Jim Cates, WA6GER, sk. once told me when something has run it’s course you will know when it is time to close.  Jim Cates was a very smart man.  It is time for QRPGuys to close.  I am tired, my health isn’t what it once was, and it’s time for me to step down and close the company. 

 

I will still be active in Qrp, especially with CalQrp.Groups.io.  But my time running a Qrp business is over, effective immediately.   I would like to thank all of our customers, my long time partner, Ken LoCasale (who put up with me all of these years), and my family.   Thank you.

 

I hope to see you soon.

 

72, Doug KI6DS 

 

I first met Doug Hendricks in Williams, AZ at the relocated Flagstaff hamfest in 2007, and he suggested that I attend the Pacificon event later that year. At Pacificon, I looked at the kits he was selling then, and I told him that I felt he could do better if he supplied them with enclosures. He asked me to design a case for the soon to be released Jim Kortge (K8IQY) NorCal 2N2/xx project. And, so began my collaboration with him furnishing low cost QRP related kits. From his beginning efforts with NorCal, Hendricks QRP Kits, and later with QRPGuys, many thousands of kits have been sold, all individually kitted by Doug for the QRP community.

 

After a long journey, Doug has decided to retire his red SoLo cups used for kitting the QRPGuys line of products and concentrate his efforts with the CalQRP group and other projects.

 

Over the years the selection of the kits has been a combination of in-house designs and ones from many hams we have contacted for permission to offer their designs. Our special thanks and recognition go to Steve Weber (KD1JV), Kazuhisa “Kazu” Terasaki (AG6NS), Yin Shih (N9YS), Dan Tayloe (N7VE), John Stevens (K5JS), and Cliff Donley (K8TND).

 

My association with QRPGuys has been a successful collaboration with Doug over the past twenty years that I have been involved in his kitting journey, and look forward to his next ventures.

 

Concerning the QRPGuys website, past projects, and documentation. I have transferred all the assembly manuals for the current and past QRPGuys products to a menu item on the www.qrpbuilder.com website for future reference, where they will stay, along with my current kits and projects on that site.

 

72, Ken WA4MNT