HOMEBUILDING AMATEUR RADIO EQUIPMENT（住房建设业余无线电设备）.pdf

1. Chapter 2, Harris CRYSTAL SETS TO SIDEBAND © Frank W. Harris 2010, Revision 12 CHAPTER 2 HOME-BUILDING AMATEUR RADIO EQUIPMENT What qualifies as “homebuilding?” The ultimate homebrewer would be a guy that walks off into the wilderness stark naked. Then, using rocks and sticks, he builds a high tech communications system. Hey, don’t laugh! Our ancestors did it. Of course, they had to stay out in the woods for thousands of years to finish the job. Our ancestors were smart, hard-working folks. From our lofty position today it’s easy to look down on them as some sort of blue-collar, country bumpkins. Ironically, country bumpkins are often more than they appear. In my opinion, today’s family farmers are masters of a wider range of technology than any other group of people in our society. Farmers today can’t afford to hire others to repair their old equipment, so they have mastered skills from electrician to biologist. Most farmers today have talents and knowledge that make the rest of us look like specialized robots on an assembly line. Building your own radio equipment is fun and gives you the satisfaction that comes from mastering knowledge. Homebuilding doesn’t need a precise definition. If you’re having fun and learning something, do it! You should feel free to invent your own definition. However, the more levels of the technology pyramid you master, the bigger your achievement. Besides, buying ham equipment is like skipping school and buying a diploma. You may get the same privileges, but the result will be empty in many ways. My personal definition of “homebuilding” is that I build my own equipment starting from simple components that (I hope) I understand. I try never to buy equip