[Elecraft] building versus buying

[Merlarts at aol.com]

Interestingly enough,
 
in the late seventies we were complaining about the lack of suitable  outlets 
for homebrew projects.  I didn't dcompletely buy it then nor do I  buy it 
now.  
 
It's always required "ordering out" for stuff like ferrites, power  
transistors, and the like.  It's not so bad, you just sit down and order  and, voila!, 
in a few days you're in business.  
 
As far as the boards are concerned, there was a great project QST some  years 
ago ago "A competition grade CW receiver", in which Doug De Mauw described  
using a dremel tool, or some such device to make little "islands" in which to  
solder the leads of the components.  It worked beautifully, giving the  
builder the benefit of a great, useable groundplane surface area as well.  
 
Never having been entirely happy with QRP, in 1980 I built a homebrew, five  
band rig with a 9 MHZ single conversion design, using an Heathkit LMO as the  
VFO.  It used the then "new" MRF 422's, and put out 200 very clean  watts.  I 
still use this rig with continuing pleasure, enjoying its dual  time constant 
hang AGC and 24 poles of IF filtering (twelve in the receiver and  twelve in 
the transmitter).  It used the McCoy "Golden Guardian" 6 pole  filters, one 
ahead of the IF strip and one after.  
 
Because manufacturing cost was not an issue, it was not necessary to bother  
with bi-lateral circuits or other such shortcuts.  
 
The point was, it worked beautifully, and was always a source of pride for  
me when hams who worked at the Naval Research Labs would come by to see the  
"homebrew project" of the ham who lived nearby on Bolling Air Force Base.  
 
The other, perhaps best, aspect of this was that, whenever a new design  
would show up for a mixer or something, in a few hours with the dremel tool and  a 
soldering iron it would reside in the rig.  Talk about high tech!  
 
I've never been an engineer or techno-geek kind of guy (recently reitired  as 
concertmaster  of the Marine Band), but such projects have never been  out 
reach for hams who use even a tiny bit of ingenuity.  
 
Homebrew does not have to be dead, even now.  Order your doubly  balanced 
mixers, power devices and such, rely on a well-stocked Radio Shack and  go for 
it.  
 
Regards, and thanks for this beautiful hobby,
 
Merlin, W3ICT
 
I think we build because of the adventure of it.  I can't afford a  8-second 
drag race car, and my reflexes are a bit slow for Grand Prix Formula  One.  
So?    ---------I build my rig, whether it's a K2 or  my own, and I ride a bike, 
either with a motor or not.  That's almost  enough excitement.