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Reviews For: Oak Hills Research 100A

Category: QRP Radios (5 watts or less)

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Review Summary For : Oak Hills Research 100A
Reviews: 51MSRP: 129.95
Description:
The Oak Hills Research OHR 100A single band CW transceiver kit
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.ohr.com/ohr100a.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00514.9
K4YAB Rating: 2010-06-08
Excellant Qrp Rig Priced Right Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just completed My OHR 100a.I had to use my Wife's Jewelry glass to Id the Caps and resistors. Most resistors were marked well.
I had the most trouble IDing the Disk Caps.
I had to go thru the alignment several times to get it correct.
When I finished alignment the rig was right on Freq and stable after a couple of mins or so.
The Rig has a excellant Ckt board and component
markings on it.
The Control Pots are the real deal and not cheap like the Control Pots in Ten Ten'S Qrp series KITS.
AA4K Rating: 2010-05-24
Excellent Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have been building radios for almost 40 years from
scratch and kits, the OHR100A 20 meters is one of the best.
K1KUZ Rating: 2010-04-25
Excellent radios! But a little word on soldering Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Oak Hills Research makes a great kit rig in the 100A's,and I own four of them. They are easy to build and align, but if it does'nt fire up either in recieve or transmit, check your solder connections on the TOP side of the board! This has happened to me twice. The holes are supposed to be solder through holes, but they all might not make connection to the topside ground plane. If you don't see solder coming up through the holes on the topside you should add solder to that connection ON THE TOP of the board. this way you will avoid bad ground connections and possible trouble. I just thought I'd pass this info on so you don't have to send it back for service when it's a 99% chance it's only a bad ground connection! Have fun building!
WB0FDJ Rating: 2010-03-11
Very nice QRP radio. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased and assembled the 80 meter kit. It was a very positive experience and the quality of the board, the parts and the housing are excellent. Very straightforward instructions that are easy to follow. When you are finished you have a real radio with just enough "extra" to make this something special, i.e. variable bandwidth, RIT and a very quiet and sensitive receiver. Customer service is excellent. Moments from finishing this radio I blew something up. With some reservations I sent an email to Marshall with an admittedly primitive description of what didn't work. The return email told me what transistor to check and how to check it (he was right!) After that it worked like a charm. We QRPers are very fortunate to have a quality outfit like this around!!
N2UGB Rating: 2010-03-09
Great mono-band QRP transceiver Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Oak Hills Research has a really fine series of mono-band QRP transceivers.

Mine is the 30 meter model with 10-pot and basic keyer. I have the OHR digital display which I consider necessary for accurate frequency reading if the 10-pot is installed.

My rig was well assembled by OHR so can't comment on ease of construction. Other reviews will help. Seems to be a pretty straight-forward project.

There is a small amount of drift for a minute when first powered up. I spend that time opening log, getting key or Vibrokeyer set up, etc. After that, rock solid on frequency.

QRP signal reports have been very good. Power is 7 watts output which I back off to 5 watts. The receiver is quite sensitive and selectivity good considering there is no 250 or 500 Hz filter. The bandwidth control is quite effective. QSK is not big-rig Ten-Tec but very acceptable.

I have a 20 meter model which is going to have a keyer and 10-pot installed. Obviously I like OHR.

Marshall is an important factor in my positive rating. He has been very helpful on more than one occasion.

The OHRs are now my principal rigs for very good reasons.

ZL2AIM Rating: 2009-02-04
Well designed radio - good sensitivity Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Bought it in Jan 2006 and spent a few evenings building it. Had a problem with the wiring of the 10 turn pot but once that was sorted out it was fine. Sensitivity good (better than the TenTec 13XX range albeit more expensive).
I built the 80 meter version as I already had a few kits on 40 meters and 20 meters.
I had a problem with the keyer at one stage and that was sorted out by Marshall Emm. About 1 year after I built it the frequency went high, and I rewound the toroid. This time I just held the wires in place with candle wax - first time was with nail varnish. Whilst fiddling one day, I shorted out a JFET but after replacing that it was fine again.
I also built the frequency counter DD1 and that is a great help.
Marshall is very quick to respond with any questions and gave great service on my requests.

I would recommend this rig .
Ian ZL2AIM (ZS5IAN)
N6IKX Rating: 2008-05-15
Great Radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I built the 20M rig. Took my time and completed it in about a week of short evenings. I did the alignment and got 7 watts out at the high end and 5 watts at the low end. The receiver is pretty good on this little rig too!! This was my first kit and I had no problem building it. Just take your time and use common sense. My 2nd QSO was with VK4TJ. I was operating battery/mobile on the North Shore, Oahu. Xmitter was putting out 4 watts on battery. VK4TJ, John gave me a 339 RST, and I gave him a 499. A most satisfying QSO. I'm building the 40M rig now. Buy this radio!!!!

Terry
W5CRY Rating: 2008-03-05
Very Nice Radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The OHR-100A is a great little kit. First class printed circuit board, solder masked and components clearly marked.

My greatest problem was being able to read the small print on components. I had never wound a toroid coil before and it was pretty easy. Questions to OHR were promptly answered by email.

It does require a frequency counter to align. The transmitter worked right off, but a dead receiver. After due effort, I sent it to OHR for repair and alignment, turned out to be a cold solder joint.

I am very pleased with the little transceiver.
VA3SQ Rating: 2008-02-06
Great little rig Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I built the 40M rig a couple of weeks ago. I took my time, used my DMM and checked all the part values before and after they were mounted on the board. It took about 10 to 15 hrs. I had only 3 extra parts left over, 2.2 ohm resistor, FET and one Cable assembly. I was very impressed with the board layout, and easy setup. You do need a Frequency Counter and another Rig for tuning properly.The instruction manual was very straight forward and easy to follow, but I would have liked a theory portion, explaining the individual circuits of the Receiver and Transmitter. I have built a few hombrew Direct conversion rigs over the years but I wanted to try a kit that was more challenging. I chose this kit after researching the different models on the internet. I found the price to be just right.

I found my ohr100A rig surpassing most of the specifications in the manual. The Transmitter Output at 13.8V turned out to be 7 Watts which I turn down to 5 watts. I am working in the lower part of the band, and I was able tune from 7.000 - 7.075 Mhz. I like both, the Tunable filter and 1Khz RIT which is used on all of my contacts. I have made many contacts over past couple weeks, with a QSO in France with a RST of 569.

So far, I have been quite pleased with this rig, and the boys at Oak Hills Research should be given top marks for its design.

VA3SQ
KC5NWS Rating: 2007-05-18
great rig Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just got this rig a couple of weeks ago and I am well pleased with it. Small, easy to setup and play, I can not find any problems with this little rig.Looking forward to taking it to the field on field day.
K5jyd