22/04/00
Progress so far has been slow due to two reasons one concerned with the kit and the other not . I started putting components on the PCB and have now populated roughly 50% of the board but unfortunately trying to identify some off the small disc ceramic capacitors has proved difficult and as I have almost finished building the impedance bridge featured in the December issue of RADCOM will wait untill this is complete before carrying on ( I have already tested it and am in the stage of putting it in a box ) as it can measure small capacitance values.
How did I find the kit apart from the above problem ?
Well the PCB is well made and the parts so far are a good fit and apart from the disc ceramics fairly easy to identify, however anyone not familiar with homebrewing would find it quite a daunting task, ie if you cant tell a electrolytic from a ceramic or a resistor from a diode then this is not the kit for you ( The maker does state that this is an advanced kit and not for the novice )
I have followed the build sequence suggested by the manual departing from it only in asmuch as that I have built several of the stages but have not as yet tested any, the reason being that the build so far has been in the house and my test gear is in my shed ( so far its been a bit cold outside and I prefer the warmth of the house )
NB only the first stage has any active devices installed as I will definately test each part as suggested by the manual before putting them on the board .