Sorry there has not been any activity as of late

[Randy NV0U]

I have been out of action with the KCQRP group since the first of the year. Turns out I got to deal with melanoma - the most insidious form of skin cancer, and have been going through three surgeries and chemotherapy to wipe it out. Finally starting to feel good enough to do things once again. The reason I mention this is to remind everyone to do the simple task of "check those moles!" - if you see anything suspect, go see a dermatologist. This stuff is very nasty. The longer you wait, the worse it gets, and it gets worse really fast. And it is not just moles either. Really dark freckles can be something nasty as well. Do yourself a favor and get this stuff checked out.

Hope you all had a great field day! I operated with La Fayette County, Missouri ARES. Did not make a lot of Qs, but we had a good time, and the guys on the GOTA station had a lot of fun. We even had one young non ham running the station - he is now wanting to get his ticket! Stuff like that is great to see and totally blows away our poor showing in the QSO department.

For FD I built a NUE-PSK modem. ( http://nue-psk.com/ ). It is really slick, but does not work well for contesting - better to have a real computer for that - however, it works really well for portable use. It is small, about the size of a good thick book, and has everything that you need to play PSK-31/QPSK-31. They are currently working on adding RTTY to it as well as PSK-63.  It is NOT an easy build. The main CPU and LCD driver ICs are really tiny in the lead spacing department. That makes soldering difficult. Once you get past that though, you will be okay. All the other ICs and SMDs are easy - just make sure the EEPROM is soldered to the board. Mine wasn't. Turns out they changed to a larger capacity EEPROM but did not change the boards yet, so that throws the solder pads off. Just keep your beeping continuity tester handy and check all the leads to some other part of the board and you will be good to go. One thing I found exciting is this does NOT use a voltage regulator. Instead, it uses one of the buck devices which gives in the neighborhood of 90%+ efficiency when turning 12V to 5V. Try that with a 7805! It is still 3 leads and has a built on heat sink with associated circuitry. I hope we start seeing more of these things in rigs. For example, on the NUE-PSK, the dsPIC DSP/CPU draws 100mA by itself - that's not counting what the rest of the circuit draws. But when you check the current draw on the circuit it is a measly 60mA.

I don't have any other kits in the works at the moment, but have been looking at European QRP rigs. I had been wanting to get a Blue Cool Radio until I saw the reviews at eHam. Think I will pass until they get stuff straightened out over there. But, there is the Juma stuff (http://www.nikkemedia.fi/juma/ ) and it looks quite nice! Pity the USD/Euro conversion is so bad right now. That would make for a $1000 rig! Once things settle down in that field, I will be getting one.

Have also been looking at some of Doug Hendricks' toys (http://qrpkits.com/). He is carrying the new KD1JV PFR3 xcvr. It looks almost like a KX1, but has a built in manual tuner and only does 40/30/20. A KX1 has a built in auto tuner and does 80/40/30/20.

That's about it for now. We WILL be doing one of our KCQRP get togethers soon! If anyone has any ideas on where to go and what would be a good weekend, let me know. I know a few of us are thinking of going down to Joplin for one of the 4SQRP monthly meetings on a Saturday. This would be a drive down in the morning, eat, then come back home type of thing. If you are interested in doing that, again, let me know.

Oh, and by the way.....

CRAIG, KY0O (ex WA0WPJ) GOT MARRIED ON JUNE 21!  I don't have all the particulars, but word is XYL Janet also has her ticket now as well! Here is a great picture of the happy couple: http://www.kcvhfgridbandits.com/linked/p6216632.jpg . Congrats Craig and Janet!

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Randy NV0U