[qrp-canada] QRP and CW promotion

[Robert MacKenzie]

    John, Tom and Larry of the North American QRP CW Club suggested that I do some promotion for the club in Canada when I offered to help out a little. I really like the NAQCC and I'm more than willing to do what I can, even though it's not much. 

   The NAQCC had not been operating for very long when was getting back into hamming about a year and half ago and it's been a great help to me to get up to speed after a couple of decades away. John especially provides excellent contest management and I've learned a lot from the club sprints, as well as had many chances to get over "contest anxiety" that besets us all when we venture into the intimidating world of contests.

    I would like to see more Canadian QRP contesters on the air for the bigger events. It gets lonely out there at the moment, even though the few of us who participate regularly at the QRP level end up with various certificates or top-10 mentions. And that's just with poor antennas and a straight key for me. But even if your interests are elsewhere, the club has lots of certificates for various activities and challenges, including one for participation alone, not just competitive success.

    The purpose of the NAQCC is to promote CW and QRP on the bands, so the sponsored activities are just a means to an end, fun as they are. The FISTS club has the same purpose for CW and QRP-ARCI for QRP. I enjoy their events as well. These two have a nominal membership cost, but accept PayPal which makes it easy to pay in US funds. NAQCC membership is free (www.arm-tek.net/~yoel).

    If the occasion arises and you would like to do something to preserve CW, please write up something for your club bulletin or ask for time to speak on the NAQCC (and/or FISTS and QRP-ARCI). Our Ottawa club accepted a little write-up I did for its bulletin and our local QCWA chapter has just signed up for a FISTS club call, about which I did a short oral presentation at the last meeting. There seems to be a lot of interest in these organizations, perhaps because of the loss to CW of a big part of the 80 meter band  from US phone band expansion. Can the other bands be far behind?

    The Sprint tomorrow night should be fun as usual, although I'll miss the start of it. A special 160m sprint is scheduled for late January. I do OK on 160 with a 1/4 wave wire stuck directly into the back of the tuner and run around my property line at about 12 feet high, so not much is needed for that 160. (Especially in the big contests at 3am when ops welcome any kind of call, no matter how weak!)

    Of more importance for us Canadians is the January month-long challenge, which is for members to contact as many Canadians as possible. A recent sprint with the same goal went fairly well, although most Canadians were from Ontario. We can use our CF and CG prefixes for January as well as December, and collectors will welcome cards with them on it. I probably put stickers on my regular card.

    I know that I'm preaching to the converted for the most part on this QRP reflector. But I had to start somewhere. If you know of other outlets that would welcome a similar note please let me know or contact them yourself. QRP has come a long way from the mid-60s when I used a home-built TX and has a lot to offer new and returning hams.

Best wishes for Christmas, Bob VA3RKM  (Ottawa)
    
 
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