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Let's explore the world of possibilities for QRP-related holiday gifts!

The Elecraft KX1--an ultra-light, multiband CW station with internal battery and automatic antenna tuner. [Elecraft Photo]

Great looks, quality handmade construction, smooth feel and great price. PR-2, one of 3 iambic paddles available from Jerry Pittenger, K8RA.

Unibit step drill bit lets you create nice round holes in a variety of materials in a variety of sizes. If you have ever tried to drill a round hole in thin aluminum, you will love this tool! The only better way to make holes is with much more expensive chassis punches (and you would need one for each size hole.)

Holiday Gifts for QRPers

Shopping for the perfect QRP gift can be difficult for the nonham spouse or relative. As a public service, we present our annual guide to QRP-related gifts.

Here's how it works: Print out the list (below) and mark items you're interested. Then, "accidentally" leave the list in a conspicuous place for the prospective gift giver to find.

This method avoids lengthy explanations about what QRP is or why you'd even want any of these things in the first place. The list includes links to possible sites to make a purchase or contact the supplier. The blank areas at the bottom are for any additional choices I didn't include on my list.

My top gift suggestion--and one that's within reach of most budgets--is a membership in one of the many fine QRP clubs.

Some gifts are not directly ham related but add greatly to the enjoyment of the hobby. Examples include a good comfortable adjustable office chair, a new operating table (the "L" shaped office desks can work very well) and almost any monogrammed, engraved, embroidered or otherwise personalized item that bears your ham radio call sign.

My list includes just a few select tools (out of hundreds of possibilities). These tools are not necessarily the first that you need, but they are chosen to make difficult jobs easier. They might seem to be luxuries, but they can also save you from tearing your hair out in tedious jobs.

Items are arranged alphabetically by manufacturer or vendor within each category. A printer-friendly version of this list is available on my Web site as a PDF file.

QRP Holiday Gift List

Category	Item	Manufacturer	Link to Source(s)	Approx. Price ($)
Multiband QRP Rigs	IC-703	Icom	http://www.icomamerica.com/amateur/hf/ic703main.html	725 *
	Argonaut-V (516)	Ten Tec	http://www.tentec.com/TT516.htm	795
	FT-817	Yaesu	http://www.yaesu.com/ *	500 to 650 *
Rigs- Kits	K2	Elecraft	http://elecraft.com/elecraft_prod_list.htm	600 +
	K1	Elecraft	http://elecraft.com/elecraft_prod_list.htm	350 +
	KX1	Elecraft	http://elecraft.com/elecraft_prod_list.htm
	K2, K1 or KX1 Accessories Model:_________	Elecraft	http://elecraft.com/elecraft_prod_list.htm	25 to 360
	NW-Series	Emtech	http://emtech.steadynet.com/nw.shtml	130
	Various Kits Model: ________	Kanga	http://www.bright.net/%7Ekanga/kanga/kanga_products.htm
	93XX Cub CW- Band: _________	MFJ	http://www.mfjenterprises.com/products.php?catid=17	99 kit 149 built
	OHR 500	Oak Hills Research	http://www.ohr.com/ohr500.htm	359
	OHR 100	Oak Hills Research	http://www.ohr.com/ohr100a.htm	140
	SW+ Band _________	Small Wonder Labs	http://smallwonderlabs.com/swl_swp.htm	55
	Rock-mite Band _________	Small Wonder Labs	http://smallwonderlabs.com/Rockmite.htm	27
	PSK 31 Band _________	Small Wonder Labs	http://smallwonderlabs.com/psk31_main.htm	50 to 150
	QRP CW Kits Band _________	Ten Tec	http://www.tentec.com/Ttqrpcw.htm	95
	SST- Band__________	Wilderness Radio	http://www.fix.net/%7Ejparker/wilderness/sst.htm	85
	Sierra- Band(s)- _______	Wilderness Radio	http://www.fix.net/%7Ejparker/wilderness/sierra.htm	245 to 370
Antennas	Miracle Whip Antenna	Miracle Whip Antennas	http://www.miracleantenna.com/MiracleWhip.html	139
	MP-1 Antenna	Super Antennas	http://www.superantennas.com/	150 +
	MP-2 Motorized Antenna	Super Antennas	http://www.superantennas.com/	225 +
	Buddipole Antenna & Accessories: _____________	W3FF Antennas	http://buddipole.com/	199 +
Access-ories	Ladder or Coax Grabber	Emtech	http://emtech.steadynet.com/cgrabber.shtml	8
	ZM-2 Antenna Tuner	Emtech	http://emtech.steadynet.com/zm2.shtml	65
	Universal QSYer for FT-817	John Hansen, W2FS	http://john.hansen.net/keypad.htm	70 kit 95 built
	Z-100 Antenna Tuner	LDG Electronics	http://www.ldgelectronics.com/z-100_description.html	149
	Atomic Clock 24/12 Desktop	MFJ	http://www.mfjenterprises.com/products.php?prodid=MFJ-122	15
	24 hr Analog Wall Clock	MFJ	http://www.mfjenterprises.com/products.php?prodid=MFJ-125	30
	Contest Voice Keyer	MFJ	http://www.mfjenterprises.com/products.php?prodid=MFJ-434	180
	259-B Antenna Analyzer	MFJ	http://www.mfjenterprises.com/products.php?prodid=MFJ-259B	260
	WM-2 QRP Watt Meter	Oak Hills Research	http://www.ohr.com/wattmeter.htm	99 kit
	Frequency Mite Freq. Counter	Small Wonder Labs	http://smallwonderlabs.com/swl_frq.htm	20 kit
	FT-817 Accessory Item: __________	W4RT	http://www.w4rt.com/html/hardware.html	50 to 80
	RigBlaster	West Mountain Radio	http://www.westmountainradio.com/RIGblaster.htm	100 to 250
	Nomic	West Mountain Radio	http://www.westmountainradio.com/RIGblaster.htm	60
Keys	KE6RIE Blue Anodized Straight Key	American Morse	http://www.americanmorse.com/straightkey.htm	54
	Paddles & Keys Model:_________	Bencher	http://www.bencher.com/radioequip.html#keys	90 to 300
	Iambic Paddles __ P1 __ P2 __ P3	K8RA Brass CW Paddles	http://hometown.aol.com/k8ra/	79 99 120
	Morse Keys	Kent	http://www.kent-engineers.com/morseKEYindex.htm	40 to 160
	Mini Portable Iambic Paddles	MFJ	http://www.mfjenterprises.com/products.php?prodid=MFJ-561	20
	Christmas Key	Morse Express	http://www.morsex.com/xmas/	60
	Keys, Paddles, Bugs & more Model:_________	Morse Express	http://www.morsex.com/	10 to 500
	Bug & More Model:_________	Vibroplex	http://www.vibroplex.com/	60 to 500
Books	QRP Books _____________	ARRL	http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?category=Low+Power%2FQRP&words=	8 to 25
	QRP Books _____________	Kanga USA	http://www.bright.net/~kanga/kanga/books_and_misc.htm	8 to 25
	QRP Books _____________	QRP Books	http://www.qrpbooks.com/	8 to 25
	FT-817 Pack-It Reference	VE3AYR	http://www.bigwave.ca/~janus/hrm/FT-817/	13
Club Items	Gear, Pins, Mugs, Op-Aids & more Model:_________	ARRL	http://www.arrl.org/catalog/
	Calendars, CDs, Videos & Books	CQ Magazine	http://ssl.sunserver.com/cq/merchant.ihtml
	Flying Pig Gear	Flying Pigs QRP Club	http://www.fpqrp.com/pigg20/shirts.htm	5 to 25
	Kits, Bits, CDs & Books Item:__________	G-QRP Club	http://www.g4wif.fsnet.co.uk/q_sales.htm	5 to 30
	Kits & Gear Model:_________	NorCal QRP	http://www.norcalqrp.com/	10 to 25
	NoGa Kits Model:_________	North Georgia QRP Club	http://www.nogaqrp.org/	8 to 25
	QRP Homebrewer Subscription	American QRP Club	http://www.amqrp.org	15
	W1CG Low Power Balun	NJ QRP Club	http://www.njqrp.org/balun/index.html	15
	NJ QRP Club Kits Model:_________	NJ QRP Club	http://www.njqrp.org
	QRP Club Membership Club:__________	Various	See "QRP Community: The QRP Community" for a list of clubs and links. Plus the new American QRP Club	0 to 32
Calendar	Eastern Pennsylvania QRP Club calendar	Eastern Pennsylvania QRP Club	http://www.n3epa.org/Pages/QRP-Calendar.htm	13.00
Tools	GC Snap Vacuum Solder Popper 12-2157	Action-Electronics	http://www.action-electronics.com/desolder.htm	35
	Uni-Bit-10234 #4 Step Drill with 12 Hole Sizes	Irwin Tools	Also available in a variety of sizes and sets from most major hardware and home improvement stores	25 to 60
	Precision Screw Driver Set- #45736	Sears Craftsman	Slot, Phillips ad Torx	20
Your Own Picks

* Indicates products available from dealers in new amateur equipment.

The Universal QSYer for the popular FT-817 and other radios from John Hansen, W2FS, now is available as a kit.

Everything you ever wanted to know about the FT-817 but couldn't find in the manual.

The MFJ-259B is the latest version of a popular ham radio accessory. [MFJ Photo]

The ARRL's Technical Information Service TIS Address Database Search offers a listing of more than 2000 products and services. Also, don't forget to consider an item from the ARRL products catalog. It's easy to order on line! Don't forget to pass this dealer information on possible buyers, they probably will not find most of this stuff in their usual shopping mall. You also can check out the ads in QST and other ham radio magazines.

There's also a list of hyperlinks for ham radio manufacturers and suppliers on The DX Notebook Web site. Click on "Ham Stuff" on the left side of the page (you'll have to scroll down to the bottom to find it).

Featured QRP Club of the Month

I received a nice e-mail from Dennis Marandos, K1LGQ, chiding me for never mentioning the New England QRP Club. My intention is to make this the first of many descriptions of the wide variety of local and regional QRP clubs. Please e-mail me information on your QRP club(s) for possible inclusion in a future column.

The New England QRP Club was one of the first five QRP clubs in the US. With the design help of Dave Benson, K1SWL (ex-NN1G) of Small Wonder Labs fame, NEQRP pioneered the idea of inexpensive QRP transceiver kits. It also originated the idea of "QRP Afield"--now sponsored by NorCal as "QRP To The Field". The club offers weekly SSB and CW nets and an annual meeting at ARRL Headquarters to activate W1AW QRP.

Reader Feedback and Author Comments

Mansfield (Ohio) InterCity Amateur Radio Club President John Young, N8JY, asked if I could give a presentation on QRP operation. Since Mansfield is about a two-hour drive from my house, so I said I would be glad to. It was fun to give a live show-and-tell on QRP.

I hope you heeded the advice in my last column, QRP Community: Triple Witching Hour, and are spending more time on the air this fall. Conditions have been up and down, but were mostly up during the CQ World Wide SSB and CW contest weekends.. I doubled my scores from last year during both the SSB and CW events. I also managed to work 102 different countries in the CW contest--DXCC in one weekend, QRP!

Thanks to all who recognized my call sign from this column and said "hi!" during the contest.

Season's greetings to QRPers everywhere, and I hope to hear you on the bands in '04!

Editor's note: Anthony Luscre, K8ZT, an ARRL member, lives in Stow, Ohio. He has worked in the field of medical microbiology for 18 years and is now a Technology and Computer Coordinator for a local school district. Luscre is an avid QRP operator having earned DXCC, WAS and WAC using no more that 5 W output. Readers are invited to contact the author via e-mail, k8zt@arrl.net and to visit his Web site.

Previous: Cooperation, not Contention, the Best Approach at 2390-2395 MHz, ARRL Says

Next: Expedition 8 Crew a No-Show for ARISS Roy Neal, K6DUE, Event Opening