EMRFD Message Archive 5537

Message Date From Subject
5537 2010-12-23 14:51:02 ae5ew ARRL Handbook Projects
I couldn't find a better place to discuss ARRL Handbook projects so here I am. If I am not where I should be please point me to a better place. During the recent past, I have be financially strapped. Now that I have a little money, I would like to pursue some kit building which I haven't done in a couple of decades. Heathkit is sorely missed. I have several of their kits and enjoyed putting them together. The manuals were generally excellent and a wonderful learning experience.
Charles AE5EW
5539 2010-12-23 15:00:50 k9jri@att.net Re: ARRL Handbook Projects
Charles, I returned to some kit building at the start of 2010 and it really re-invigorated my interest in Ham Radio. I have found that the Small Wonder Labs kits and the Hendricks' QRP Kits to be very close to the old Heathkits in both the quality of the kit itself and the documentation.

If you encounter any problems both vendors will replace broken or missing parts very quickly. Small Wonder Labs provides much better technical support though if you have a technical question.

Other quality kit vendors are out there but these are my favorites.

73 - Mike - K9JRI

5542 2010-12-23 17:11:58 Paul Daulton Re: ARRL Handbook Projects
Charles I ditto Mikes remarks about Hendrickkits. I have the Bitx20a
and two MMR-40( one I modified to 80 meters) and the cases and freq
counter for all. Nice rigs for modest prices. A Heathkit HW-32 which
sold for $109(minus power supplly) in the '60s would cost $700.00 or
more in todays money.Kits allow some certainty of sucess and allow some
custom individualilty.

Boards are available for all of Dooug DeMaw's qrp projects at
Farcircuits. Coming back into bulding solid state in '89 I ordered
boards for vfo's amp chains, dsb modulator, 5 watt amp, s-meter and a
few others. Each board becomes a building block you can stack up for a
receiver, transmitter, or even tranceivers. buy parts like 0.1uf caps,
2n2222, 2n3904, resistors in bulk. Suprising how quickly 100 0.1uf caps
dissapear. At Radio Shack they cost $1.59 for five, in quantity of 100
you can often find them for $3.00/100.

There isnt much profit in the kit business, and it is a very labor
intensive project. Give a pat
5549 2010-12-24 06:41:39 Mike Short Re: ARRL Handbook Projects
Also KangaUS for some kits based on KK7B's work, as well as Wes. Good stuff.



I built a DDS VFO that has a sweep generator function as well. It can be
used as a foundation for a spectrum analyzer,

Building receivers, etc, and as a signal generator.



Lots of neat stuff out there.



Mike

AI4NS



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