This morning a reader wrote:
I’m a new subscriber, and I’m really enjoying your blog. I’ll be retiring this month after over 40 years in electronic product design and manufacturing. I’m looking forward to having some play time. Are there any products not now available in kit form that you think would be good products for hams? Is there a niche for expert assembly and testing of kits? I’m asking because I respect your opinion, and I’ve been approached by several hams about this. What say you, sir?
I replied:
The first question you ask is, “Are there any products not now available in kit form that you think would be good products for hams?” Off the top of my head, I’d have to say no. There are already plenty of HF transceiver kits on the market, ranging from the very simple (QRP Labs’ QCX) to the very complex (DZKit Sienna XL).
There are also plenty of kits out there for station accessories. These include kits from commercial vendors, such as HamGadgets and Pacific Antenna, and non-commercial sources, such as the
Four States QRP Group.Having said that, I’ve had a few ideas over the years for ham radio products that I’m still kicking around. I’m not sure that I’d sell them as kits, though. Here are a couple of ideas:
- CW Geek’s Keyer. There are a few features that I find missing from most keyers currently on the market, such as an LCD display, that I would include in mine. There are many keyers on the market, though, and I’m not sure if it’s worth the effort to actually produce this product.
- GUI-based DSP speaker. There are several DSP speakers currently on the market, but my idea would be to produce one whose frequency response could be tailored via a computer program. You could change the frequency-response graph on the computer screen and then hear the results. Since most new transceivers come with some kind of DSP, though, I’m not sure how big a seller this would be.
Your second question is, “Is there a niche for expert assembly and testing of kits?” I would suppose there is. When the Elecraft K1, K2, and KX2 kits were all the rage, there was at least one guy who was in the business of building them for people.
I don’t think you’re going to make a ton of money doing it, though you could make a few bucks. Maybe even enough to support your ham radio habit. For example, I recently purchased an FA-VA4 Antenna Analyzer Kit for $140, postpaid.
Like a lot of kits these days, there really wasn’t much building to be done. The main board had all of the surface-mount devices already soldered to it. All I had to do was to solder the power switch, battery holder, LCD display, and BNC connector to the board. All told, it took me less than an hour to do this.
It might be possible for me to turn around and sell this for $175, or possibly a little more, at a hamfest. So, for 45-50 minutes of work, I’d make $35. That’s not too bad for hobby work. And, if I could get a discount by buying 10 kits at a time, it might be worth it. (All of this just occurred to me as I was writing this. I might actually have to try this!)
So what do you think? Do you have an idea for a kit that you’d like to share? What do you think about building kits for other people?
Peter J. McClosky says
I would love to see a QRP kit for SSB, to work the digital modes.
Peter, N7IY
Dan KB6NU says
Have you seen the Bitx-40? While not made for digital modes, it does look like there are hacks that will allow you to operate the digital modes with it.