New Jersey QRP Club

NJQRP Club Meeting Recap: Jan 19, 2013

Great turnout this month! We had a wonderful time catching up after the holidays, showing off our newfound treasures, trading parts, giving away surplus goodies, and generally great discussion. We had about 15 guys attend(!) and a new member join us: Pat Cawthorne, W2SK brother of longtime member and homebrewing artists extraordinaire John Cawthorne KE3S.

General discussion among members ...

CW from top: Joe N2CX, Frank N3PUU, Joe KC2VGL	CW from top left: Joe KC2VGL, Jim K2SZ and Joe N2CX
From left: Ray K2ULR, Jim N2ADR, Cory WA2VVL	From left: Dave WA2DJN, Pat W2SK, John KE3S, Dave AA3UR
Jim K2SZ and Gerry "How Big Is Yours?" N2GJ
SHOW 'n TELL ... The Best Part of the Meetings!
Joe N2CX ...
Joe showing off his find from a recent jaunt to the New England area ... the Vellaman HPS-140i Handheld Scope ... about $100	http://www.amazon.com/VELLEMAN-HPS140I-HANDHELD-POCKET-included/dp/B004QYOXQS
Over the holidays Joe built up the TAPIR "electronic sniffer" from Elektor Magazine ... http://www.elektor.com/news/elektor-tapir-sniffs-out-electro-smog.2200626.lynkx
N2CX showing off a fabulous reference book ... "The Darker Side ... Practical Applications for Electronic Design Concepts from Circuit Cellar" http://store.elsevier.com/Robert-Lacostes-The-Darker-Side/Robert-Lacoste/isbn-9781856177627/
	And a nifty version of the AQRP Step Attenuator Switch project
Joe is always thinking of N2APB ... and this time he found a solar powered flying pig to complement the Pig Radio he got him in November.
Gerry N2GJ
Gerry was on the NTS Traffic Net during a portion of the meeting	Then he gave an exciting walk-thru description of his portable station

A close-up of the nice stand for his iPad ... What kind is it Gerry?	Pointing out how the latest mic from Flex Radio looks very similar to the one for the Yaesu FT-817
Adapter to allow the iPad to connect into the audio path for SDR display usage	The ARRL/AMSAT Broadband pre-amp for the FT-817
The FT817 Power Conditioner, available from Wulfden Shoppe http://www.wulfden.org/TheShoppe/ft817/index.shtml

Dave AA3UR
Somehow Dave eluded the camera during all the shots - amazing! But this is what he brought along for show 'n tell ... This is the DVB-T stick on eBay. Just search for rtl2832-u.. This will result in a whole bunch of listings. Be sure that it has the Elonics EL4000 tuner chip in addition to the Realtek RTL2832-u.
Ray K2ULR ...
Ray brought along his nifty "Porta Shack" ... It's the EditPro 140 camera bag ... http://products.lowepro.com/product/Edit-140,1941,22.htm	Contains Ray's Elecraft KX3, antenna and accessories
Jim K2SZ
Jim brought some wonderful surplus parts for us to scrounge through. ... And this is only what's left!
Cory WA2UVV
Cory showing off his MFJ9200 Mini-Multiband QRP Transceiver
A little trick of paralleling three 9V batteries to get a longer outing in the field	Close-up on the band modules
http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-9220	And a holiday project, turning an old mouse into a CW paddle!
Dave WA2DJN
Dave is a very special member of the NJQRP, always homebrewing and coming up with different ideas for us all. Here he is showing off one of the projects he built up over the holiday break, a regenerative receiver.

And here's ANOTHER regen receiver that Dave built up recently!


And Dave has always been into making up little homebrew "assistance accessories" ... This one for holding onto a PC board during construction.	The "Board Holder" from the pages of the QRP Quarterly
Resident homebrew construction guru John Cawthorne V, KE3S, closely inspecting the nice work in WA2DJN's regen receiver. PS: That's John's brother Pat looking on, also an Extra Class ham, joining us for the first time ... welcome Pat!
From George N2APB ...
While high on Flu medication over the holiday break, George was able to complete some kits that have been dormant in the back room for some time. He is especially proud of this newly-assembled JUMA PA100D, a 100W RF power amplifier that is perfect for taking his Elecraft K2 and the SDR Cube up into the Big Boy power category when needed. The PA100D is a fabulous engineering job done by the JUMA team over in Finland, and is an exceptional hardware/software design to consider when you need the extra oomph ... http://www.nikkemedia.fi/juma-pa100/	It was a killer bout with the flu, and again while loopy on the good drugs this holiday, N2APB completed a long-dormant kit from the back room: the Z90 SpectraScan Digital Panadapter from Clifton Labs. The panadapter went together without a hitch and now proudly displays the close-in signals at the IF of George's boatanchors on the operating bench. VERY cool project ... don't know why it took so long to complete! BTW, another project is shown here too ... it's the prototype for the C-Line "DC PowerCube" that goes along with the SDR Cube Transceiver. This LiPo-powered Cube box supplies up to 4 A-Hrs of power to companion accessories on the bench.
From John KE3S ...
And lastly, how could we not show the impeccable and unsurpassed quality workmanship of John Cawthorne V, KE3S. John's construction expertise spans electronic kit building, regen receiver construction, ultra-light airplane design and flight, woodworking ... and now ships in a bottle! Many of us mentioned that the next time John needed a Jack Daniels bottle for his next ship, we'd gladly drain it of its contents for him!