Saturday Evening Post

After my usual Saturday morning chores I did some afternoon building on the back picnic table.

Picked up a Philmore DATAkit 40 Meter VFO kit# 80-1404. VFO tunes from 7 to 7.3MHz. This kit is built around a Clapp Oscillator, instructions mention stable and a configuration for high proformance. Kit is broken up into five bags of components, finished first two bags in a slow take your time type of build.

This circuit will be fun to play around with, no crystals to mess with and individual frequencies to content with, even thou bandwidth is not that wide. Only one toroid core to deal with just in case your not a fan of winding, I hope for the best when I start counting the loops.

Kit includes about 26 components or so and a small size 1.6" x 3.0" screened PC board, schematic, and general write up about VFO's. Street price is $20.00 give or take.



A few months ago I downloaded from the ARRL website an easy to read article from Jan. 1980 QST by Doug DeMaw,W1FB, A Beginner's 3-Band VFO. Includes some good reading info: What is a VFO?, Design Points, Types of Circuits, Schematics, and Drift Characteristics.

Just a few throughts on backyard building, its great to be outside and out of the basement, plenty of time for that in the winter. Just be careful with the soldering iron if kids or pets are around. Plus with a slight breeze there is no need to worry about the smoke from your iron. Just being outside adds to the building experiance.

Tonight between Cops and America's Most Wanted on the tube, I will be reading up on the VFO's.

Enjoy The Rest of The Weekend!