[qrp-canada] Lobstercon 2008 report

[Robert MacKenzie]

    Barb and I arrived back in Ottawa last night from Lobstercon 2008 at the Thomas Point campground near Brunswick, Maine about 9pm, after 12 hours on the road. We came and went mainly on the interstates rather than over the mountains on 302. We had an hour's wait at Customs coming up to get the 417 highway through Montreal. Going down we spent the night at the Day's Inn in Lebanon, NH, which is a great little motel.

    For those of you who have been there before, I'm told it was the same as ever. A meal at the famous Cook's Lobster House on Friday evening, mingling and demos of things on Saturday morning, a fine BBQ at lunch followed by a small swapfest of QRP stuff, singing with banjo, guitar, and flute accompaniment and a lobster supper, then lots of draws for small and larger prizes. We had a helpful demo of the tennis ball launcher. I had never seen a satellite operation before, and enjoyed Scott's. He had a folding 2-band wooden 'broomstick' beam with welding (brazing) rods as elements, mounted on a camera tripod. He ran two HTs with separate 2m and 70cm feedlines to it (folded dipole-type feed), the RX rig being easily tuneable for Doppler shift. He worked stations in various parts of the US, and we heard the Ontario Science Centre and our own Ottawa Science and Tech museum stations. A simple setup, but very effective and I may emulate it. He had a print-out of the LEO passes with Elevation and Azimuth, so we could pick our times to listen in. Others were working the IARU contest under special call K1T. I missed out on the kite-supported vertical and the ARDF fox-hunting activities.

    At the swapfest I purchased an SW+ 40 kit and just now ordered an enclosure from K1SWL. I also got a 20m software-defined radio on a board, already constructed, from John VE3NFK, of Battersea (SoftRock 6.2 lite). I just need to figure it out. The fellow (whose name escapes me) who salvages slightly-used 9V lithium batteries and gives them away had a bunch of them, some of which I will bring to our OV QRP meeting if you need one. I also got some big bags of parts from engineer Brad, AA1P if you need some, as well as his free 2008 Component Catalogue on CD with lots of specs. And some LEDs and stuff from Uncle Cy the LED-guy, along with helpful advice on how to assemble them and the link to his website tutorials.

    Designer Steve Weber was there. He has the cover article in QST for August for his under-$50 transceiver. It was suggested that we vote for it as best article on the ARRL 'members' website (which I did now before I forgot). Barb and I had a nice chat at supper with Rich Arland and his wife. I got a copy of his new edition "Low Power Communication" ARRL book from him. There is a lot on new material in it. He was selling his KX1 and accessories for $375, but I did not buy it. It was also good to put faces with contest contacts. The Canadian contingent this year consisted of Jeff (VE3JFF) and  Wendy (with little Ian) on the last leg of their great adventure, John and Grete, and we two . The weather was great until Sunday morning when rain threatened. It's a pleasant park, although next time I would probably camp further away from those who talk and operate into the wee hours. Some videos are posted on YouTube under RadioNH.

Bob VA3RKM
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://qrp-canada.com/pipermail/members_qrp-canada.com/attachments/20080714/3678f1e2/attachment.html