[KL7AA] The American QRP Club

[Jim Larsen]

This is great news for the QRP community.  It will strengthen what was already 
strong and allow for continued release of a great magazine and lots of kits.

73, Jim
-- 
Jim Larsen, AL7FS
Anchorage, Alaska
http://www.qsl.net/al7fs
================================

Subject: The American QRP Club
From: George Heron N2APB (n2apb@erols.com)
Date: Wed Jun 04 2003 - 03:01:08 EDT

Dear Fellow QRPers -

This is a message from Doug KI6DS, George N2APB, Jim WA6GER and Joe N2CX
announcing a major new organization specifically designed to enrich our
radio hobby, increase the enjoyment we all get from QRP, and position us
well for massive growth envisioned in the years ahead.

Effective today, 4 June 2003, we are announcing the merger of the NorCal QRP
Club and the New Jersey QRP Club to form the American QRP Club.

Throughout the last decade NorCal has provided many tangible benefits to the
entire QRP community.  Over fifty novel and original projects have been
designed, kitted and produced for QRPers around the world.  NorCal defined
and honed  the concept of QRP weekends (Pacificon) filled with informative
and entertaining presentations during the days and fun-filled evening social
sessions with the attendees. Further, they've published a quarterly magazine
(QRPp) that provides many of us with project ideas, construction techniques
and operating guidelines that have pulled newcomers into QRP and have
allowed us all to grow over the years.

In many ways the NJQRP has been a sister club to NorCal, having adopted the
same operational model during its eight-year existence.  This guidance has
enabled the NJQRP to grow and become the major east coast QRP presence,
providing over thirty new designs and kits, a QRP forum weekend of their own
(Atlanticon), a quarterly journal with a predominant homebrewing theme (QRP
Homebrewer), and a dynamic and content-rich website that is unrivaled in QRP
circles.

Even considering the close association NorCal and NJQRP have enjoyed over
the years, much duplication and redundancy has naturally evolved, providing
each of the leadership teams with added work, and replicated expenses.
Those in our QRP community also pay for these duplication of efforts; for
example with subscriptions to multiple QRP journals, overlapping feature
material at the QRP forums, and kit designs that are needlessly overlapping
and uncoordinated.

The formation and charter of the American QRP Club addresses each of these
situations and provides an economy of scale that benefits everyone in QRP
today.

COMBINED JOURNAL.  We are producing a single journal on a quarterly basis
called "The Homebrewer" that is intended for "builders, experimenters, ham
radio operators and low power enthusiasts", just as stated in the journal's
subtitle.  The Homebrewer is a larger-format, increased content version of
either QRPp or QHB magazine. It is at least a 72-page magazine containing
content-rich homebrewing and construction material, with additional sections
dealing with operating, contesting and local club happenings throughout the
country. On an annual basis we will issue a CD-ROM collection of the
previous four issues, including bonus material: software, tools and
reference material . The quality of journal is intended to be first class in
every respect, including technical content, editing integrity and
journalistic standards. We know the combined subscriber bases of QRPp and
QHB will enjoy this publication aspect of the American QRP Club.  Members of
both clubs today will still receive all issues due - e.g., if one has two
issues remaining in a QRPp subscription, and four issues remaining from a
QHB subscription, six issues of The Homebrewer magazine will be entered in
the database for the individual.  New annual subscriptions to The Homebrewer
magazine, or renewals from either QRPp or QHB, will cost $20 for US and
Canada, and US$30 for DX subscribers. We have not seen price increases in
our QRP magazines for many years and this new rate accommodates increased
printing and mailing costs today, as well as covering for additional
content.  Payment should be made out to "American QRP Club" and sent to:
American QRP Club, c/o Paul Maciel AK1P, 1749 Hudson Drive, San Jose, CA
95124. Be sure to indicate whether this order is for a new subscription or a
renewal, as it will better enable us to record the transaction.

KITTING.  The leadership of the American QRP Club (KI6DS, N2APB, WA6GER and
N2CX) has already started combining kitting operations to bring about the
economies of scale.  What this means is that we're capitalizing on Doug
Hendricks's expertise in promotion and parts procurement.  We are using and
expanding the already-strong NJQRP kitting engine.  We are relying on Joe
Everhart for technical focus and direction.  We are counting on George Heron
for editorial strength, kit documentation and website communication from the
club.  Jim Cates is providing us the time-proven QRP wisdom and guidance of
the ages. We are creating a developer network that will focus and funnel new
designs into the kitting operation to provide all QRPers with innovative and
well-coordinated projects. Further along these lines, we're strengthening
our alliances with our valued QRP vendors and working with them to identify
product opportunities for us that fill in the gaps in their product lines
and enable QRPers everywhere to best use their products and services.

QRP FORUMS.  The American QRP Club will sponsor the highly-acclaimed and
premier quality QRP weekends on an annual basis: Atlanticon and Pacificon.
Each local group, NJQRP and NorCal, will continue to be responsible for
planning and execution of their respective forums; however the American QRP
Club will fund the activities based on the kitting and journal operations.
Substantial guidance and administrative support will be available to each
local club to help coordinate and synchronize activities, and to provide
similar services and benefits where applicable - e.g., the "forum kit"
concept that is so well-received at Atlanticon and Lobstercon will be next
used at Pacificon.  Arrangements and travel accommodations for guest
speakers will be provided, as will be other unique event surprises we have
up our sleeves. A national convention is currently being negotiated and
planned. This coordination of these QRP weekends throughout the country is
sure to reduce the individual costs of conducting them and will increase the
value and benefit for the entire QRP community.

WEBSITE.  Communication among all QRPers continues to be of paramount
importance.  Of course this statement is true by our very nature as
RF-oriented hams, but also through our use of email technology and Internet
services available to nearly everyone today.  The American QRP Club will
continue to use the QRP-L email reflector as its primary tool for
information exchange and topic discussion. A website is being constructed to
reflect the services, goods and technical/operational needs of all QRPers.
While we await a domain name, you can see our new face at
www.njqrp.org/a-qrp. Each local club may, of course, continue to have a
website presence as desired to directly serve needs of their local members.

LOCAL CLUBS.  Both NorCal and NJQRP will continue to exist as local clubs,
serving the needs of the local members who gather for meetings, operate as a
unit during field operations, have holiday parties together, and so on.  The
American QRP Club is structured as an overarching umbrella organization to
these local clubs with the purposes of: reducing the redundancies of each
constituent group, fostering a means for each to better achieve their
localized goals of QRP awareness among the ham population, and introducing
the youth of America to the joys of home construction and radio sport. This
local QRP club scene is incredibly vibrant and is "where it's all happening"
..  We will be encouraging and facilitating other local clubs to join the
network of services and values offered by the American QRP Club.

AMERICAN QRP Club.  We purposely selected the name of the organization as
such because we are predominantly an American club, sharing the goals,
dreams and passions of our great country.  We also have many Canadian
members in our club, and the name of our organization can also be extended
to represent our valued North American neighbors.  We want to ensure that
they know that they are valued and welcomed members.  The focus of the
American QRP Club is on US and Canada, but we will always welcome members
from DX countries, just as the G-QRP club welcomes members from the US and
Canada to join their organization.

UNLIMITED HORIZONS.  There is so much more that the American QRP Club will
be offering over time - this summary merely scratches the surface.  Our
leadership team has the motivation, the track record, the enthusiasm and the
vision to help evolve the QRP community as a whole and create something
bigger than any of us have ever imagined. The youth of our population and
the public as a whole are all fertile ground for the introduction to the
benefits and value of low power ham radio.  Education, service, value and
enjoyment of radio are our goals.  We hope that you'll join us in helping to
create this enabling environment in the American QRP Club.

Sincerely yours,
      Doug Hendricks, KI6DS  email: ki6ds@dospalos.org
      George Heron, N2APB, email: n2apb@amsat.org
      Jim Cates, WA6GER, email: wa6ger@juno.com
      Joe Everhart, N2CX, email: n2cx@voicenet.com