Atlanticon 2003 QRP Forum
In retrospect ... a terriffic weekend!

|  Summary |  Sniffer Hunt  |  Photos  |

|  Prize Donations  |  Volunteer Staff  |  Speaking Staff  |

Summary by Dave Porter, AA3UR ...

What a weekend!  All the planning, all the kitting, all the mailing kits....

On Friday night, while the speakers and most other early birds were enjoying crab cakes, the Atlanticon staff sat in the lounge area of the hotel devouring what we could find of the hot chicken pieces (all that was left) and tiny pizza bits while figuring out who would do what to whom.  At last, a plan was hatched and we left to get all of the stuff required to turn the meeting room into Atlanticon.

All of a sudden, we had people manning the registration table, people manning the kits table, people manning the Badger Smart badge / PSK31 Audio Beacon programming, and all the other vendors setting up for business.  It was upon us!  I often hear waiting for Atlanticon compared to waiting for Christmas. For the Atlanticon staff, it was like parents waiting for Christmas.

As the evening went on, most of us got an opportunity to wander around and see what everyone was offering.  Custom QSL cards by Jeff Heatherington; Little Red Keys from Gil Kost of American Manufacturing Key Company; a display by Dave Benson's Small Wonder Labs of  his new DSW II and a Rock Mite in the blue aluminum case;  lots of technical books by Greg Lawrence of QRP Books; magazines, a 40-30-20 meter transceiver in an Altoids tin and an SWL table top receiver, a truly rock-bound Rock Mite; and from the NJQRP Cub table:  Halfers and Gushers, Islanders, Past Proceedings, SOP Kits, Sniffer Kits, Website-on-CDROM discs, Quickie Labs, IOXs, a funny Plexiglas box with three pushbuttons on one end and three lights on the other, and more.  It really was like Christmas in March.  Soon there was a room full of happy QRPers able to put faces to calls, catch up on tips and techniques, and see what people have built and how they did it.  What else could you ask for?

Saturday morning began with a very large breakfast to make up for the paltry pickings I had from the night before.  OK, too large.  Then, off to the large meeting room to set up.  The Atlanticon staffers again set up the registration table even before I got there.  The Badger / Beacon programming station was already set up, and we soon had a sales table set up and manned. For the hour before the kick-off of Atlanticon, more milling around, making sure everyone had what they needed and answering questions, to say nothing of grabbing another cup of coffee for my already taxed tummy.  While arranging the door prizes, I was amazed at how many we had.  I had roughly grouped the loot into drawings of three items each.  We had more groups than we had places in the agenda!  Thanks to all who donated prizes.  (See separate section below.)

And then, there was the Atlanticon presentations by the speakers ... all day long!  As I think back, it was all sort of a blur, so I may have some of the following out of sequence.  With some remarks from George Heron N2APB and some logistical comments from myself, Atlanticon was handed over to Rich Arland, and the games began!  Rich was entertaining, as always, and we launched into the world of practical portable antennas by James Bennet, KA5DVS.  James reviewed his passion and motivation for portable vertical antennas, then he showed us his PAC-12 how to make them -- a really great antenna.  Then we had a break, and the first prize drawing.  A talk about the Quickie Lab was done by Joe Everhart, N2CX -- this kit is a very exciting introduction to microprocessors and can be programmed easily with PBASIC.  A very entertaining talk followed from Doug Hendricks, KI6DS, on having fun with QRP in contests, or how to plant antennas in parking lots :-).  We then broke for the traditional box lunch and listened to our keynote lunchtime speaker, Jon Iza, EA2SN. His talk kept us chuckling and surprised me with just how hard it was for a youngster with an electronics lab Christmas present to become a ham radio operator in a dictatorial country.  Another fantastic speaker during lunch was Brian Riley, N1BQ of the Northern Vermont QRP Society.  Brian gave a fascinating talk about the fun of taking QRP to the field in all kinds of weather.  Great pictures of the FYBO at 10 degrees too! Dave Benson, K1SWL, followed with an "Ask Mr. Wizard" session, in which we discovered loads of about commonly asked technical QRP questions and stuff about his products, including the DSW-II.  Jim Kortge, K8IQY then showed us his new 2n2/30 transceiver -- what a beauty!  Each time I see his work, it only gets better.  Craig Johnson, AA0ZZ completed the day with his talk about using the AD9854 DDS chip as a high-precision, stable and accurate VFO that is just ideal for serving as the local oscillator to popular high-end receiver kits like the R2PRO.  A real tour de force!  

At the end of the talks, we quickly dispatched the remaining prizes, working up to the mystery main prize.  This prize was donated by the North Virginia QRP Club and was worth waiting for!  Beta #2 of the DSW II.  You don't come along something like that very often!  Closing remarks were made by everyone with thanks to everyone.  Oh yeah, I also revealed the secret to the plastic box with three switches and three lights.

After a break for Dinner, it all started again with the Saturday evening festivities in the ballroom.  Homebrew items came out of the woodwork.  Sniffers were sticking their noses into nearly everything. It was a site to behold.  The home brewing contest was won by Jim Kortge with his 2n2/30, second place by John Cawthorne, KE3S, third by Nancy Feeny, NJ8B, and I am sorry to say I don't remember the name of the winner of the youth division.

Everyone was then hurried out of the room so we could place the hidden transmitters.  The sniffers were allowed back in, and went to town.  All the transmitters were found, but no contestant found all of them.  One was under a table, one hidden in the flag, one was on George Heron, and I still don't know where the last one was.  See the separate section describing the Sniffer Hunt below.

The rest of the night was spent packing up, cleaning up and having a nice beer with some of the staff and a few others.

Thanks to the volunteer helper staff and to all those who donated prizes.  (Both are broken out in separate sections below.)

In case I didn't say it before, I owe a special thanks to George Heron, N2APB who once again pulled more weight than his share in getting it together, despite all the help he had.  Without his effort, the efforts of the rest of us would not have had the coherence and impact that we did.

It was another wonderful Atlanticon!!!!!

Dave, AA3UR

The Special Saturday Evening Activity -- "Sniffer Fox Hunt"

As you probably know, the featured kit for this year's Atlanticon was the "Sniffer", a multiband high-sensitivity-tuned Field Strength Meter. And those of you who have been to past Atlanticons remember that we always run an event using the current kit.  This not only lets those who've built them demonstrate their handiwork and prowess, but it usually adds a high entertainment factor.

One of the neatest uses for an FSM is locating RF sources, either intentional hidden or otherwise unknown.  In that spirit we ushered the group briefly out of the hospitality suite on Saturday night and "salted" the place with some clandestine emitters.

These were simple low-power transmitters based on the G-QRP Oner transmitter, designed by GM3OXX, and the crystals were supplied by NorCal.  Built ugly Manhattan style (I'll never win a building contest on beauty) and powered by 9-volt alkaline batteries they ran 100-200 mW -- just enough for an indoor event. The antennas were 5 foot wire dipoles built with chokes for loading coils that were more or less resonant.  Each transmitter was keyed by a 555 timer whose "on" duration was tailored band by band.  The 20 meter rig had an on-time of 1 second, the one for 30 meters was 2 seconds in duration and the 40 meter job stayed on for about 5 seconds.

Transmitters are tough to hide in a hotel ballroom!  We ended up taping two of them under long tables and the third to the shaft of a flag.  Covers hanging over the edge of the tables disguised what was underneath, and careful arrangement of the flag hid the rig and antenna from casual view.

The contestants were told that three or four transmitters were hidden "somewhere" in the room and that they would be given roughly 30 minutes to locate them.  Each was to report the location of each emitter found and any identifying characteristics (frequency, modulation, etc). John Cawthorne, KE3S was the official scribe for the event.

Several dozen hunters proceeded to sniff the premises.  Impressively, most immediately detected the presence of the foxes and proceeded to locate them on the basis of signal strength.  That's when the fun began.  They very quickly homed in on the sources but tried to be clever about it so that others didn't know exactly what they were up to.  Several folks also found it takes some skill to actually determine the exact location of a hidden transmitter. 

The general location of the table-mounted transmitters was discovered pretty quickly, but the exact source remained a mystery.  Not thinking that we would be devious enough to put a rig under a table, folks figured that they had to be on top.  The VA3JFF QSL table had lots of scrutiny and folks figured the transmitter just had to be in a box or perhaps on the vendor's sign on top of the table.  The other table transmitter was mounted under one with projects for the construction competition.  The contestants very carefully examined Rich Arland's and Jim Fitton's rigs suspecting that they were the source.

But the flagpole rig made for the most fun!  To keep prying eyes away from the flagpole we had dragged a large trashcan in front of it.  Several hunters pawed through the contents and partially pulled the liner out to determine the source - there's an incriminating picture of John, W2AGN suspicious eyeing the garbage!

As they say on TV ads, "But wait, there's more!"  In his inevitable deviousness, George N2APB hid a fourth transmitter on his person.  With random wire wrapped from leg to leg and snaking around his torso, George prowled around "helping" hunters while randomly keying up.  It didn't take too long for the gang to catch on.  At least George doesn't want any more offspring ...

In the end most of the contestants found at least two or three of the rigs and a handful also uncovered the mobile fox.  Judging was difficult since four folks had found all of the rigs and closely identified the keying characteristics. We had to assign points values and screen on the basis of exact identification.

All of the contestants did a great job and the final four were outstanding. 
The winners were:
    #1 Bill Noyce, AB1AV
    #2  Hugh Melton, KF4WAS
    #3  John Sielke, W2AGN
    #4 Nancy Feeney,  NJ8B (Nancy was also one of the construction contest winners.)

73, Joe N2CX

Prize Donations

Special thanks to Michael Bower and Ed Lyon for arranging for the NoVaQRP Club to donate the Mystery Main Prize, the Beta #2 DSW-II.

• Tuna Tin II Kit (Jay Bromley W5JAY, Ft Smith QRP Group)

• Custom hats for the speaker staff (Trish & Rich Arland, K7SZ)

• HFPack Amplifier Kit (Tom McCuen, AA2VK)

• Tuna Tin 2 "TinderBox" Kits (2) (Larry Przyborowski)

• TableTop Nor'Easter Kit (Steve Weber, KD1JV)

• RockMite Audio Filters (2) (Steve Weber, KD1JV)

• SW-40+ Kit & Controls (Dave Benson, Small Wonder Labs)

• RockMite Kit & Enclosure (Dave Benson, Small Wonder Labs)

• NorCal Capacitor Kit (Doug Hendricks, KI6DS, NorCal)

• NorCal SMK-1 Kit (Doug Hendricks, KI6DS, NorCal)

• NorCal BLT Tuner Kit (Doug Hendricks, KI6DS, NorCal)

• TAC-1 40m CW Xcvr, assembled+tested (Paul Taylor, WB2GIN)

• DSW-II kit (from NoVaQRP)

• ARRL Handbook (from NoVaQRP)

• NorCal BLT Tuner kit (Doug Hendricks, KI6DS, NorCal)

• Experimental Methods in RF Design book (from W1RFI/ARRL)

• QEX mags (from W1RFI/ARRL)

• ARRL Passport book (from W1RFI/ARRL)

• Hat, Shirt, License Plate, Mouse Pad, and Pennant (Mitch Mitchell,Vobroplex)

• EMFRFD, RSGB Low Power Scrap Book, ARRL World Map (Greg Lawrence, QRP Books)

• Passive CW Filters (2)  (Rich Arland, K7SZ)

• 250 Custom Designed QSL Cards (Jeff - VA3JFF)

• 100 Custom Designed QSL Cards (Jeff - VA3JFF)

• 100 Custom Designed QSL Cards (Jeff - VA3JFF)

• QRP Calendars (3) (EPAQRP, Ron Polityka, WB3AAL)

Also, another very special "thank you" to Scott Gregson, owner/proprietor of EMTECH, who did an absolutely super job of printing our Proceedings booklets. I very much enjoyed working with Scott on this project.  (By the way, Scott further helped us QRPers by providing the Sniffer polyvaricon tuning capacitors at his cost.)  We can show our appreciation by visiting his website of QRP goods at http://emtech.steadynet.com/) 

Volunteer Staff

Special thanks to the following folks who helped make things run smoothly during the Atlanticon weekend, or in preparation for it.  Without them, we would have no QRP weekend at all!  

• Bryan Williams for producing the badges with a very short lead time.

• John Cawthorne for kitting the Sniffers, Islanders, and helping with the drawings and sales table.

• Mike Korejwo for helping with the Serial Senders and the PVXO kits

• Allan Owen for kitting the Serial Senders

• John DeGood for kitting the Rainbow Tuner.

• Gerry Jurrens for kitting the W1CG Baluns

• David Willmore for producing the CD-ROMS and helping with sales at the club table

• Michael Bower for running the Registration table

• Ed Lyon for running the registration table
  

Speaking Staff

What a terrific speaker lineup we had for everyone this year!  The illustrious speakers included:

•     Doug Hendricks, KI6DS     (read about Doug's presentation)

•     Dave Benson, K1SWL       (read about Dave's presentation)

•     Jim Kortge, K8IQY             (read about Jim's presentation)

•     James Bennett, KA5DVS   (read about James' presentation)

•     Joe Everhart, N2CX           (read about Joe's presentation)

•     Craig Johnson, AA0ZZ       (read about Craig's presentation)

•     Jon Iza, EA2SN                 (read about Jon's presentation)

And thanks to Brian Riley, N1BQ, who provided some additional lunchtime presentation of the Vermont QRP Club field activities.

Once again,  Rich Arland, K7SZ was the emcee for the seminars, introducing the speakers with a flair and panache that few can imagine. Rich is the noted author of the QRP Power column in QST and of other QRP publications throughout his many years as an energetic evangelist of QRP, and we were real proud to have him assist again this year.

Atlanticon 2003 Photo Album ...

Photos by George N2APB, Max VE2HAC and Brian N1BQ, along with some help by Ron WB3AAL.  

(I'll write a short 1-line description of each photo, but it'll take a while for all these!  I wanted to get the pics posted asap, so here you go! -- n2apb.)