The era of homebrewing a rig is very much on the decline if not almost gone. Perhaps less than 1% of US hams ever build anything. (That set is about 7700 hams and possibly much less than that as 1% of the US Hams with HF privileges is half that number or about 3800.)
N6QW's 40M DCR ~ MC1496 Based
The availability of ham radio products literally overnight is staggering. If it is not something advertised on eBay, then Jeff Bezos has it. Typically, the pricing is pretty fair and thus no need to whip up something in the lab. You can buy it and have it in hand faster than you can make it.
[My daughter had an accident a week ago where she broke a rib and was in the hospital for two days. She is OK now, at home and will be joining us for Christmas. We all know about hospital food -- so she got Door Dash to deliver her food in the hospital -- all she took with her to the hospital was her iPhone and a Credit Card. Same thing with ham gear and electronic parts.]
Then there is the pervasive view: "I really don't have to know how it works ... I just have to know how to scroll through the appliance box menus". Set everything to 11 and you will be heard!
A fallout from the lack of homebrew activity is the pride in saying my rig is homebrew during a QSO! On the other end instead of a complement that someone actually has the skill set to build a modern radio the response is: Well, I guess it sounds OK for a homemade radio.
The other huge hurdle is the knowledge base to build electronic hardware. That does not come overnight. Time is the key factor, like time spent learning and understanding. Time spent at the bench is another factor. It is almost impossible to scratch build (not a kit) a totally homebrew SSB transceiver and have it work at turn on when this is the 1st project you ever built! Starting small is the place to start but the impatience of many hams hinders starting small.
A sub-set of this impatience is that many newer hams have roots in software and make the assumption --software / hardware there is no difference! Possibly for some but not a 100% transference.
So, while in yesterday's posting I suggested homebrewing a DCR CW transceiver, what was I thinking? It will be a huge hill to climb just to get a few guys to build a DCR receiver. A complete DCR CW Transceiver may be a bridge too far.
But as was pointed out to me by one regular blog reader a complete homebrew DCR CW Transceiver has been published in the latest QRP Quarterly. In a perverse twist of fate, it uses the MC1496 and the author states in the closing paragraphs his project was based in part on my work with the MC1496 DCR published several years ago in SPRAT.
You might want to drop KK4DAS an email about his DCR Buildathon and the schedule dates.
73's
Pete N6QW
(1 of the 3800)