I bought:
Ultimate3S QRSS/WSPR (33.00) on 40 meters
QLG1 GPS receiver (+$23.00)
6-band Relay switch kit (+$16.00)
U3S enclosure kit, incl airmail shipping (+$38.50)
OCXO/Si5351A Synth (+$16.00)
BS170 experimenters pack, 10pcs (+$3.50)
50-ohm 20W Dummy Load kit (+$8.50)
Receiver kit (same BPF band) (+$25.00)
Polyphase network (+$11.00)
5W HF PA kit (+$20.00)
So I should have all the parts I need.
You didn't buy an assortment of LPFs for the relay setup?
I think you somewhat overbought, but without the LPFs you can't use the relay rig. You probably know that by now.
The dummy load was probably a waste of money as I could have just used a small antenna but I guess I can use it for other things.
The dummy load will get you in a lot of trouble if you use the peak-voltage biasing instructions. You'll simply blow the BS170 in about five seconds at 40m unless it's heatsinked, which it isn't. I have no idea what Hans was thinking when he included that info, and he's too busy to correct the docs.
Use the idle current biasing method. Easy, foolproof. I built an electronically exact copy (only 40W) of the dummy load for under $2. It's interesting and useful, but it's just suicide for U3S voltage-biasing.
I'm a U3S survivor.
It took me about three months to get a perfectly, flawlessly built U3S to work, thanks to the "help" I got on their support forum. This largely consists of windbag "experts" competitively trying to come up with more abstruse and complex solutions for problems other than the ones about which you're actually asking, while of course ritzing you if you don't have $20K in test equipment...and then it turns out that they are actually
wrong and have just worn you out and created more actual problems with their peacock displays of imaginary wisdom.
In short, it's about like every other hobby forum on the Internet: A tiny minority of competent and helpful people who actually pay attention and bunch of jerks you have to sort through.
My punchline was being pressured into buying a new oscilloscope to cope with a totally nonexistent problem of their invention. I've never used it to this day. Not once.
The GPS kit works, but generates an awful half-second audio SKRONK! In your receiver (at least at 40m) that's in time with the yellow LED. Lots of gripes about this but no solution nor explanation. Some claim theirs don't do this. If yours does, you're not alone. Keep it in another room away from your receiver and it's not bad.
I also built the 5W PA kit but haven't had the courage to put it in circuit. It's a v1.0 product, which means "early beta" in real life, as the recent QCX kit buyers are finding out. I've seen hardly any posts about it and those were complaining about strange CW waveforms. No solutions by the time I left the group.
Actual build problems with the U3S almost always trace back to bad connections due to the enameled magnet wire.
Manually scrape all these ends clean and tin them before installation and you'll bypass about 90% of the build problems not attributable to dumb mistakes.
Programming these things is pretty much murder. Eventually you'll get there or give up. The forum can actually help with that, as it's about knowledge rather than one-upping your diagnostic gear. The good news is those painfully stiff switches will start to soften up after about 2000 cycles.
I have two of these things, one running at the moment on 40m with a truly crummy excuse for an antenna. It works, but the only mode with any users to speak of anymore is WSPR, which isn't much of a mode compared to FT8, which isn't supported. It's unclear if it's technically possible to include FT8 in a firmware update. As it stands with JT65 vanishing by the second, the U3S is mostly a fine example of a boat-anchor digital mode museum.
Good luck with your project!