We are filling the training room at RadioShack.com for this meeting with
regularity now. The extra hour we have added to the meeting time is being
consumed too. So QRP is alive and well in the deep South!

There was a ton of discussion going on before, during and after the official
10AM to 1PM time scheduled. Some of the show and tell items that I remember
included:

Tom K4TJD showed his NJQRP SOP 40 mtr Rcvr and discussed the kit mods and
the test items included with the kit (AF osc and RF probe). Several NOGA
members have the SOP and there was a lively discussion on the kit and the
performance. Tom also had a very neatly built SMK-1 in the NJQRP enclosure.

Sam AE4GX showed his prototype multi-band xvcr to eventually be used for
stealth travel activities. The design in the TT2 and MRX class VXO xvcr. Sam
showed his prized TT PM3A (40/20) xcvr that he recently got from a sale off
the qrp-l list.

Sam discussed the Nor-Easter 6 meter AM xcvr group built project and
indicated that most of the 10 builders have received their group buy items.
Hopefully in the next couple of months we'll have a few of these on the air.

For more details about this 6 meter project check out
http://www.geneseo.net/~hollingw/images/6m_am.pdf for the original Rich
Littlefield article form Comm. Qtrly and
http://members.home.net/fspinner/W0FMS/IowaQRP for the IOWA QRP on-line
QTRLY Journal and the Walt Holling's N9MZP article that got the NOGA guys
interested. Russ AE4NY has one parts set (PCB, PTT relay, inductor, 2 xtals
50.400 and 50.250) that he will part with if you want to get in on this fun.

Russ can be contacted by email at rricha2@emory.edu

BTW individual PCB boards are available from FAR Circuits check out their
catalogue at FAR Circuits farcir@ais.net

Mike KO4WX showed his SOP and definitely added to the SOP discussion. Mike
and Sam operated independently for the ARS Bumblebee Contest last weekend
and discussed their activities and recommended that everyone try the monthly
ARS Spartan Sprint on the first Monday night of each month. Check the ARS
web site for details at http://www.natworld.com/ars/

BTW Mike is heading to Germany on a business trip soon and will be operating
QRP with his DSW20 too. He'll try the end-fed coax dipole mentioned below.

Mike W3IRZ had a great report on the initial NOGA-Watt kit offering. He as
kitted a limited number and is looking for someone to pick up a national
sale. This is a very special kit that all QRPers could use. You can contact
MIke W3IRZ at w3irz@att.net

Mike also had a limited number of glow in the dark (2 tube) transmitter kits
to offer to the NOGA members are a zero profit (in fact probably negative
since much of the parts came from his personal stash. It's a 1+ watt xtal
controlled transmitter complete with power supply. Brings back memories of
my Novice days in the late 1950's. Contact Mike at w3irz@att.net if you
missed this.

Pickett AD4S gave a NOGAPIG kit report and also showed his new "Cool" K2 in
the soft drink bag. Great item. Padded, insulated, light and relatively
cheap. Several members showed similar packing bags for their gear. That's
the neat thing about QRP gear its small enough to put into a wide variety of
products designed for other things.

Jim AD4J showed several items used on is last Germany business where he
operated QRP with his DSW20 and a neat end-fed dipole using a single piece
of RG-174 and a 16 ft of insulated hookup wire. The coax piece forms one
half of the dipole and the lead to the rig. A choke balun was made by
winding 8-10 turns of the RG-174 around a roll of "unused" toilet paper to
RF choke off the element from the remaining feeder. You can fine turn the
SWR by varying the point of the choke relative to the element length. This
is any old idea but you can see one example of it by looking at Dave Ingram'
Book "How to Get Started in QRP" page 95 article "An End Fed Dipole for
Condos. It's complete with drawings to help you see the components better
than my brief explanation.

Alan KG4IEW a new addition to the NOGA group indicated he is getting started
with his QRP operations with loaner gear from other NOGA members and showed
the group a Digital Down Converter chip AD6620 that he is planning to try to
use in a new concept QRP rig he is planning. He should us a prototyping
etching to use with the chip that has the ultra close pin closing much like
the DDS chip family that some of us had worked with. Allen will be getting
some advise and help from other NOGA members to get his prototyping testbed
up and running. Good luck Allen and please keep us informed.

Gene NN7CK a visitor from Asheville, NC got into a detailed discussion on
putting up wire antennas using slingshots and related launching aids. His
real work is related to building cell sites so he gets a lot of in the field
operating time with this sort of antenna erection method. thanks Gene for
sharing your techniques. Maybe a short article and pictures for the NOGA
web page would be helpful to folks across the country.

Russ AE4NY encouraged all NOGA folks to participate in the 2 mtr FM net and
80 mtr slow speed CW net on Tuesday nights. Check the NOGA web page for
details.

Jim Stafford President of ARCI briefed the group on ARCI activities and
encouraged all to join and participate with ARCI. Currently Mike KO4WX is
writing the QRV? column, Ed N4XY is the QQ Technical Editor, Ken W4DU is
the FDIM chairman and Pickett AD4S was this year's FDIM proceedings Editor
and Layout person. So NOGA is participating in the national ARCI effort.
Thanks guys for the volunteer work.

We have been a little behind in our own NOGA web page with updates due to
members being busy with work and family activities and we hope to get
additional volunteered to help in some of these thankless administrative
duties.

Hope to see you again next month, First Saturday of each month currently at
RadioShack.com store on Buford Hwy just outside of I-285 and Buford
intersection. See with the web page or me for more details.

This one one members view and is NOT complete. Check the NOGA web page is a
few days for more complete info.

Sam Billingsley AE4GX Atlanta, GA
personal web page at http://ae4gx.home.mindspring.com/
North Georgia QRP Club web page at http://www.qsl.net/nogaqrp/

Link:  W3IRZ's Tube Rig Below - Press this url to get to NOGA Web Page