Quote:
Originally Posted by David G4EBT
Nice things to own, as curios and relics of a bygone era, but I wonder if anyone uses GDOs these days, and if so, what for, in a 'plug 'n play' era when antennas come from shops?
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I like GDOs even to this day. They're cheap, simple and very useful. I've got a Heathkit GD-1U which is a little drifty and limping slightly, missing one coil and someone has added a BNC connector for a counter but it still works fine.
I tend to use mine for testing resonant circuits and for filter sweeps, adding my FET voltmeter and RF probe and my counter plugged into it. Also have used mine for ballparking inductor values. Less so as it's a bit difficult to use one with toroidal cores.
I have been meaning to build my own for a while and have most of the parts as specified in that PW article so might just have a go there.
As I'm currently doing my Foundation stuff, I will be building antennas soon past the simple dipole I have already slung together so will be very useful. I'm not going for the easy path which is "buy an MFJ antenna analyser and plug a Yaesu into it" although that's what I suspect the foundation course tutors would like as they sell them. That would be boring.
As always David, I am rather impressed by your creations
