September 2004

NEXT MEETING: Monday, September 20,  2004  8:00 PM at the Sterling Community Center Annex.  Contact Gordon (NQ4K) email: nq4k@arrl.net PRESENTATION: Winning in the VA QSO Party - Aubri, KG4LTB. REFRESHMENTS: Gordon - NQ4K PRESIDENTS THOUGHTS: Hi, The first meeting of the new SPARC year is upon us. It will be held on Monday, 20 September. I think this first meeting will be very interesting. First, Our featured speaker is Aubri, KG4LTB. She will talk about contesting in the Virginia QSO Party. She was a plaque winner for three consecutive years - "High Single Operator Novice/Tech" in 2002 and 2003; and "High Single Operator VHF Only" in 2004. We should be able to get some pointers on mobile operation in general and more specifically on mobile operations in the Virginia QSO Party. Aubri gave a presentation at the Youth Forum at Dayton this year and it is partially reproduced in the September/October issue of National Contest Journal. I am really looking forward to this presentation. Second, Sterlingfest is coming up on 9 October, very soon after our meeting. As in previous years, we will celebrate the fest with a special event station. We need to work on our plan for this event. I will post the plan for last year's event on our web site and we can use this to begin our discussion. Finally, we should discuss our activities for the SPARC year. Being a new ham, I still learn more each year and am looking forward to having even more fun this year. ***** That's all for now. I am looking forward to seeing you all at the meeting. 73, Gordon - NQ4K

WEBSITES www.qcwa.org Quarter Century Wireless Association www.qsl.net/sterling SPARC Website www.amateurradio-far.org FAR Website www.groups.yahoo.com/group/k4nva www.arrl.org/divisions/roanoke/ ARRL Roanoke Division www.wage.com WAGE Radio, Leesburg, VA http://nist.time.gov NIST time site http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/index.html International Space Station tracking information HAMFESTS UPCOMING SPARC ACTIVITIES 9 October 2004 Sterlingfest CONTESTS http://www.arrl.org/contests http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/contestcal.html http://contesting.com/ OTHER NOTES Marcia and Dick have been threatening to move for a long time. They finally did it! In an email to Bill, KC4ATU, they wrote: "Hi! Bill, We finally moved to PA on 9/1. Would you please let Gordon, Ray and the others know. Our new address is 218 Opal Lane, Indiana, PA 15701 Our phone number is 724-465-6440.  Thanks.  Wishing the Club well! 73 Marcia (KD4ITP) Dick (KA3IYT)" ***** "Skywarn is always an extremely popular topic! Please relay this information to your clubs and anyone else interested in public service training: Skywarn Basic 1, 2 & Winter Storm have been added to the NCAC Institute scheduled for October 23 at the Alexandria Fire & EMS Training Academy. For details and sign up information, go to ncacdc.com. Jeanne N4ZGI"