Welcome to the Shore Point Amateur Radio Club W1SPC
Put a little SPARC in your life!
147.505
224.040
224.500
442.500
Club News & Activities
Who we are
This South Central Connecticut area amateur radio club offers four repeaters, two with EchoLink and IRLP. Members enjoy weekly breakfast get togethers. We sponsor several weekly nets on the Club repeaters where any amateur operator is welcome. We also assist with volunteer events, such as walk-a-thons throughout the year.
Newly licensed hams or those just new to the SPARC repeaters are always welcome!
SPARC Christmas Party!
Due to inclement weather, the date has been changed to:
January 3rd, 2026
1 PM
Hibachi Grill in Orange
In case of inclement weather, the party with be on January 4th.
There will be an optional Yankee Swap with gift no more than $10
Repeater Holiday Greetings!
It's that time of year where you will hear holiday greetings prior to IDs when you are in a QSO on the 505 repeater. Some of the greetings are from SPARC members who have moved out of the area or are silent keys. There are, of course, greetings from current members as well. If you would like to add one to the mix, please send an audio file to sparc@sparc.us. You could even do this from an app on your smartphone.
Please keep the message under 7 seconds and include your call sign in the message
Some 505 History - by Brian K1SOX
You may be wondering about how the repeater generates the different sound effects and voice ID's. The original repeater controller was an ACC RC-850. This could generate "canned" speech words from a male voice called "Romeo" and there were a few female words from "Juliet". A newsletter from ACC mentioned how you could write a batch file on a PC and integrate that with the controller to play wav files.
I mentioned this to Meyer (AA1NQ) and he had the idea of writing a program in Turbo Pascal that could replicate this and allow for a lot more features. So somtime in 1994, we started to work on a program that we called "DVP" - Digital Voice Program. With Meyer doing the coding and me coming up with the integration ideas and doing the testing, we were able to get a stable version of this working. It required an authentic Sound Blaster 16 sound card with ISA slot and, of course, had to run on DOS. We were able to add feature like rotating / random ID's and courtesy tones, voice mail for repeater users, echo test and more. Danette (N1QAF) and I created most of the ID's and courtesy tones, most of those are still on the repeater today. At some point, I came up with the current name of the program. The name DVP was changed to DRX - Digital Repeater Xpander.
Willie (N1NKM), fabricated a better interface cable that runs between the controller and the PC. He also helped to solve an issue were the remote base controller kept getting damaged when it was connected to the same data pin that DRX uses. This involved installing a zenor diode to protect the RBI. He also designed a remote reset box in case a controller needs an emergency reset.
In October of 2012, the repeater was moved from West Haven to Woodbridge and ran in a "basic" mode until 2021.
I had rebuilt the repeater to use an SCOM 7K controller with a Vyex DAB - Digital Audio Board. This replaced DRX with a more managable / modern solution. I came up with some code (macros) that run on the 7K to generate timed interval random and rotating wav files, since this wasn't natively included in the system. Some of the other functionality, such as the echo test, minutes of repeater activity and WX conditions, were moved to the Raspberry Pi that doubles as the node for EchoIRLP. I wrote these scripts in BASH.
I had assembled and tested the new repeater system at my house and on 5/22/2021, Dan (KB1MMR), helped me transport it to the Woodbridge site to replace the basic system.
In the spring of 2025, Rick (W1RJC), mentioned to me that the successor to the 7K controller, the 7330, had the ability to receive serial data and use that in a message. He thought that maybe the original DRX could be modified to work with this controller and allow for a system that was easier to manage and allow for more features. That summer, I started writing an entirely new DRX (version 2) that was coded in Python. I designed this to run on a Raspberry Pi. The main component this new version of DRX has a CLI interface but can be controlled via a web page. This is ready to be deployed but requires swapping out the 7K controller for the 7330 and a lot of hardware changes and re-programming of the controllers. The implementation is scheduled for the spring of 2026!
New repeater ordered for 224.500!
The old HiPro repeater has had issues for some time at the Northford site. A new Bridgecom repeater was ordered to replace it. Check back on the website for progress updates.
SPARC 30 Year Anniversary!
Thank you to all who attended the 30 year celebration of SPARC! It was a great success!
Look for upcoming pictures and video on this site in the Media Section. Anyone who has media from the event is welcome to post it on the SPARC Facebook page!
147.505 & 442.500 Amplifier Update
New Crescend amps have been put into service for the 505 and the 442.500! These has a superior build quality over the Henry amps. The signal reports have been positive.
Thank you to Dan, KB1MMR for the 505 amp!
SPARC Meetings
The next SPARC meeting is April 13, 2026.
SPARC normally meets on the second Monday of April and September at 7:00 P.M. We meet at the Twin Pines Diner at 34 Main Street, East Haven. Check back for updates! Talk-in is the 442.500 repeater.
The meetings are open to all!
Club Dues / Donations
There are many Club expenses, if you use the SPARC repeaters, please consider a donation.
Please go to the INFO / DONATION section of this site. You can use a credit card, PayPal or mail a check.
Thank you!
Breakfast Net!
Saturday Mornings at 9:30!
Brenda, KW1YL runs the breakfast net for those not attending the actual Club breakfast. Please check in on the 442.500 on Saturday mornings at 9:30 for the SPARC Breakfast Net.
Way Back Machine
Take a look at what the SPARC website looked like in 2007 and in the 90s!
This website and a Club email service were maintained at K1SOX's house on several servers. Here is the link - Wayback Machine (archive.org)
By the way, our original domain was sparcweb.net and prior to that, we were a subdomain on QSL.net - qsl.net/sparc. Here is a look at what the site look like back in the 90s - Shore Point Amateur Radio Club (archive.org). A lot of the graphics are missing, but you get the idea. Very simplistic by today's standards.
SPARC's website first went live on March 8, 1998.
Streaming Audio Reminder
You can listen to the 147.505 and 442.500 from your phone or the web!
You can download a free app for your Android or iPhone to listen to either repeater live, or you can listen right from this webpage. Click the Repeaters - Live Audio link in the menu for more info!
Additional Activities
Saturday Morning Breakfast
Club Net - Wednesday at 8 PM
Club Net - Wednesday at 8 PM
Currently, there are no "in person" breakfasts. In the past, we have had these gatherings on Saturdays mornings. If any club members wish to start this up again, lets us know!
Club Net - Wednesday at 8 PM
Club Net - Wednesday at 8 PM
Club Net - Wednesday at 8 PM
Week 1 - Brenda KW1YL
Week 2 - Brian K1SOX
Week 3 - Meyer AA1NQ
Week 4 - NEED NCS
Week 5 - Craig W1MHz
If we get any others who would like to run the net to give the regulars a night off, please email nets at sparc.us! Thank you and looking forward to hearing you on the net!
Check out the MURG Net!
Club Net - Wednesday at 8 PM
Check out the KW1MH Net on Tuesdays at 6 PM on the 442.500.
Your net control is Brenda, KW1YL. She will be running the net from the MakeHaven Underground Radio Group's station. This net is open to all amateurs.
SKYWARN and Weather Nets
There are currently no Weather or SKYWARN Nets scheduled, however SPARC repeaters are available for these purposes.
SPARC Facebook Page
SPARC has had a Facebook page for several years but it seems some members are unaware of it. Although, you can always get the latest news here on our website, sparc.us, the Facebook page allows members to interact by posting and replying. Also some posts might not be "Club News" but something you would like to share with the other members. Members' posts will be in the Community section. Please check it out, like and follow the page. Just remember - facebook.com slash followed by our Club callsign!
Amateur Radio Newsline
Click the picture to listen.
Affiliations
