N2APB gives "Why QRP" Talk
to Morris Radio Club on July 20th
I talked to the Morris Radio Club on the subject of "Why QRP" and was really well-received by the 35+ in attendance ... surprisingly so based on all the QRP jokes I overheard during setup and the meeting proper ... e.g., "life's too short for QRP". So I knew I had my work cut out for me.
I based my overhead slides off an amalgam of material many of you offered (thanks so much for all that!) and brought along a *ton* of gear ... equipment like the Sierra, NC40A, SW30+, Pixie, Tixie, Rainbow Tuners, my little blue boxes (for 38S, batteries, Rainbow Tuner, NZ QRP paddles) all 6 boards of the G3RJV 6-Pack, Tuna Tin 2, Herrring Aid, antennas (Halfer, Gusher, SLV), HW-8, simple paddles, and more. I kept the presentation pretty lively and animated, and passed around the room the various pieces of gear that was relevant to each part of the discussion. By the end of the talk I had all 30-or-so boards 'n stuff all over the room for people to touchy feely.
I had copies of the 68 slides (I went through some very quickly and many of them were color pics of rigs) in a neat consolidated stapled set ... 6-slides to a page and double-sided, for you Powerpoint aficionados. This turned out to be a pretty eagerly sought document after the meeting, as it overviewed a *lot* of the available QRP gear on the market today. (I geared the talk around small equipment and how one can get started.)
My talk didn't *start* until 9:00, so we didn't get to the on-the-air demo until 9:30 ... pretty well past the time I had quoted to you all before in my request for contact assist. Additionally, even though 40m was hoppin' before the meeting started at 7:30, it was pretty soggy by the time we got to it. Same too for 30m. Tried call for a while on each, but pretty quite with lots of weather-static. Went to 20m then and had great success! I and a couple of the members were working the Sierra (at 1W, of course) and made some interesting contacts. One was to a DXer down in the bottom who had some good interaction with us until we mentioned running QRP ... then he suddenly said he was loosing us in the QSB & QRN. (Pretty sad, actually, for the knowledgeable listener.)
Overall, the guys really enjoyed the show and were surprised that their interest was held. I had numerous requests for "pointers for information and kits", and referred them to some of the last sheets in my handouts containing a *bunch* of club, vendor, literature sources. (BTW, I had a spectrum of all the typical books & rags with me, like QRP Power, Joy, History, Dave Ingram's things, QRP Workbook, SPRAT, QRPp and QQ. A bunch of the guys were pouring over those until the "coffee & discussion" ended around 11:00 and they kicked us out of the Police Academy meeting room!)
Another big thing too was the "G3RJV 6-Pack" article copies (with permission) that I had along stacked up alongside all the boards that I had built up from FDIM. These articles went very quickly and there a lot of questions about the projects ... surprising, since I was told that the majority of members were not into homebrewing. And I understand that Bill Kelsey at Kanga US will be providing another run of the 6-Pack kits this fall ... maybe some dusty soldering irons will get plugged in now!
Clark Fishman WA2UNN surprised me by showing up too and was quite interactive with me while sitting in the audience. (Thanks Clark!) It's amazing how one can leverage some experience planted in the listening audience. When asked what kind of equipment is necessary to put together and align these kits, I gave the standard litany of "simple as ..." and he piped in "spectrum analyzer" to everyone's laughter. There's one in every crowd.
Again, thanks to all of you who contributed ideas and material for this thing, both online and off. Especially to Scott Rosenfeld, George Dobbs, Joe Everhart, Dick Pascoe, Dave Maliniak, Ade Weiss, Frank G3YCC, Bruce W6TOY, and all who might have given a listen for WQ2RP during the demo time. Much appreciated ... what a hobby ... what a group!
