Changes

An announcement was made on QRP-L today that Alaska has asked for a slot later in the year for K6JSS, so Utah is pinch hitting in the lineup this week.  Should be interesting to see if I can work them.  According to Jim W4QO, it looks like operations will be run by one Ham this week. I guess there aren't many Hams in Utah, let alone QRPers.  I wish him the best - it's a heavy burden to be facing a whole week alone like that.

W1PID has been out and about again!  For his latest adventure, please go to:  http://www.w1pid.com/ramble/ramble.html

John AE5X has hyperlinked to .pdfs of several Heathkit catalogs on his blog.  I found that if you Google or Bing "Heathkit Catalog" you can find a few more than he has listed.  I was looking through a couple of the catalogs from the late 70s and it jogged my memory about building a few kits that I had forgotten about! These are some of the kits I had built:

HR-1680 Amateur receiver with matching speaker
VTVM
Cantenna dummy load
HD-1410 keyer
HW-8 and power supply
SB-104A transceiver with matching speaker and power supply, remote VFO, station monitor and five function console
Synthesized scanner for Amateur and Public Service frequencies
LED alarm clock
Complete stereo system composed of:
Power Amp
Pre-amp
Pre-pre-amp for moving coil cartridges
AM/FM tuner
Equalizer
Noise Reduction Unit

The only kit that I had a problem with was the SB-104A.  During final assembly, when I installed one of the boards, it would cause the entire radio to go dark and shut down.  After much troubleshooting and head scratching, I gave in and took the radio and boards to a (kind of) local Heathkit store.  It turned out it was one of the pre-built factory boards that had a problem.  To compensate, the Tech finished the Final Assembly (which consisted of plugging in all the daughter cards) and did a professional factory alignment, free of charge. Now that's service!

And there may be a few more kits that I still don't remember building.  That was the advantage of being young, employed and not being married at the time - lots of free time and more disposable income than now! 

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!