Held at The Red Cross Center, Alexander Road, Princeton, NJ
Begun informally after 9 a.m.
Attendees:
Six members and guests attended this meeting:
Gerry, N2GJ
Lenny, W2BVH
Ray, K2ULR
Brian, N2MPM
Dennis, W2IU
Arek, KC2TXZ
Joe, KC2VGL, was just getting out of his car in the parking lot, as we were all returning to ours, just prior to 11 a.m.
Meeting Notes:
Our Special Thanks to George, N2APB, and Joe, N2CX, for a very successful and enjoyable evening at the first NJQRP Forum, held December 7th, 2009, at the Forrestal Food Court. The presentations by both Joe and George were very informative, the "freebies" available for the rest of us to pick through, and the great door prizes were all appreciated.
Our meeting consisted of a Group Discussion of a variety of topics consisting of wireless technology, Brian pointing out that the meeting room no longer had internet access, and Dennis, reciting a joke, where an amateur New Jersey archeologist dug down 30ft., and finding nothing, concluded that New Jersey had gone wireless more than 300 years ago, as other states had established wire-based networks in the time thereafter ! Its Great to be from New Jersey !!
Ray brought to our attention that there is a QRP conference on ECHOLINK, and suggested that it generally starts getting "busy" around 9 p.m. local time.
At this time, Dennis also highlighted, as this was too new, and might have been missed by some of our members, a recent ARRL Bulletin released just before the Christmas holiday, announcing a new mission and a new name for the MARS program.
We did have a guest, Arek, KC2TXZ, who earlier had posted a need for help with his local town officials, as he wants to mount a GAP Titan antenna on his roof. It seems that the town, Keyport, NJ, was making it very difficult for him to follow through and mount the antenna as he wanted to, and sought our ideas on who he should speak to. Arek was referred to see if he could find out who his town's Emergency Management Officer is, and if not succeeding there, Brian and Gerry also directed him to seek out the Monmouth County Emergency Management Officer, and discuss the problem with him. There seems to be a trend growing in favor of amateur radio participation and action within the Federal government, with recent passage by the US Senate of an Emergency Communications Enhancement Act.
Dennis also presented an article from the July 1969 issue of ham radio magazine, of a "QRP transceiver", running from 10 to 75 watts, on 80 and 40, which was designed by one of his friends, while at school in Philadelphia. The point being that this friend, Dr. Richard Klinman, W3RJ, thought so highly of how well the rig that he and another ham designed performed in a Field Day contest back then, that he immediatly took it home and used it as his primary rig for quite some time. Knowing Rich's high concern for performance, it may be worthwhile to try and gather the parts and attempt to duplicate this rig, as it may prove to be quite the performer today, as it was regarded back in 1969.
Earlier Gerry had posted a request, on behalf of a friend, for a listing in a 1958 Callbook, for a K7CXT. One of the responses came from a Julius Madey, K2KGJ, acknowledging that this Callbook only went to the K7A- calls in 1958. What is important here is that this is the same person, as an A student in Arthur Johnson High School, who was running phone patches for the US Navy personnel stationed in Antarctica during the 1958 International Geophysical Year, and written up as part of an article in Boys' Life magazine, alluding to the fun of ham radio. He was living in Clark, NJ, and his outside antenna was a Telrex "Big Bertha" (A monster to say the least!). Only the 50 or 60 ft. mast of the antenna remains today. (Dennis emailed him, in his upstate New York QTH, but as of yet, has not received a reply.).
No other projects were discussed, and no photos are available from the meeting.
A quick tour of the N2ARC Red Cross station followed the general meeting, which then dispersed just before 11 a.m.
'Nuff said, 73,
Dennis, W2IU
See you all at the next meeting! (See the NJQRP Event Calendar for the full set of meeting dates.)
Last updated: June 14, 2010
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