We had nine folks show up for the Michigan QRP Club weekly Zoom chat on 9 September. The topic for the week was test equipment.

Ed AB8DF

Pete WK8S

Tony W8CDC

Joel W9JFK

Rasmus SA5RJS

Dave N8SBE

Ernie W3ETE

Stan WB8QJZ

Casey KC9IH

Joel started things off. He has a Techronics scope, old audio signal generator, RF signal generator, Multimeter with frequency counter and capacitor functions. Lastly he has a NM0S meter.

Rasmus has a NANONVA and he showed how he uses it. Mostly for antenna characterization. He has a Tiny SA ultra:

He has been building power amps and showed us his set up for checking PA amps. He uses a 40 Db tap when testing his PA amps. Power meters can be noisy. The cheap Chinese LC component meters can be very useful but care is needed when purchasing because some are just junk. We talked about the differences between a RIGOL / digital scope with FFT function versus a Tiny SA ultra for spectral analysis. The Tiny SA ultra has a signal generator capability. QRP Labs also has a signal generator.

Pete likes his Elecraft signal generator. he has a power meter, audio signal generator, Rig Expert antenna analyzer and a German component tester for capacitors, resistors and inductors.?

Dave has a TinySA ultra Spectrum analyzer and a bench scope. He likes his PA2LB tester for characterizing BPFs. Dave just got one of the USB PC tester plug-ins that we talked about last week. He also has a trusty old Bird 43 wattmeter.

Band Conditions are very hit or miss right now. The sun has been very active with some intense storms but they have been short in duration so timing is in play.

After we finished talking about test equipment we switched topic to CW and how to get on the air. Just get on the air. 30 meters is a friendly CW band. Practice helps get the timing right. POTA hunting provides good practice because of the easy exchange. Using computers and devices like Morserino can help. European Ham radio show on youtube has a lot of information for new hams.

Pete gave a report on his new TCF-1 by KM4CFT, He show some pictures. There are a few toroids to wind but not too bad and it is through hole construction. He went through some of the menus and how to operate it. We looked at some of the specs.

Please join us Thursday (and every Thursday) at 4PM Eastern for the Michigan QRP Club weekly QRP Chat where the main topics will be QRP and other ham interests. It's fun, it's easy, and it's free. You only need a computer, a smart phone, or a tablet that can connect to the Internet. OR if you can't be close to any of those you can join by audio with any standard phone. Just follow the directions below. No software needs be loaded or installed. Anyone can join and non members are welcome. Details are here:

Since it generated so much discussion, this weeks topic will be CW Practice.

Anyone can take the floor and tell us about their test equipment. We will go one by one until all have had a chance to have the floor. Files, pictures and presentations can be shared if you have any. There will be time for comments and questions. Please try to stay muted when someone has the floor.

We have a list of future topics:

Designing Antennas

Antenna construction

If you suggestions for topics, please send them to:

Ed

AB8DF

ekwik at