[FARC] Amateur Radio Kits

[Joseph M. Durnal]

Hello Everyone,

One of my main interests in amateur radio is the technical aspect, I
like to know how it works.  Not being an educated electrical engineer,
or one who really gets much out of reading a book, I prefer learning
by doing.

I recently started building my first transceiver, the Elecraft K1
(actually, my second, but I don't count the 500 milliwatt Pixie II).
Until recently, I didn't even know amateur radio kits existed anymore.
 We've all heard good things about Heathkit, but I thought that that
era was gone, but I was wrong.  There are some great transceiver kits
out there, and some of them rival the performance of today's higher
end HF transceivers.

Expected on Elecraft's web site sometime later today is the Elecraft
K3 transceiver kit, an easy to assemble, modular, no-soldering kit.
While some may not put this in the 'kit' category which requires
complete assembly like Elecraft's K2 or the Heatkits of the past, I
think building this radio would help someone like me learn a lot of
the theory that makes it work as a whole, and what each module does as
part of the whole.

There is a downside to some of todays kits, they aren't exactly cheap,
especially compared with some of the small all band all mode radios
out there.  The K1 I'm building was $299, for a two band, 5 watt, CW
only transceiver.  The K3/100 is $1749 (it can be purchased fully
assembled for $1989), which, if it performs as well as they claim,
would make it a bargain, but we'll have to wait for the independent
reviews to determine that.

Elecraft is not the only game in town when it comes to kits, Ten-Tec
makes a good QRP CW kit, I've also had the Oak Hills Research OHR 100A
recommended to me.  Something good to start with, if for no other
reason to practice soldering, is the Pixie II crystal CW kit, it is
very limited with only a few hundred milliwatts, but a good place to
learn the basic transceiver components, and they can be found for less
than $20.

Transceivers aren't the only kits to build, Down East Microwave &
Elecraft have some great transverters for VHF, UHF, & Microwave,
transverters are the only way to get on some amateur bands and are
often used for 222 MHz (If you made it to MADXRA's Field Day event in
2006, a transverter was used for 222 MHz).  Elecraft also has some
other interesting kits, like a 2-Tone Test Oscillator, a Wideband
Noise Generator, and even a simple 20W Dummy Load.

73
Joe
NE3R