Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Oh, man !!!!!

"Oh, man!!!!!!" is an expression that can be used in two ways; one being a state of disappointment and the other for a state of pleasant surprise. I've used it both ways tonight.

The first reason - disappointment. I saw on the ARRL Web Page that Burghardt Amateur Center in Watertown, SD has announced that they will no longer sell Amateur Radio gear. While they will continue to offer radio repair, which is lucrative, selling new gear became unprofitable. Wow! They've been in business since 1937 and I bought my Novice transmitter from them - my Drake 2-NT way back in 1978. I'm sorry to see another Amateur Radio outlet go by the wayside.

The second reason - pleasant surprise. Terry WAØITP announced today that the Four States QRP Group is offering two new kits! The first is the Four State Dummy Load SMD Starter Kit, designed to get builders acquainted with working with surface mount materials. It looks like plenty documentation is included about the various SMD building techniques and they include an parts for an RF Probe so you can calculate your output power using a DMM. Go here for details: http://www.wa0itp.com/dummyload.html

The second kit is the Enhanced Manhattan Islander Audio Amp. This ones uses Manhattan construction and is supposedly very powerful; but yet small enough to fit into the ever versatile Altoids tin. Go here for details: http://www.wa0itp.com/emislander.html

It's nice to see new items being introduced. It helps soften the blow about losing "an old friend".

73 de Larry W2LJ

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