Hello Everyone,

Recent events have caused me to consider an idea from the past that I would like to
modify slightly and bring back to life.

The idea I mention is one developed by myself and two friends that provides hams the
opportunity use creative skills to design and fabricate a small CW transmitter using
Altoids tins, then later prove its capabilities by operating it in a contest.  The
original plan was to launch this project as a national event.

The power supply is allowed to be constructed on a separate chassis.  If one desires
to use an antenna tuner, it can be external too.  No defined rules for them and they
don’t have to be homebrew, the point of interest is the CW transmitter itself.

There are specific limitations to how the Altoids tins can be spaced, etc.  The tins
can be vertically stacked or horizontally.  This is a creative type of a project,
for example the power output is limited by what and how you manage to fit stuff into
the tins.

Also one of our newer members John Leady  and his wife are moving to Austin this week to continue thier education, they have family in the area and will be back in town from time to time.

73 de K5BAR

Hi Everyone,

Most of you have probably read about the new Triple Play WAS award that was created
at the recent ARRL Director's Meeting in Connecticut.

If you haven't seen the announcement it was:  "The Board voted to create a Triple
Play Award. This new award, set to be implemented by January 2009, will be given to
those amateurs who achieve Worked All States (WAS) on voice, CW and digital modes.
All 150 QSLs must be exclusively via Logbook of The World (LoTW). Only those
contacts made after the awards start date will be eligible."

This new WAS appears to be a winner to me.  It motivates some to try the digital
modes.  It motivates some who have gotten a bit rusty at Morse to dust off their
keys.  It will even motivate some (there may more than you might think) to find
their microphones.

As a comment, at this time I am not a Logbook of the World user, but I think that is
about to change.  The price of QSLing, especially DX QSLing, is escalating in price.
 Many DX countries now require 3 green stamps ($3) for return postage.  It is close
to a dollar to send a QSL to a foreign nation (excluding Canada and Mexico). 
Another option is to use a QSL bureau, they tend to be a little slow.  There are a
few other reasons to consider using LoTW.

Be sure and check your mail account, you should have changed it from mail.bcarn.net to mail.bcarntx.org

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Let us know, we have web mail you can get to from any place you have an internet connection. If you have not been receiving email from the reflector please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and let us know. Joe takes good care of the mail server and we have not found any problems with it, so if you are having a problem let us know so we can help you.

73 de K5BAR