The American QRP Club - AmQRP

On June 4, 2003 it was announced that the NorCal QRP club and New Jersey QRP club are merging to form The American QRP Club (AmQRP)

We are excited to announce the formation of 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.

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.

OUR NAME: 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
George Heron, N2APB
Jim Cates, WA6GER
Joe Everhart, N2CX

For the full announcement & more information about AmQRP:  http://www.amqrp.org

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w9gb
NorCal member