Photos
LobsterCon was an absolute blast. It was organized by
Rex W1REX and held near Brunswick, Maine on the ocean over the weekend.
The Thomas Point Beach campground was perfect. Lots of tall trees in the
75 foot range. Great camp sites reserved for the QRP group. Some
remarkable QRP dignitaries present: Doug Hendricks KI6DS, Dave Benson K1SWL
from Connecticut, Steve "Melt Solder" Weber of northern New Hampshire to
name a few. Nearly 20 people camped Friday night. Another half dozen showed
up Saturday. Seab Lyon put up a couple of the most amazing antennas
I've ever seen. A kite with somewhat more than 40 square feet rose to 600
feet. It had a 40 to 50 pound lifting capacity. Imagine the vertical on
that sucker! Seab put up a 44 foot lazy-H. He said it had a 15 db gain
over a dipole on 15 meters! The top of it was probably 60 feet up. The
bottom about 40 feet. Everyone had some kind of antenna up at their site.
(I worked Algeria on 15 meters with an open-wire fed doublet up about 25
feet and the 817.) Steve "Melt Solder" had a 75 ohm ladder line fed doublet
up at about 45 feet. You should have seen these guys with sling shots.
Real pros. Steve's homebrew rigs are absolutely genius material. The sight
of Doug Hendricks tooting around on a battery powered scooter from station
to station regaling all with his QRP stories was super. Dave Benson gave
us a "rock mite;" it's a tiny 700mw xtal radio for 7040. Should take about
two hours to build. You'll definitely hear reports on that soon.
And he showed us the prototype for the son of DSW. It's an incredibly handsome
variation of the original. No harnesses. Beautiful box. Said it should
be available in a month. (Hope this wasn't a secret Dave!) Dennis K1LGQ
had NEQRP mugs and T-shirts for sale. Many thanks to Rex for getting this
together. Thanks to those who came and made this the most exciting, most
pleasant QRP gathering ever. I had to leave before dinner Saturday evening
for obligations back home. I trust others will continue the story of Saturday
night and Sunday. 73 de Jim w1pid@arrl.net
Photos
Different kind of rigs (Doug's)
