Is the Hendricks QRP Kits PFR3A "Field Friendly" radio. I ordered the kit back on September 13th, using some money that I got for selling off an antenna and a laptop that I was not using. Unfortunately, five days after I placed my order, the kit went on "Sold Out" status. I waited until just before Christmas to get it; and I've just recently had the chance to unpack it, inventory it and get the first few components soldered in. You can follow the progress of the build on my blog. I will post pictures of my progress here, too. This is how the kit looked unpacked from the box:
You can see the housing, parts bag, battery holders and above the circuit board is a Battery Status Indicator kit that Doug threw in as a measure of good will due to the fact that I had to wait almost three months form ordering to delivery. I sorted everything into muffin tins and an egg carton. I think I like the egg carton concept a bit more as you can close the egg cartons. Keeps things a bit safer from accidents in my mind. The good news is that all the parts were there with the exception of some nylon washers. Those are easy enough to get, I've even seen them in the specialty hardware bins at Home Depot. Below are two photos - the parts sorted out and the circuit board with the first few resistors soldered in.
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I've only soldered in a few components so far; but it is good to be building again!
With
Spring approaching, and noisier conditions coming for 80 and 160
Meters, I have put the 160M board for my K2 on the backburner.
Instead, I am building the ACME QRP GC100 gel cell charger
kit
that I recently purchased from ACME QRP.
It can use an input voltage (16-22V max) that is supplied by either a wall wart or a solar panel. Since my solar panel is already regulated by design to charge 12V batteries; I will use this when it's completed to charge my SLAs indoors using a wall wart for the supply voltage. This way I will still be able to charge my batteries even when Ol' Sol isn't available to do the job for me. Of course an inventory of all of the many wall warts that I have hanging around the house as orphans did not yield a single one in the proper voltage range !!!!!! A quick trip to Ebay cured that for under ten bucks. I still can't believe that I had to buy one of these lil' black cubes!
This turned out to be quite an easy kit to build; and I'd recommend it heartily to those of you who have never built a kit before. All the parts are "through hole" (no surface mount devices) and the instructions are quite complete with only one small typo that was quite easy to figure out. Construction took me about 45 minutes from start to finish, including an inventory of parts.
It can use an input voltage (16-22V max) that is supplied by either a wall wart or a solar panel. Since my solar panel is already regulated by design to charge 12V batteries; I will use this when it's completed to charge my SLAs indoors using a wall wart for the supply voltage. This way I will still be able to charge my batteries even when Ol' Sol isn't available to do the job for me. Of course an inventory of all of the many wall warts that I have hanging around the house as orphans did not yield a single one in the proper voltage range !!!!!! A quick trip to Ebay cured that for under ten bucks. I still can't believe that I had to buy one of these lil' black cubes!
This turned out to be quite an easy kit to build; and I'd recommend it heartily to those of you who have never built a kit before. All the parts are "through hole" (no surface mount devices) and the instructions are quite complete with only one small typo that was quite easy to figure out. Construction took me about 45 minutes from start to finish, including an inventory of parts.
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| The board before starting. The circuit board vice from Hendricks QRP Kits was ideal for the job. | All the resistors installed | The board completely populated and soldered. |
The
final alignment looks to be a snap. And it was! It
took no
more than a minute or two to accomplish and now I have a gel cell
charger ready to go when it's not possible to use the solar panel.
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| K2 |
Rockmite |
K1 |
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Refurbed
Vibroplex Original
Standard
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Reflections on Projects Past
My
K2
is done and sn 4090 now sits happily on my shack bench. It has
served me well, re-earning
WAS,
this time CW QRP.
A few reflections ... I am pleased but not surprised by any stretch of the imagination, as to how good the Elecraft assembly manuals are. If you read it carefully and take your time, the manual leaves no stone unturned and leaves nothing to chance. Every step is laid out in plain English. There are NO ambiguities ... not one, zip, zilch, nada !!! Kit sn 4090 was complete. There were no parts missing. Everything was as it should have been. An especially nice touch that Elecraft performs is to mount the resistors that you use on a tape in the order that you install them ! How cool is that?
Personally,
I really enjoyed the
winding
and installing the RF Chokes and the toroidal transformers.
The
winding itself is not hard. Getting the enamel off the wire;
and
tinning it for installation can be a real pain if you let it.
An
easy method for preparing toroids can be found by clicking here.
This is the
Emtech site, which sells the ZM-2, a Z match antenna tuner kit for
QRP. On their Website they have a link to a short video that
you
can download/watch to see the "solder blob" method of stripping enamel
off toroid wire. It works great; but can be on the stinky
side
!!! My "hybrid" method was to do an initial scraping off of
the
enamel with a Swiss Army Knife. I made a light pass on each
"quadrant" of the outside surface of the wire. I followed
this up
with the "solder blob" method and got beautifully tinned toroid leads,
each and every single time.
If you're new to the
concept of
Elecraft
rigs and want to glean some really good information, hints and other
cool stuff, then I urge you to subscribe to the Elecraft e-mail
reflector. You can do this by checking out the Elecraft
Website
and by clicking
on the words "eMail List" which appear in the left hand side
frame. Follow the instructions and you are "in" - no fuss, no
muss !!
The Rockmite by Dave Benson of Small Wonder Labs was easy to build and is a hoot to operate. Dave's assembly instructions are excellent; but not everything is as spelled out for you in comparison to the Elecraft manuals. That being said, while you have to use your grey matter a little bit more - "it ain't rocket science" either as the old saying goes. If you can solder well and follow directions; then you can put any of these kits together with good results. The Rockmite puts out a mere 500mW signal; so EVERY contact with one of these puppies is like working DX. If you've become bored with Amateur Radio and are looking to regain the excitement of your Novice days, then I would heartily recommend getting any one of these kits. Build it yourself and get on the air ..... what could be better than that ?????
A
word about
aligning my K2 ................
Some
3 years after building
it, I
had decided to send my K2 to a professional to get
some work done on it. Right now, it is performing superbly; but I
wanted
it to be professionally "tweaked" and aligned. I haven't the time to do
it myself. I
feel bad about not doing it myself; but between work, K of C
commitments, taking care of my children when Mom's not home (working),
taking the kids to their various activities (cheer, gymnastics, etc.) -
it's just a bit too much to think about.
The man I chose for the job was Alan Wilcox, W3DVX the proprietor of Wilcox Engineering. Alan is a professional with a ton of experience. He's the one who I decided could take an excellent radio and make it even better. He's got the tools and he's got the know-how. And I was not disappointed!
To my delight, I found out that Alan did an outstanding job putting the final "final touches" on my K2. The frequency is spot on! Twirl the dial on 30 Meters to 10.000.00 MHz and WWV is there, right where it should be! Next was a check of the K2's internal crystal filters. I went to 40 Meters and picked out a station that was in a cluster of several close by signals. Changing the filters was a thing of beauty. The station I had picked stayed put, rock solid and the interfering stations magically disappeared as I flipped through the K2's filters.
The KAF2 that I acquired on eBay is now installed and I reset the internal clock to UTC. The audio filter sounds fabulous and I can already see where it will be a big help in the QRP sprints; when everybody and his brother seems to obstinately occupy about 5 kHz of spectrum instead of spreading out!
And as if things couldn't get better, the night I got it back, I started calling CQ down around 7.031.00 MHz and I was answered by TK5JO, Guy in Corsica. A new one for me! I've never worked Corsica before, either QRP or QRO. This becomes my 69th DX station worked as I continue on towards QRP DXCC. Oh baby, what a night!
As I predicted, an already fabulous rig is now even better since it has been professionally tweaked and aligned by someone who knows EXACTLY what they are doing! And with this result, I can recommend Alan Wilcox, W3DVX and his firm Wilcox Engineering enthusiastically and whole heartedly!
If you want to have an Elecraft radio; but are hesitant for whatever reason to build it on your own; then Alan is THE man! If you're like me; and you've already built your own KX1 or K1 or K2, and you know it can stand some improvement and don't have the time to tackle the job on your own; then Alan is the man for you! His work is top notch, A-1 and his rates are reasonable. He is a true gentleman and he'll keep you informed every step of the way. By all means, do yourself a favor and visit his Website: http://wilcoxengineering.com/
You will be so glad that you did!
The man I chose for the job was Alan Wilcox, W3DVX the proprietor of Wilcox Engineering. Alan is a professional with a ton of experience. He's the one who I decided could take an excellent radio and make it even better. He's got the tools and he's got the know-how. And I was not disappointed!
To my delight, I found out that Alan did an outstanding job putting the final "final touches" on my K2. The frequency is spot on! Twirl the dial on 30 Meters to 10.000.00 MHz and WWV is there, right where it should be! Next was a check of the K2's internal crystal filters. I went to 40 Meters and picked out a station that was in a cluster of several close by signals. Changing the filters was a thing of beauty. The station I had picked stayed put, rock solid and the interfering stations magically disappeared as I flipped through the K2's filters.
The KAF2 that I acquired on eBay is now installed and I reset the internal clock to UTC. The audio filter sounds fabulous and I can already see where it will be a big help in the QRP sprints; when everybody and his brother seems to obstinately occupy about 5 kHz of spectrum instead of spreading out!
And as if things couldn't get better, the night I got it back, I started calling CQ down around 7.031.00 MHz and I was answered by TK5JO, Guy in Corsica. A new one for me! I've never worked Corsica before, either QRP or QRO. This becomes my 69th DX station worked as I continue on towards QRP DXCC. Oh baby, what a night!
As I predicted, an already fabulous rig is now even better since it has been professionally tweaked and aligned by someone who knows EXACTLY what they are doing! And with this result, I can recommend Alan Wilcox, W3DVX and his firm Wilcox Engineering enthusiastically and whole heartedly!
If you want to have an Elecraft radio; but are hesitant for whatever reason to build it on your own; then Alan is THE man! If you're like me; and you've already built your own KX1 or K1 or K2, and you know it can stand some improvement and don't have the time to tackle the job on your own; then Alan is the man for you! His work is top notch, A-1 and his rates are reasonable. He is a true gentleman and he'll keep you informed every step of the way. By all means, do yourself a favor and visit his Website: http://wilcoxengineering.com/
You will be so glad that you did!
Reflections
on other projects
The
K1 was even easier
to build than the K2; and in fact my K1 was the
first Elecraft rig I had purchased. It was good experience to
gain before tackling the K2. Not only did I end up with a
super
radio; but I got into the swing of things the Elecraft way (which is
not all that much different from the Heathkit way- just better!) I love
my K1 - I love keeping it in the car for portable ops and it is a
superb Field Day rig!
The Rockmite by Dave Benson of Small Wonder Labs was easy to build and is a hoot to operate. Dave's assembly instructions are excellent; but not everything is as spelled out for you in comparison to the Elecraft manuals. That being said, while you have to use your grey matter a little bit more - "it ain't rocket science" either as the old saying goes. If you can solder well and follow directions; then you can put any of these kits together with good results. The Rockmite puts out a mere 500mW signal; so EVERY contact with one of these puppies is like working DX. If you've become bored with Amateur Radio and are looking to regain the excitement of your Novice days, then I would heartily recommend getting any one of these kits. Build it yourself and get on the air ..... what could be better than that ?????
So what are the bare essentials for successful kitbuilding or homebrewing ?
I think the following
are
absolutely
necessary:
1) A table or work area where your project can be worked on and then left alone undisturbed when you're not around. Building a kit or homebrewing on the kitchen or dining room table just doesn't cut it !
Check out this idea - courtesy of Monty N5ESE - this is a perfect solution to an old problem!
2) A
VERY GOOD light
source.
I use an inexpensive but nice magnifying lamp I found on eBay for about
eight bucks. It uses a 60 watt light bulb and the magnifier
is
really helpful in reading the impossibly small silkscreening found on
some components.
3)
A premium soldering iron. This is your mainstay in kit
building or homebrewing; so buy the best you can afford. I
personally prefer Weller soldering tools. I not only use them
at
home; but I also use them professionally at work.
4) An adequate set of tools need not be overdone. Needlenose pliers, a good pair of diagonal cutters, some small screwdrivers and nut drivers as well as a multimeter are good beginning tools. Exotic things like metal breaks and drill presses and the like can be bought as you need them as you become more sophisticated in your projects.
5) The MOST important thing you need is patience, patience and more patience !!! Building a kit or project is supposed to be fun; not a competition or a race. Take your time and triple check everything; and odds are when you do the "smoke test" your project won't go up in smoke!
Rigs
that I have owned !
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These
two pieces made up my Novice station back in 1978, the Drake 2-NT and
the Heathkit HR-1680 receiver. I teamed these up with a Globe
VFO, a longwire antenna and antenna tuner and I worked the world with
75 Watts! |
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While
studying for my General ticket in 1979, I saved up for and
bought
a used set of Kenwood R-599D and T-599D Twins. I teamed these
up
with an Astatic D-104 microphone and dreamed of becoming a DX chasing
king! |
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| Kenwood
TS-140 I owned one of these very briefly |
Icom
IC-730 This was the very first rig I ever owned that was "brand new". |
Icom
IC-751A This rig had the best receiver I've ever owned until I built my K2. |
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| The
Heathkit
HW-8. I built one of these and could kick myself for selling
it! This little guy is a classic! |
The
Heathkit HW-9. I bought one of these used. It was
way nicer
than the HW-8; but since I didn't build it, somehow it wasn't as
"special". |
The
Heathkit SB-104A. This took me about a month to
build. I
loved this rig and had it for a long time. This was one of
the
last "premium" rigs that Heathkit offered before they closed their
doors. |
