Part of the 1-Watter build-a-thon is to check the crystals and put a matched set in the IF XTAL Filter. This $7.18 (shipped) from China XTAL checker is just the ticket to do that.
The downside of ordering cheap things from China is that it can take forever to receive your stuff. Just in the nick of time, my checker finally showed up in the mail, so out to the workshop I went to put it together.
Chuck has some fantastic instructions if you’re a beginner. It’s a fairly straight forward and easy kit though.
One caveat, there are a couple of capacitors that it’s recommended you substitute. I missed this and don’t have anything close in my junk box. Unfortunately for me, it meant that I couldn’t get 2 of my 6 xtals I was testing to oscillate.
Well, it’s off to order some capacitors, and hopefully I can get a slightly better match than what I already have when I can check the other two crystals in my 1 watter kit.