Club Meeting, August 8, 1999

By Sam Billingsley, AE4GX

We had another outstanding gathering at Tech America. We filled the room with 22 members including 6 first time members. Bernie Nessen, W4BZA, from Opelika, Alabama set the travel distance and brought some special homebrew show-to-tell items. All in all, I can say that it was the best collection of varied kit and homebrew gear that I have seen at one time in the two years I've been involved with NOGA. Not only was there great stuff to see, it immediately gave ideas about how to MOD something you been working on to improve it.

The first-time members had a drawing to win an autographed copy of the new ARRL publication "Low Power Communications" by Rich Arland, famed QRPer. I believe that Bernie, W4ZBA was the winner.

Several folks brought items for the group and it was decided to give them to the members at a token charge to go into a kiddy for future NOGA events (i.e. Run for the Kudzu, hamfests, etc).

Jim Stafford, W4QO indicated that Ken Evans W4DU volunteered to keep account of and hold the money taken in along with the small amount we already had for use in a future club project.

Sam Billingsley, AE4GX highlighted a possible new NOGA sponsored project to be offered in the fall to the QRP community at large using web and various QRP journals and QRP lists to alert the QRPers of the kit.

We had a wide range of show and tell items including:

Prototype of the NOGAPiG
Chinese Morse Key collection
Small Wonders Lab DSW-40 with BETA enclosure
Neophite Rcvr with VFO varactor mods and very low noise two stage OPamp filter/amp board (prototype)
HB Sierra using standard xtal frequencies and freq. counter interface and HB enclosure. To be written up for others to study.
HB NOGA80 and Vectronics 80 Rx mated in Tranceiver operation.
White Rook key and keyer
Multi-stage low pass 80 mtr filter (module) and Vectronics with filter MODs.
Four parallel 2N2222A RF amp to create up to 3 watts
HB solid state transmitter built in "1968" using HB etched board technique
George Dobbs 6-pack single balanced diode mixer and LM386 for generic Rx
HB highly stable varactor tuned VFO for 40 meters with transmit offset capability
QRNSquasher HB etched PC board and HB RF FET sensor for auto TR switching (in progress)
Beautiful 38S in machined enclosure
Beautiful Rainbow Tuner in machine enclosure
SW-40+ with RIT and Vectronics AF opamp filter in enclosure
High intensity LED pulsed light source
HB dual light-weight key paddles with PK keyer and spkr/batteries in enclosure.
Military Surplus telescoping HF whip antenna. About 1.5 ft closed and about 20 ft extended.

I know I have forgot some things and misstated others. Please send in corrections.

Next meeting is October 3rd (first Saturday in October). NOGA is planning a "Run for the Kudzu" at some metro park for the meeting with special operating contest and food. Stay tuned.

The signin sheet had the following:

Jim	W4QO	Sam	AE4GX
Bob	WA1EDJ	Karl	K4GZZ
Tom	K4TJD	Jerry	W3CDE
Paul	K4HCM	Mike	W3IRZ
Jim	KT4A	Chuck	KG4ADU
Bernie	W4ZBA	Gary	N4OLN
Leonard	KS4RN	Rick	K4RAB
Mike	KO4WX	Phil	K4PQC
Jim	KR4QN	Phil	KA4AYR
Ed	N4XY	Chuck	WA6LTV
Jim	KE4ZX	Russ	AE4NY

Thanks for making this a great meeting. Hope to see you before the next meeting in Oct. Please try the 2 mtr and 80 nets on Tuesday nights check the web page for details.

Sam Billingsley AE4GX
Atlanta (Buckhead), GA