Latest Posts

By all accounts, the club’s Field Day effort for 2017 was a big hit! Although solar conditions were less than spectacular, we made plenty of contacts and had a great time. Weather couldn’t be beat, too!

I wrote up my memories of Field Day for the club newsletter. Our venerable editor Keith KC0PP also submitted it to the ARRL Midwest District coordinator, and so it appeared in that newsletter as well. Take a look:

ARRL Midwest Division Newsletter August 2017

If this sounds like fun… it was. And it is! We’re always looking for hams, young and old, newcomers or veterans, to join us. Why not visit a meeting soon?

ARRL Field Day is less than a week away, and everything is coming together…

Publicity

We’ve been working to let the public know about our participation in Field Day:

• Facebook: St Louis QRP Society page
• St. Louis County Community News (see the issue to be published later this week)
• St. Louis Today
• St. Louis Today Calendar
• West Newsmagazine (press release submitted)

Special thanks to Janelle Haible, N0MTI, who’s the Public Information Officer for the St. Louis Metro ARES organization. Janelle got in touch with local news organizations, well in advance, to explain why news and feature desks would be getting multiple submissions from area ham clubs. This was a great idea — thanks Janelle!

Emergency Power

We will be operating 100% emergency power again this year. That means batteries alone will power all our operating gear (radios, tuners, keyers, etc.). We will also use solar power to make many of our contacts, so we will qualify for the Alternate Power bonus.

Weather

The Old Farmers Almanac says “Jun 17-24: Scattered t-storms, turning hot.” No surprise there! If you’re more interested in the modern approach, AccuWeather says “Saturday: Cloudy with thunderstorms possible–high 84 (RealFeel 85); Sunday: Mostly sunny–high 90 (RealFeel 91)”

Antennas

We’ll have a mix of antennas we’ve used before, along with some newcomers:

• 10M – Rotatable dipole
• 15M – Bisquare
• 20M – Mosley TA-33 Jr
• 40M – Half-square
• 80M – the venerable dipole
• 10-40 – Magnetic loop

Radios

This is always somewhat fluid, with changes right up until the start. But so far I think we will see these radios:

• Elecraft K2
• Elecraft KX3
• Yaesu FT-817

Operating Modes

We will be operating CW (Morse code) as we always do… but not exclusively. This year as in years past we will also be using SSB (voice). This year we will be spreading out our operations a bit — in the past we’ve had interference problems when two stations on the same band got in each other’s receivers. By separating our stations (and antennas) we hope to avoid that this year. Our location in O’Connor Park has plenty of space, and the official Field Day Rules allow for stations to be as much as 1,000 feet apart. We’ll take advantage of that this year!

Special Event – Landline Telegraphy

Speaking of operating modes… we’re looking forward to having Derek Cohn, WB0TUA, join us. He’s a landline telegraphy enthusiast, and will be bringing his setup to the park so he won’t miss the regular telegraphy “net”, which will take place from 1:00-2:00pm Saturday.

Members of the “St. Louis QRP Society” will be participating in the national Amateur Radio Field Day exercise, June 24-25 at O’Connor Park (12741 Hemet Dr) in Bridgeton. Since 1933, ham radio operators across North America have established temporary ham radio stations in public locations during Field Day to showcase the science and skill of Amateur Radio. This event is open to the public and all are encouraged to attend.

Amateur radio has been described as a “hobby of hobbies,” as there are many different special interest areas to explore. Some hams bounce their signals off the moon; others communicate via satellites orbiting the Earth. Many hams strive to make contact with hams in all fifty states, or in each country around the world.

This club’s specialty is low-power operation; hams that follow self-imposed low power guidelines (“QRP” in ham-speak) limit their power output to five watts or less. That’s less power than a tiny night light bulb. Building radios from kits, or even from scratch, is another popular pastime for these hams.

Why do this? “The challenge, of course!” said club member Jeff Logullo. “It’s always been a thrill to communicate over long distances; but to do it using a tiny radio you build yourself, that’s small enough to fit in your pocket—that’s almost magic.”

These hams frequently use Morse code to communicate—it turns out that using Morse code is very power efficient. But using the code is not strictly necessary, and it’s no longer required to learn Morse code before becoming licensed. The hobby is open to anyone, and there are now over 725,000 licensed hams in the United States. Clubs like the St. Louis QRP Society welcome visitors who’d like to learn first-hand what the excitement is all about.

For more information about Field Day, visit http://www.arrl.org/what-is-ham-radio

One of our annual traditions arrives in November, as we gather for a nice dinner to kick off the holidays. This year we will once again meet at Syberg’s at 270 and Dorsett.

Club Treasurer and all-around “man with the details” Tom Brown has posted the details on the “Meeting Info” tab of this site; here’s the scoop:

The November 16th meeting will be the SLQS Annual Dinner Meeting. This is our regular third Wednesday meeting night for the month. The club meeting will begin at 6:00 PM in a private room reserved at Syberg’s at the NE corner of I-270 & Dorsett Road. Directions to the Dorsett location and the full range menu are here: http://www.sybergs.com. We will be provided individual checks for food and beverages. We are considered a ‘large group’ so an 18% tip is automatically added. Come help SLQS celebrate the past year as well as start its 29th year! Spouses and guests always welcome. See you there!

Members and non-members alike are welcome! For members this is a good time to renew your membership. If you’re a visitor you get to see what we’re all about, while enjoying a meal with plenty of radio talk and visiting with friends old and new. Hope to see you there!

Dave NF0R sent out this announcement to several QRP lists… and I figured I’d better get it front and center on our web site:

The St. Louis QRP Society is holding its Annual Tailgate Sale Wednesday, September 21st at Creve Coeur Park.

There will be a KX2 station on the air plus other commercial and homebrew gear. And, homebrew antennas including mag loopsNever a charge to buy & sell. Brats off the grill, chips and sodas while they last.

SLQS is in its 29th year. We look forward to seeing you at the sale again or for the first time.

For more information, please click “Meeting Info” above. See you at the Tailgate!

Mel Whitten K0PFX would like to pass along news of an upcoming radio event in St. Louis… the 2016 Microwave Update conference is coming up in October. See the attached flyer for more info (click the image below to open the PDF in a new window):

You can also visit the event’s web site at http://microwaveupdate.org

Plans are well under way for our annual Field Day outing. This year, SLQS will operate from O’Connor Park in Bridgeton, MO. You can find us via the ARRL Field Day Site Locator; search for the callsign we’ll be using this year: NF0R. Naturally we’ll be operating QRP (power output limited to 5 watts or less), and we’ll be using 100% emergency power (batteries).

You might also like a straightforward Google Maps link if you’d like directions:

https://goo.gl/maps/iRJgNGTM7XR2

Field Day is alway the last full weekend in June; this year the dates are June 25-26. We’ll start setting up between 9:00 and 10:00am. The real fun begins at 1:00pm when hams across North America begin contacting each other. We’ll be at it from then until the finish, at 1:00pm Sunday.

Why do we do this? Well, the ARRL states the objective is “to work as many stations as possible on any and all amateur bands… and to learn to operate in abnormal situations in less than optimal conditions.” Essentially it’s an emergency preparedness exercise, but we do it in such a way that it’s a fun and friendly competition too.

We welcome visitors — in fact, any group that has posted their Field Day location would welcome a visit. Stop by and see what we’re up to!

The annual picnic will be held on May 18th at O’Connor Park in Bridgeton. This will also be our Field Day Site. We will gather around 6:00 p.m. You may come earlier if you would like to. We will be there until dark. The club will provide the Brats or Hot Dogs, to be determined by the SLQS Chef. You should bring whatever you would like to drink. You may also bring a snack or chips to share. We will investigate the site for FD antennas.

O’Connor Park is just north of I-270, between I-70 and 370. Here’s a link to Google Maps pointing to the park:

Google Maps: O’Connor Park

This year’s Builder’s Contest drew ten entries and good attendance. Thanks to Jon Poland, N0WL, for organizing this year’s friendly competition and awards ceremony.

Transmitter/Receiver/Transceiver category

• Best of Show and 1st place: Larry, N0SA, for his DDS Triband Radio.
• 2nd Place: Dave, W0DF, for his 40M CW Transceiver, using a DDS VFO and Arduino control.
• 3rd Place: Tim WA0TSY for his Junk Box 20M SSB Receiver.

Accessory category

• 1st place: Larry, N0SA, for his digital watt meter and dummy load in an Altoids tin
• 2nd place: Chuck, K6QKL, for the through-bone bluetooth hearing system
• 3rd place: Sam, W0PCE, for the enhanced and hacked N0SA SWR sweeper

Photos of the contest entries and a group photo of this year’s contestants appear in the club’s photo gallery.

Our annual SLQS dinner meeting was the occasion to recognize N0SA with the the club’s special NO0G Member Service Award by prior recipient AA0VE. Larry Naumann is the nineteenth member to be so honored during our club’s twenty-eight year history.

During the presentation John Lonigro recalled Larry’s key role in developing the accessory board kit for our 25th anniversary transceiver project. He then developed and managed three of our newest kits, including the end-fed antenna, a miniature dipole feed point, and most recently the magnetic single-lever paddle.

After his acceptance speech, Larry demonstrated his latest kit proposal to nineteen members attending the dinner. The new “SWR Sweeper” now under development could offer the club an opportunity to kit an Arduino-based handheld antenna analyzer in the future.