Arkansas	Kansas	August 2002 Meeting	Missouri	Oklahoma

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The photos below are "clickable" to view a larger image file.

We had 17 enthusiastic QRP'ers in attendance for lunch today at Barney's Kitchen in Seneca, Missouri. The morning started out sunny in the four states, but the rain came in the afternoon.

Today we had a special treat, courtesy of Doug Hendricks, KI6DS, who donated 20 NB6M paddle kits to the group. The paddle kits will enable everyone to build a paddle and hopefully increase the population of CW operators. Thanks Doug!

Kelly Ellison WBØWQS, brought his brand new Elecraft K1 that he is building. Kelly has had one 40 meter CW contact (AE5X in new Jersey) with it. Just a little bit more tweaking and he will be ready for some serious QRP operating.

Cecil Weinstein NØEHP, who just finished building three new custom radio cabinets, brought one for a free raffle drawing. Ira Barton, KD5AUX was the lucky winner. Cecil made the steel cabinet the same size as a Heathkit HW-8. Looks like Ira will be doing some building soon!

Jay Rupar, KØETC taking a close look at WBØWQS's new Elecraft K1.	Ira Barton showing us his new custom built cabinet thanks to Cecil, NØEHP.

Gene, NØMQ brought a (new to him) OHR-500 transceiver that looked like a brand new radio. Gene reports that he is getting on CW more lately.

Walter AG5P and Joy NQ5R Dufrain surprised everybody by announcing a Builder's Contest, to be held during the cold winter months when we won't want to go outside to the city park. With many categories, there will be opportunities for everybody to build something by the February meeting. Thanks Walter and Joy for sponsoring the contest. This is going to be fun!

Joe Porter WØMQY, Walter and Joy Dufrain, AG5P & NQ5R discussing the Building Contest.	Don Dorn, K5AAR is active with both homebrewing and CW county hunting.

Don Dorn, K5AAR drove up from Lake Eufaula, Oklahoma today and brought an 80 meter home constructed rig for show and tell. Don is a master builder who has constructed many beautiful homebrew rigs over the years. They perform just as well as they look!

K5AAR's homebrew 80 meter CW transceiver. Don uses an array of LED's coupled to the tuning potentiometer voltage to indicate the frequency.	The innards of Don's transceiver reveal that it is built using Manhattan and "dead bug" construction techniques. The various stages are shielded and well filtered.

Don Jackson AE5K, brought a couple bags of transistors which he shared with everybody. One transistor type he gave out was a 6 legged dual transistor which looks interesting. Wonder if it would work in a Tuna Tin 2?

After another QRO lunch at Barney's and despite a threatening sky, we headed up the hill to the Seneca city park for some out-of-doors QRP fun. Also today, we tried something new - a swap meet!

Ira Barton KD5AUX operating on 20 meters SSB with a White Mountain. He is using a rotatable dipole antenna using two ham sticks.	Walter AG5P working an Arizona station on 20 meters CW with his Patcomm PC-500 while the other guys examine the swap meet treasures.

Walter AG5P put up a stealth end-fed wire in an inverted vee configuration with a 20 foot fishing pole for the central support. He used a very small gauge wire which was almost invisible. That would be a good antenna for antenna restricted operators.

Our swap meet was a lot of fun and looks like this may become a standard part of our monthly get-togethers. Lots of parts and pieces were swapped and given away in true QRP sharing spirit.

Next month (September) will be the six month anniversary of our QRP group and to celebrate, we will be doing something different: a cookout and mini field day. We will meet at Twin Bridges State Park, just west of Wyandotte, Oklahoma.

Four State QRP Group: No Rules, No Agenda - Just Fun!