Club Construction Project Ideas
On the qrp-l mailing list, Brian KB9BVN writes:
I belong to a local ARC and we, like most clubs, are shrinking, and most say it is do to boredom. So I suggested we do a group build….half of them said, but “but we don’t know how to solder”. I’m guessing half or more of our 40 person membership is Tech or General…mostly no CW experience but they have a lot of interest in it.
So what I am looking for is a kit, that produces a useful doo-
hickey, and can be assembled by anyone with beginner level soldering skills. I think I will have about 16 people doing the build. I am guessing we will need to keep the costs to about $25 maximum, a lot of these folks are retirees and on fixed incomes.
There have been several suggestions already:
- PicoKeyer. This was my suggestion based on our experience building this as a club project a couple of years ago.
- Pixie2. This is a cute little kit, and only ten bucks. There are versions for every band. I’m not sure that these are really for novices, though. I’d be worried that the receivers aren’t very good, and at 200-300 mW output, it would be difficult to make contacts.
- MKARS80. At $90, this QRP SSB rig is a little expensive, and maybe a little complex, for everyone to build, but it looks like a very cool project.
More as other ideas are posted.
