The OHR100 A is now complete, a few QSO's later and I must admit I'm pretty impressed with this little QRP radio especially on the receive side. The Bandwidth takes a little bit of tweaking to get it just right but works well and can quite easily cut out the clutter from other nearby stations. So far I've had some good reports with stations around Europe and I have no doubt that I'll be able to contact across the pond with my 7 watts of power.
I've managed to get hold of a frequency counter off Ebay which has made a big difference, I don't have to guess where I am within the CW side of 20 meters which does speed things up a bit when searching for QRP stations.
Inputting the IF offset frequency took a bit of thinking as I'd never done it before, but after reading and re-reading the instructions I eventually got there and had it all set up. The casing is a bit scruffy, but I'll give it a lick of black paint or some Hammerite to tidy it up a bit. I fitted an internal 9v battery and also added a small on off switch to save power when not required. It does the job nicely and I amazed how quickly I built it all up, another thing 6 months ago that I wouldn't have had a clue at doing!
I eventually gave up on the old TH-215 E and went shopping on Ebay, I managed to pick up a TH-22E for a few quid. It's an excellent little radio and works well when connected up to the Yagi, only 5 watts but that's all I really need as I'm 750 ft above sea level so can get out pretty well on low power.
The next project I must get round to (having said I was going to do it back in the Summer) is to take down the Cobweb and give it a good service. The SWR on 20 meters is up at 2.5 so I'm having to use the ATU all the time now for the RMs and the OHR. It probably just needs tightening, but I'm going to open the box and give it a good clean and re-grease the connections, after all it has been up there for a long time now. I'll take some pictures so you can see just how easy it is to build one!
I've got 10 days off over the Christmas break so I shall pick a good day weather wise and do the work! Also over the break I am going t have a good think about what to do next radio wise, another kit perhaps, or maybe an old transceiver that needs a bit of TLC? Well see what happens in 2013.
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