
I ordered the crystals from an eBay trader named spratreader because he offers a set of 5 crystals for £6.95 post paid whereas just two crystals plus postage from the G-QRP club would cost £4.60 - and I'd have the hassle of going to the post office to get stamps because they won't accept PayPal for anything less than a fiver. I've had crystals from spratreader before and they came quite promptly, so I'm not blaming him for the problem. Unfortunately I didn't order 80m crystals in the previous set, nor did I realise that the 40m crystals were not for the European QRP CW frequency - perhaps they'll come in handy one day for a WSPR beacon.
My order was delayed because spratreader was on holiday. He informed me last Thursday that they had been sent, so I began staking out the postman. After a week nothing had arrived, so I sent an email right after the post came this morning to say that I still hadn't got them. I'd hoped that replacements might be sent today, but I'm still waiting for a reply to my email. So it's looking less and less likely that I'll be able to test the XBM-80 this weekend. It's really frustrating, though with the ARRL DX CW contest on this weekend probably isn't a good time to try making a contact with 100mW anyway.
3 comments:
Sorry to hear about your woes Julian, but that moment when they do arrive will be sweet. There are not many finer pleasures in life than receiving little bags of electronic goodies in the mail!
Dave
AA7EE
Yes, eBay has (mostly) proved to be quite a good source of electronic parts, much cheaper than most of the regular component suppliers who have high minimum order values and postage charges. Still no response from the crystal vendor, unfortunately. :(
Grr, I see on the current eBay ad for these crystals "The seller is away until 20 February, there may be a delay in processing your order." I think I'm in for a long wait.
Post a Comment