This week I built the OHR 100a 40m transceiver:

http://www.ohr.com/ohr100a.htm

First went on the air with it last night and spent a fair amount of time with it today. I'm getting about 7 watts out and have been making lots of contacts up and down the East Coast. Longer distance contacts are of course possible, but I really built it because (a) I wanted to build something and (b) I wanted a low power rig that I could use for casual operating on the 40m band.

It was pretty easy to build, but I still feel like I accomplished something, especially when it passed the "smoke test". It has a bandwidth knob that's incredibly convenient. I can go from 1200 hz bandwidth to 400 hz with the turn of a knob and without going through a bunch of menus. It also has an RF gain control, which many kit rigs lack.

Operating this kind of minimalist radio is a different experience. You have no S-meter. You have no "spot" button. You have no digital frequency readout and only a very crude analogue dial. It's amazing how little you *miss* these things when you're operating...or so it seems to me. However, you can add these options as external accessories if you're so inclined. (OHR sells kits for them.)

I have no special technical background and very little technical experience, but building these kits is great fun and in keeping with the spirit of the hobby. You learn a lot, and you have a new radio to show for it when you're done. You do need to know how to solder, and you need a multimeter. Aligning the rig also required a frequency counter, though I suspect you could get by without the counter assuming you have another receiver nearby.

Go find a kit you like and build something!