Last weekend, our family had its annual get-together “up north,” as we say here in Michigan, at some cabins on Elk Lake. As I have for the last three years, I took my Elecraft KX-1 and did some operating.
This year, I had a lot more success than in years past. I attribute that to my [...]

Well, I got back from three days at the Dayton Hamvention last night, and as usual, it was a real blast.
As I did two years ago, I started this year’s event with QRP-Amateur Radio Club International’s Four Days in May seminars. This series of seminars lasts from 8:30 until about 4:00 pm and are [...]

I’ve written before about how it would be nice if QRP ops had a little more ooomph from time to time. I was thinking that 20 or 30 W would be a good figure to shoot for. That’s a little over 6 dB for a 5 W transmitter.
For even lower-power rigs, such as the [...]

Brad, AA1IP, writes to the Flying Pigs QRP mailing list:
The November 2007 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine describes “Breakthrough Awards”, one of
which discusses an interesting power source. Picture a taut membrane clamped at both ends, with a small button magnet affixed near each end. When the wind blows, the membrane vibrates, moving the magnets into [...]

The 12/26/07 of the ARRL Contest Rate Sheet had the following item:
Next time you open up your radio, consider that 55 years ago George Rose K2AH, made the first solid-state amateur transmission with a single-transistor homebrew rig. It used an RCA point-contact germanium transistor. Rose measured an input power of 24 mW and estimated [...]

The IC-735 is set at the factory to output about 10 W when the output control is at the lowest setting. It’s not difficult, though, to change this setting. All that’s required is to adjust a pot on the main board. Dave, G3VGR, has a very nice page with clearly written instructions and a photo [...]

Since I’ve owned my KX-1, the only two antennas that I’ve ever connected to it are the 40m dipole in my backyard and the 28-ft. wire (with three radials) described in the KX-1 manual. The 28-ft. wire is the only antenna I’ve ever used when operating portable.
While I’ve had good success with the wire, I [...]

The June 2007 issue of the Flying Pigs’ Bacon Bits Quarterly (BBQ) is now online. Articles include:

Harbor Freight 45W Solar Panel “Kit” — By Rich Arland, W3OSS
Hams Are Cheap! by yours truly, FP #1171
Hamming It Off the Grid – By Dennis Ponsness, WB0WAO, FP #347
Building the SW-40+ — By Dan Lautenschleger, AB9ME FP#1570
Run For the [...]

According to Gene, N0MQ, Wayne McFee, NB6M has designed a new kit for the 4SQRP Group us. It is an HF Test Kit with the following functions:

Frequency Counter
Crystal Oscillator
Wideband Noise Generator
Audio Oscillator
50 ohm Dummy Load
RF Probe
Time Domain Reflectometer

This kit is all thru hole parts with no SMT parts. Because of the large cost involved, 4SQRP [...]

On the QRP-L.Org mailing list, there’s been some discussion about why people become QRPers. Here’s the list so far:

High power is too easy. These folks enjoy the challenge of QRP.
There are restrictions on antennas where they live.
They’re tree huggers who want to conserve energy.
They like to build their own equipment.
They’re too cheap to buy high-power [...]