We live in such a DDS and PLL world that I think some folk are a little wary of free running VFO's. To them I say; "Behold the beauty of an LC tuned circuit, the majesty of high Q coils and low temperature co-efficient capacitors!"

Anyway, to get back to earth, the way I see it with measuring or gauging anything, is that you always have to do it against some kind of a reference. Basic stuff I know, but some of the folk that were criticizing are maybe forgetting that if you are using a receiver with a narrow passband, then (assuming that it is a receiver that has already been determined to be frequency-stable), it serves as a perfectly fine reference. If you're building a VFO for a CW or SSB transmitter or receiver, then if you can't hear the drift of your VFO, you're not going to notice it when you're using it (and neither is the other guy if he's listening to your signal. As long as you're not extremely close to the band edge, you'll be fine.

I worked for Richard Branson for 16 years. In his autobiography he talks about all the flak he has taken over the years and mentions that it is very hard to build things, and very easy for others to attempt to tear them down. As someone who follows the majority of the time, I'm immensely respectful of those who go first and build things.

Phew - you got me all riled up on a Monday morning Jason!