Re: [Elecraft] Heathkit Returns!
This Heathkit thread has been very interesting to me as a manufacturer of professional audio equipment that uses a lot of vacuum tube circuitry. When I did the first designs for our products 20 years ago, I had a Heathkit-style assembly procedure in mind. In fact, at one time, I made an assembly manual that copied the Heath format with the check-off boxes, solder or don't solder, etc. When I started out, I was building each unit myself, and as much as I enjoyed it, after a while I thought I was in "Heathkit-hell." Now I have six assemblers who do 95% of that work, and they do a better job of it than I could do. I rotate them through the nine products we make so they don't get burned out building the same thing all the time. Parts are readily available for this type of construction. DigiKey, Mouser, and Newark are all on our suppliers list for those components we do not buy in sufficient quantity to purchase directly from the manufacturer. Prices can be high, and for us a major challenge is finding replacements for parts that are become unavailable. But the parts you need to build almost anything are out there if you're willing to do a little searching. Although all our products use vacuum tubes in the audio path, we also use a lot of solid-state components in peripheral circuitry. For example, we build an audio compression amplifier that uses a pulse-width modulator as the level control element (with a FET switch). It always makes me smile to see a printed circuit board with SMT parts on it just an inch from a point-to-point tube socket. We hand-solder all those SMT parts. Take a look at the products we make and you will see how I was influenced by the equipment I loved from the 1950s. www.dwfearn.com 73, Doug K3KW The demand for leaded parts may be lower, but don't count them out. We can still purchase all of the parts for our "full" kits without any trouble. That's hundreds of different leaded parts from dozens of vendors. (Our full kits include the K1, K2, KX1, transverters, and nearly all of our mini-modules and accessories.) Take through-hole ICs, for example: Digikey shows about 400 different 8-pin DIP dual op-amps in stock from 17 different manufacturers. They stock over 700 types of DIP-package Microchip PIC parts. The SA612AN 8- pin DIP oscillator/mixer found in many ham designs is carried by at least half a dozen vendors, with thousands in stock. "Interesting" I/O chips like the TI TPIC6595N 8-bit shift register/ peripheral driver are still widely available in DIP packages -- I counted 9 vendors for this part. Or how about a leaded, 10-K, 1/4-watt, 5% resistor? Digikey has well over 2 million in stock from three manufacturers. Finally, consider transistors. I found 21 stocking vendors for new 2N's, and there must be tens of millions of them available surplus. Digikey alone stocks 10 different kinds of TO-92 JFETs. Home brew with full-size parts lives on! 73, Wayne N6KR __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
[Elecraft] K3 Build & Audio
K3/100 s/n 920 is built and on the air (although I have frustratingly little time to get on the air these days). The kit assembly went very smoothly; the only problem was a shortage of two of the 2-56 screws that hold on the LCD cover. It's probably my fault, but Elecraft sent replacements at no charge and I had them in a couple of days. I sorted all the hardware into little drawers in an old plastic parts cabinet I had, but in retrospect, I would not have bothered with that level of organization. I would suggest separating the various screws that differ by only 1/16" ahead of time, however, since this will save a lot of ruler time during assembly. Everything fit perfectly for me, and even the front panel assembly went smoothly. I think all the discussion of the front-panel difficulty had primed me for struggling with it for a half hour, but it actually took less than five minutes. Patience is required. It sounds like a 30-second step in the assembly, but be mentally prepared for a longer period of manipulation. I estimate that my total assembly time was about 8-10 hours, with lots of interruptions. I was pleased that not only did it power up perfectly at each step, but even the firmware update was as smooth as any computer-centered process I have ever encountered. I decided to try Ham Radio Deluxe with my new K3 and it couldn't have been more than 10 minutes between walking into the shack and having HRD up and running perfectly (including the download and installation process). Wonderful program, Simon. I also added a cover by Rose Kopp, which is a terrific accessory. As soon as I took the new cover out of the bag, my wife grabbed it and turned it inside-out to examine the stitching. She pronounced it first-class, and I agree. Rose is wonderful to work with, too. As someone who has worked in professional audio for 40 years, I am very sensitive to the audio quality of various radios. My old Collins 75A4 still sounds better than anything (except for the 60Hz hum), but the K3 audio is about the best of any current radio I have heard. I also have an Orion I, which I still like and plan to keep, but the K3 audio is much better. There are subtle distortions in most transceiver audio output stages that may measure pretty well, but are fatiguing during long periods of listening. I haven't used the K3 in a contest yet (and I'm a casual contester), but I predict that it will be a joy to listen to under those conditions. And the radio is so small and portable that I ran a length of coax from the shack to my office so I can bring the radio there for informal operating. Doug K3KW ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
[Elecraft] K3 Katiegram received
K3/100 kit ordered Dec 10. Katiegram May 5 for shipping in 7-10 days. Exciting! Doug K3KW ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
