Author: Richard - KE0QYA

Great day for our September POTA activation. We set up at the Katy Depot in Sedalia. Special thanks go out to Scott (KJ4MWF) for setting up his hf station. A 1st for the club was Don (KF0ARQ) who set up his station as well but worked ft8. We had a total of 21 members who came out and played a little radio today. We did have a few visitors while we were there and enjoyed talking to them about ham radio. We made several contacts all across the US and Canada. The big hit of the morning was Lori (KF0IHX) who brought a butter cake that was very delicious. A very good time was had by all.

Our September Parks on the Air event will be this Saturday 17th at the Katy Depot located at 600 East 3rd Street in Sedalia. We will meet there at 9am around the Caboose to start setting up. Please remember to bring your lawn chair. If you would like to setup your portable station that would be great as well. Great opportunity to hang out and fellowship along with working some hf radio. See everyone there.

Follow the link for a video about our Parks On The Air activations

September Net Control Operators
4th Connie (WA0QCJ)
11th Joel (KE0WJX)
18th Brad (KF0GSX)
25th Paul (KD0ETL)

October 2nd Connie (WA0QCJ)

Our October meeting will be on the 8th at Our Savior Lutheran Church located at 3700 West Broadway in Sedalia beginning at 8:30 am in the shelter house. Remember to bring your lawn chairs.

What a great day for ham radio for in Pettis County. At Spark’s September meeting we had 36 dedicated ham radio enthusiasts in attendance. At the start of the meeting Paul (kd0etl) was presented with his Lifetime Membership plaque. Lifetime membership into Spark is something that one cannot buy but has to be rewarded with. Paul has been a tremendous ambassador for not only Spark but for ham radio in our area for many years. Congratulations Paul on a well deserved award. After some regular business we talked about several things. Connie gave a short presentation on her upcoming CW class beginning in October. For those who have not signed up for it please get with Connie to reserve your spot and get the information for the class. The Christmas Parade committee is hard at work getting Spark’s entry into this years Christmas Parade in Sedalia off the ground. They have been working hard and it shows. Thanks Ladies. The ladies of Spark continue to amaze us at each meeting. They have been working hard on the parade and a few other things. After the parade report they all came up to the front of the room with a big announcement. The ladies have a formed a group within Spark so they can do other things during the year. These ladies have been a big park of the excitement regarding the Christmas Parade. Thanks go out to the “SPARKLERS”. Of course the big event of the year is a month away, SPARKFEST 2022. The excitement is building for a great event this year, Ham’s from all over the state will be coming to Sedalia October 15th for our 2nd annual event. Bret and Richard went over information about SPARKFEST with the membership. Some of the important dates to remember are:
October 13th Setup at the church for the event from 6pm to 8pm
October 14th Vendor setup will take place from 3pm to 8pm
October 15th Sparkfest is on.
We went over some assignments that we need our members to do those days. Our next meeting will be all about Sparkfest. This is our big event. If you were unable to attend the September meeting we strongly encourage you to please attend our October meeting.

We would like to welcome our newest members who joined SPARK today at our meeting:
Russell KN6NDZ
Kevin KB0VZS
Kellee’ KM7BEL
John KI7CMV
Larry KB0LCO
If you heard them on the radio please welcome them to the club.

After the meeting Russell (KN6NDZ) took his test for General and we are happy to report that he passed with flying colors. Congratulations Russell.

Our next meeting of SPARK will be on October 8th beginning at 8:30 am at Our Savior Lutheran Church located at 3700 West Broadway in Sedalia (across from Lowe’s in the shelter house weather permitting. Please remember to bring your lawn chair if you don’t want to sit on the picnic tables. It’s 1 week from SPARKFEST so PLEASE plan to attend this very important meeting.

73″s for now and look forward to talking to you on the air and seeing you at our October meeting. Richard ke0qya

Beginning September 4th our Sunday night net will start at 7:30 pm. We encourage all who can to take the opportunity to check in. Don’t forget about our other nets as well:
Tuesday Night 2m ragchew net on our repeater starts at 7:00pm
Wednesday NIght Simplex net starts at 8:00pm (147.575 no tone)
Wednesday Night 220 net starts at 8:00pm 224.44 -1.6 (107.2)

Our September meeting will be on the 10th at EMA Headquarters beginning at 8:30am. Lots to talk about including the biggie SPARKFEST 2022. SPARKFEST is almost here so there will be important information regarding it at the meeting. We encourage all who can to please attend. This is our biggest event of the year and without our membership it would be impossible to do.

Hope to see everyone at the meeting on the 10th

Beginning September 4th, our Sunday Night 2m net will begin at 7:30 pm. This change was voted on at our monthly meeting in August due to our increase in membership.

The next meeting of SPARK will be September 10th at the EMA Headquarters located at 1511 N. Ohio in Sedalia beginning at 8:30 am. We will have several items to discuss including Sparkfest 2022. Sparkfest is getting closer by the day and we will have important information for our membership regarding it. It’s indeed going to be bigger and better than before. Who knows, Also on the agenda will be updates on the August POTA, a report from the Christmas Parade committee, along with regular business. We will also have a special presentation at our meeting.

After the meeting we will conduct a testing session for local hams in our area. If anyone would like to test please pre-register by email to Bret (W0VK) at hota2@hotmail.com. We are excited about the opportunity for those who are testing for a new license or a upgrade.

This will be a exciting day for ham radio. We look forward to seeing everyone there.

Just a few pictures from our August Parks on the Air this Saturday at Bothwell State Park. Once again we had a successful activation. Good time was had by all. We look forward to our September POTA. Special thanks to Scott (KJ4MFW) for running a great event for our members.

August Meeting Re-Cap.
At our monthly meeting today held at the Sedalia-Pettis County EMA Headquarters several exciting things took place. We started out by having our 34 members in attendance take a look at our totally upgraded ECOM trailer. Mark (K0NYE) gave us a report on what he did. Our trailer is ready for deployment anytime/anywhere if ever heeded. With various radio equipment available to use including Moswin we or any first responders can utilize this important asset. This is something that all members can be proud of. Other than our committee reports, several items were discussed. In the next few months we will have training on DMR and CW for our members. The ladies are very excited about getting ready for our entry in this years Christmas parade. They are also planning on entering some other parades in the surrounding areas. We will have a SPARK POTA at Bothwell State Park Saturday August 13th beginning at 9am which all members are encouraged to attend. We will have a special announcement regarding our Sunday Night 2m net in the next couple of weeks. We will have a separate post for that later. Lifetime membership was awarded to a couple of men who have indeed done so much to promote ham radio and our club. They both exemplify what Ham Radio is all about. Not only their time, knowledge, and yes sometimes $$ to promote SPARK and the hobby that we all love. Congratulations to Paul (KD0ETL) and Mark (K0NYE) who now are Lifetime Members. The biggie of course is SPARKFEST. With 2 months till its here, we are already bigger and better than before. With 2 groups wanting to hold their meetings there, SPARKFEST is indeed on the map now as a premier Hamfest. We have become Central Missouri’s biggest Hamfest of the year. Lots of exciting things are happening with SPARK. Our next couple of meetings will be important due to our activities and Sparkfest. If you haven’t been to be able to attend because of summer activities, we would encourage you to attend and see all the exciting things happening with SPARK. 73’s until our next club post