Kits Today

[Robert S. Capon]

I'd like to second Doug's (WB6AJX) message about the availability of kits
today.  I've recently completed building the Elecraft K2 (www.elecraft.com),
and am in the midst of building an HW-5400, and there is simply no
comparison.  The K2 takes advantage of technology that's 20 years newer.

Here are some interesting comparisons:

                        HW-5400         K2
Weight                  24 pounds           3 pounds
# Boards                14                  3
Current Drain           A lot               140 mils
CW/SSB              CW/SSB          CW/SSB
Bands                   80-10               160-10
Keyer                   None                Memory Keyer, 9 memories
Split/RIT               Split/Rit               Split/Rit/Xit
Digital Display         Yes             Yes
Built in Ant. Tuner     No                  Yes
Built in Battery            No                  Yes
Dual Antennas           No                  Yes
Direct Keypad Entry     Yes             Yes
Filters                 1                   4, Programmable Width
Built in Freq Ctr           No                  Yes
Wiring                  150+ wires          None.  All plug in modules.
Power Output            100W                15W (50W amp option is planned)
Chance of Success       50-50               95+%

The HW-5400 is my 19th transceiver that I've assembled, so I have some
experience.  Yet, the chances of me getting the HW-5400 working are not much
better than 50-50.  I'm about 1/3 finished with it, and have been on it for a
month!  It's just plain scary.  The K2 accomplishes a lot more, and was a
pleasure to build in about a week.

Please don't get me wrong.  I count myself as one of the biggest fans of
Heathkit, and wish we could bring them back from the dead.  No doubt that if
Heath were in business today, they'd be taking advantage of new technology
and their radios would be on par with the K2 (Wayne Burdick would probably be
Heath's VP of Engineering).  Heath made plenty of radios that were much
easier to build than the 5400, like the HW-101.  But the HW-101 had vastly
fewer features than the K2.

My point is that if you enjoy kit-building, there are still some great radios
to build (and you don't even have to slug it out on EBay for $1,000 to buy
one).  In addition to the K2, the Wilderness Sierra is a great rig, and Oak
Hills now has a five band radio, the OHR-500, which is very similar to the
kit-building experience of the HW-9.  And both the Sierra and OHR-500 are
analogue radios with a digital display option.

So warm up those soldering irons and have fun.

73 & Keep Building,

Rob, W3DX

Sponsored by the City of Tempe 

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