A full house at the open house! That's Rex Terry KC5UVN's loop antenna and portable station.

Jay Rupar KØETC built the retro wooden 6AG7 transmitter. Dave Bixler, WØCH built the other goodies.

Tommy Henderson WD5AGO brought some fine looking home built rigs.

Here is a close-up view of WD5AGO's 40 meter scratch built transceiver.

Gene Sailsbury NØMQ took over the breakfast buffet with a big collection of kit and homebrew rigs. That's what I call a breakfast of champions!

Here is Joe Porter, WØMQY's assortment of home constructed gear. The Sierra is connected to a remotely tuned loop antenna (not visible).

The Ft. Smith musicians. From left to right; Derek Bromley KD5PBD, Chuck Carpenter W5USJ, Doug Hendricks KI6DS and Nick Kennedy WA5BDU (white shirt).

A close-up view of Chuck Carpenter playing a mountain dulcimer and Doug Hendricks on the guitar.

Saturday morning's ArkieCon 2003's official kickoff. Doug Hendricks from NorCal was the master of ceremonies.

The first speakers of the day was the team of Jim Duffey (Dr. Megacycle) KK6MC and Clifton Sikes, N5UW. Their topic was operating QRP for fun.

Out in the big Ft. Smith hamfest room we catch up with Burl Keeton N5DUQ and Jim Cates WA6GER.

Would you believe Dave Benson K1SWL singing about his move to Connecticut to the tune of The Ballad of Jed Clampett while accompanied by Nick Kennedy WA5BDU on the banjo. You had to be there to believe this! Dave, don't give up your day job.....

Jay Bromley W5JAY presented the "Elmer of the Year" award to George Baker W5YR for his contributions to the QRP community. Also (but not pictured) was the award of QRP'er of the year to Vern Wright, W6MMA for his support of the many QRP forums across the world.

Don Jackson AE5K presented an interesting talk about QRSS and QRPp. This involves combining very slow speed CW with very low power levels to achieve some remarkable results.

Next up was Tom Schiller, N6BT, the proprietor of Force 12 antennas. Tom's talk detailed the record breaking results "Team Vertical" obtained in the CQ WW contest using QRP and vertical antennas.

Gentleman Jim Cates, WA6GER, spoke about his 43 years as a QRP'er and brought a car load of unusual and rare QRP rigs from his massive collection.

Hannah Vines pulls the winning ticket out of the drum for the ArkieCon grand prize while a hundred or so QRP'ers held their breath..

And the winner is..... Nancy Bixler, NØFNZ. Nancy won a brand new Ten-Tec Argonaut V transceiver.

Outside in the sunshine is the ArkieCon antenna farm.

Here is Lew Paceley N5ZE's bumper mounted vertical antenna.

Dave Redfearn N4ELM's portable PSK-31 station. He is feeding a homebrew 2 element yagi antenna.

Dennis Foster KK5PY's portable Argonaut station and one of his tiny antenna tuners in action.

The building contest featured many talented QRP'ers. Here are Jerry Hall WØPWE's entries. Jerry came in second this year in the contest.

A close up view of WØPWE's beautiful scratch built SW30++ transceiver, complete with an AFA.

Here is Chuck Carpenter W5USJ's super Rock-Mite. Very nice!

Joe Porter WØMQY won first place in the building contest. For his efforts, he walked away with a beta version DSW-II kit provided by K1SWL. Wow, what a prize!

Rex Terry KC5UVN was awarded third place. Doug is holding up Rex's homebrew paddle.

George Baker W5YR is demonstrating filter alignment on the K2 and also measuring transmitter power output with laboratory grade test equipment.

Jim Cates, WA6GER's building contest entry was this very nice "toob" transmitter.

Dave Benson K1SWL with the eagerly awaited DSW-II transceiver. Dave says that this new kit should be ready for release in June.

Jay Bromley, W5JAY and the Ft. Smith QRP Group really went all-out to make us feel at home. Thanks for the really great time!

One happy QRP'er after a long day of QRP fun! Thanks to Dennis Foster KK5PY for donating the Te-Ne-Ke paddles for the builder's contest prizes.