Well, after playing around with my Heathkit HW-8, I was struck by a feeling of productivity and started working on my latest kit, a DC40B from Hendricks’ QRP Kits. It’s a very cute little rig, consisting of a 1 watt (ish) transmitter with a built in Atmel AVR keyer, and a direct conversion receiver. It’s crystal controlled, and this one will be built on the crystal frequency of 7.040 Mhz.

Tonight, I started soldering in all the resistors, the diodes, the one molded inductor, and the two eight pin sockets. I noted a couple of issues with the instructions. First, it says that R5 is a 2.2K ohm resistor, but that it’s code should be BROWN-BLACK-RED (which is actually the code for a 1K ohm resistor). I worked around the instructions, and figured that it probably should be a 2.2K resistor and that the listed color code was wrong. I’ll double check with the schematic when I have a chance. In the process though, I managed to goof and install one resistor in the wrong place. Hence, I need another 2.2k ohm, and I couldn’t find one in my junk box. Oh well, a trip to Radio Shack or Fry’s should make that happen if I can’t scrounge the right one together. It also says there should be a 16 pin socket (which reading the Yahoo! help group, nobody seems to get). I could solder it in place, or get a socket.

I did make two mistakes (I mixed a RED-RED-RED with a RED-RED-ORANGE, and mixed a resistor with a similarly marked molded inductor which was truly stupid), but some snips, soldering braid and the like, and I’m back on track.

I might try my hand at winding some of the toroids tonight, and tomorrow: all the caps will go in. Then, it should be a short walk to a working radio!

I’ll keep ya posted.