Clearwater Fire Department Fire Training Center at 1716 N. Belcher Road in Clearwater. Click … Read the rest
On Saturday, April 29, 2023, UPARC members set out to Honeymoon Island State Park to operate in the field for a Parks on the Air (POTA) activation. Being a Florida State Park, Honeymoon Island is POTA park K-1880. Normally, this means we setup antennas and radios and sit back and work the pileups. But this day, the HF propagation gods took their time showing up. Initially, contacts were hard to come by on SSB. FT8 started off OK but 20m SSB was quite tough. But with perseverance, Team Luria (Charlotte KO4WNK and Joshua KO4VVX) made the majority of the SSB contacts with Olev KO4WUB and Rob WB4IFT making the FT8 contacts.
All total we worked 61 stations with 36 SSB … Read the rest
UPARC will again be activating Honeymoon Island State Park for a POTA activation on Saturday April 29th, 2023 starting at 8:00 AM.
Honeymoon Island State Park is POTA park K-1880 located at the end of the Dunedin Causeway. In case you have not been there before, there is a fee for each car to get into the park so carpooling with others would allow you to share the entrance fee. Pavilions are first come, first serve but we plan to get there early to grab a location with power. Ask on the club’s repeater (147.12 + PL 100 Hz) or on the club’s Slack channel. You can also look for all the antennas in the parking lot near … Read the rest
Winter Field Day in West Central Florida is a misnomer. However, it doesn’t stop Upper Pinellas Amateur Radio Club and Clearwater Amateur Radio Society clubs from having a great time!
The most important component are the antennas. Without them nothing matters. The antenna team and “The Band Boss” ensure antennas are installed, tuned and ready for contesting. I apologize. I meant to say an Emergency Communications exercise. That’s what we are doing. Absolutely NO competition at the event. None!
The primary antenna is a hex beam antenna. It handles the 10m, 15m and 20m bands. Installed on the top of a five story fire training tower it is higher than everything in surrounding area.
If you have never … Read the rest
Click here to sign up now.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 28 & 29, 2023. 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 … Read the rest
On Saturday, October 29th, UPARC had a very fun day at Honeymoon Island activating two club stations and making over 150 contacts as a Parks on the Air (POTA) activity. We had a great turnout of club members along with family and some visitors who had curiosity about ham radio which we took care to enthusiastically explain our wonderful hobby. The star visitor was a very sizable gopher tortoise that wandered close to our antenna guylines but eventually decided to high-tail it out of there (well, as fast a tortoise can go)! The weather was very nice and our pavilion (special thanks to Ray W8RD) had shade, tables and shore power along with a few mosquitoes, but we did not … Read the rest