[Elecraft] Affordable Test Equipment to Evaluate A K-rig

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Wes Hayward, W7ZOI, describes a "lab" full of homebrew test equipment in
his book "Solid State Design for the Radio Amateur". It includes signal
generators with calibrated outputs going down in the fractional
microvolt level with suitable shielding for accurate measurements. Wes
"bootstrapped" the calibration starting with simple measurement
equipment that dealt with fairly large signals, and used those results
to build ever more sensitive test equipment. The result was a bench of
homebrew test equipment that could accurately measure a rig running a
"QRP Gallon" (5 watts) down to something in the microwatt level.
Building and getting the test equipment working was a real laboratory
exercise in learning how to use it in testing rigs. 

The book has been around a while. In addition to the test equipment that
Wes designed and originally presented in a series of QST articles in the
70's, it contains many homebrew rig designs and design data for the home
brewer. I built most of Wes' test equipment to use when designing my own
rigs back in the late 70's and to build and test a variety of crystal
ladder filters of the  type the Elecraft rigs use. Being 30 years old,
there are some niftier chips out there than what this book shows
particularly in some of the rig designs included in the book, but the
theory and test equipment described is great basic stuff that is still
100% useful in today's' ham workshops. 

The book was co-authored by the other legendary QRPer and Homebrewer
extraordinaire, Doug DeMaw, W1FB who is, sadly, now an SK. Doug founded
Oak Hills Research among other companies and spent years with the ARRL. 

For me, "Solid State Design for the Radio Amateur" supplanted the ARRL
Handbook as the most useful collection of "how to" information for
designing, building and testing rigs, particularly HF band equipment. 

By the way, I DO have a connection with the authors, but it's one of
debt, not profit. I can't tell you the number of times back in the 60's
and 70's that I was scratching my head over a design problem and would
run into Doug or Wes on 40 meter CW running a few milliwatts with their
latest creation, tell them about my problems and receive a few days
later a long, carefully-written letter outlining possible approaches and
solutions. That was before e-mail. Sometimes a whole schematic or test
setup would be described in great detail. They weren't interested in
showing me how much they knew or pointing out what I obviously did not
know. They were spending their time helping me find out for myself what
I needed to know so I could learn in true "Ham" spirit. Any time I write
something on this reflector that might help someone today, it's one tiny
little "thank you" to a couple of great guys who spent a lot of their
time with me. And I am certain that I was NOT the only one! 

Ron AC7AC