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The May 1^st meeting has been moved to the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting. We will be having our Spring Operating Event and a potluck picnic lunch beforehand. If you wish to join in the picnic come early and bring something to grill and something to share. We'll start the grill about noon. The formal meeting will be held inside at 1:30. Before, during and after we will have station(s) on the air. Bring your rigs, antennas and extras to hook up, operate and show off. This is the time to see what other members have been building over the winter. With a little luck maybe we'll see the new K2 in action and a couple NC-20's! Also, if you've never seen the Museum that's worth the visit alone. The Museum address is 3515 Raleigh Ave. So. Take Hwy 100 to the 36th street exit in St. Louis Park. Go east on 36th, it's not far from the Hwy 100 overpass. Raleigh is one block past the back of the Target Store, turn north (left) 1/2 block. There's a Tribander on a tower.

17 members attended today's' meeting. We also had 1 visitor. The March minutes were read and accepted. No treasurers report.

In old business Les N0PPF is still working on the charter party and will have information for us later. We also talked about our table at midwinter madness. We will have one. Requests were made for helpers. With regards to a club kit there have not been any ideas submitted yet. Do send any ideas you have along.

The final topic, which was new business, was a club patch. Mike Smith N0WDM is working on the patch and needs any ideas for it. The goal is to have it done by fall. It will require club funds to produce them but can be recovered eventually form their sale. The costs cannot be determined until the design of the patch is decided on. Many factors effect the price including the number of colors, type of thread, etc. Send any ideas directly to Mike.

Next month is to be an operating event, the location will be announced on the email list.

An excellent presentation on the new digital mode PSK31 by Cla KA0GKC. He was able to provide us with a live session.

The evening breeze gently lilts the curtains into the room as you exchange for it the ethereal sounds of your new National SW-3. The last CW disappears into the static crashes of a distant storm. The band is dead. It is late, and you should go to bed, but there on the table you spot it, the familiar orange cover of QST peeking from the bottom of a pile of mail. You start with The Old Man, Calls Heard and then on to find out about this new QRP game which all the OP’s are talking about….

(As originally published in June 1934 QST, and here courtesy of the ARRL and QST magazine)

Last year the Author bettered the depression by taking a job in Alaska, but was unable to take a transmitter for the trip because of the expense of what was thought to be adequate equipment. However a good a.c.-d.c. Short-wave receiver, employing a 36 detector and two 37’s for audio, was taken along. All "r.f." was discarded for circuit simplicity. Five minutes after the receiver was put on the air the writer regretted he had not brought along a transmitter.

Under the northern lights the whole world pounded in. W’s from all districts were heard; ZL’s, VK’s, K6’s, J’s and countless others. It was an ideal spot-a veritable ham’s paradise, for reception at least. There was no interference, no blanketing by neighbors, no "rock-crushers" filling the air with gravel.

One evening while sitting in the radio shack and grousing because there was no transmitter available, in walked a fellow op, Charles Blair, full of optimism. We talked it over. Why not try out a custom built junk pile? It was finally decided to throw together a simple Hartley transmitter built entirely from "what you have"- or less. We did.

The most important need was, of course, for power. We were able to round up just 210 volts. It was thought that this would be sufficient for local or Alaskan communication-provided we could hear any locals. A tough, chesty 201-A which lighted up like the Aurora Borealis was pushed through four holed in a cigar box-the box in lieu of a socket.

A condenser of 43 plates, built for 600-meter work, was "borrowed" from a long-wave receiver. Real ingenuity had to be used to obtain copper tubing for the inductances. A machinist who thought we really wanted to do a bit of "bootlegging" on the side finally surrendered a few feet on our promise to give him some of the first "distillation". Thus equipped we wound our inductances, believe it or not, around the peg-leg of a dock watchman. (The peg was just the right diameter.) The watchman held the tubing while we wound.

An Eskimo who owned a decrepit broadcast set loaned us a 250-uufd condenser, and for a grid leak we used a discarded audio transformer. A commercial operator at a shore station contributed a 5,000-volt 0.001-ufd blocking condenser to restrain our terrific plate voltage. An r.f. Choke was wound by putting 120 turns of wire of unknown size on a clothespin borrowed from a squaw’s laundry bag. Another Eskimo had acquired a vintage ’76 telegraph key from some place, using it for a door clapper. We acquired this for a package of cigarettes. Not having the slightest insulation of any kind we had none about which to worry. Since no one volunteered to supply an antenna condenser we left that out also. An antenna that ranged in length, as nearly as we could guess, from 150 to 200 feet was connected to one end of the antenna coil. A 33-foot feeder was tied to the other end. The job was done. I was with set jaws and pulse hammering that we connected the 210 volts of "high voltage" power and pressed down on the door clapper. Nothing happened. Finally the curtains were pulled down, and a mechanic was requested to whistle elsewhere. We took a last look at the arctic night. The stars were all in place. The Aurora was winking. The wind was ice-cold. All was set. Blair connected a flashlight bulb in series with the antenna. Glory to Marconi! It lighted! We estimated our power at approximately 2 watts, and they were thin, anemic and underfed watts at that. But the first contact was VE5JA. He gave us R6. Then, in turn, W6BFZ with an R7, W7BHV, R5; and VE4GM, R5. This was the start-and what a night it was! During the month that followed our cigar-box transmitter-which took just twenty minutes to assemble, tune and get on the air gave us the following contacts: K7CCL, K7IW, W5ATF, W6HOH, W7DBR, K7CPX, W7FS, W6FFP, W6AYQ, W9JKW, VE5HU, K6BOE, W7ALV, W6IJX, W6AXF, VE5FE, W7CXL, W6HTQ, W6BVL, W6CLV, W6HOC, W6ZP, VK3HG, VE5EO, VK2IC, J1PO, ZL2LB, ZL3GU, W6BAY, W6DE, W6BFZ, W6FMP, W6HUL, W6CDV, W6FRH, W6EPH, K7ABQ, W6IXY, W9GUN, K7HP, W6AAP.

A report of at least R6 was received from every district and county mentioned except Hawaii, which gave us R5. Many gave us better than R6 in subsequent QSO’s. Our maximum DX was, of course, New Zealand, Australia and Japan.

The performance of the haywire set was so amazing, everything taken into consideration, that it was duplicated in essential details, upon the writer’s return to California. It’s now in the form shown in the photograph, with proper coils, insulation, and grid leak. A 10 with top plate contact has been substituted for the 201-A, permitting the use of higher plate voltage. The r.f. Meter now replaces the flashlight bulb. The set has more than justified itself.

Like its Alaskan brother, the new transmitter uses no antenna capacity. The tank condenser is turned to a suitable spot in the 40-meter band and locked. This leaves no parts to get out of adjustment. With plug-in coils and tube removed the entire transmitter is just 2 inches high, 8 inches long and 4 inches wide. When used as a portable it slips in the battery compartment of the receiver. In case of extremely low power the meter is connected across the antenna coil to give a high reading.

It’s a double-barreled nickel-plated cinch. This little transmitter isn’t going to ruin the night for a brother ham down the block, and when all is said and done it gets out just as far as anybody could want a transmitter to go. There is much more consideration and just as much thrill in a "flea-power" transmitter working efficiently as a near-commercial job which drives everybody else off the air.

During my trip to Las Vegas for the National Associations of Broadcasters Convention I had planned on meeting up with Jerry KR5L/4, but we both had a full agenda on the evening of choice. I was really sorry to miss the chance to operate his new K-2 from the 11^th floor of Circus Circus hotel. He reassured me that the bands had been bad since he left Florida, and still seemed "dead" that day.

The local club had three repeaters open for NAB visitors. The "barker machine" which gave information on the other machines was one of the two-meter systems; it was fun to listen to for about ten minutes. There is a general get together during a weeknight for the hams. Lot's of vendors donate to the door prizes. I had to miss this years gathering, but last year there were over 700 hams in attendance!

Did do a side trip to Amateur Electronic Supply (AES). It's not much of a store compared to the local shops. Spent my obligatory ten bucks and had a nice chat with the bunch.

Good to be back where it's cool, the temperature was well into the 90's. Way too hot, at least without a couple of months to adjust.

It sounds like the weather did not cooperate in other parts of the country. On the MN/WI/IA border Mother Nature was'nt just having a good day, it was perfect. Sunny, calm and temp in the high 60's.

The site I found to set up for QRPTTF was ideal. A campsite with nice high trees for my G5RV. I was all set up and ready to go 15 minutes before the starting gun. Conditions were not great but good enough on 40 and 20 to make some nice runs.

Then things changed! When the 40-foot plus trailer/camper pulled into the site just across from me I thought no big deal. Looked like Grandpa and Grandma with a couple of kids. It was quite a production setting this thing up, getting it level and all. Then he pulled out the thick electrical cord, and pushed up this TV antenna. He plugged it in and WHAMMM!! S-9 hash on 20 meters. Thinking that maybe it was a pump or blower motor noise I checked 40 meters and heard nothing.

This was not working so I walked over and nicely asked if he had just turned something on which was making this noise. When he opened his mouth and I saw that one yellow tooth I knew that I was the one with the problem. He didn't understand what the problem was and went about his work.

I had no choice, I pulled down the antenna, packed up the rig and moved to the other side of the park. There I found a pretty good spot and was back on one hour later.

My batteries lost it 15 minutes before 0000Z finish time, so I packed up and stopped in the local Taco Bell in La Crosse.

No numbers yet, log still on paper spotted with taco sauce. N0UR-Single Op-Field WI/MN/IA Border Rig: IC-735 @ 5w to G5RV. Thanks to all, great fun contest.

What a fun day it turned out to be. I,m on a trip to South Dakota, and brought along the OHR400, and OHR100-1 for 20 Meters.

I found an open grassy field right on the border with the Pine Ridge Reservation, south of Rapid City. I got to the site over an hour into the contest. Put up the wire vertical with its single radial. Then the fun began. :-)

Only tried 20, but were conditions terrific. Made a total of 106 QSO's, including Japan and Panama. Most of these were with the OHR400, but I switched to the 100-A for the last 45 minutes.

Thanks everyone for dropping by. Several asked me to repeat QTH, expecting "ND" rather than "SD". Please forgive the times when I just could not dig you out, whether because of QSB or the occasional QRM.

Ran everything off re-chargeable motorcycle batteries. Gotta get one of those solar chargers sometime.

It is Monday the 26th and I just got home after working TTF and haven't even figured the score yet. Partly because my partner, Thor, W0QIK is going to sent me his part of the log tomorrow. But anyway, we worked on the MN/WI border at St. Croix State Park East of Hinckley, MN. Had dipoles in the trees for 40 and 20M and worked 40, 20 and 15M. Only one contact on 15m with Cam HP1AC. But I guess we probably have a total of only 85 contacts. We quit early and took some time to explain Ham Radio to the Park Ranger. 72

I found a guy at the end of one of the tables of treasures selling sheets of double-sided PC board stock. Since I am a avid dead bug builder, I picked up a few sheets for a couple of bucks.

Also I found a guy with several dishpans full of 6L6s! I love these tubes! I don't know if they are any good, but for $2.00 it's hard to go wrong. How much power will a 6L6 make? Depends on how much ice you throw in the glass of water you have the tube dangling in :-)

Lately I have been trying to get back into programming. I'm re-learning assembly language...Yes I said assembly. I like the *control* ;-)))

Also, I DLed the PSK program written up in QST, but have not tried it yet. Sounds very interesting.
72 es di dit

You guys are going to hate me after you read this. I scored a couple good things at the Hamfest. On my way out there was the booth with all the used computer monitors. I needed one for the Ham Shack computer so I stopped to look. Well it was late and they really cut the prices by that time. I picked up a nice IBM 14' monitor for 15 bucks. It works FB too! Up to 1024 256 colors, but I'm only going to use it at 800x600x256 for these old eyes.

Now the big deal of the day! Just as Les N0PPF and I were going to leave the booth, a guy came by and we started to chat. The conversation got around to RIT or perhaps Les and I were talking about RIT as he walked up, I don't quite remember. I was telling of the RIT circuit I installed in my old HW-8 and this fellow mentioned he wanted to trade a HW-8 for a set of paddles. He explained that the HW-8 was not working and needed work and that some PCB traces had been burnt out along the line, although they had been repaired. I told him I didn't have a paddle to trade. He wasn't carrying the transceiver so I assumed he had it at home. Turned out he had it in his car! I asked if he'd consider selling it. He said sure and I tendered my low bid of ten bucks. You could have knocked me over with a wink when he said right back, OK! Good thing I was sitting down. Les reported later that I had a good poker face. Later I felt a little guilty, but a deal's a deal. Mind you the case is a bit rough, there are a couple missing components and the "trace repair" needs to be redone and I'm sure I will have to replace some of the toroids as this is a problem with these rigs. So it will take a few evenings of work to get up and running. On the plus side, the tuning cap is OK, which is now unobtainium and the only mod to the case is a BNC connector instead of the stock RCA plug. There are a couple mods of some sort inside, but these can be removed without a trace. I guess it pays to stick around a little later at the Hamfest. 73

I'm trying to work QRP using an MFJ-9440 with the CW board; I also have the -9475 and -9420 (which is currently in the MFJ "hospital"). I tried using them all through a tuner to a simple 50 foot random wire, then to a 20m dipole, both at about 10 feet, but with poor results. Low power equals use the best antenna available! On the advice of a good friend (Bernt, KG0KD), I popped for an Alpha-Delta sloper to mount at an apex of 35 feet. With his help, I hope to have it up for the weekend of April 24. Now, with a different antenna, I pray my results are somewhat better.

I came home with a neat little headphone/headset combination, but can't get the mic to work. Maybe a wiser head at the next meeting can reason this out for me. Got the usual redundant connectors, coax-seal, and software for the kids. Hot dogs were good, but they didn't have sauerkraut. I couldn't find many HF rigs, and noticed that none of the door prizes included HF gear. Hmmmm.... I think the ham is slowly coming out of the word "Hamfest". 73

PSK31SBW version 1.06 is now available for download from the web locations shown below.

1) The QPSK receive decoder was previously a "hard decision" decoder and is now a "soft decision" decoder. What this means is an improvement in QPSK copy. It's rather difficult to say exactly how much of an improvement it is, but on the bench with random errors it's nearly twice as good as before. On-air it will not be so good.

2) The squelch action has been enhanced so that not only does it pull-in (instantly) when the signal idles, but will pull-in (after about a second) when the signal is sending traffic and is sufficiently clean to copy. Not only does it drop out (instantly) when the signal sends a carrier (the squelch tail), but will also drop out (after about a second) when there is no detectable signal in the noise. The single squelch button has been replaced with a squelch selector which toggles between "auto", where it performs as described, and "off" where the signal is copied all the time regardless. This change will remove the need to hit the Squelch button if you tune in a signal that's already sending or a signal fades out before it finishes.

3) The AFC, as well as slowly correcting any drift in the signal, now also corrects completely any off-tune error at the instant that the squelch pulls-in. This means that after tuning on the main receiver in 10Hz steps, for example, or after clicking in the waterfall, the signal will be pulled-in precisely on-tune as it starts printing.

4) The way that the F5-F8 keys operate has been changed slightly to eliminate a lock-out condition that could occur if some of these keys were pressed in rapid succession.

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

Events maybe you missed!

Month Happenings!

Good Stuff coming up!

April 99

1-5/31Canadian Spring Bouquet
3 MNQRP Meeting
5 Slovakia QRP Spring Sprint
5 Spartan Sprint,
10-11 ARCI QSO Party
10 Rochester Hamfest
17 Midwinter Madness
18 SMARTS Fest
?? Fergus Falls Hamfest
23-24 QRP To The Field

May 99

1 MNQRP Meeting and Spring Operating Event
1 Superior Hamfest
1-31 Canadian QRP Spring Bouquet
3 ARS Spartan Sprint
8 FISTS Spring operating event
13-16 Four Days in May, Dayton

June 99

4-5 IA State Convention, S. Sioux City, NE
5 MNQRP Meeting
5 Twinslan Hamfest
7 ARS Spartan Sprint
26-27 Field Day