New England QRP Club : The Excitement is Building....

Hi Gang:

I just registered on the site. Last time I saw most of you was during Lobstercon 2008. A lot has changed since then.

First off Pat (KB3MCT) and I moved from Wilkes-Barre, PA down to Dacula, GA in September of 2008. We still have our house in PA but are actively trying to sell it...preferably to a ham....since it still has the 55 ft tower and TH-7DX beam installed!!

We drove up to PA for Thanksgiving and to get the house ready for the market. Intending to stay only 5-10 days, we drove back on Christas Eve...got sidetracked by an ice storm on I-81 just north of the North Carolina line. Had to RON for a few hours and then it was back on the road. Got to our place in Dacula about 11PM on Christmas Day.

Our "Christmas Present" was finding that our septic tank had backed up and we had raw sewage in both bath tubs, all over both bathroom floors and, in general, we were up to our scuppers in poop!! (Stop laughing Fitton!!!)

Anyway, this gave us the excuse to install two new high efficiency toilets and get the year-end tax credit so off to Home Depot we went, checkbook in hand!

The new shack is taking shape. Main rig is a 30+ year old Ten-Tec Argonaut 509, stock with a host of mods to install along with a PTO rebuild. The NE-QRP-SCAFF will be installed in a companion unit (appropriately called "Argo-Mate") to get some audio selectivity. I have an INRAD Model 751 8-pole crystal filter to replace the stock 4-pole filter in the Argo. This will make some difference but the SCAFF will ultimately define the receive signal selectivity.

While I do have a FT-817, that is mainly my ARES/RACES station, since it lives in a small "Go-Bag" along with spare batteries, V/UHF linear amp, etc, etc.

Just before Thanksgiving I picked up Jim Stafford's, W4QO, Elecraft K-1. It is a nice radio but overated and overpriced. About the only good thing I can say about the K-1 is I didn't have to build it (my eyes aren't what they use to be!!). I used the K-1 for the CQ WW CW test from PA. Had fun, but it was frustrating without proper antennas! I put several options into it and, for the money I have invested, my K-1 is a good rig. Primarily it will be used as my "trail rig".

Sitting on the shelf, all lonely and unused, is a Wilderness Radio NC-40A. QRP Bob (Dyer) sent me s/n 1000 and I need to fire it up and play with it once in a while. Its a great rig!!

Well, enough for now. I have had the SCAFF built for about 2 years just never put it in a box. My new 509 offers the needed excuse so I gotta get to work!

VY 73

Rich, K7 Sticky Zipper