N2EY wrote:

In article , Mike Coslo
writes:


N2EY wrote:



I've built-from-scratch (no kits, no carbon copies of other homebrew) in my
home workshops, at least:

5 receivers
5 transmitters


Actually, 6 transmitters. All but the first two include VFOs.


3 transceivers
4 transmatches
12 power supplies
4 TR systems
5 pieces of test equipment
various shack furniture, antennas, power cables, control systems, etc.

The above list does not include:

- surplus units converted/restored
- manufactured equipment restored/repaired/modified
- kits built or rebuilt

I've worked several of the regulars here on rrap using my homebrew rigs.

I can often be found on or around 7040.

This is incredibly bizzare!


Most of what Brian Burke writes here is bizarre. In this case, though, he's
simply wrong about my homebrewing.


Having to defend one's hombrewing as
defined by what one has designed and built.


My homebrewing speaks for itself, as anyone who has worked me on-the-air knows.
I currently have two HF transceivers fully operational at the present time:
Elecraft K2 #2084 and the Southgate Type 7. I also have some of my older
homebrew projects in storage.

The Type 7 is almost ten years old now, while the K2 was assembled in the
spring of 2001.

I define "homebrew" as "built from scratch". That includes everything from
carbon-copy stuff like the G2DAF sets to one-of-a-kind
designed-from-a-blank-sheet-of-paper projects. "Homebrew" does not include kit
assembly, surplus conversion (unless it's so extensive that it's really a new
project, as in "Cheap and Easy SSB"), or restoration/repair/modification.

Its all good, whether building an Elecraft kit or designing your own
radio; modding a surplus unit or etching your own circuit boards.


I agree 100%! It's ALL good - but it's not all homebrew.

Well, there is a big gray area there. I've modified some equipment prett
extensively, and used some self designed circuitry in it, so I'm not
sure what to by your def. That's okay, as long as I get to smell that
rosin core solder smoke!

Heck, some restorations require more skill, knowledge and effort than an
equivalent homebrew because the restorer wants to match the original exactly,
where the homebrew *is* the original.

I'm restoring an SB-200 right now. And it just got harder because I
can't get the green/gray crinkle paint anymore. The place that sold it
doesn't sell it any more. 8^(

Anyone here know of a source of this paint, or better yet, how to
homebrew crinkle paint? I've heard of painting on a case fresh out of a
hot oven, but I have XYL, safety, and consistency problems with that.
Theres no way I could get a whole SB200 case painted before the
temperature dropped too moch to crinkle it. And the wife certainly isn't
too keen on my putting things in the oven, after what I did to it while
making a telescope. And how safe is spraying solvents on a hot aluminnum
surface? 8^)

My particular specialty in homebrew is to reuse "found objects" rather than buy
new parts - mostly to save money, but also because some parts are almost
impossible to find new. There's also the consideration of not wasting usable
parts.

Yup, I get old equipment, tear it apart and file the stuff away in boxes.

Appeals to basic guy stuff like reusing things, and tearing stuff apart.

How can we claim that amateur radio is a "fundamentally technical radio
service" if we all use only manufactured radios?

Agreed.

- Mike KB3EIA -