NJQRP MEETING SUMMARY
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Eight members attended our September NJQRP meeting, this time held at our
“backup” location due to the Red Cross Center not being available for us
this month. This backup location (Forrestal Village Food Court) was just up
a little further on Rt. 1 there in Princeton, and we had just about the
whole place to ourselves.
Attending ... Al WA1CZG, Jack KB3OXW, Richard WB2ZKW, Ted W2TAG, Tony N2ATB,
Luis N2ZXE, Ray K2ULR, Curt WA2JSG and George N2APB.
The predominant theme of this month’s meeting was “boatanchors” ... the
vintage tube-style radios of yesteryear.
- George brought along the documentation for his latest homebrewing
project: the HBR-16 receiver. This is the 1962-vintage
dual-conversion receiver design of Ted Crosby, W6TC (SK), which was
published in a series of QST articles in the early 1960s. Many hams ended
up building this receiver, which was specifically targeted to be easy to
build by the average ham back then, as well as having performance comparable
to any commercial rig in that era. Ultimately the receiver did meet both
goals and collected a cult following over the years such that many are still
in use and new hams are building it anew (like George). Two books on CDs
cover the material and N2APB had them there printed out for show, along with
the gorgeous 1960s-vintage Eddystone 898 dial he plans on using in his
receiver.
- N2APB also had along a bunch of vintage radio books covering a
range of construction articles and commercial radios of that era. He showed
photos of his own boatanchors in active use the shack (Collins R-390,
Viking Invader 2000, National NC-183D, and Heathkit HW101.) Also some pics
of many in the process of restoration: NC-57, Hallicrafters S38B, Super
Defiant, Viking Challenger & Matchbox, and some Vietnam-era and WWII-era
“portable” radios. Much discussion went on relating to what other
boatanchor gear that others had, have or want to have.
- George showed his other in-process project too: BCB AM transmitting
antennas. He’s helping a friend who desires to transmit old time radio
programs from his MP3 player to various vintage floor-model AM receivers
around the house. The simple 10-foot wire on the back of his transmitter
isn’t good enough to reach the upstairs radios, so he wanted a better
transmitting antenna ... So the project naturally began with discussions
with good friend and radio guru Joe N2CX. Together we came up with several
experimental antennas that were shown at the meeting. One was a classic
base-loaded coil on a 3” PVC form and a 10’ copper pipe atop. Another was a
novel 3-foot-square Small Transmitting Loop forming a magnetic antenna with
standalone transmitting electronics in the base of the loop. And the last
was (discussion only) of ways to put the AM modulated 1700 kHz signal onto
the AC wiring that will act as the antenna throughout the house. Some great
ideas were offered by RF veterans WA1CZG, WB2ZKW and W2TAG. Thanks guys!
- Ray K2ULR brought some small MFJ Morse tutor boxes – one an audio
generating unit, and the other an audio decoder unit. Nice and flexible
with different modes, Ray described how he used them to come up to speed on
his Morse capabilities.
- Ray also showed us a very nice Tokyo 40-meter handi-talkie that
handles CW and SSB. Although it was electrically noisy there in the Food
Court, Ray described how it works fairly well.
- Ted W2TAG showed off a super small, $40 VHF handi-talkie that he
obtained from Hong Hong. Just search on “Jingtong”
- Newcomer to our meetings, Curt WA2JSG, was planning on heading out to
Grovers Mill site of the famous Martian Landing of 1938. I explained to
Carl that we in the NJQRP know that location well, as in years past this had
been the site for several Field Days, outdoor meetings, one or more
Halloween operating events, and even an NJQRP picnic! Sure hope Carl lives
to tell us the story of his visit (i.e., that he doesn’t get abducted).
- N2APB distributed kits of our famous first-ever NJQRP kit from about 13
years ago: the “Jersey Fireball 40” transmitter. The guys should
have some fun wiring up that easy-to-do retro kit and even getting it on the
air.
- Luis was telling us of a VFO that he wired up recently and didn’t
know what to do with it next. We suggested keying it with the TiCK keyer
from the FB40 kit, and putting the low pass filter on it too from the FB40
... Should get him on the air pretty well!
So overall, we enjoyed our backup facility for the meeting and some of us
had lunches from the different vendors there in the place: Japanese,
Subway, Deli, Chinese, etc. Just like the good old days back at the other
Food Court where we held our meeting for many years!
It was great seeing you all – thanks for coming!
73, George N2APB
PHOTOS
Last updated: October 18, 2009
