Years ago, a posting to QRP-L announced an upcoming kit that was gonna kick ass and take names on 20-meter CW.
Its virtues were extolled far and wide. Terms like “bullet-proof front-end” were tossed around. It was a soon-to-be-legend. It was gonna be the subject of a Ken Burns documentary (just kidding). It was going to launch a new line of QRP kits and the company producing them.
It was the Norcal 20.
It was a dud.
Nothing wrong with it being a dud, mind you – that ain’t the point here. Continue reading 'The business end of QRP'»
LCR meter kit from Jackson Harbor Press (thanks Bob)
I’ve been wanting an LCR meter for a lot of years now but have refrained from buying one due to my skepticism of their accuracy. A voice in the back of my head is telling me that I could probably measure the value of a small-value capacitor a number of times and get a number of different results.
The variation would be due to factors like overall meter accuracy & resolution, lead capacitance, physical arrangment of the leads, body capacitance as the measurement is made, etc. But maybe I’m wrong, as often is the case…
In reading over the manual for the new Ft. Tuthill 80m kit, it appears that there are ten 0.1uF capacitors that should be matched. If not, the rig stands a small chance of breaking into self-oscillation. Continue reading 'Convenient excuses & expenditure justification'»
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