OzarkCon QRP Conference
2014
Kit Building Workshop

Friday Evening, April 4, 2014
    
The Midwest Homebrewers QRP Club coordinates and supervises the OzarkCon Friday Night Build Session.  Never built a kit or have questions about building ham projects?  Here's your opportunity to learn from the experts.

This year's build session kit is the NMØS designed "Ozark Patrol" regenerative receiver.

The kit features a printed circuit board with the front panel silk screened on one side and pads etched on the opposite side. The pads resemble Manhattan pads but they, and the interconnecting traces, are etched on the board. Thru hole components are cut to length and soldered to the pads. The build goes quickly and should take less than 2 hours to complete.

This style of PC board was invented in 2003 by our own Joe Porter, WØMQY, as an optional board for the NJQRP RF Sniffer, a field strength meter designed by Joe Everhart, N2CX.
Click here for a picture of that board Since Joe lives in Pittsburg, KS, the board design was dubbed the "Pittsburg" style.

The build session is limited to 40 participants. So register early to assure yourself of a kit and a place at the workbench. The price is $25. Which is good only during pre-registration, and availability is limited to one kit per person. You must build the kit during the build session, no buying the kit and taking it home at this price. If pre-registration doesn't fill the sessions, kits will be available at the door of the workshop for $35. You should be able to complete the kit to the test stage in approximately 2 hours.


 

 

The instructors for the evening workshop will be Dar Piatt W9HZC and Darrel Swenson KØAWB. Dar and Darrel will guide you through the building process, starting with the "bag of parts" to the finished project. First time builders welcome!

A large room is reserved so that seating will not be a problem.  Each session is limited to 20 persons (40 total)so that the instructors can provide plenty of 1 on 1 help.   They may however specify one large group rather than 2 smaller ones and stagger the starts by 15 minutes, depending on the project and the number of attendees.  Please check with them at the conference before the banquet.

Pre-register now and save $10.
We are prepared for a large group this year, and we hope to see you in the Build Session.
For the workshop, you will need to bring your own hand tools for the session:
  • Soldering iron with a stand. A small tip on the iron is suggested. This could be a simple 25 watt iron with a bent coat hanger stand.
  • Damp sponge to clean the soldering iron tip
  • Rosin core solder - Kester "44" or similar. Note that we will have some spare solder available.
  • Small wire cutters
  • Needle nose pliers
  • Magnifier and/or light
  • Cookie sheet with upturned lip to catch stray parts, to reduce static discharge damage to components and to protect the table surface