Well, it sounds like you at least got things going. Heathkits as good as
they were, Eico's too - have had their share of problems, so I guess you
can't complain. I hope all goes well for him. You're right, you got to keep
after him and with some of the "problems" it does pay to have someone around
who knows. One step off the beaten path to create a disappointment for him
could spell disaster. Hope all continues well. MNS.


"Tim Wescott" wrote in message
...
"MNS" wrote in message
...
About a month ago, there was a gentleman in here deciding on what to
give
his son to teach him electronics, construction, etc. A kit of some sort?
There was a long thread on this. The pros and cons, ease of
construction,
practices, keeping him interested and so on.

I'm curious of the final decision made and how the young man is doing? I
can't recall hearing of any progress on him, unless I missed it. What
did/will he end up building - how is he coming along with his "studies"?
I
do wish him good luck. MNS



I did quite a bit of shopping, concentrating on kits that use the SA602.
I
found out that it had to be a "Neophyte", because that's the article that
lit the fire. It was in the ARRL's QRP Compendium -- I'm not sure of the
title (it's a long walk from here), but it's a collection of article
reprints of various QRP projects.

I bought an "Improved Neophyte" kit from Dan's Small Parts and Kits
(http://www.danssmallpartsandkits.net/). This kit has the FAR circuit
board, a reprint of the "Improved Neophyte" article from the Spring '94
HamBrew Magazine, and "all" the parts. The circuit seems to be solid, but
I
have to give the kit a "C" -- whoever kitted it made some counting errors;
there were a couple of caps and resistors missing, and the construction
article is missing the last page. It's working fine for us because I have
a
well-stocked shop and I've scratch-built receivers before, but a beginner
would have trouble without help.

He learned to solder right off, but the kit building has been stalled for
a
couple of weeks because he has to be caught up on homework before he can
work on it. We should have probably stuck with a straight "Neophyte", or
jumpered around the "improved" parts of the circuit and gotten audio fast
and full performance later, but I didn't put my foot down.

I expect that with pestering from dad we'll get things done some rainy
day,
and then I can steal it from him.