Tips! On building Amateur Radio Gear...

(Page 3 of 3)

March/April 1974
By the Mother Earth News editors 
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[6] Good-quality hand tools pay off. Beware of "bargains" from drugstores, Radio Shack or Lafayette stores. I suggest Craftsman tools from Sears, the Stanley line from your neighborhood hardware store or the $20.00 kit builder's tool set sold by Heath. You need a small pair of needle nosed pliers, a diagonal side-cutter, a wire stripper, a good 1/8" screwdriver and a gimmick called a "soldering aid" which looks like a dentist's probe. In addition, get a small (1" or so) adjustable wrench and use it-not the pliers-for the large nuts which hold control shafts in place.

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[7] Before you plug your masterpiece into line voltage, be sure you perform all the checking steps called for in the instructions. If these measures require a voltmeter or other test equipment and you can't borrow or buy what you need, look in the local Yellow Pages under "Radio Communication Equipment & Systems--Repairing", and have the checks performed (at your expense) by a professional. And don't go to an ordinary TV serviceman: You want a specialist who's licensed by the FCC to work on transmitters.

If your Yellow Pages have no such listing, check with the local sheriff to see who adjusts his radios or find out who performs this service for any commercial radio station in your area. Or send the gear back to Heath where-for a price-the company's staff will carry out the procedures.

[8] If, after you finish all the construction and checking steps, your kit doesn't work properly, carefully follow the trouble-shooting instructions in the manual. If you still can't make the equipment work, send it back to Heath for repair (at a price) according to the packing and shipping instructions with the kit. Local help with alignment and adjustment is OK, but Heath will probably be less hassle for major repairs. (The company won't charge a fee for this service if the problem isn't due to your goof.)

[9] Do not work on your equipment while it's plugged in unless you're slavishly following the instructions and all the accompanying safety rules. You truly can kill yourself. Also be sure there's no way, ever, that others (especially children) can have access to dangerous voltages. Again, follow the instructions in the manual.

[10] Use a dummy load-$10.95 plus postage from Heath-for transmitter tests and adjustments. Do not put a signal into an antenna until you are licensed.

Copyright © 2001-2002, Ogden Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

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