As many of you know I have been building kits for the past couple of months. I have found this to be a very fulfilling venture, and one I hope others will try out. This first article in this series will serve as a brief introduction, a “why I did it” of sorts.A few months ago, I had started looking into QRP. I has driven by the challenge to see how many stations I could work with minimal power. I read about people talking long distances with 5 watts or less, sometime even in the milliwatts (also known as QRPp). I figure just about anyone can run legal limit and talk where they want, but there must be some sort of skill involved with QRP.
Now, I have my FT-897 that will go down to 5 watts. While this will work, I also became interested in the kit building side of things. Not to mention my renewed interest in CW. CW and QRP go hand in hand as CW makes the most efficient use of bandwidth versus SSB. Come to find out that PSK works well also (Thanks to Jay’s experimentation).
I started by looking at the Elecraft K1 and KX1 radios. The reviews were spectacular. The KX1 is made for backpacking. Since I haven’t done that in years, the K1 seemed more suitable to my needs. The K1 adds a few features and is around the same price. But, I haven’t built any electronic kits in a few years, and have never built a radio, so I wanted to start on something smaller and work my way up to the K1. I decided that I would attend Dayton for the first time this year and the K1 was going to be my major purchase. Another aspect was that I was planning on being out of work for the month of June due to surgery, and the K1 would keep me busy.
Where to start? I decided on the Norcal 40A as my first project. It was recommended to have at least some experience with kit building to do this one. So I felt confident I could handle it.
From there I built the Rockmite 20 from Small Wonder Labs, a Pico Keyer, and a 100w RF Load and QRP Wattmeter from Oak Hills Research. I am finishing up a Firefly Software Defined Radio from qrpkits.com as we speak. These have all been great kits and useful additions to the shack.
In this series, I will cover the radios separately and group the accessories all together. I will also look ahead to what future projects may look enticing.
Stay tuned, you might just catch the building bug as I have. I promise it will be a rewarding experience. In the meantime, start working on your CW skills as that will help tremendously.
