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

2024 UPARC Board of Directors

By Jack Kinney on November 22, 2023

Congratulations to the 2024 UPARC Board of Directors. They assume office on January 1, 2024.… Read the rest

Backyard DXpeditions

By Jack Kinney on November 22, 2023

Recently Ryan, AF4O created a new channel in our slack group called #backyard-dxpeditions

The channel is dedicated to finding places in our own backyard to play radio, whether it’s POTA, IOTA or a community park around the corner. Check it out and get involved. Who knows what we may find outside the shack!… 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

UPARC and CARS Monthly Breakfast

By Jack Kinney on September 24, 2023

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

September 2023 General Meeting Recap

By Jack Kinney on September 16, 2023

President’s Award

Jason Esterline N4BOZ

Jason received the President’s Award for the following:

- Outstanding Service to the Club
- Long Time Board Member
- Contributor to all Club events

Congratulations Jason!

Presentation

There were two presentations: Route 66 Contest Event by Fred W2SUB and QRP Demo, Show & Tell by Bill, KG4ZQZ of SPARC and Dee W4DCH of UPARC.… Read the rest

Amateur Radio Technician License Study Class

By Jack Kinney on September 14, 2023

The Upper Pinellas Amateur Radio Club is hosting a free Technician License Training and Exam course.

This is a two-day course: November 11 (Training) and November 18 (Training and Exam).

Click here for more information.… Read the rest

Station Projects with UPARC

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on August 24, 2023

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

August 2023 General Meeting Recap

By Jack Kinney on August 6, 2023

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