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The NAQCC May 2016 Challenge All challenge info such as rules are now in the hands of Gary K1YAN. Email him with any questions in that regard at  .The results on this page are the responsibility of Hap K7HAP. Email him with any questions in that regard at  .PREMISE: Back in the day, it was common to hear "RIG HR HB 6V6" ... "PADDLE HB, TWO J-38S BACK TO BACK" ... "VFO MODIFIED ARC-5" ... Our gear often came from junk boxes fed by old TV sets and junked BC radios. The kit rigs, by Heathkit, EICO and others, had become popular choices, and of course there was all that good surplus gear from Uncle Sam. Today our rigs with "basic necessities", such as DSP, stacked memories and multi colored displays, have raised complexity to the point where HB is not often heard any more and diving in under the hood may cause more problems than it cures. Lets go back this month. Do you have a kit or scratch built, rig, antenna, key or station accessory that could use some exercise? This is the time to bring it out and make some QSOs. . TIME FRAME: The first day of the month 0000Z through the last day of the month 2400Z RULES: Make 10 QSOs during the time period using a home brew or kit piece of gear for each QRP QSO. This may be a rig, tuner, key, antenna or station accessory. It is not necessary that the station worked be using any home brew gear or be QRP. In the spirit of homebrew, please make it something that you personally built or at least did a significant part of the work. Since we do have to draw a line somewhere to say what qualifies as homebrew gear, modular kits (eg. the KX3) and items such as store bought antennas which only require cutting to length and connecting coax and end insulators, do not qualify as home brew gear for this challenge. Please check out your rig and see what it sounds like on the air. Remember chirps, yoops and drifting around a few kHz during each over are no longer as accepted as they were in the 60s ! AWARDS: A certificate and Participation Point go to everyone making all 10 QSOs and submitting their report before the deadline. A Participation Point goes to everyone making at least 1 QSO, but not all 10 and submitting their report before the deadline. PRIZES: A choice of an item made by master woodworker Gregg WB8LZG as shown on our prizes page here goes to someone selected via a random drawing from all who participate and submit a report for this month's challenge. A person can only win once, then they become ineligible for future drawings. LOGS: For your report, tell us that you made the required 10 QSOs, or if not all 10, how many you did make. Also tell us what HB gear was part of your station for this challenge. If you think that your HB gear is a bit different ( everybody has seen a K1 or HW- 8 ) and interesting include a digital picture we may post. You may also include comments about the challenge. Please preface any comments you want posted with "SOAPBOX:" so we will know what you want posted and what is private. E-mail: (You must type that address into your email program.)Subject must read: (your call) NAQCC (month) Challenge For example: K3WWP NAQCC February Challenge All entries must be RECEIVED before the 10th of the following month at 2400Z. Final Results: K9OSC: N8XMS: AB8DY: KA5PVB: WI5H: K9JWV: N9BT: KR9Z: K3WWP: N9SE: KD0V: AA4NN: WA2FBN: N8BB: K1IEE: KG5HCF: K4CML: PA0XAW: WA5IEK: WB1GYZ: N1JI: VE3DQN: G3JFS: K1YAN: NF1U: VE4AKI: WX1M: W2JEK: KF7WNS:All the above get a certificate and participation point. All below get only a participation point. VE6NS:Soapbox: N8XMS: I was really looking forward to this challenge and it didn't disappoint me. I decided to put a personal spin on it by dusting off as many of my old home-brew and kit-built projects as possible and using them in different combinations to make my contacts. Some of this equipment dates back to about 1981. Rigs: K2, K1, KX1, Rockmite 30, SST 40, TenTec 1320, Scratch-built 40m Transmitter (Doug DeMaw design). Accessories: Modified BLT Tuner, NorCal Keyer, CMOS Super Keyer II, Variable-voltage Power Supply, Power Distribution Box. Keys: Black Widow Paddle, ScQRPions Paddle, Hacksaw Straight Key. Putting all of this old gear back on the air was a ton of fun! I will have a more complete report and pictures in the June newsletter. N9BT: SW40+ puts out 1.5 Watts on 40 CW. It was a kit that I built a while ago. It was a pretty easy build and it was easy to tune it up. It is a superhet receiver with an IF filter with 3 xtals. It's VFO tuns about 40 KHz of 40 M, but my dial calibration is sketchy. I have a picture of it here (It's the middle kit with the SW on the case).: N9BT Kits KD0V: I found the May Challenge was a real challenge with competing negatives, bad spring allergies and very poor band conditions. Many of the 10 QSO's were made with both the audio and RF gains wide open on the K2. It always amazes me how well QRP works under even the worst of conditions. Another great Challenge. 72, Merlin #2002 WA2FBN: Fun challenge, dug out my HB single lever paddle made from parts from an old computer desktop case. Used my new LNR LD5 xmiter at 5w. Thanks to all who make these challenges possible. 72 Ken K1IEE: Started the challenge with my Heathkit HW-9 and a straight key however while reading the May newsletter I was inspired by K9OSC Bob's article of his Trail Friendly Paddle. A look through my junk box and found some double sided PCB. Several day's later I was on the air with my new home brew paddle. It works great. Thanks NAQCC, Bob K9OSC and everyone for another great challenge. 73 Dick  Trail friendlly paddle K4CML: Had fun doing this one in spite of band conditions. My Sierra made it fairly easy to cut thru a lot of the junk on band, plus it is one very nice rx. Most of operations were on 40 with a couple on 20. Made 4 contacts using QRPp even with band problems; whoever said QRP doesn't work? Looking forward to the Milliwatt Challenge coming up later also. PA0XAW: Used my home made 40 meter CW TRX. This transceiver appeared in the German magazine CQ-DL of March 1991. I use a 2N3553 transistor in the PA and that gives me 4 watt. VE3DQN: Believe it or not, this was the first time in my 56 years as a ham that I made QSO's with a rig I built myself. I'm not a tech, but have been a wannabe for years. In 1993 I bought the Lectrokit SP-1 kit, but it languished in my boxes until 2013. While visiting my engineer brother WB6YTE I assembled the kit, and he helped me get it working. But it wasn't until this Challenge that I actually tried putting it on the air. Rock bound (7028 MHz) and 1 watt and QRM were the challenge, but thanks to the patience of many, we made it. I sometimes used the straight key, sometimes the K1EL keyer (I assembled), and the delta loop antenna also qualifies as HB. This was was one of the thrills of my years as a ham.  Lectrokit SP-1 K9OSC:  K9OSC Keyer paddle G3JFS: I have several homebrew qrp transmitters (valve and transistor) but did not have time to set them up. The rig used was an ICOM 7100 with homemade antennas - a 20m doublet + homemade balanced ATU or an homemade 20m long end fed wire with a remote Smartuner located in a shed at the far end of my garden. The control unit for the Smartuner is homebrewed. Other homebrew units in use are a 500Hz AF filter and a 5 band graphic equaliser. Propagation conditions were generally poor and my best (only) dx contact was with VU2TS on 20m. 73 Peter #7300 WA5IEK:  K16 Memory Keyer K1YAN: Fired up the SW Labs DSW40 kit, 2.5 watts of 40M RF , into an EMTech kit ZM-2 ATU and my HB G5RV Jr. to complete the May challenge. Never got around to making a HB key for the event ... maybe next year. AA4NN:  K1EL WKU5B keyer kit WB1GYZ: Here are some photos of my HB equipment for the May Challenge. Band conditions made it difficult to use my "Tuna Tin Two" for more than one contact. 
 WB1GYZ station Attempt 1 using circuit board and hand etching the copper pattern. WX1M: Due to travel and family obligations I could not put the time I wanted to into this challenge . I put together the modular 40 meter rig featured in the March 2016 QST and really would have liked the certificate. I did the best I could. The first couple contacts were made with the modular rig spread out on a poster board, I later put it into an enclosure (an old XMAS candy tin) and made a couple more contacts. Never got the time to make the last 4 contacts. I was going to finish up on the 31st with my K2, but my goal was to use only the newly built rig. Output was only 750mW. I am still working to improve that. This is a great little project using the Arduino and the classic Forty-9er transceiver. I am including a couple pics. Another great challenge! 
 W2JEK: Made the required 10 QSO'S using kits I built. They are Oak Hills OHR-500 xcvr [including 37 toroids] , WM-2 wattmeter and DD-1 digital dial. The ten QSO'S were on 20,30 and 40 m with 7 DX and 3 NA contacts. After reading N8XMS soapbox comments I remembered that my power distrbution box was also home brew. Was lots of fun. Looking forward to next month. 72 and 73 Don Younger #1135 KF7WNS: I used my 1W20 "OneWatter" mostly this month.Power @ 880mW. My best and most exciting contact was with ZL2BLQ in New Zealand. Stan gave me an RST of 439. Lots of other homebrew gear in use here, including Rigs - Keys - Antennas and Tuners. 72 to all, Gary |