Jameco is 'Calling All Hams'

Jameco Electronics has put out a call to amateur radio operators and experimenters to tell them how they can better cater to our hobby.



Specifically they are interested in:

• What items do you buy from Jameco for your ham radio hobby?
• Are you building your own ham radios or fixing up ones you've had forever?
• Are there any products Jameco doesn't currently carry but you think we should?

It's great that a major electronics distributor is reaching out to the hobbyist community, especially when many radio electronics parts are difficult to find.  I've purchased components from Jameco in the past, and have enjoyed dealing with their company.

I encourage everyone interested in radio electronics to post on their forums the components you would want them to stock.

My short wish list is as follows, which I will be sharing on their forums:

Crystals
Crystals with MHz values at common operating frequencies, especially on QRP calling frequencies and in the 40m, 20m, and 10m ham radio bands.  Some suggested frequencies (in kHz):
QRP calling frequencies: 1810, 3560, 7030, 14060, 21060, 28385
10m beacon band: Anything between 28200 - 28300
40m: 7015, 7035, 7040, 7042, 7050, 7055, 7058, 7122, 7200
20m: 14050, 14058, 14200
10m: 28060

And, let's face it... there's also demand for 6925, 6930, 6950, and 6955 crystals.

Variable Capacitors
Variable capacitors are absolutely essential to many RF applications (transmitter design, antenna, etc.).  It would be nice to have available both small and larger sizes, e.g. ones that tune up to 100pF and others that tune up to 400pF.

Ferrite Torroids
Also essential to RF applications are ferrite torroids, used to make inductors.  The brand most easily attained are Amidon, who manufactures torroids in many standard/useful ranges.  And of course, the torroids would be useless without magnet wire of various gauges.

Transistors
Not an exhaustive list, but the following are transistors I've found on many transmitter projects:
2n2222 equivalents (like the 2n2219)
2n3553 equivalents (like the 2n3053)
2n4036

Integrated Circuits
IRF510 (useful for transmitter amplification stages)
TDA2003 equivalent (used for audio modulation -- part recently became obsolete, so a substitute would be useful)

Other Misc parts
50 ohm resistors
PL259 / SO239, BNC, SMA, etc. coax connectors
50 ohm coax available by the foot
QRP transmitter kits


And a final big note:  It's ideal to have pin though hole components available instead of (or in addition to) surface mount.  It's just a pain dealing with surface mount components when experimenting.

Posted: Mar 13, 2014