Weather forecast is looking good

The weather is looking good for Saturday for my planned expedition to Morristown National Historical Park (NPOTA HP28) this coming Saturday.  Sunny with high temperatures in the upper 40s (9C) Hopefully, there will be no curve balls out of  Left field that will preclude me from going.

The plan is to leave the house somewhere around 11:00 AM (1500 UTC) and be up there and on the air by around 12:00 Noon (1600 UTC).  I plan on working 40, 20 and 17 Meters - CW around the QRP watering holes. I'll be packing some water and snacks and hope to stay for three or four hours. I am going to see if I can get the PAR END FEDZ 40/20/10 up in a tree in the parking lot.  If not, I'll just rely on the Buddistick for 20 and 17 Meters and a Hamstick for 40 Meters.

Last Saturday, I went to the Cherryville hamfest out in Flemington, NJ which is run by the W2CRA, Cherryville Repeater Association.  This was the very first hamfest that I ever went to as a newbie Ham back in 1979, and it's always held a special place for me.  Unfortunately, over the years (and especially since the dawn of eBay) the Cherryville hamfest seemed to be on the down slope.  Like a lot of hamfests, it suffered from poor attendance, lack of vendors, etc was plaguing it - and seemed to be spiraling towards its death knell.

Happily, between last year and this year, that trend seems to be reversed.  Attendance is still nowhere near where it used to be, but it's growing.  The number of vendors is still down (but again, growing), and for the most part the really bad junk is gone - and by junk I mean non-ham related garbage.  I mean really, who wants to buy a roto-tiller at a hamfest? Sure there's still lots of non-Ham stuff to be seen, but it also seems there are more and more treasures to be found.

I purchased some new SO-239 chassis connectors as well as two old butterfly type variable capacitors that I got for five bucks.  The capacitors have long stems on them, so they should be useful in my magnetic loop antenna project. I need to clean them up with some contact cleaner, but some initial testing seems to indicate that they are in the 200 pF range. KJI Electronics was there, and I purchased a Diamond antenna for my VHF/UHF handheld.  What a difference when you buy the real brand and not a cheap knock-off!

Before I forget ........ I have a friend who has a "hardly used, very good condition" SGC-2020 QRP radio that he wants to sell.  I am not privy to the price.  But if you're interested, send an e-mail to w2lj@arrl.net and I will forward it on to him.  He's not looking for eBay type money, but he's not interested in getting taken, either.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!