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During the last few months, I've been doing more work building and servicing the radios from Small Wonder Labs.
The one that I've seen the most is the popular 20-meter model, and I'll describe the build compared with the Elecraft kits. There's no mistaking that this is different: the parts are kitted up individually or packed by value and labeled clearly. That made inventory quick and easy. The build instructions are grouped by function in the radio (like mixer, audio amplifier, etc), and that makes it easy to see how the pieces fit together. And speaking of easy, Mychael Morohovich (the Toroid Guy,
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) winds the SWL toroids, which takes care of a big hassle.
 Here's a photo of a PSK-20 with its case open; click the image for a larger shot. If you look closely, one of the IC sockets is empty ... part was missing, and I took pictures while I was waiting for the part.
Alignment was straightforward enough. Peak the RF signal, center the passband in the PSK range, and use the station transmitter to provide a signal at 14.072 for calibration. To setup the PSK-20 transmitter, you first apply audio loud enough to activate the VOX, which switches from receive to transmit. After peaking the bandpass filter, there should be power output.
Connect the antenna, and you should be hearing 20 meters alive with PSK31 signals. Digipan is a nice program to use with the board, and it's easy to set up. Dave Benson provided all the directions in the manual, available on his site.
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