I’m back from an extended European wander.
The Irish were great, the Baltic states an eye opener and my Norwegian group hike was and is stuck in my mind. Lucky me and so much fun.
Things knocked off my bucket list has me pumped and surprise, surprise and quite unexpectedly given a hiatus from all things radio, an unbuilt kit is beckoning.
I’ve built many kits over the years and this is definitely a case of “it’s the journey as much as the destination”. Truth is I really don’t need another radio and if push comes to shove, I’ll always grab a manufactured radio versus a kit for real use. Nevertheless, I enjoy the old school parts, the whiff of solder and the joy (most times) of the little kit being completed and coming to life as designed.
Succeeding in the radio kit world is quite tough. A small market, parts that tend to become obsolete too quickly and a customer base that might be more Scottish than not when it comes to fully opening a wallet.
Despite these head winds, QRP-Labs stands out and Hans, the man in charge has designed nifty kits using approaches that are quite ground breaking and quite possibly put designers at large Japanese commercial radio companies to shame.
On a jaunt to ham radio Sangria-La in Friedrichshafen (Southern Germany) last year, I saw Hans at his booth and nabbed one of his newest kits, the QMX+.
Home again, enjoying cooler temperatures courtesy of June gloom in September, I’m ensconced in the Man Cave stuffing old school capacitors into an old school PCB.
This is fun….thanks Hans for making a few hours very very enjoyable.