About The NorCal QRP Club
NorCal was founded in May of 1993 by Jim Cates, WA6GER and Doug Hendricks,
KI6DS. Its purpose was to promote QRP. The club has grown beyond all
expectations, and now has members all over the world.
Membership in NorCal is free. All that you need to do is say that you
would like to be a member and you are one. We don't have a journal, we
don't have regular business meetings, but we do have regular social meetings
every month. The reason to be for NorCal is to have fun with radio.
There are no dues, no membership requirements, no treasurer's reports,
no secretary's minutes at our social meetings, just good old QRP fun!!
The club is probably best known for its many kits, which started with the
NorCal 40, designed by Wayne Burdick, N6KR, that is credited with giving
the club a huge boost when we were getting started. Wayne later designed
a couple of other famous kits for us, including the 49er and the Sierra.
We have kitted antennas, antenna tuners, transmitters, swl receivers, ssb
transceivers, simple receivers, QRP amplifiers, paddles etc. The club has
broken new ground by establishing benchmarks for quality manuals and kits.
The club will continue doing kits, with the profits made from them all being
used to promote qrp as we give back to the hobby.
Jim Cates, WA6GER, one of our co-founders, became a silent key in April
of 2004. He is missed by all, but the work that he started will continue
with the club. Doug Hendricks, KI6DS, also retired as an active member
of the NorCal board in 2010, but continues to serve as our popular
Master of Ceremonies for NorCal events. The club is now in the hands
of a five member Board of Directors. The current board of directors
consist of: James Bennett, KA5DVS, Darrel Swenson, K0AWB, Dean Davis,
N7XG, Dick Palmer, WB6JDH, and Bob Miller, WB6KWT. We will continue
to produce our kits, we will continue to host our annual QRP Forum
in October during PacifiCon, we will continue to have our monthly
meetings and we will continue to have an active web site.
