[HBR] Cost Of Homebrewing?

[hbr@mailman.qth.net]

In a message dated 10/5/03 7:45:29 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
fkamp@comcast.net writes:


> waltah@earthlink.net wrote:
> 
> > In the main I agree with Jim that the HBR's were not cheap to build.
> > He makes a number of good points:
> 
> I have been following this thread with interest.
> 
> You guys are loosing sight of the main reasons to homebrew.
> 
> You homebrew if the design is something special that is not commercially 
> available
> at a reasonable price.

That's one reason.


> 
> You homebrew if you can't afford to buy on the commmecial market either in 
> kit form
> or assembled and tested.


That's another - and my point is that, over time, the savings from 
homebrewing diminished, and fewer hams needed to homebrew. 

For example, homebrewing a grounded-grid amp used to be a real money-saver. 
But when Heath announced the SB-200 kit for $200, hams without big junkboxes 
found it easier to just buy the kit.

Nowadays amplifiers have gotten so expensive that one can often save some 
money by building.

> 
> My definition of homebrew has always been rigs that are built from surplus 
> or junked radios.  

Mine has always been "something built from parts alone" regardless of source.


You don't take a parts list to a parts house and fill it!  

Why not? Some parts can only be gotten that way. My Southgate Type 7 is 99% 
"recycled" - but I could not find some of the needed xtals, or anything close, 
at hamfests or discarded equipment, so I had them made. Does that mean it's 
not homebrew?

You find your
> 
> parts in equipment that you can acquire for next to nothing.  Like old tube 
> type TV
> sets, ARC5 surplus at $10 a unit, old computer junk for solid state 
> equipment.

Sure - or at hamfests, from other hams, even eBay. But what if what you 
need/want isn't available that way?


> 
> Most of the really good stuff has dried up.  There is still lots of military 
> surplus
> around but it is out of any homebrewing price range.  

Not if you get the beaters.

There is no point in buying
> 
> surplus equipment when you can take the same cash and buy decent, 
> ready-to-use, ham
> gear.
> 

Which is why homebrewing became a niche activity. And there's a regenerative 
effect - fewer hams building meant fewer parts houses stocking stuff to build 
with.


> If the only way you can 'homebrew' is to fill a parts list at a parts 
> house, you
> will probably not be able to get the thing to work even with new, prime 
> parts.

Why not?


> 
> Successful homebrewing requires skill levels that go beyond slapping a lot 
> of prime
> parts together.
> 

Gotta start somewhere.

"Homebrew" incorporates a spectrum of efforts, from the exact duplication of 
a well documented article to the one-of-a-kind complete original effort. 

IIRC, when the HBR designs were new, one could send away a few dollars and 
get a set of high quality photos, chassis drilling templates and notes that gave 
more details than the magazine articles. And in the back of my RSGB Handbook 
is an ad from a shop offering to make up the metalwork for the G2DAF receiver. 
Were hams who used those services not homebrewers?

Personally, I homebrew for lots of reasons:

- Money or rather its lack
- I want rigs I can work on myself
- I have an enormous junkbox
- I want a combination of features that are rarely found in the same rig
- I've been spoiled rotten by things like BC-221 caps and 866As
- There's just something about taking an idea and a pile of parts, and 
turning them into a unique working device that you use to make thousands of contacts 
all over the world. 

73 de Jim, N2EY


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