Lately I've been really infected with a bit of a bug... I am becoming a kit building machine.
Last week I posted a little note on the QRP-L mailing list notifying folks that I was interested in building a kit for someone. I was quickly greeted with an opportunity to finish another K1 and its owner was happy to compensate me for my efforts. Never have I been able to make money doing something I enjoy so much! Needless to say, I finished the kit quickly last Saturday and was happy to use it a bit. Quite neat seeing the results of my handiwork.
So I posted again that I was available and particularly interested in building a KX1. I've only seen 1 KX1 in my life and thought it was quite an engineering marvel so I am very excited that I will be building one this weekend! Look for another post talking about that!
Along with these two projects, I sold my old Speed-X/EF Johnson bug last week as well. I had not used it in months so it was time to pass it on. With all this selling and kit building, I amassed a nice pot of gold in my paypall account so I decided I wanted to treat myself to some goodies. I do plan to build many more kits for folks so I figured I should get a good piece of test equipment I have needed for quite some time: a watt meter! I put in my order for the 4SQRP QRP-ometer just as they announced the release of the 3rd run of the kit. I'm hoping it arrives soon.
I had several people inquire about having me build their softrock kits as well. At present, I have almost no SMT experience so I had to defer these requests. I would like to get more SMT work under my belt so I decided to seek out one of Steve Webber's new MTR radios (Mountain Topper Radio....radios). Luckily someone on the AT_Sprint Yahoo group offered one to me at cost and it is on its way here now! This is a neat radio and there isn't much out there on them yet, but it is an Altoids tin rig for 2 bands (I'll build mine for 40 and 20) capable of 5w output with just 9v on the input. Will be taking photos of this one for sure.
So that's what's been up lately. Keep eyes peeled for posts this weekend!
Hello TJ, I too have the kit building bug biting at me. I am just building kits for me and I did order and build the QRPometer. I got one of the first runs of the kit and it was a great build. I am sure you will get lots of use out of the meter. I have built my own KX1 and have used it often. I also have built the K2 as well. I am thinking of getting another one for the winter so when the question is asked "what the heck can I do" I will have a way to spend my time. It's great you have had some hams come forward for you to build their kits and pay for it as well. Post your input on the QRPometer.
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