[FARC] TAK-40 Tech Support and "Soldering Bee"

[David Kindred]

Howdy, all,
 
I've been in contact with Jim Veatch, designer of the TAK-40 40m QRP
transceiver in this month's QST. He lives in Baltimore and can
apparently hit the K3MAD (147.06) repeater without trouble. He's
offering to set up a SKED (new term to me) with us on Tuesday nights for
tech support. Isn't that cool? 
 
I thought it might be fun to set up a "soldering bee" when we start
assembling these. Anyone who's interested is welcome to come to my house
to solder, or just have good company. Jim has offered to join us for
one. Have you guys done something like this before? I thought it could
benefit us all to be able to trouble-shoot together, and also to give
pointers to those of us who aren't as proficient at soldering.
 
For the four of us building them, Jim offered the following advice:
 
"In the two weeks before the boards come, I'd suggest building the front
panel. Put in the POT for RF gain and leave room for a RIT control, it's
coming soon. You can also put a pot in the AF output for volume. 

We'll build the digital board first and the radio will 'come alive' with
relative little soldering and I'll be a great confidence builder to see
something on the display."

73,

--David, KB3NAI