Bruce began by telling of his grandfather giving him a wonderful AR88 for his 7 th birthday! They followed that up by buying him a Philips Electronics Engineer kit for his 8 th birthday.

Within a week he had constructed every project in the kit- and he was hooked! He soon realised what his career was going to be.

Bruce’s first QRP rig was the Heathkit ‘Twoer’ Super regen, RX wide as a ‘barn door’, a few watts crystal controlled TX. Built from a kit which began his love affair with Heathkit.

Bruce then went on through the years and described the many rigs he had built and used and the stations around the world he had worked! All with a simple aerial and a few watts of power.

The video can be found on YouTube at RSGB 2004 Convention: QRP- fun or folly?

A good turnout, mostly for the Live radio, saw Graham, G4JBD and David, G4FKI using the club’s callsign G3FJE and CW (and SSB)  contacting stations in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Italy and UK on 40M to an inverted dipole at 10M. All accomplished in a short time period when 40M band conditions were listed as POOR.

G4FKI at the key on 40M

The 40m V dipole

A good turn out for a chat that continued till closing time, while near by a small group took CW practice, showing good progress.