What, he's not allowed to rely on this group to elmer him? What if
there ARE no elmers where he lives?

Greg,

QRP is arguably the very best part of amateur radio. It really
combines the best characteristics of both building and operating.
And, if you have the right conditions, it is also the most fun
and has a very low impact on our neighbors' reception.

I myself, I am more of an experimenter than an operator, because I
love spending researching circuits and trying to get them to work.
But others love buying and building kits and playing with them.

I'd first suggest building your confidence first and learning normal
operation on the HF CW bands, if you can't do this at home, try a club
station or a ham neighbor.

After you feel comfortable working 100 watts into a well matched dipole,
you can start gradually going down in power. While QRP is officially
defined as 5 watts or below, I myself prefer to operate about 20 watts
when I have the equipment for it.

The most critial part of a QRP setup will be your antenna. Hardly
anyone living in a city or a suburb has the priviledge of being able to
put up even an 80 meter dipole without the neighbors complaining to your
apartment manager or homeowner's association.

What you need is the best antenna that can still look inconspicuous, but
that's also part of the challenge of QRP.

The thinnest wire I have found that can stand 5 to 20 watts CW is number
30 kynar insulated wire-wrapping wire. Its extremely tough on its own
and won't snap in a storm, but on the other hand it will break under
determine pressure and is easy to take down on a moment's notice.

I live in an upper floor with wood patio balcony, and what I do is trail
wires on opposite sides of the balcony from upper floor to lower floor
and anchor with a brad a few inches from the dirt. This gives me about
a dipole 25 feet on each side, matchable to the 40, 30, 20, and 17 meter
bands. It works pretty well.

Another good possibility is if you have a tree right next to your
window, you could throw the kynar wire over a branch to give yourself a
sloping dipole.

Another piece of advice is to not expect miracles from your setup. You
can likely work anyone in CONUS or Canada with good technique, and have
a lot of fun. True DX on 5 watts with an apartment antenna is
extremely rare.

Start with a calibrated shortwave receiver, an active CW filter,
headphones, a rock crusher and a few crystals, and then tail end a
conversation. That's how you get started.

Good luck!

The Eternal Squire
(I have a call but I prefer my privacy)



JOE wrote:
Good grief. Have you even TRIED looking? Type 'qrp' into
google and see what you find. Plan on lots of time sorting
through the THOUSANDS of useful links.

You'll get a lot more out of your 'journey' if you take some time
to put a little effort into it.


"Greg Doughty" wrote in message
...

Hello to all!! I am beginning the qrp cw journey and would like to know

where

to begin. I have the rigs and have built a rockmite 20 but need to find
resources for things like qrp swr meter. Is there a group and magazine or
other things that support the qrper?

Thanks

73
Greg

What, he's not allowed to rely on this group to elmer him? What if
there ARE no elmers where he lives?

Greg,

QRP is arguably the very best part of amateur radio. It really
combines the best characteristics of both building and operating.
And, if you have the right conditions, it is also the most fun
and has a very low impact on our neighbors' reception.

I myself, I am more of an experimenter than an operator, because I
love spending researching circuits and trying to get them to work.
But others love buying and building kits and playing with them.

I'd first suggest building your confidence first and learning normal
operation on the HF CW bands, if you can't do this at home, try a club
station or a ham neighbor.

After you feel comfortable working 100 watts into a well matched dipole,
you can start gradually going down in power. While QRP is officially
defined as 5 watts or below, I myself prefer to operate about 20 watts
when I have the equipment for it.

The most critial part of a QRP setup will be your antenna. Hardly
anyone living in a city or a suburb has the priviledge of being able to
put up even an 80 meter dipole without the neighbors complaining to your
apartment manager or homeowner's association.

What you need is the best antenna that can still look inconspicuous, but
that's also part of the challenge of QRP.

The thinnest wire I have found that can stand 5 to 20 watts CW is number
30 kynar insulated wire-wrapping wire. Its extremely tough on its own
and won't snap in a storm, but on the other hand it will break under
determine pressure and is easy to take down on a moment's notice.

I live in an upper floor with wood patio balcony, and what I do is trail
wires on opposite sides of the balcony from upper floor to lower floor
and anchor with a brad a few inches from the dirt. This gives me about
a dipole 25 feet on each side, matchable to the 40, 30, 20, and 17 meter
bands. It works pretty well.

Another good possibility is if you have a tree right next to your
window, you could throw the kynar wire over a branch to give yourself a
sloping dipole.

Another piece of advice is to not expect miracles from your setup. You
can likely work anyone in CONUS or Canada with good technique, and have
a lot of fun. True DX on 5 watts with an apartment antenna is
extremely rare.

Start with a calibrated shortwave receiver, an active CW filter,
headphones, a rock crusher and a few crystals, and then tail end a
conversation. That's how you get started.

Good luck!

The Eternal Squire
(I have a call but I prefer my privacy)



JOE wrote:
Good grief. Have you even TRIED looking? Type 'qrp' into
google and see what you find. Plan on lots of time sorting
through the THOUSANDS of useful links.

You'll get a lot more out of your 'journey' if you take some time
to put a little effort into it.


"Greg Doughty" wrote in message
...

Hello to all!! I am beginning the qrp cw journey and would like to know

where

to begin. I have the rigs and have built a rockmite 20 but need to find
resources for things like qrp swr meter. Is there a group and magazine or
other things that support the qrper?

Thanks

73
Greg

Hello to all!! I am beginning the qrp cw journey and would like to know where
to begin. I have the rigs and have built a rockmite 20 but need to find
resources for things like qrp swr meter. Is there a group and magazine or
other things that support the qrper?

Thanks

73
Greg

Good grief. Have you even TRIED looking? Type 'qrp' into
google and see what you find. Plan on lots of time sorting
through the THOUSANDS of useful links.

You'll get a lot more out of your 'journey' if you take some time
to put a little effort into it.


"Greg Doughty" wrote in message
...
Hello to all!! I am beginning the qrp cw journey and would like to know
where
to begin. I have the rigs and have built a rockmite 20 but need to find
resources for things like qrp swr meter. Is there a group and magazine or
other things that support the qrper?

Thanks

73
Greg

Good grief. Have you even TRIED looking? Type 'qrp' into
google and see what you find. Plan on lots of time sorting
through the THOUSANDS of useful links.

You'll get a lot more out of your 'journey' if you take some time
to put a little effort into it.


"Greg Doughty" wrote in message
...
Hello to all!! I am beginning the qrp cw journey and would like to know
where
to begin. I have the rigs and have built a rockmite 20 but need to find
resources for things like qrp swr meter. Is there a group and magazine or
other things that support the qrper?

Thanks

73
Greg

"Greg Doughty" wrote in message
...
Hello to all!! I am beginning the qrp cw journey and would like to know
where
to begin. I have the rigs and have built a rockmite 20 but need to find
resources for things like qrp swr meter. Is there a group and magazine or
other things that support the qrper?

QRP-L and G-QRP

73, Leon

"Greg Doughty" wrote in message
...
Hello to all!! I am beginning the qrp cw journey and would like to know
where
to begin. I have the rigs and have built a rockmite 20 but need to find
resources for things like qrp swr meter. Is there a group and magazine or
other things that support the qrper?

QRP-L and G-QRP

73, Leon

Greg,

In my opinion, the best QRP Group is QRP-ARCI. You can check them out at
http://www.qrparci.org

They publish a very nice quarterly magazine called the QRP Quarterly, and
unlike a lot of other club journals, it's usually published on time.

For a neat SWR meter, check out the NoGA QRP group from Northern Georgia.
http://www.nogaqrp.org/ They have a neat little SWR/PWR meter kit they
sell, or used to sell.

The QRP ARCI page has about 100 links to other QRP clubs all over the world.
You won't have a hard time finding info there.

73


"Greg Doughty" wrote in message
...
Hello to all!! I am beginning the qrp cw journey and would like to know
where
to begin. I have the rigs and have built a rockmite 20 but need to find
resources for things like qrp swr meter. Is there a group and magazine or
other things that support the qrper?

Thanks

73
Greg

Greg,

In my opinion, the best QRP Group is QRP-ARCI. You can check them out at
http://www.qrparci.org

They publish a very nice quarterly magazine called the QRP Quarterly, and
unlike a lot of other club journals, it's usually published on time.

For a neat SWR meter, check out the NoGA QRP group from Northern Georgia.
http://www.nogaqrp.org/ They have a neat little SWR/PWR meter kit they
sell, or used to sell.

The QRP ARCI page has about 100 links to other QRP clubs all over the world.
You won't have a hard time finding info there.

73


"Greg Doughty" wrote in message
...
Hello to all!! I am beginning the qrp cw journey and would like to know
where
to begin. I have the rigs and have built a rockmite 20 but need to find
resources for things like qrp swr meter. Is there a group and magazine or
other things that support the qrper?

Thanks

73
Greg

"Greg Doughty" wrote in message
...
Is there a group and magazine or
other things that support the qrper?

Greg

*The* online group is QRP-L at qth.net. Be aware that this is a pretty busy
reflector, however. Thereis also a QRP reflector at qth which is very low
key.

Someone mentioned ARCI, which is a very good organization. There are two
other big QRP groups. The American QRP club (www.amqrp.org) tends to be a
little more focused on homebrewing than ARCI. AmQRP is more like an
association of clubs. They were formed by the merger of NorCal and NJQRP,
but work with a half-dozen regional clubs to produce kits and conferences.
Their magazine, Homebrewer, is a little better than QQ in my opinion (maybe
because I'm more into melting solder). The G-QRP club is another great
organization. They publish a magazine called Sprat which has been around
forever it seems. Personally, I'm not as big a fan of Sprat because they
tend to use a lot of parts in their designs which are harder to get on this
side of the pond, but on the other hand, if you are on the G-land side of
the pond, those are probably easier to get. They have produced a number of
kits, many of which are available from Kanga U.S. on this side of the pond.
The DL-QRP club also has a number of kits. Theirs seem to be a little more
"polished" than the G-QRP kits which are pretty different.

Besides these three biggies, there are perhaps a dozen other clubs that
publish online and/or offer kits. The Flying Pigs QRP club is more about
kits and contests than publications. Someone mentioned the North Georgia
QRP club, which has that neat SWR/Power meter. The Arizona ScQRPions
currently has a neat paddle kit. Seems like there are several others which
escape me at the moment.

ARCI runs a big conference in conjunction with the Dayton hamfest every year
which is a wonderful place to learn, get parts, and meet other QRPers.
AmQRP supports a handful of conferences, including Atlanticon and Pacificon
in the spring, Ozarkcon just passed, and Lobstercon coming up. The
ScQRPions are running a conference near Flagstaff around the first of July.
G-QRP runs conferences in England and Ireland, too, but they seem to be
somewhat more erratic than the ones in the states. DL-QRP also runs an
annual conference.

So yeah, plenty of resources, and an amazingly friendly bunch as well.

...