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This year our setup went more smoothly than usual, and we are on the air! Working on 40, 20, and 15 meter CW. And we’ve got the digital station running FT8 on 10m.

The club call for Field Day is N0A. Hope to work you this weekend!

We’re in the final Field Day prep phase. That means the next SLQS meeting will be held outdoors at our Field Day site in Spanish Village Park (12813 Spanish Village Dr, Bridgeton). The start time is fluid; some of us want to do some “dry run” setup of antennas so we’ll be there a little early. The official meeting start time can always be found on the Meeting Info page–be sure to check the day of the meeting for any last-minute updates. But you’re welcome to come out a bit earlier if you’re free.

On tap for tonight’s installation of the St. Louis QRP Society:

• How to save or resurrect your Evolve Ebook (Led by Keith KC0PP)
• A presentation on building a custom diplexer (Jim KK0U)
• Field Day planning and discussion (Jeff N0MII)
• General nonsense and snark (Matt W0MJ)
• Learned remarks of a vaguely questionable nature (Dave NF0R)

Be there!

Several members of the St. Louis QRP Society dusted off their radios and put MO on the air for the Missouri QSO Party, April 1-2! Folks went Field Day style, operated from parks, tents or operated from home. SLQS members posted some competitive finishes on 3830 Scores, and every score counts!

As of this writing, it looks like SLQS may have won the club competition, and there are almost 300 logs submitted from all over the world. SLQS members operated 1×1 calls (K0U, N0O, W0C, W0H and W0O) to help folks earn the spelling bee certificates. (MISSOURI and SHOW ME)

Two other state QSO parties ran the weekend of 1-2 April, and from the comments among the contesting types, it’s pretty clear that our QSO party was the most popular, due in part to the many 1×1 callsign operators, and folks going to rare counties.

Thanks to all SLQS members who participated, whether you make 1 contact or 1,000! Tom W0MFQ, Fred N9BSO, John AA0VE, Jeff N0MII, Ron KO0Z, Mike N0SO, Dave W0CDX/W0C, Sean KK9U/W0O, Derek WB0TUA/W0H and Tony KB9LLD/K0U. It’s great fun working folks you actually know in a contest.

To find out who did what, where, and most importantly how, see the April Peanut Whistle!

Briefly, Winter Field Day 2023 will go down in club history as a winner! The weather was unseasonably nice — we almost reached 60º! Jim KKØU warned us that we might need to break out the sunscreen at one point 🙂 It was windy and later in the day the temps began a steady down-slide… but overall, we caught a nice break.

The fire in the Cochran Shelter fireplace helped too!

Bands were not quite as hot as hoped, but we did okay. It was a casual affair with lots of participation, both members as well as guests. We had a total of thirteen SLQS members and four guests. Plenty of activity on 10/15/20/40 meters and we managed to stay active most all of the time we were there.

I’m pretty sure I heard the phrase “annual event” more than once yesterday… here’s to next year’s WFD!

Come one, come all, to SLQS’ annual “Tailgate Meeting” on Wednesday, September 21. There’s no charge and it’s open to anyone. Bring that radio “stuff” that’s looking for a new home; also be sure to slip a few extra bucks in the wallet before you leave home. You never know what you’ll find!

Aside from the browsing of other hams’ junk treasures, there will be plenty of time to talk radio, and to play radio. There’s at least one picnic table that becomes a “micro Field day” site for the evening. Got a portable rig or antenna you care to show? Bring it and let’s get it on the air!

There will be grilled bratwurst and chips available for a nominal fee while supply lasts (and they go fast!). Please bring your own beverages.

If you’re curious about our hobby… if you are interested in learning more about electronics, learning how to build and solder kits, discovering how we can have so much fun using low power and (gasp!) Morse code… stop by and introduce yourself.

We will meet once again in Creve Coeur Lake Park, in a parking lot that is perfect for this event. Here’s a pair of URLs, both of which will take you to a Google Maps page pointing to the meeting location:

https://bit.ly/slqsTailgate

https://goo.gl/maps/svoHbHTZYH62

Thanks to Bruce KB0FXC for sharing this video goodie! Bruce took some video of a “Key Night” meeting, back in 1995. (Wow! 27 years ago…)

Derek WB0TUA had kindly brought a (small!) subset of his extensive key collection to the meeting and gave everyone a historical tour.

Who do you see (or hear) that you recognize?

The club had a good showing for Winter Field Day 2022 — we had five or six operators plus a good number of folks that showed up for set-up, the snacks, and the camaraderie.

The location is one I’ve been scouting for a while now. It’s a shelter in Dr. Edmund Babler Memorial State Park that seemed to be on high ground. Visiting in the winter makes it a lot easier to get a sense of the geography. Topo maps showed it was on high ground, but seeing the horizon in all directions while the trees are without leaves confirmed that it would be a good spot.

The shelter had a fireplace! We picked up some firewood from the campground there (avoiding the moving of firewood — curse you, Emerald Ash Borer!). The 20m operators had the best and warmest spot! And actually, although the morning started in the teens (with wind chill in single digits!) we were above freezing and in the high 30s/low 40s for most of the afternoon.

A personal funny: I planned to use an off-center-fed dipole (an Aerial-51) raised on a Spiderbeam 12m (40’) mast. With only light winds and a short-time operation, I would forego guys and rely on my “ground mount sleeve” system. The key to its success is driving four short tent stakes into the ground. Well… the ground around the shelter was like concrete, and the first time I put the base up, I had chosen a poor spot. The mast was up in tree branches. So I decided to move it… but the stakes would not budge! and I had no good stake puller. So I used four fresh stakes, but drove them with a lot less vigor.

Turns out I should have given them a few more taps. With five minutes to go before the starting gun, I heard a “Hey! Look out!” and a “whoomp!” as the mast hit the ground. Oops! The club rallied and scrambled, and we got everything back up in the nick of time.

With the contest starting at 1:00 pm and the park closing at 6:00, we only had about four and a half hours to operate (allowing for tear-down before dark). And we were by no means gunning for high scores. We managed just over 100 QRP QSOs (mostly CW with a handful of SSB) over four bands (15, 20, 40, and 80). That, coupled with three 500-point bonuses (natural power, outdoor, remote) gave us a claimed score of 5,560 points.

The WFD team allowed for “COVID-19” mods to the rules this year. So we had several members who elected to work from home, and contribute their individual scores towards the club total. It will be fun to see everyone’s calls when the final tally is posted.

It was a fun outing, and I suspect we’ll be doing Winter Field Day again!

We’re getting together this Saturday (October 23) to play radio QRP style and have some fun! Location is the park where we’ve held Field Day as well as several club meetings this summer:

Spanish Village Park 12813 Spanish Village Dr, Bridgeton, MO 63044

Things will start at 9:00am and go through 1:00pm or so. Everyone’s welcome to bring radios, antennas, etc. Or just show up!

We had a fun and successful outing this year, with 373 CW, 188 digital, and 1 (!) SSB contact. Points for contacts were 5,615, plus bonus points of 1,150 for a final claimed club score of 6,765.

Details of the event are in the article Field Day 2021: Getting Back to Normal, which appeared in The Peanut Whistle.