Resurrection?

Once again, I've been giving thought to attempting to pump new life back into the New Jersey QRP Club. For many, many years it was considered to be one of the top QRP organizations in the country. It ranked right up there with the NorCal QRP Club, the Colorado QRP Club, the New England QRP Club and others.

In the early 2000's, due to the efforts of George N2APB and Joe N2CX and a host of others, the NJQRP Club reached its azimuth when it sponsored Atlanticon, the QRP confab of the Mid-Atlantic Coast. It was held in Baltimore and each year I was dying to go. But my two kids weren't even really toddlers yet, and with Marianne and I both working full time, it was an impossibility.

Soon after Atlanticon ceased, it seemed the club started to wither away. Stalwarts became Silent Keys, others moved away and NJQRP started to become a shadow of its former self. There were a few times I met with other members at the food court of one of the malls near Princeton. There were also a few outdoor gatherings at the park in Grover's Mill - the infamous landing spot of the Martians in Orson Well's "War of the Worlds". And then finally there was nothing.

So where does that leave us? The website was moved to its present URL location in 2016. As far as I can tell, there have been no updates. And in all honesty, except for the Skeeter Hunt, there hasn't been much activity to update the webpage with. Whatever the members have been up to individually, there's been no real effective means of communication between them.

George N2APB has moved to Tennessee and Joe N2CX became a Silent Key. There's no roster, so there's really no way to tell who was a member and who was not, and what members if any have either moved out of the area or have become Silent Keys. And since the last iteration of NJQRP, there just may be a whole new generation of New Jersey QRP'ers anxious to meet their like minded brethren in the state.

So we start with a new beginning.  I started a Facebook page. As of right now, it's a public group and I think you can just join. I've also started a Groups.io group now that Yahoo groups are defunct. This group will be an e-mail reflector and our main way of keeping in touch with each other. If you'd like to join that, you'll have to send me an e-mail (w2ljqrp@gmail.com) and I'll send you an invitation to join. 

Granted, it's not much of a start, but it is a beginning. Hopefully, as the word spreads and QRPers in New Jersey and the surrounding area become interested, maybe we can start holding meetings, if we can find a location that is convenient for all. 

I'd like to stress that while the New Jersey QRP Club will primarily serve local QRPers as far as any future live in person events go, there are no residency requirements. All are welcome and if we do meet in person, we can always incorporate a Zoom component as other clubs I belong to have been doing to include those who can't attend in person for whatever reason.

It's not my job to run the organization, that will be up to the members. I'm just going to try and re-launch it. So stay tuned - maybe we can light this candle and get this puppy off the ground!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!