MNQRP NEWS

June 1998 Volume 1 Number 6

My Experience at Four Days In May / Dayton Hamvention

By Claton Cadmus KA0GKC

I drove to Dayton over the course of two days leaving about noon on the 12th. I stopped overnight at my sister's farm for a visit as she is located about half way. I think I'm too old for 12 plus hours of continuous driving anyway. I arrived in Dayton just in time for the beginning of rush hour but made it to the hotel with little delay. Tired and weary of the long drives of the past two days I was seriously questioning my sanity. I thought this had really better be worth it. Well it was and it wasn't.

It started great. After checking in, I parked the car at the closest door to my room. The room across the hall was occupied by S&S Engineering and had a number of visitors. I introduced myself and was immediately invited in to view the new M1, meet people there, and was handed a beer. The latter being the most exciting as I still needed to wash down the road. I met Danny Gingell, K3TKS here. He was so fascinated with the M1 he could have been their salesman. And is he ever a character! A short balding man with the energy for two.

I think I should mention that many of the people I had the opportunity to meet are people I have emailed and known from the various Internet lists for years. Not one of them turned out to be the way I imagined!

After a shower I decided it was time to seek out some people. I checked at the desk to see if our own Bob Gobrick, N0EB was about and sure enough he was. He suggested I go to the Brit's room and he would meet me there. I was greeted by Dick Pascoe, G0BPS of Kanga and introduced to Rev. George Dobbs, G3RJV. They were involved in a bit of a roundtable discussion just outside their room in the parking lot. I wish I were better at remembering names and calls. Gary Breed K9AY, Tony Fishpool G4WIF and John, VE? were there as well. We all ended up going to dinner together and had a great time.

The next day was the Symposium, the main event as far as I was concerned. Our own Bob N0EB was the MC. And a fine job he did too. (By the way, I came to find out that many call Bob Gobrick by an affectionate contraction, Bobgob!) There was no disappointment here. The authors kept my attention and for the most part were very interesting to listen too. I will have to say that Dick G0BPS and the Rev. George G3RJV were the top two presenters. I talked to Dick about it in the Hospitality Suite that evening. Dick said it was because Americans tend to lecture, Brits tend to entertain. He was absolutely right. Of course the British accent helps a bit too.

I would encourage you to purchase the FDIM Symposium Proceedings. There is excellent information there and just plain old good reading. If I had to pick just one thing I got out of the Symposium, it would have to be the neatest breadboarding idea I've ever seen. It's one of those, "I could've had a V-8" things. In Dick Pascoe's, G0BPS presentation on "Alternatives to the Circuit Board" was a technique called "Nailhead". This has apparently been published in both Sprat and QRPp but I had never seen it. It's an old technique with a new twist. You take the circuit diagram and photocopy it, enlarging it if necessary. Glue the copy to a piece of wood and tap in brass or copper nails at the junctions. You build the circuit right over the schematic! Can't wait to give this a try.

I'm not going to go into all the commercial products I saw that evening at the QRP ARCI Hospitality Suite, you will be seeing the ads and other articles on that. But I do wish to mention too items I found very fascinating.

One of the Michigan QRP Club Members (name and call I forget of course) had a small free standing 1/8th wave loop antenna that was made out of PVC tubing and fittings. You can take it apart and put it together in just a couple of minutes. It used braid for the element and a 200pf Variable Cap to tune it. In my discussion with him it was noted that a 100pf Cap would do. The loop was coupled to the feedline by simply clipping it on with alligator clips spaced "about" 1/6 of the circumference apart. The thing worked great and was very selective. Just the antenna for portable operation where space would be a problem and for my SMiTe which could use the selectivity. I tried to encourage him to produce an article on the design, but he wasn't much interested as he said "there is nothing new here". My last comment to him was "There is nothing new in anything we do, it's all just different ways of doing it and your antenna sure qualifies."

The next item was a fascinating little portable iambic key/keyer designed in Germany and kits sold by the G-QRP group. It was totally enclosed in what looked like about 4 inches of 1 inch square aluminum tubing, or as the Brits would say, al-u-min-e-um. It has a CMOS logic keyer circuit and two plastic paddles. The unique thing is you push the insides from the back of the tube to expose the paddles out the front. To store you push the paddles back into the tube. Almost impossible to break in transit! Inside there are two circuit boards, top and bottom. The paddles are pivoted on small bolts in-between the boards. There is a unique spring wire contact arrangement that really works well and the paddles have a good feel. I've contacted Dick at Kanga about this and they only had the few kits and they were sold. I'll follow up with details latter if I can find them.

The next day, Friday, was Hamfest day. I got a bit of a late start and drove to a nearby shopping center parking lot to catch the shuttle bus. About an hour later I was at the Hamfest. The inside exhibits didn't open until noon, it was about 9:30am and already very warm! I started to walk the flea market, having no pressing purchases in mind. I went up and down the aisles rather quickly. I did run into our own Chuck Munce, K0GJX he was there helping in a friends booth. He told me he's done this for several years. Later that day I started to question his sanity. By 11:30 it was hot! I had seen a couple of HW-8 in fair condition for sale at $200 and a HW-7 for $160. Morse code straight keys were all outrageously priced. Most everything I saw was overpriced. But there was a lot to see. About 12:30pm I ventured into the Arena. It was very crowded, you had to move with the flow and once you entered a row you were committed! Stopping to see something was problematic at best. I decided to make a try for the main Arena floor. As I shuffled in, there was a Hamvention person signaling to my "flow" that there was no room and to go back. Yeah right, the flow was moving and there was no stopping it. It was about this time that I realized I wasn't having any fun here. Making a couple well-placed moves I was flowing out toward the door. Near the entrance the crowd thinned and I made my break for the outside and the bus stop. I made it back to the hotel about 2:30, all in one piece too. I considered myself lucky. My biggest disappointment was I didn't get my traditional Hamfest Bratwurst, the lines were just too long. Later as I watched the news they showed an aerial view of the Hamfest. I noted that my three hours of brisk walking covered only about one quarter of the flea market!

After a bit of afternoon shopping and a little R and R is was time for the Banquet. This wasn't bad. I was sitting at a table with Dave Benson NN1G, Steve Weber KD1JV, Joe Everhart N2CX, George Heron N2APB and others I wish I could remember. The discussion going on was fun and lively. The food was passable, the service wasn't but we didn't mind that much. As these things go I'd say it was OK. Then came time for Ade Weiss W0RSP to speak. Now I had just met Ade and he remembered my daughter purchasing his books as a gift for me. He's very friendly and not the old man I had imagined, although he isn't young either. He wears a baseball cap which he seems to be inseparable from, even at the dinner table. Ade is a very good speaker and knows how to lecture. Being a college professor probably helps. Unfortunately he lacked a good sense of timing that evening and launched into the entire history of the QRP ARCI, as he knows it. I'm afraid I was the source of a small rumble in the back when about half way through I mentioned, "if I'd known this was his talk I needn't have purchased his book "History of QRP". I had a good laugh though when during his very long talk he used the word "diatribe". I felt a bit sorry for him, as he continued it was obvious he had lost the audience. Finally we were saved and the Rev. George Dobbs took the podium. He looked around and said as best as I can recall, "I will be brief after that "Nordic Saga".... The room erupted with laugher and the rest of the evening went well, although it was now well after 10:00pm.

Following the Banquet we all went to the Hospitality Suite to view the QRP vendors wares and see the highly anticipate new Norcal kit. I was betting on a ten-meter rig. As I'm sure most of you know by now it's a twenty-meter rig, the Norcal 20. It looks like a great kit and I don't know how Doug and Jim do it. There will be only five hundred of these available for sale at $95, but there will be one thousand produced. The other five hundred will be distributed to needy Hams in the third world. Most of these Hams get their licenses while in school and operate in the club station. After graduation, despite their education and employment, ham equipment is still priced out of their reach. The economy there is quite different. This program will place transceivers in many countries that are not well represented on the air. I believe this is a commendable idea. I still can't figure out how they do it though.

Having had enough Dayton Hamfest Friday afternoon and the only QRP event left being the building contests, I decided to leave Saturday and head back to the farm, this would get me home on Sunday and save a lost day from the office. As I drove, I reflected on the past days experiences and decided that the QRP Symposium was quite worth the trip but if I never see the Dayton Hamvention again I won't be disappointed.

73

MNQRP Meeting Minutes
May 2, 1998
Meeting Attendance: 15 Total Members: 70

Old Business:

Programs: John is still in needs 5 more people for programs for the year. Larry and Jim will do a program on QRP contesting in the fall.

New Business:

July meeting: Larry moved and was seconded to move the July meeting to Field day.

Field day will be at Minnetonka high school. Bill is in charge and is looking into the necessary paper work. It was decided not to rent a porta-potty and will use the gas station and the trees.

More FD discussion to occur at next meeting.

Meeting time: 16 min.

David Donaldson

WB7DRU

Meeting Location Reminder

The June Meeting of the Minnesota QRP Society will be held this Saturday, June 6th, at 1:30pm. The meeting will be located at the Minnetonka Community Center, Minnetonka, MN. All those that will be in the area are welcome, visitors and non-members alike. I will be showing off stuff from the FDIM Symposium and I'm sure we'll be talking up Field Day plans too. Hope to see you there.

Directions to the Center: (a map is available on the web page below)

Exit 494 at Minnetonka Blvd. (just south of 394) and go west to Williston Road (less then 1/4 mile) and turn right(north). The Community Center is the first building on your right. Plenty of parking right there. If you need talk in, we will have someone on the 145.45 repeater.

For more information on the meeting location as well as the MNQRP club in general, visit the website at

http://www.qsl.net/mnqrp/

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