Category: Events

The South Pasadena Amateur Radio Club (SPARC) invites operators from around the world to experience the frightful delight of Halloween as only our town can celebrate it. Dozens of famous movies and television shows have used South Pasadena as a location, including the original Halloween (1978). On October 31, our club will operate outside the South Pasadena Historical Museum which sits one block south of “Michael Myers’s house” from the classic horror film. We will use the special event call sign W6H.  

SPARC members will operate W6H on October 31st starting at 2 p.m. Pacific time (21:00 UTC) and concluding at 9 p.m. Pacific (November 1, 04:00 UTC). We will primarily operate phone, but we will attempt other modes as conditions permit. The chart below lists our intended frequencies. 

	40M	20M	10M	6M	2M
PHONE	7.266	14.266	28.466	50.166	145.600
CW	7.033	14.033	28.033	50.033
FT8	7.074	14.074	28.074

To find us during the event, please check your preferred cluster or spotting tool. You can also look for updates by following @southpasradio on threads.net and mastodon.radio.

Logs will be uploaded to QRZ under our club call W6SPR. After the event, logged stations can request an electronic QSL card by emailing contact@southpasradio.org. 

Don’t be scared, get on the air! 

SPARC was proud to provide communication assistance to South Pas Active Streets during a community cycling event on Saturday, March 16. Jason KM6WJQ and David KK6DA, two active members of ARES LAX NE who recently worked the Firecracker 10k in a similar capacity, lent their considerable expertise. Together with John KK6ZVQ, they monitored the progress of a bike caravan along Mission Street and informed ride marshals whenever the group became split up by red lights or delays.

South Pas Active Streets organized over eighty bicyclists to ride from Garfield Park to the South Pasadena Nature Park and back. Over half of the riders were children, many of whom had never visited the Nature Park or Arroyo bike path before. Several community groups participated in activities at both parks, including South Pasadena Beautiful, Friends of the South Pas Nature Park, the D.U.D.E.S., a local Lionsheart chapter, and The Hive which provided a craft station. Mayor Evelyn Zneimer and Councilperson Janet Braun joined the group and spoke about the importance of community involvement with our civic planning.

Below are two embedded Instagram posts showing a selection of photos from the event.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @southpasradio

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by South Pas Active Streets (@southpasactive)

We look forward to helping with similar events in the future!

Thanks to all the SPARC members, friends, and guests who came to Eddie Park for Winter Field Day 2024. We made 46 contacts and worked five bands.

(And introducing our new mascot Li’l Sparky, illustrated by Dyna Moe.)

Starting on January 10, SPARC will experiment with adding a simplex net to its monthly schedule. We will adjust the net based on need and experience if necessary. Here is the current monthly schedule.

1^st Wednesday of the month, 7:30 p.m.
Monthly member meeting — NO NET

2^nd Wednesday of the month, 7:30 p.m.
Simplex net on 145.600 MHz, no PL tone

3^rd and subsequent Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m.
Check-in Net on the TELCO Repeater
145.180 MHz
PL 156.7 
Negative offset

Our goals for the simplex net are to practice emergency communications skills and to develop a propagation map of the city so that club members know “who can hear me” without a repeater.

Please join our Groups.io announcement mailing list for news about meetings, events, and changes to the net schedule. We hope to hear you on the air soon!

It was another fun day of SPARC in the park as our club gathered to participate in the 2023 September VHF Contest. We made around twenty contacts before closing out the log. Join our email list to hear about the next club contesting opportunity!