What a delightful day for a meeting with our NETXQRP friends. It was sunny and just a little brisk. Of course it's always good weather when you don't plan to operate!!! Despite the pressures of the holidays and the flu bug going around (we missed you Dwain) we had a nice turnout:
If last month was K1 month, this month was SGC month. Rich, N5JI brought his SGC2020 along. He made sure we all knew he bought it for a song at an estate sale. Rub it in, Rich! It's really a terrific little rig. Extremely sturdy and most found the menuing/button system quite easy to understand. The continuously variable CW filter was pretty nifty as well. Rich said the only downside he had found with the rig was there was some AGC pumping in the presence of strong adjacent signals. Rich made the point that it's not a $2K rig but that it was certainly worth the new retail price of $675 or so.
Since we can't check out a rig without stringing an antenna, we enlisted Chuck, W5USW (local fox hunting joke - it's really W5USJ), to grab the 20 meter dipole from his truck and we strung it up.
Of course, once we string an antenna we need to make sure it's working correctly. Fortunately, George, W5YR brought his handy AEA Antenna Analyzer. So we connected it up and found out Chuck's hand-wound choke balun wasn't working as expected.
We didn't spend the whole meeting playing with the SGC. Preston brought his nicely finished Emtech ZM2 antenna tuner for us to admire.
Preston is also the proud owner of a pair of original Norcal paddles which he brought to the meeting. He finished the base in black so that they looked almost like the Vibroplex Code Warrior Jr. paddles. Lew, N5ZE, noticed that the paddle spacing is just a shade wider on the Norcal paddles than his Code Warrior, Jr.
Well, that just about concludes another month's meeting. It wouldn't be a NETXQRP meeting if Chuck, W5USJ, didn't bring along something in a Hammond box. So this time he brought his portable battery power supply. He put 4 D cells in a plastic Hammond style box (from All-Tex) with the Embedded Research EPS-1 DC to DC converter (voltage up-converter) that boosts the 6V battery supply to 12V. He also had a nifty portable power distribution panel he had built on yet another Hammond box.
Folks that's it for another terrific meeting. Each one gets better than the last. Have a joyous and safe Holiday and Happy New Year. Hope to see you all in January 2001!
