September 2008

It was a beautiful sunny day for our September get-together. There were eleven QRP'ers and spouses for lunch at Barney's Kitchen in Seneca, MO. Also, there was a nice assortment of home constructed gear for show and tell.

The pictures below are all "clickable" to bring up a larger image file (1024 X 768 pixels).


The Four State gang chowing down on Barney's good lunches. Nobody left hungry!	Tom N2UHC and Joe W0MQY enjoying a nice visit over lunch. The empty seat belongs to Dave W0CH.

Jerry, KR5L brought some really neat home constructed equipment. His labeling technique was admired by all and he gave us some tips on how he did it.


Jerry KR5L's home built Keyall keyer and his home printed full color QSL card.	Here's a better view of the Keyall. Really nice labeling.

The inner workings of the Keyall, with the schematic on the inner lid.	Jerry also brought a touch keyer paddle built into a surplus wall wart. The AC plug is the paddle.

Check out the beautiful job Jerry did on this P1 touch paddle keyer.	The top view of the P1 tough paddle keyer.

Jerry, KR5L's AT Sprint 3B multiband transceiver, including a built-in touch keyer. This beautiful rig was built into a Whitman's candy tin, which is slightly larger than an Altoid's tin.	The insides of the ATS3B, with the 20 meter band module in place. This is perhaps the ultimate portable rig. Six bands that will fit into your shirt pocket!

A home brew 100 watt dummy load with a diode pickup for power measurement. The power formula is printed on the homebrew label. The can is filled with mineral oil for heat dissipation.	Master builder, Jerry, KR5L.

After lunch, we adjourned to the Seneca city park for some on-the-air fun. The park was busy with lots of family and groups enjoying the nice fall weather. We found clear space near the pavilion and set up shop.


Here's Bob, W7KU and Rex N5KDO setting up Rex's home brew Buddypole antenna.	Bob, W7KU on 20 meters SSB using Rex's "shack in a box". Bob rode his motorcycle all the way from Kansas City for today's get-together.

Tom, N2UHC taking a turn on 20 meters SSB with his home constructed BITX20. He's using a 1/4 wave vertical wire antenna and made several solid SSB QSO's today.	Check out Tom's beautiful BITX20, built into a used CB radio case. Tom is very proficient at recycling CB's! That's a homebrew antenna tuner to the left.

Joe W0MQY and Rex N5KDO over at Joe's mobile antenna farm. Joe has a homebrew LF e-probe antenna on the car roof and a copper HF loop antenna on the pole. The loop is remotely tunable.	Joe is busy scanning the low frequency band for new NDB aeronautical navigation beacons. Joe is an enthusiatic long wave (below the AM band) listener.

Bob, W7KU is taking a turn on 40 meter CW using Dave, W0CH's K1 and end-fed wire antenna. The Texas QSO Party provided quite a few 40 CW contacts today.	Ira, KD5AUX and Rowena (Rex's better half) taking life easy in the shade.

We had loads of fun today! Thanks to all the Four Stater's who came by for lunch and the park on-the-air operation.