Latest project: Elecraft T1 ATU

This small kit has proven to be a pretty good challenge. As always, it's all about technique.

I need an antenna tuner to make my 40m dipole useful. Since it's "mounted" as a loop wrapped around my house, and since I'm trying to maintain a low-profile with my amateur radio operating, I don't want to spend a lot of time climbing up and down ladders to make adjustments by physically trimming or bending the dipole to tune it.

The T1 is a great solution since its small, portable and automatic.

The kit only has a small number of parts, but they are tightly packed on two boards. Thankfully, Elecraft provides an excellent assembly manual with good photos of the PCBs. Still the control board is so tiny my Panavise can barely hold it.

The kit includes several toroids and although winding them is not too difficult, tinning and installing them was a challenge. My technique was to place the soldering iron, a 25w Weller, against the wire and apply solder. This technique seems to make the leads brittle. In some cases the leads would snap off as I bent them during installation.

Trying to fit them onto the board took some finesse as they are spaced pretty close together. One toroid had board space for a single toroid, but the assembly manual called for a double toroid (two glued together). I managed to fit in on, but just barely.

The first set of tests when fine, everything checked out fine. When I got to the second set of tests (near the end of assembly) I discovered what may be a bad capacitor (C19). So, at this point I'm at a standstill till Elecraft responds to my weekend email.

Elecraft tech support has been great. Very responsive.

I was hoping to complete the TR1 last Friday, but soon realized it would take longer. My goal was to finish in time to compete in a weekend contest. Ah well.

If all goes well, Elecraft will have a replacement part to me this week so I can get back on the air this coming weekend.