AKBiocca Engineering

We had a busy weekend at Monterey Radiofest visiting with lots of folks and answering Launcher questions. In between I worked on a new Web Catalog which is now online (not bad for four days part-time effort). I also see that the website was very busy with lots of hits and orders over the weekend, probably relating to the March QST photo and mention.

If you have any questions or suggestions on the new Catalog website, see the Contact Us web page on the right and drop us a line.

New Online Catalog

Some folks are questioning the long lead times. I am working hard on that, but I don’t want folks to be surprised if it is not instantly better. Lots of parts are on order and already in stock, but a lot of machining remains to be done, stuffing boxes, packing and so forth. The assembled launchers take a lot more time, so we will keep on it till we get caught up. I see Elecraft is four months out on the new K3, so it may already be too late to order K3’s for Field Day…

Thanks & 73!

I see the new March QST features a photo of one of our Launchers in the hands of Ed, WD4DTC. Great job, Ed!

We are preparing to depart tomorrow for Radiofest in Monterey. This weekend we will operate a booth at the ‘Fest. Come by and say hi if you are in the area!

We are turning out launchers, but are a bit behind. There was a big surge in January after the ordering was turned back on, and we are still chewing through that. Order turnaround is almost up to 6 to 7 weeks, so we have out of stock’ed the built launchers until we can reduce the lead time. I have more parts coming in, but the time to machine them and pack them is harder to find. We will be hitting it hard again after this weekend.

We have also started a new catalog replacement program that will solve the issues some are having with the present catalog. Internet Explorer seems to work, but other browsers are not happy.

Thanks for your patience,

– Alan, WB6ZQZ

We had a great trip to Quartzfest. I made 3 presentations - one on launchers, one on baluns and one on the amazing new LED flashlights. Hope to see you there next year!

Various issues in January conspired to delay our progress on orders by several weeks. Things are moving again, but we have missed estimates of shipping in some cases. My apologies for that.

We are about out of the old cache of triggers, so we will be shifting to a different unit. Eric has used these in all his launchers and they work well. To my eye they are not quite as aesthetic, but functionality is fine. I will continue to evaluate other triggers and may find a better choice later on. The trigger is easy to upgrade when not glued, and we no longer recommend glue there.

We opened our copy of QRP Quarterly (it comes in an envelope) and right there on the front cover is one of our CSV19 design Pneumatic Antenna Launchers, complete with Zip Reel in the hands of Bruce Beford, N1RX taking aim at the treetops. Bruce painted the white PVC on his CSV19 yellow, which looks great against the dark gray barrel. Bruce used his launcher at Lobstercon to wow the bystanders and put up some antennas. The article indicates it “proved to be a worthy tool indeed”, and “it was accurate and had the range necessary for just about anything” (page 29). Nice job, Bruce! Article text by Timothy Stabler WB9NLZ.

Photos of Lobstercon 2007 Launching here

You can see the QQ cover photo at the QRP ARCI website (for a few months)

We are slowing the order flow so that we can catch up, things have become a bit backlogged lately. Pre-assembled launchers are now listed as out of stock, and we plan to suspend most ordering during December while we finish out all the orders in the queue. Ordering will be returned to normal in January.

Pacificon was fun, and we had a stuffed room for the presentation. We had a lot of good comments from the presentation, and a lot of visitors at the Buddipole booth where Chris Drummond graciously gave me some space.

The order backlog is growing, and this weekend we’re going to work on preparing a bunch of orders for shipment.

We are working on another batch of SDR-21 barrel material, but in the meantime we picked up some Schedule 40 barrel material and put it on the website. This thicker pipe works fine, especially with well-worn used tennis balls, or Walmart Fun Balls which tend to be a bit smaller. If you want to change barrels later just friction-fit the barrel or use a little tape, or a couple of small screws to hold it on.

We are working on a strut to provide support for the trigger. It is not ready yet but looks very promising. It is best to avoid glueing the trigger to retain flexibility for service, and this strut may be the best long term solution to that issue.