I'd recommend the kit too, for the reasons others have stated. The cost of the electrostatic mat, I seem to recall, was about 20 Euro. The only test equipment you need is a DMM, an accurate power meter and (optionally but very useful) a calibrated signal generator for doing the S meter calibration.
The DMM I used was about 10 Euro, and perfectly adequate for this application. For the power calibration I used the Elecraft DL1. Though only rated for 20W it is perfectly capable of taking 50W for a couple of seconds at a time - long enough to get the voltage reading from which you can calculate the power. This is probably more accurate than the average ham-grade power meter. For the receiver alignment I used the Elecraft XG1. This has now been replaced by the XG2 which covers 3 bands and is a bit more expensive. Even if you have to buy all 3 items of test equipment plus the anti-static mat the cost will still be about half the money you saved buying the kit version. ----- Julian, G4ILO. K2 #392 K3 #222. * G4ILO's Shack - http://www.g4ilo.com * KComm - http://www.g4ilo.com/kcomm.html * KTune - http://www.g4ilo.com/ktune.html -- View this message in context: http://n2.nabble.com/kit-building-or-buy-ready-for-use-tp4195967p4197216.html Sent from the [K3] mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
