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WANTED: QRP Ops fer CW or SSB

This Saturday 6 Feb 2010 1400 -2400 UTC

Sylvan Lake Park in Sanford, FL

PLS RSVP if you can make it!

The WX guesser’s are predicting a very nice day for our annual FYBO Event (Freeze Your Buns Off!). RULES HERE

Some of the gang will meet at 0700 for breakfast at the Sanford Cracker Barrel (I-4 & SR 46 on the NE corner)

We could use some operators to fill time slots and loggers to help us keep up with the logging chores. If you like Field Day, you’ll like this event. (it’s just more fun!)

Shifts are available… PLEASE let us know if you can attend and help us in our first Multi-Station Multi-Operator event. The NM QRP guys are offering a PRIZE to the QRP Multi-Multi challengers with the best score.

The GatorCon guys need your help to put us over the top.

Leave a comment or send an email and let us know if you will be attending!

Thanks and 73,

Kelly K4UPG Jim K4AHO Don K3RLL (ex WA3ZBJ)

Wally KG4LAL Larry KJ4BR Matt W1MDG

on behalf of The Central FL QRP Group (aka the GatorCon guys!)

GatorCon Guys Luv QRP! How about you?

Lately I have been experimenting with a number of portable antennas for hf in the field for my QRP operations. The mini-bac Delta Loop configuration and the W3EDP have been fun and seem to work well. Of course, my go to antenna has been my trusty Buddistick, but since I am a tweaker, I continue to try new options.

Would you take a minute and complete a brief poll? Or better yet, leave me a comment AND take the poll? How about it? Let me know what you think? How do you deploy your favorite antenna? Now it’s your turn… Please take the poll, you may answer with your TWO (2) favorite choices and feel free to comment by clicking on the COMMENT link.

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12/20/09 Update. Went out to the lake with my mini-bac Delta Loop and had some fun on 40 and 20 m this afternoon.  Nice antenna for multiband use.

Several Polar Bears gathered at Lake Sylvan Park, Sanford, Florida and heated up the airwaves with their beary strong QRP signals! Grrrrrrr! Who says global warming is upon us?

Central Florida QRP Group members, Jim Diggs K4AHO, Don McBride WA3ZBJ, and Kelly McClelland K4AHO are also known as PB#185, PB #183 and PB #173 and were looking for BSO’s with fellow Polar Bear QRP Club members. We are still working on some of the other guys including Wally Crew KG4LAL,  Matt W1MDG,  and Larry to get PB numbers and get involved with the pack on the ice floes of Central Florida.

The Novembear Polar Bear Moonlight Madness Event turned out to be a fun time. Our group had our traditional very early breakfast and headed out to Sylvan Lake Park in Sanford, FL. Our normal pavillion was already taken so we moved to the B (for BEAR) area and setup shop. It was a bit more difficult to setup antennas but we managed to get 3 verticals, a 40m inverted V and a mini-bac delta loop into the air. We also managed to stomp on each other with cross mod from time to time.

Sylvan Lake Park CFL QRP Group getting setup

The Central Florida QRP Group meeting will be at The Cracker Barrel, Saturday, September 12th at 7:30 AM on Hickman Drive, Sanford.   The Cracker Barrel is very close to the I4 and Hwy 46 junction, 1 light to the east (toward Sanford and turn East(left), down about a block on the left).

MAP to Cracker Barrel Click Here

Please bring your “Show and Tell” if you like. At approximately 9:00 AM we will reconvene at The Sylvan Lake Park, Picnic area “A” to setup our QRP rigs and operate a bit.  The Sylvan Lake park is on Lake Markham Road off Hwy 46 approximately 4 miles West of the I4/Hwy 46 Junction.

MAP to Sylvan Lake Park Click Here

If you can’t make the breakfast come join us at the Sylvan Lake Park. We will plan future activities of the CFQG.
We look forward to seeing you there.

72

Jim Diggs
K4AHO

I have been like a kid on Christmas Eve thinking about this event. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and I chose to stay closer to home than originally planned. In this low power (QRP) ham radio event, the Bumblebees were to hike, bike, or travel via water to the spot they would operate. As bee #86, I donned my backpack (overly packed by the way) and headed to the lakeside park in our housing development which is about 3/4 mile from my home. It was about 90+ degrees Farenheit at 11 am when I set out to my site.

The sky looked good, except the clouds were building to the Southwest… So I setup camp and decided to use the shelter rather than be out in the open in case rain came. Good choice!

So I setup my Buddistick for 20m using my MFJ 207 Analyzer. I soon had the SWR down to 1.3/1 and after hoisting the antenna into the air on my semi-official BEE colored painter’s pole it went down to less than 1.2 to 1! Good enough for this ham! Signals were a bit down and there was a good bit of QRN which would get worse. Since it was early, I ate lunch and watched the herons work the shallows of the lake while I waited for the 1 PM starting time.

Bumblebee 86 on the way out~ note the BEE colored hat

Buddistick up and away

She's up and ready to rock n roll

From the bottom looking up!

My Rig setup. Nice view, eh?

Unfortunately, the weather decided to roll in and 15 minutes  after the start I made my first qso. Then the lightning sirens went off and I pulled down the antenna and played it safe. After two hours of watching the rain and lightning show and a few herons on the hunt for food, I got a window of good weather and put the station back on the air.  Two more qso’s in the next 20 minutes and then the rain and lightning moved back in on me.

Here comes the lightning and rain again!

So with only 39 minutes to go, I decided to roll up the coax and trek home. I had lots of fun despite the challenges. I’ll be there next year, the Lord willing!

The last couple weeks have been busy at my office. This weekend we took some time off and headed to St Petersburg Beach. Since it was ARRL Field Day and I have not participated in that great event in almost 30 yrs, I took my Wilderness Sierra and Buddistick antenna and did some LAZY operating from the beach. My little 2.5 watts out didn’t break through too many pileups, but I had a great time listening to all the activity and being at the beach too.

You can only take so much Florida sun in one day… gets might hot. So I found a fine alternative and perhaps set a historic way to use the Buddistick. Check out my Hammock Mobile operating site. Buddistick is on the support pole.

Definitely would prefer some on air time, but bad weather is threatening to roll into our area, so I am starting another project. This time it is a SLT+ tuner for end fed half wave use. Since I learned to be more careful in the setup phase when I built the NoGAWatt power meters, this project will attempt a bit more pre-planning.

Here’s the rough layout for the 4 States QRP Group new enclosure that I hope to use for this project.

Looks like it just might fit

Stay tuned for the next update… for now, I have to replace a battery on my Taurus in 95 degree heat.

As a new member of the Straight Key Century Club, I have tried my hand at the Weekend Sprints they sponsor. Most of the time, due to church activities and antenna restrictions, I’m not able to operate with the exception of the last few hours of the event. May’s theme was the “new antenna” and we were encouraged to try a new antenna and got extra points. I had a 154 foot long wire I wanted to try as a random longwire antenna. It was a special bronze/copper braided wire like we used in the military at times. When I took it out to the site and started unwinding it, it sprang into a tangled mess and it took me 90 minutes to untangle. Then my slingshot antenna launcher failed to work properly so I went to plan B… using my 20 foot Jackite pole to elevate the longwire antenna. But the weight of the antenna was too much for the fiberglass pole to handle so I lost more time repacking my station and returning home to get another antenna to use. YIKES! Time’s a wastin’.

With a 40 meter dipole fed with twinlead hastily thrown together, I tried again and managed 2 whole qso’s with my humble station. The event manager and his team had mercy on me and sent me this nice award for my efforts! I love it when a plan comes together!

My first ham radio award as K4UPG

A gathering of qrp afficionados from all over met in Branson, MO for a weekend of fun! The highlight for me was having our grandson along for the fun and helping him learn to solder in the Friday night Buildathon. Killian is 13 and seems to have a real knack for making solder smoke. His first kit was a success! Thanks to all the elmers who pitched in with tips and encouragement! My wife, Connie did a great writeup on our blog that has more photos and info with the perspective of a non-ham & grandma!

Uncle Cy, The LED Guy, gave Killian a lesson in how to handle LED circuits and a sample LED to try his newly learned knowledge! It worked and Killian was thrilled and wanted to make more.

Doug Hendricks, KI6DS and owner of QRPKITS.COM, as an educator took a real interest in Killian and presented him with a PCB vise and a couple of door prize items!

Despite poor weather during this weekend, we have some great memories and will look forward to getting back together with the Four States QRP Group in the future! Special thanks to Joe Eisenberg, K0NEB for the photo he sent us by email.

Starting to look like something good!

Spent my weekend building my Wilderness Sierra kit! What a fun kit and a real looker too! Now to get the KC-2 installed and align and calibrate things! Yahoo! Stay tuned for updates.

Now that's a looker! Top view before KC-2 Install

Beautiful layout pre-KC2 install

Gorgeous packaging! Wait until the KC-2 is installed.