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Hey, good evening, everyone. It's time for HamTalk
Live. It's episode number 140, Kits for the Holidays,
recorded live on Thursday, November 8th, 2018.
I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks for
tuning in to another episode of HamTalk Live.
Tonight we're joined by Joe Eisenberg, KZeroNEB.
And we'll take your kit questions live in just
a few minutes. Last week, Rich Mosison W2VU was
here to talk about some news and views. He is
the editor of CQ Magazine. And if you missed
that show, you can still listen on demand at
HamTalkLive .com or on your favorite podcast
app. We're also available on YouTube. Just a
couple of announcements. The HamTalk Live limited
edition May the grid square be yours shirts have
been ordered. So if you ordered one already,
yours will be in the mail as soon as I get them.
And as soon as they're finished, I'll get those
out in the mail. I did get a few extras to bring
the cost down, so if you still want one but didn't
order in advance, I do have a few, but the sizes
are a little limited compared to what we had.
If you want an adult size small through 2X, So
small, medium, large, extra large, or 2X. I will
have a few of each of those available. So if
you want that, go to the link on our Facebook
or Twitter feed. And there's also one on HamTalkLive
.com. If you click on the show schedule link,
there you will find a link to the Google form
to fill out for the shirt. And then the information
on how to PayPal. cost of that so if you still
want one you can get one but the size options
are limited also the ARRL division director ballots
are going to be due here soon. They just need
to be back to Newington by November 16th. So
if you're an ARRL member in the Central, Hudson,
New England, Northwestern, or Roanoke divisions,
you should have a ballot. And if you didn't get
one, make sure you let ARRL staff know. But be
sure to vote and get that back in the mail so
it counts. So be sure to do that by November
16th. So you need to be doing that right away.
So hopefully that went well for you, and like
I said, if not, be sure you let them know. Okay,
we'll get your questions ready to go after the
interview. You can give us a call on the telephone.
It's 812 -NET -HAM -1, 812 -638 -4261. We quit
advertising Skype. Skype did decide to work again
tonight. We're still on our Skype connection,
but we may be changing that soon. We're just
going to go with the phone number from now on.
It's 812 -638 -4261. You can still tweet us though.
We're at ham talk live on Twitter So you can
tweet us now if you want to And then we'll take
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in the show So I'll be back with Joe right after
this word from icon America right here on Ham
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for more information. Who is the most dangerous
person in the world? A ham with some wire, a
potato gun, and an idea. You are listening to
Ham Talk Live with Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks
again to ICOM America for sponsoring the show
tonight to help bring you HamTalk Live each and
every week right here at HamTalkLive .com. Tonight
our guest is Joe Eisenberg at KZero NEB from
Lincoln, Nebraska and he's well known for his
kit building expertise. Joe is also well known
for his picture shows of the Dayton Hamvention.
He's the longtime kit building editor at CQ magazine
and often makes presentations and offers kit
builds at ham fest conventions and club meetings.
And Joe started ham radio at an early age and
has been licensed since 1969. He's also well
known for his famous Dr. Seuss hat that he wears
only at Dayton Dayton Dayton Dayton Dayton. So
Joe, welcome back Well, good evening Neil and
Glad to make an appearance on ham talk live you
do such a great job here on this podcast Well,
thank you and and we were just talking during
the break Ham fest seasons about over for you,
but you've got a trip coming up in January Yep,
I'm going to be speaking at ham radio university.
It's kind of a ham fest without a flea market
or anything like that the booths are mostly clubs
and organizations and It's mainly a day of seminars
and I think they have like six or seven seminars
at a time and So it's basically an eight to four
ham fest uh, with nothing but seminars and I'll
be doing my kit building techniques for success.
Uh, kind of like what I do at most of the other
ham fest, but I've never spoken in the New York
city metro area. So I'm going to celebrate 50
years as a licensed ham the week that I go there.
Oh, that's great. 50 years as a ham. Congratulations
a little early on that and, and maybe we'll get,
uh, Karen Eve Murray KD2GUT to bring some bagels
or something from Long Island when you go. That
sounds great. I'm really looking forward to seeing
the big city. Well, it's a big one. It is. That's
for sure. Especially for a guy from Nebraska.
Yes. The corn husker country just isn't quite
like New York City. Nope, not quite. Well, there's
been several new kits out lately. I know FourStates
QRP Group released a few really interesting ones
recently, so tell us about these new kits here
just in time for the holidays. Maybe they'll
make some good gifts. Well, Neil, the first one
I want to talk about is the Hill Topper. Now,
the Hill Topper is available for 20 meters as
well as 40 meters, and the 40 meter version just
came out, so I haven't even had a chance to make
that one myself. But they're really identical.
If you look at them, it just says 40 instead
of 20, and obviously the components are slightly
different, but it's the same basic construction.
Now, the neat thing about that kit is it puts
out 5 -watt solid of CW. So it's what we call
a full gallon for QRP. Now what's different is
instead of being crystal controlled or a regular
VFO, it is synthesized. And so it uses digital
tuning to tune the entire band. So you can tune
the entire 20 or 40 meter hand bands or even
some of the shortwave broadcast outside those.
Now what's neat about it is there are three knobs.
One is tuning, and that knob is also a button.
And when you push that down, you can change the
tuning steps. And if you hold it down, it does
different functions. Now there's a function button
next to that one. And that function button, if
you just tap it once, it will tell you in CW
what frequency you're on. So you don't need a
digital display which draws more current. There
is a speed knob which controls the speed of the
internal keyer and then there's a gain control
obviously for the received audio. Now the cool
thing about it is unlike a lot of kits, this
kit has the case with it. Now, the case is not
a separate box. What it is, is it is pieces of
PC board material. Now, we use the PC board material
to make a case that not only is functional, it's
strong, very sturdy, and it's double shielded.
Don't forget, it's a double -sided circuit board.
So you have just as well shielding as if you
had an aluminum case. But it's actually copper
clad board and by following the directions carefully
it goes together really nicely and I suggest
taking some time to piece the case together before
you Solder the little pads that that hook it
together But like I said this this kit you just
plug in your 12 volts and your antenna and your
key or your paddle and away it goes and You get
a really nice, pre -printed, pre -drilled case.
So you don't have to do any drilling, any labeling,
or anything else. It's all marked and ready to
go for you. So all you have to do is crack these
little pieces of circuit board apart. And I take
an Emory board, and I just kind of sand off the
rough edges. And it only takes about two or three
swipes of the Emory board, and it's smooth as
silk. It goes together very nicely all the hardware
you need and the knobs and everything else all
comes with this So the hill topper I think is
around 90 some dollars Including shipping but
very well worth it There are two surface mount
parts on the main board And then there is a daughter
board which has the synthesizer that has surface
mount and none of those you have to put on So,
the two surface mount parts on the main board
are already pre -mounted for you, as well as
the daughter board that has the synthesizer,
and that is already put together, but you do
have to solder that to the main board. So, no
surface mount to do, although there is some surface
mount parts with it. So, that's the Hill Topper
20 and the Hill Topper 40. Parts in there for
the case to get the shielding that's Exactly.
And so the cases is made out of circuit board
now The other kit I wanted to talk about it's
an oldie but goodie This one has been around
for like four or five years from the four state
QRP group and due to incredible demand They have
brought it back and that is the 4s tuner and
it's a great Partner for the hill topper kit
because you have to realize that most these kit
Transceivers don't have any VSWR protection so
we have a tuner and When you're tuning a tuner
the SWR can go higher than what it would be without
it while you're doing the tuning procedures Well,
this tuner uses an interesting circuit that kind
of acts like a partial dummy load. So the SWR
presented to the radio at the worst case is never
more than 2 to 1. So you can feel free to take
your time and get it tuned just right. And it
uses two LEDs, a red one and a green one. And
when you get the red dimmed down and the green
one lit up, that's when you've got it tuned.
And a great way to get it pre -tuned is to simply
listen to it on receive, and you peak your inductor
and you peak the two capacitors, and you can
get it pretty close before you ever key down
and fine tune it. The neat thing about this tuner
kit is it has two BNC connectors for input and
output, which means that you'll need a BNC to
BNC jumper to hook it to the radio. And an adapter
depending on what kind of coax connector you
have going to the outside world But it also has
two Binding post terminals that you can either
use with banana plugs or just stick a wire on
it Or a spade lug or whatever you'd like and
what that's for so you can tune random wires
and things like that. And because this tuner
is continuous tuning from 80 meters to 10 meters,
you can use this with a general coverage receiver.
So somebody who's not even a ham can just leave
this thing in the operating mode and don't worry
about the LEDs and just peak the three knobs
until you get the loudest signal. And so you
can use this as a tuner for shortwave listening.
so it's a great kit I can't remember exactly
what they get for these but the 4S tuner the
new one is is available again and they went from
enameled wire to just plain bare copper wire
and with no problem at all just have to make
sure you're careful with the placement of the
wire on the on the coil so you don't have it
shorted and he turned shorted on it But as long
as you do that, it's going to work just great.
And if you're afraid of some wires getting a
little close, you can just take a little dab
of hot glue or something and make sure they stay
in place and you'll be all right. So the 4S tuner
is the other great thing from the forced AQRP
group. Of course, we also have the crickets.
which is a CW transceiver. It is crystal controlled,
but an incredible receiver. It reminds you of
a pixie, but with a real receiver that can hear
signals that are down in the mud. In fact, I
think I hear the crickets. Wrong crickets, huh?
And by the way, it also uses printed circuit
board material to make the case as well. and
such a low -cost idea to do that because it isn't
that much more expensive when you're making printed
circuit boards to make the case out of the same
material. Now the interesting thing about the
4S tuner is that everything solders to pads on
the board. There's no through hole. Components,
so if you need to desolder it you can just take
that iron and tuck it underneath that wire and
lift it right up So you don't need solder wick
and you don't need? Solder suckers or any other
desoldering tool you just take the tip of the
iron heat it up tuck it underneath the wire and
lift it right up Which brings me to the other
four -state kit and that is the merania and the
merania is an am Broadcast receiver and it comes
from the Old early 1960s boys radios that were
like one or two transistors and those radios
had a regenerative detector in it and But it
was fixed regeneration And they were kind of
broad they weren't real selective But they were
very low cost and the reason was is that the
government put tariffs on the Japanese AM radios
that were coming in and so they based the tariff
on how many Transistors that's why all the transistor
radio said four transistors or six transistors
and so forth because that's how they were taxed
But anything one or two transistors was considered
a toy so they weren't taxed at all and so they
came up with a very clever design and those radios
were very popular and they were called boys radios
because they were sold through ads and magazines
like boys life and things like that so This radio
kind of borrows on that design and like the 4s
tuner everything solders to pads So for a first
-time kit builder, this is great. You just bend
the leads and solder them down to the pads and
Like I said, it's very easy if you made a mistake
to just desolder it by just lifting up one leg
at a time with the iron and move it where it
belongs and take a needle nose hold it in place
and heat it up again and You've got yourself
a working AM radio Now, there's modifications
out there that let you change the volume control
to being more of an RF gain control. And I did
that to mine. And it does vastly increase the
selectivity of the radio. And then there's one
resistor that once you do that mod, if you change
that from a 1K to a 2 .7K resistor, it seems
to have even less distortion from the regeneration
process. It has a very large loopstick antenna,
and especially for people who are out and away
from powerful AM stations, they are hearing stuff
from a long ways away on that thing. So the Marania
is a great gift idea. for not only experienced
builders, but to teach your kids how to build.
And they get a working, functioning AM radio
out of it that really sounds good. Very enjoyable
to listen to. In fact, during our last QRP meeting,
while we're all building kits, I had the Nebraska
football game playing on it. So it's a great
radio. I can't imagine you having the Nebraska
football game playing while you're building kits.
That's just... Oh, definitely. Unbelievable.
See, normally I have my favorite classic rock
station on, but, uh, football days, you gotta
hear the game. It's game day. You gotta, you
gotta be in there. Yeah, that's right. You gotta
know what the score is. Well, those sound like
some, some really great kids. I like the, uh,
the pads, you know, uh, To make it easier to
desolder and get rid of your mistakes and and
the shielding with the PC boards and everything
So it sounds like they've come up some with some
real winners here lately Yes, they did Let's
see The the guy k1 swl who did small wonder labs
and created the Rock might CW transceivers that
fit in an altoids tin He was part of the design
of the hill topper radio And then the other part
of it was done by David Cripe in M0s who came
up with the board layout and the case And David
is an RF design engineer for Rockwell Collins.
So he's a Collins radio engineer. He also came
up with the 4S tuner and the Marania and a lot
of the other four state kits like the crickets.
And the cricket has coils like three or four
coils on the board and you don't wind them because
the coils are spiral wound etched on the circuit
board. So it's just part of the circuit board.
So he's come up with some very clever designs
that makes it so much easier for the builder.
And the forced AQRP group is a nonprofit organization.
Any money that's made from the sale of these
kits goes to offsetting the expenses for Ozarkon,
which is held in Branson, Missouri, every year
the first weekend in April. And we do a live
kit build there. And you can get the kit, usually
a kit that we're going to be selling for very
low cost there, as long as you're going to build
it while we're there. We had over 50 builders
last year building kits. So Ozarkon starts off
with a banquet. and a kit build and then we have
a flea market and we have talks all day long
and lots of prizes and lots of shows to go see
in Branson on Saturday night. You can go see
Jakov Smirnoff. Well, I wish he was there in
April. He's usually there in the fall. But his
theater has other stuff going on while we're
there. Oh, very good. Well, are we at the end
of the kit? Should we move on or you have, you
have more? Well, let's see here. Um, I, uh, I
have to mention the micro bit X because it's
become very popular. Uh, I have a, a fellow club
member, Spencer Kelly, K E zero Q O Y here in
Lincoln. And he built a 3d printer from a kit.
and he used his 3d printer to actually print
me a case for my micro bit x and then he most
recently printed me the knobs and a microphone
for it so my micro bit x has entirely 3d printed
case and We could get into 3d printers and talk
about those for a while, but I'm not an expert
on it He's the expert and he's been able to absolutely
work wonders for me with the 3d printer But the
micro bit X it is a kit, but the main board is
already assembled and aligned and ready to go
But you have to wire up all the controls and
mount this thing into any one of a number of
different cases that are popular Using a 3d printed
case is I think just fascinating and When he
asked me if I was building anything that needed
a case I mentioned that right away and he says
oh, yeah, there's all sorts of case designs online
for those and it's a free file you download from
thing thing verse and He printed it now it took
about five hours for each of the three main parts
of the case for him to print it but They came
out absolutely beautiful It is a black case and
then he printed me the two white knobs and he
printed me the microphone shell and the parts
inside that shell the switch for push to talk
and the mic element are with the kit so all I
had to supply was a stereo audio cable which
is the same cable that you use to plug in your
PC speakers or things like that and because I
work in IT I end up with lots of those cables
so I just cut the end off stripped out the three
wires and connected it all up to the mic and
the switch and then fed that through the little
hole in the mic and then the end that had the
ferrite choke That I put next to the radio. So
I have a mic that already is choked and stuff
and it's already shielded So we shouldn't be
getting any stray noise down the mic line That's
always a good thing because it happens So that's
always a good thing. All right. Well, we're gonna
take a break here and we're gonna come back We're
gonna talk about some other gift ideas for the
kit builder and some things that might help you
with your kit. So we'll talk about that when
we come back. So I'll be back with Joe right
after this word from Tower Electronics right
here on HamTalk Live. Hey honey, have you seen
the PL 259s anywhere? No, I haven't. Come on
kids, let's go! There's just one place to go
for all of your connector needs. Tower electronics.
Tower electronics. Tower electronics. A giant
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occasion. Thousands to choose from in every shape,
size, and color. And they have antennas, soldering
supplies, cables, meters, and more. Where do
you go if you want to buy a connector at a fraction
of retail cost? Tower electronics. Tower electronics.
Tower electronics. And this weekend only, take
advantage of our special special liquidation
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I love you than with the gift of a PL -259. TOWER
ELECTRONICS! TOWER ELECTRONICS! TOWER ELECTRONICS!
Hi, I'm Scott Cole, KB9 AMM, president of TOWER
ELECTRONICS. I like the company so much that
I bought it. TOWER ELECTRONICS, coming to a handfest
near you, or online at PL -259 .com. And we're
on the yellow pages under amateur radio connectors.
My, wherever did you get that lovely PL259? Tower
Electronics, pl -259 .com or call 920 -435 -2973.
Do we sell PL259 connectors? Join the conversation.
Give us a call at 812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812
-638 -4261. Now, here's more HamTalk Live. This
is your announcer, Andy Morrison, K9AWM. Why
else would I be talking like this? You're listening
to HamTalk Live with Neil Rapp. Tower electronics
will be in Montgomery, Alabama this weekend the
9th and 10th Then they'll be up my way and then
north a little bit Fort Wayne, Indiana November
17th and 18th and then Ocala, Florida November
30th and December 1st and then Plant City, Florida.
That's not too far from Tampa December 7th and
8th and you can visit them anytime at PL -259
.com and they're a great place to get a lot of
these cables and parts and soldering supplies
and all this stuff for these kits we're talking
about, right Joe? You bet, and by the way Scott
and Jill from Tower Electronics have all the
plugs, jacks and connectors and things that you
need to work with your kits. And so I highly
recommend them. They have all the adapters and
the plugs and everything that you need to finish
your kits. Also, the Hamfest and Ocala, if you
go to vakits .com, that's vakits .com, Uh, there
is a kit manufacturer right there in Ocala and
I'm sure he'll be there at the ham fest. Cause
he goes to that and he goes to the one in Huntsville
and the one in Orlando. And he has a lot of very
low cost, easy kits to build. So it's a great
place to get some pretty simple kits. All right.
Very good. Well, there you go. So. Be sure you
check out Tower Electronics at those shows or
again PL -259 .com otherwise and they help bring
you HamTalk Live every week. We're on the air
every Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern Time
and that's at HamTalkLive .com. Be sure to check
us out on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and
it's time for your calls now. So if you want
to... chime in if you have a comment or question
about kit building or anything we're talking
about give us a call at 812 -638 four two six
one that spells eight one two net ham one eight
one two six three eight four two six one or you
can tweet us all uh check the tweets here uh
in just a little bit uh but we actually got to
talking about all the kits so much that we we
ran out of time to talk about some kit accessories
and building supplies That might make good gifts
for the holidays as well So what are some other
good gift ideas to get that special kit builder
in your life? Okay first off the the key to success
in kit building I think is a good soldering iron
that's where you really got to start first because
if you can't solder easily and have it work well
then you're not going to enjoy the experience
and your kit may not work. So I'm going to give
a website and I was introduced to this place
a couple years ago by somebody in Ohio who orders
all of his stuff not only for himself but for
his work through this place and it's in Lincoln,
Nebraska and I had no idea this guy was there
and it's just across town from me and he gave
me some samples of different soldering equipment
he has and it absolutely is is an Incredible
value the web page is X tronic USA So I'm going
to spell that x -ray tango Romeo Oscar November
India Charlie uniform Sierra alpha So it's X
tronic USA comm and I have I think it's the 3030
soldering station which sells for I think it's
around 50 bucks and and it is digital temperature
controlled and what's so cool about that is that
it maintains the temperature plus or minus two
degrees Celsius and it has a switch to do Fahrenheit
or Celsius and it'll heat up enough that you
can do the lead -free solder if you wanted to
or around 630 degrees or so for the regular or
turn it back up to do desoldering and so forth
It is shaped kind of like a weller Weller has
made this one that's orange That's traditional
and has a variable heat control But that variable
heat control on the weller on that particular
one that sells for around forty dollars Is not
thermostatically controlled this is and this
is digitally thermostatically controlled So it's
going to maintain that temperature. So when you
put that tip down on the connection and you've
got something drawing that heat away, it's going
to allow more current to flow into that tip and
get it warmer. It has two different tip cleaners.
One's a sponge and one is a brass, kind of a
brass ball thing. That has some flux underneath
it. So if you push the tip down into there You
can clean the tip with the flux and brush it
off with the brass and you can also wipe it off
with the sponge so of course it has a tip holder
or a Handpiece holder and it also has a solder
roll holder so that your roll of solder doesn't
become a cat toy I want two cats around the house
here that the solder would just end up going
down the hall, so The solder roll holder keeps
it out of the way and so it's quite a bargain
for the $50 range and you can order it through
Amazon and if you've got Amazon Prime of course
you get two -day free shipping and I think during
the holiday season now anything over like $35
or something from Amazon they ship it free and
so this is the time to take advantage of that
they also have Hot tweezers and they have soldering
stations that have Lab type bench power supplies
built into them They have rework stations hot
tweezers so that you can pick up or replace surface
mount parts And they even have board preheaters
for use with reworking surface mount boards Absolutely
incredible and for the cost of these things just
absolutely remarkable and very reliable. The
tip style is the same as a certain series of
Haco irons and I would have to look on their
website to see which one that's equivalent to.
So the tips are easy to come by. They sell tips
as well as you can use certain Haco tips on it
as well. Now the best soldering iron in the world
is not worth anything without the best solder.
And so there are several different brands of
this stuff You can get Kester and There's the
MG electronics that you can get it fries And
other electronic stores and what I use is not
6040 I only use 6040 if I'm doing things like
PL 250 nines and antenna wires and things like
that If I'm building a kit, I'm using 63 37 and
the reason is this is what we call you tactic
solder. So it has a much narrower plastic state
and what that means is that you're much less
likely to get a cold solder joint when it hardens
it hardens right away and the thickness of the
solder there's .031 and .025 inch thick solder
and I I don't know about the .015 that's really
hair thin and the only time I would use that
is some real fine surface mount which most kit
builders won't ever run into so the .025 or .031
thickness of the 6337 solder is the best and
you'll discover that it melts a lot easier than
the 6040 and seems to wet the connection better
and flow a lot nicer the other thing to look
for is definitely rosin core with the 6337 and
you can also get an option that's rosin core
no clean it looks a lot better and that's what
i use and i have a customer in fact i'll be seeing
that customer tomorrow morning here in lincoln
and it's an electronics plant and although i
fix printers i see what they have at their desks
and i see The Haco irons, but I've also seen
a couple of these extronic irons and they use
the 63, 37, 025, and 031 on no clean rosin core
solder. So I know I'm doing the right thing when
the professionals right here in town that I go
see as my customers, that's what they're using.
Very good. So some great ideas for some gifts.
Now here's another thing to look at there are
kits out there you'll look for them and it says
Transistor tester with LC or something like that
and they sell this on these Chinese sites like
banggood .com and things like that or wish wish
actually has these as well and you look for a
kit that they it might say component tester or
transistor tester or it might say transistor
and LC and These things let you test any part
and it will tell you what it is and if it's working
and what its value is. And that's a great thing
for a kit builder to have because if the numbers
get rubbed off a part or something, you know
what it is. And so that's something to look for.
Also, they still make these the DSO 138 oscilloscope
kit. So the key would be to look up DSO 138.
And you can get this kit for around $23 that
has all the surface mount parts done for you.
So all you have to do is the through hole parts.
And for not much more, you can get it with a
clear plastic case that you put together and
it makes a nice little oscilloscope. Obviously,
it's not going to be an RF scope. It's going
to be more used for tracing audio circuits and
checking power supplies and things like that.
but an oscilloscope that you can hold in your
hand for 20 some dollars and it's a pretty easy
kit and a lot of fun to put together. Now mine
I bought it when it first came out so I had to
do all the surface mount parts by hand but like
I said the new ones you don't have to do that
if you get one that says the surface mount is
already done. Very good. Some great ideas for
the kit builder in your life and Just in time
for the holidays, so yep and me time to start
dropping hints Meters are meters are always worthwhile
and and I tell people especially if they're starting
out in kit building Don't shy away from those
$3 Harbor freight meters because they work. It's
not a fluke, but it actually works and They're
great for a first -time kit builder. And like
I said, reasonably accurate enough that very
few kits would I ever really need a Fluke meter,
although that's what I have. And don't discount
old test equipment that can be fixed up. I have
a Fluke 8000A on my bench. My boss gave it to
me. It was in some box in the back of the office.
Apparently, they used to use it. and but you
turn it on and it just drifts up and down and
there are people out there that fix those up
and that is now my bench meter is a early 80s
vintage fluke desk desktop meter and it's just
darn accurate it is actually certified oh there
you go and nice thing about those little three
dollar meters if you blow one up yeah it cost
more cost almost as much for the 9 -volt battery
so you just go to Harbor Freight and get another
one yeah you know I have to worry if you blow
it up although we don't advise trying to blow
them up no definitely definitely don't put it
in the ohms range and plug it in the wall socket
yeah exactly well let's uh let's beg for calls
here for a minute 812 -638 -4261 812 -net -ham
-1 if you have a call we're about out of time
here but like to grab a call or two if we can
and checking Twitter here as well so if you want
to chime in or have a question give us call 812
-638 -4261 or at HamTalk Live On twitter so and
by the way, yeah, go ahead Yeah, the november
issue of cq is out electronically and it'll be
in the mail shortly and I'm I cover the wa3 rnc
Cw transceiver kit and that one has all of 24
parts for you to put on the board and all the
toroids are already wound for you and they're
wrapped Such a way in different envelopes. So
you you have a tougher time to misidentify them
and They're already stripped and tinned and everything
and then there's over a hundred surface mount
parts on that board And those are already put
on there and the tuning Coils and stuff in there
are already pre tuned for you so all you have
to do is put those 24 parts on and mount it in
the the plastic shell that that it sits in and
You have a working CW transceiver that really
puts out a lot of audio. It's pretty darn loud
in my headset and Actually works quite well So
that would be at whiskey alpha 3 romeo november
charlie .com wa3 rnc .com And he also has versions
of the kit that have digital displays and so
forth. So it's kind of an interesting kit for
a beginning kit builder. I would say for a beginning
builder to try something simpler first and then
put something like this together. But like I
said, there's only 24 parts on that board. But
things are a little tight on there. So I'd get
a little experience with some other kits first
and then do this one. But it's a wonderful kit,
puts out a great CW signal. Another great idea
and lots of good gift ideas out there, so start
dropping hints now. Oh, definitely. You know,
you were talking about the soldering stations
and I've been clearing out my mom and dad's house
and found that dad had a thermostatically controlled
soldering station that came home with me and
I'm just amazed you know I've got the little
the weller you were talking about the orange
one with the little knob on it you know and I'm
just amazed how much difference that makes absolutely
and that's that's You know and you don't have
to pay that much more to have something that's
going to give you a good experience And that's
the thing if you Are a first -time builder and
you're using like one of these nine dollar pencils
or something like that And you don't succeed
how many more kits are you going to want to build?
Well, you're not so I always say If you can succeed
the first time you're going to do it again and
again and again and It makes it a lot more worthwhile
if you get the right tool and so like I said
this soldering station is like $50 and it's hard
to beat it, especially now that they're running
free shipping during the holidays and it it gives
you a much better chance of having success when
you put together your kit and There's different
factors involved you have the fact that You're
doing it at the right temperature. So if you're
too low a temperature, you'll get cold solder.
If it's too hot, you'll boil off the flux and
so it won't stick correctly. It matches the solder
that you're using and doesn't overheat the component
so you don't get Component damage that you might
from a pencil iron that's not regulating gets
too hot and then it doesn't heat up enough when
it's Under demand while this soldering station
does all that for you You just turn the knob
set it and forget it and if you leave that thing
in the holder Don't use it for a while. Guess
what? It does it goes into sleep mode So it drops
it down to about half heat so that it doesn't
bake off the coating on the end of the tip and
Then as soon as you pick it up out of the holder
it senses that and it goes back up absolutely
a smart iron for around $50 yeah, that's a great
deal and I like that. I like the sleep mode idea.
That's pretty cool. Don't have that one. Well,
Joe, we're already over time, so I'm not going
to hold you any longer, but thanks for coming
on the show as always, and we look forward to
next time you're on, and enjoy the trip to the
Big Apple and 50 Years in Ham Radio. the same
time yep i really look forward to it as long
as the weather is good we'll make it yeah that
sounds like a a cool trip and a cool way to celebrate
so enjoy and we'll catch you next time 73 is
neil all right 73 that is a wrap for this week's
edition of ham talk live Thanks to my guest,
Joe Eisenberg, K -Zero, N -E -B, and everybody
out there in cyberspace for listening in. And
come back next Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern
Time, Michael Colley, W -4 MCA, the chairman
of the Orlando Hamcation will be here. And he
has a big announcement to make on the show, he
tells me, so. We'll have to tune in for that.
I don't know what it is, but got an idea, but
I'm guessing. So come back next week and hear
a little bit about Orlando hamcation and Michael's
announcement by listening at 9 p .m. Thursday
night Eastern Time at hamtalklive .com. And if
you like the show, please leave us a review on
iTunes if you would or wherever you listen that
helps. Other people find us faster, so we'd appreciate
it if you would do that. So for now, this is
Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, saying 7 -3, 7 -5, and may
the good DX be yours. 73, and good luck from
HamTalk Live.