QRP To The Field is a fun radio activity sponsored each April by NorCal, the Northern California QRP Club. Individual hams and clubs take to the field for six hours of operating fun using QRP equipment. Part of the fun is the theme for the event and this year's theme was "2001: A Space Odyssey" from the classic 1968 Stanley Kubrick movie of the same name.

Here in Southwest Missouri, we don't have very many rocket launching pads or satellite tracking stations. However, the factory that manufactures batteries for many of NASA's space probes and the Lunar Rover that the astronauts drove on the moon is located in Joplin.

Our operating site was in a hangar on Campbell Field, a small grass strip airfield just west of Joplin.

Layne Campbell WDØDDU, chief pilot, pounding out QSO's on 20 meters. Layne is using a Ten-Tec Century 22. The Bird wattmeter is showing 5 watts into an extended double zepp antenna (88 foot flat top) strung up between two convenient trees. That's a 1943 US Army Air Corps L2 observation plane in the background.

Layne, WDØDDU and Cecil Weinstein, NØEHP having fun!

Dave, WØCH passing out 50 point bonus contacts on 40 meters using an Elecraft K2 into a monolith supported G5RV antenna. Despite relatively poor propagation conditions, we had fun! The weather was perfect with sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80's. See you next year for QRPTTF-2002.......