Yuma Hamfest

[w7aqk]

Hi All,

I just got home from the Yuma/ARRL SW Division Hamfest.  It was a nice
gathering, but not huge--not as big as Pacificon, for example.  Friendly
folks, though, and some pretty decent weather.  It was much better in Yuma
than just east in Tucson, where I live.

I got to see several old friends, which always makes these gatherings worth
doing.  I hadn't seen Ron, KU7Y, for several years.  He and I are old
"golfing buddies", as some of you QRP Quarterly readers may remember from
our cover photo some years back--we did a little DX operating from a golf
cart--on an otherwise very empty golf course, I might add, so we weren't
holding anyone else up while we played with the radio!

My good friend Jim Duffy (Dr. Megacycle), KK6MC, made the trip from
Albuquerque, which I thought was a valiant effort.  He enjoyed it a lot--his
words--so it was worth the long drive.

Chuck Adams, K7QO also came over from Phoenix--I think to scope out the KX3,
as a lot of us were doing.  I get the feeling that Chuck may opt for a K2
first, but he's definitely sniffing around for something new.

Doug Hendricks brought his QRP Kits Road Show along, and he had a very nice
booth set up.  I was a little worried as to how many QRP enthusiasts might
show up, but Doug says he did pretty well selling his kits, so I guess it
turned out O.K.  It's really kind of impressive to see how many kits Doug
has in his line-up these days--including the Red Hot kit line from a few
years back, which he recently acquired the rights to from Dave Fifield.
That was a superb kit, and Doug was pretty astute to bring it back.  Doug
also revived the DCXX mini QRP transceiver kits--these are single board,
xtal controlled transceivers for various bands, and dirt cheap!  I built one
for 40 meters, and it works great!  Chuck Carpenter added a nice little VXO
mod for it, and it just so happens that my friend Tony Fishpool, G4WIF has
recently been toying with a VXO circuit using ceramic resonators that might
be available from GQRP.  Anyway, that's a great transceiver project,
especially for new hams.

I have to add that I was fortunate to have a winning door prize ticket, and
my prize was an Elecraft XG2, which I traded up for the new XG3, since I
already have the XG2.  Not bad for $5 worth of tickets.  Apparently, though,
I didn't win any of the "grand prize" stuff, which was really a lot of very
nice items.  Guess I can't get too greedy!

I chatted briefly with Eric Swartz about the upcoming new items from
Elecraft.  Of course, the KX3 is uppermost in most peoples minds, and
apparently they are getting pretty close to production.  Nobody will say how
many have been pre-ordered, but it is a bunch!  I was particularly
interested in hearing any news on the KAT500, and Eric said that is
progressing nicely as well.  It will be summer, probably, before that's
ready to go.  Eric is pretty excited about the KAT500's capabilities, and I
am too.  He says it will handle 500 watts without breaking a sweat, and
mentioned that if your actual SWR is something around 3 to 1 or less, it
will handle a lot more!  At the design power levels it will handle a much
broader range of SWR's, as it is the same basic design as what you see in
the K3's ATU, etc.  No commitment regarding price yet, but I think I read
between the lines as to the probable range.  It's speculation, though, so I
won't go further as to our conversation on that matter.

So, a nice weekend here in the desert.  Sorry more of you couldn't make it,
but there are a lot of other great events coming up in the near future.

Dave W7AQK


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