MNQRP NEWS
December 1998 Volume 1 Number 12

Election to be Held, Please Come to the Meeting and Vote!

We Got A New A-1 Operator!

By Cla Cadmus KA0GKC

Our own Jim Lageson, NOUR received a surprise in the mail this passed month. Please join in giving our congratulations to Jim as a new ARRL A-1 Operator. These certificates are only given to Amateur Radio Operators who have displayed excellent operating technique and have been nominated by their peers. Jim, please bring your certificate to the meeting and show it around! We all would like to see it!

Get Ready for Contest Season!

By John Robertsen, KA0OSC Program Chair

The program for the MNQRPS meeting of 12/5/98 promises to be an extremely interesting one. We have long admired the contesters in our societies who have brought the attention of the nation to us through their scores in contests, and now two of these contesters will present the membership with "An Introduction to Contesting" as our December program. Jim Lageson N0UR and Larry Gaalaas KB0R will do us the honor of sharing some of their know-how with us. It's going to be a great meeting, so plan on being there! Why not bring a ham (or ham wannabe) along as your guest? This program is ideal for the person who wants to know more about one of the most exciting aspects of ham radio -- let's show our thanks to the presenters by a really big turnout!

Need a Weekday Daytime Ham Meeting?

By John Robertsen, KA0OSC Cub Reporter

There's a local radio club (in Minnetonka, MN) that meets at a rather unusual time, which may appeal to hams and ham wannabes that work nights, work out of their homes on an open schedule, are not in the job market, or have retired. The Minnetonka Minnesota Amateur Radio Club (ARRL affiliated) meets every non-holiday Monday morning at 9:30 AM (that's right, in the morning!) at the Minnetonka Community Center, Minnetonka Boulevard and Williston Road, just west of I-494. This club is quite active, most recently as a transmitting station for the Plenipot Conference Special Event. It is a lively group where chewing the fat is still an important part of a ham meeting. If you are free some Monday morning, why not drop in and enjoy the friendly hospitality of the MMARC? Guests are always welcome -- and don't forget to ask to see the club station, KB0SBA.

Minutes of the November 7th, 1998 Meeting

By Dave Donaldson, WB7DRU

Attendance:
There were 13 in attendance. There are currently 76 members in the club.

Treasurers Report:
Account Balance: $24.50 Our treasurer Stan received a donation of $6 at the 10/3/98 meeting.

Old Business:
Web page: Cla is still working on the members only section of the web page. He has however changed the menus to be more user-friendly.

Election committee report: (this occurred after new business but is here because it was actually old business) Elections are coming in December. The constitution (which was passed before this discussion was held) has only 4 elected positions, President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. Currently the only position that does not have a candidate is VP.

Slate of candidates as presented by the nomination committee:

President: Les Bearl, N0PPF
Vice President: Open
Secretary: Dave Donaldson, WB7DRU (incumbent)
Treasurer: Stan Berkner, KA0JWH (incumbent)

The following motion was offered and seconded to assist in filling of the VP position by taking nominations from the floor just before the elections:

Motion: A round of nominations will take place before the balloting of the election at the next meeting. It was passed unanimously

New Business: (This discussion was actually held before the discussion on the elections)
Constitution: President Cla submitted a constitution which was a modified form of one provided by the ARRL. Cla made it clear that the purpose of the constitution is to allow us to become an ARRL affiliated club.

Discussion:
Concern was raised over section 4 of the By-laws. Reference is made to a monthly raffle, which is our current means of raising funds. The concern was over the ARRL's reaction to this being mentioned in the Constitution and By-laws.

Further discussion was held on the necessity of the last line. It was felt that it was redundant with Article III, section 4 of the Constitution, which lists this as a duty. A motion was made and seconded to remove the first and last line. It passed unanimously.

Final reading of section 4 is thus:

4. Dues: There is no yearly assessment of dues per member. This can be changed in accordance with the provisions of Article V of the constitution for the purpose of providing funds for expenses.

The discussion was then concluded on the Constitution and By-laws of the Minnesota QRP Society. A motion was made and seconded to adopt the Constitution and By-laws as presented by president Cla with amendments. Motion passed unanimously.

Cla said that he would now work on ARRL affiliation.

Transceiving is a Snap!

By John Robertson KA0OSC MNQRP #8

Got tiny QRP rigs and receivers but want a transceiver?? No sweat! Here's a simple way to go from receiving to transmitting in a snap -- a single snap! Once you have selected a "cabinet" (such as an Altoids tin) and mounted your QRP rig and receiver in it, mount a single double pole, double throw, center position off miniature toggle switch in a convenient spot. Use one side of the switch to change the antenna from rig to receiver, and the other side of the switch to simultaneously shift the power source from rig to receiver. Center position removes power from both units, and disconnects the antenna as well. This works like a charm with negligible RF loss through most miniature switches. Watch your wiring -- it is easy to run the power to the unit that is not connected to the antenna, so check your work carefully. I have only used this switching scheme with QRPp rigs,but a quality switch should handle QRP power nicely.

What's Happening at Scott's House?

By Scott Holisky N0AR

With winter just around the corner, the ritualistic antenna raising has begun. My location in the suburbs has a common backyard for the whole block. Give or take a few fences there is an open area about the size of an acre. Now understand this isn't my yard, but belongs to the neighbors. Luckily coinciding with the arrival of antenna season is the honey harvest. Yes my other hobby during the "thunderstorm season". With all the charisma of a politician, I make it a point to pass out the free jars of honey and take the opportunity to once again ask permission to drop a 20-foot pole in their yard. The understanding is that it's just temporary for the winter. Once the snow goes and we get back into spring, the whole works comes down. I've never been met with anything less than an enthusiastic "go ahead". Nice folks my neighbors.

So this year it's a full size 80-meter square loop only 20 feet off the grass. Fed in the center of one side with 450-ohm open line, running right into the shack. The beauty is the antenna is out away from the houses. Using the balun in the tuner worked, but I wasn't happy with the setup. As I switched bands the receiver almost jumped off the table. Lots of RF from KSTP AM. On with plan B, which was to put a transformer in line with the antenna feed. I wound a couple of toroids with power line cord. Put these in line as an isolation device. The tuner settings didn't change much, which was good; the noise floor off the antenna dropped quite a bit which was an even better surprise. It's not a good idea to be without some form of static dispersal with this much wire up, so I placed a 5 Meg resistor and a gas discharge tube to ground from the antenna. Past experience has shown that nothing is quite as annoying during a snowstorm than to hear sparks jumping from the antenna to ground!

So there you have it. Signals just scream! The low height keeps the radiation angle high, just right for QRP work.

Wonder if there's anyone who has actually used a true balanced tuner. I keep looking at the handbook, thinking if only I could find the time to build one. With a little luck one will show up at the next Hamfest.

*** Events and Happenings Around December ***
Please send in upcoming events to the editor.
We can’t show them if we don’t know them!