Two things you can count on when Field Day rolls around: rain (usually) and heat (almost always).
This year is no different. We hit 96º degrees or so, and the humidity gave us a few degree boost, with the “Feels Like” temperature reaching 99º. Deprived of hitting triple digits. Grr. Felt like 100 — so there!
We have finished a delicious FD dinner: the traditional SLQS meal of pork steaks, cole slaw and potato salad. Big plus: KK9U’s XYL baked an awesome spread of desserts: cookies of several types. But my favorite: little Rice Krispie treats shaped and decorated to look like HTs. Awesome!
Okay. This is cute. A little HT (“walkie-talkie” in hamspeak) for dessert!
This year our setup went more smoothly than usual, and we are on the air! Working on 40, 20, and 15 meter CW. And we’ve got the digital station running FT8 on 10m
The club call for Field Day is N0A. Hope to work you this weekend!
Military mast plus custom N0SA gazebo mount goes up to hold our 20m dipole plus a long wire
Several members of the St. Louis QRP Society dusted off their radios and put MO on the air for the Missouri QSO Party, April 1-2! Folks went Field Day style, operated from parks, tents or operated from home. SLQS members posted some competitive finishes on 3830 Scores, and every score counts!
Tony KB9LLD (K0U) and John AC9XX (N0U) roughing it for breakfast at Arrow Rock State Historic Site.
As of this writing, it looks like SLQS may have won the club competition, and there are almost 300 logs submitted from all over the world. SLQS members operated 1×1 calls (K0U, N0O, W0C, W0H and W0O) to help folks earn the spelling bee certificates. (MISSOURI and SHOW ME)
Activity map of Sean KK9U’s (W0O) operation from Lake of the Ozarks State Park. Check out the Peanut Whistle for details of how he did, and links to this useful website he used!
Two other state QSO parties ran the weekend of 1-2 April, and from the comments among the contesting types, it’s pretty clear that our QSO party was the most popular, due in part to the many 1×1 callsign operators, and folks going to rare counties.
Thanks to all SLQS members who participated, whether you make 1 contact or 1,000! Tom W0MFQ, Fred N9BSO, John AA0VE, Jeff N0MII, Ron KO0Z, Mike N0SO, Dave W0CDX/W0C, Sean KK9U/W0O, Derek WB0TUA/W0H and Tony KB9LLD/K0U. It’s great fun working folks you actually know in a contest.
To find out who did what, where, and most importantly how, see the April Peanut Whistle!
Briefly, Winter Field Day 2023 will go down in club history as a winner! The weather was unseasonably nice — we almost reached 60º! Jim KKØU warned us that we might need to break out the sunscreen at one point 🙂 It was windy and later in the day the temps began a steady down-slide… but overall, we caught a nice break.
The fire in the Cochran Shelter fireplace helped too!
Bands were not quite as hot as hoped, but we did okay. It was a casual affair with lots of participation, both members as well as guests. We had a total of thirteen SLQS members and four guests. Plenty of activity on 10/15/20/40 meters and we managed to stay active most all of the time we were there.
I’m pretty sure I heard the phrase “annual event” more than once yesterday… here’s to next year’s WFD!
I had the pleasure of giving a presentation about QRP operation at Winterfest 2020. After my talk, I was asked if I could share my slides. I’m happy to do so. The URL links are all active, which will help you find the resources, companies, and clubs that I mentioned in my talk.
One thing I want to be clear about: I am sympathetic to strong opinions on different operating modes. I have my preferences, and so do others. Ham Radio is a big tent and there’s room for all. I had nice things to say about SSB QRP as well as FT8.
That said, I did (and do) encourage anyone interested in QRP operation to consider learning CW. Indeed, there seem to be a good number of new hams attracted to the hobby precisely because of the attraction of learning CW.
So take what you see in my slides with a grain of salt. If you find yourself getting a little agitated… you probably wouldn’t feel that way if you’d have heard my talk.
(Unless you’re a Cub fan. Then the above does not apply.)
Kudos to the St. Louis & Suburban Radio Club for hosting an outstanding ham radio event last weekend! Winterfest has always been recognized as a premier hamfest/flea market in the metro St. Louis area. But this year, SLSRC pulled out all the stops, bringing the ARRL Midwest Convention, plus two days of educational forums, plus “Contest College” Saturday… it was an outstanding event!
Our club hosted an information table and we were busy throughout the day, talking with folks about what we do. Hat tip to Keith Arns KC0PP for designing our booth’s sign supports, complete with American flags. We were easy to find!
Several members brought projects for display. Bob Pritchard K0FHG brought his Paraset, as well as a number of other more modern QRP kit radios. Keith displayed three different hand-built dual lever paddles. The center of the table featured a beautiful “hollow state” transmitter, complete with transmitting tube and a copper loading coil. Lots of guys did a double-take and came back to give it a much closer look.
I was pretty distracted in the morning (getting ready to deliver a presentation on QRP for the forums!) and so I really dropped the ball on taking photos. Watch this space for updates as I know there’s more pix to come.
Well, what do you know? The SLQS came out on top in our Field Day category of 4A Battery!
I know it’s not a contest*, strictly speaking, but let’s not kid ourselves. We count our contacts, work to tally bonus points, and send it all in so that we can see how we did. So it’s fun to see this in the pages of QST:
The highlighted area shows that we:
made 308 contacts
using 5W power or less
had 20 participants (16 members, 4 visitors)
scored a total 0f 4,230 points, including bonus points
are from Missouri
Yes, I’m already thinking about the next Field Day — glad you asked!
* In case you missed it, there’s been a pretty good thread debating this topic on the [ARRL-Contesting] email list. It’s been a good read — check it out!
It’s that time once again… Field Day weekend is upon us. The St. Louis QRP Society will be at O’Connor Park in Bridgeton MO. Everyone’s welcome to drop in: members, visitors, licensed amateur radio operator or not. There will always be someone who can explain what we’re doing, give you a chance to listen in, and even make some contacts!
We will begin setup around 10am on Saturday, June 22. The event officially begins at 1pm and goes around the clock for 24 hours (although we usually start winding things up around 10 or 11 or so…).
Rain? Who said rain? Let’s hope for the best — grin!
Our May meeting has become an annual tradition. Part picnic, part Field Day planning, part “park portable” operation… it’s great fun!
We’ll be meeting at the Field Day site we’ve used for the past few years: O’Connor Park in Bridgeton. The address for your GPS is 12741 Hemet Dr, Bridgeton, MO, or click this link for a Google Map. Another way to find us would be to use the ARRL Field Day Locator. Search for the call sign we’re going to use for Field Day: N0̷SA
We always encourage visitors to stop by any of our meetings, and this one’s no different. Please feel free to stop by. We’re happy to talk amateur radio–whether you’re a licensed ham, or if you’re interested in learning more about our hobby. It’s lots of fun.
One other note: last year we had an especially good time at our 20 meter operating position. We really tried to get everyone some time listening, logging, operating, or just “learning the ropes” a little. And it was a hit — so we’ll be doing the same again this year. Perhaps even expanding things a bit. We’ll see!
The January through April 2026 meetings will continue at the St. Charles County/City Spencer Road Branch library where we meet during Winter months. See “Meeting Info” tab above for additional details.
