Homebrew Hero: Yardley Beers

How's that for a beautiful homebrew rig! Prompted by our discussion of distinctive ham radio names, Harv, WA3EIB, sent us a very nice report on Yardley Beers, W0JF. The rig pictured is Yardley's "Jason" 20 meter QRP transceiver. Yardley had named the rig for his cousin. Harv met Yardley at a Colorado hamfest in 1993:

"On the table in front of Yardley was an Aluminum Box fashioned into a QRP radio named, “Jason”, 2 broken and worn head phones from the 1920’s, a few 1980’s QST and, several odd radio parts. My bulb of brilliance was not working that day. I said, “I don’t know what I’m looking for!" Somehow Yardley must have studied my eyes. I had locked my vision onto his very elaborate QRP rig. He paused for a few moments and said, “You into QRP?” By this time I felt more relaxed because he was now on my wavelength. I said, “Why yes, I would rather work with a homebrew radio that the ones with features that no one seems to know what they do!”

Harv bought the Jason (and everything else on Yardley's table) and established a lasting friendship with W0JF.

There is a nice article about OM Yardley's life in the November 2004 issue of QST.

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

"The Black Rose" -- Yardley Beers' 1955 HB SSB Transceiver

I've been a fan of Homebrew Hero Yardley Beers W0JF for a long time.   Here is a link to previous posts on him: http://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/search?q=Yardley 

Yesterday I got a nice e-mail from Boulder Colorado about Yardley's very early SSB rig.  I'm guessing that the 4.7 MHz is a typo -- it might have been 3.7 and 14 MHz.   FB.  Thanks Mike

Bill,

 

Yardley Beers W0JF moved to Boulder in the early 1950's to work at the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) laboratory.  There he headed the Time and Frequency Division, which maintains the atomic clock.  He later taught at the University of Colorado and Denver University.

 

About 1955 he homebrewed what, at the time, may have been the only SSB transceiver in the world.  It was built with individual transistors (no IC's in those days) and Yardley had to grind the crystals himself for the filter.  He enjoyed naming his radios and this one was "The Black Rose."

 

The transceiver ran at 4.7 and 14 MHz.  Its 1/2 watt output was fed to a home built amplifier.  The transceiver demonstrated the practicality and benefits of SSB in a world where AM was the voice mode.

 

In the year 2000 Yardley demonstrated this original, old SSB transceiver to the Boulder Amateur Radio Club by using it to make contacts with two club members.  Attached to this e-mail are a couple of photos.

 

73,

Mike W3DIF

Treasurer, Boulder Amateur Radio Club (BARC)

Better Link to 1932 Yardley Beers Article

(From the November 2004 issue of QST)

I hear that picture I posted of the 1932 newspaper article was pretty much illegible. Sorry about that. Try this one from the Delaware Valley Radio Association. Scroll down a bit until you see OM Yardley in his front bedroom shack (the one with a window on the world!). On my Firefox browser I was able to click on it and get an easily read-able view.

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2790/1877/1600/Yardley%20Beer%20DVRA1.jpg

Thanks DVRA!

BTW: Did you catch the name of the fellow who taught young Yardley the Morse Code? Atherton Noyes. Such good strong names!

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

More on Yardley Beers

Just click on the article and use the zoom feature of your browser to visit the teenage shack of Yardley Beers.

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

SolderSmoke Podcast #201 Santa, Storms, BUILDING A DC RX, SDR, uBITX

SolderSmoke Podcast #201 is available:  http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke201.mp3

9 December 2017

Santa Juliano

Forest fires, snow storms, and an earthquake. 

Santa arrives from Hyderabad -- uBITX in the house. 

Radio history.  First transtalantic amateur contacts. 

Bill's International Brotherhood Ceramic Discrete Direct Conversion Receiver Project. 
-- Goals -- Build your own receiver.  Really.  From scratch.  No cheating. 
-- How to get started.  Get parts and tools. 
-- Stage by stage. 
-- VFO first -- maybe build two. 
Bill built two already
-- Nephew is testing the first one. 
-- Polyvaricon limitations. 
-- Varactor limitations
-- Variable cap limitation.  
MEETING THE JULIANO STABILITY CRITERIA

Understanding the F5LVG mixer

Pete goes to the dark side with an SDR receiver. 
Pete's 800 Watt Amplifier gives him trouble. TRGHS. 

People in the News
Cliff Stoll -- Still Passionate about Electronics
Peter Parker -- VHF/UHF  By the Bay
Yardley Beers -- Early SSB with "The Black Rose"
John Kraus -- Moonbounce without the Moon. 

MAILBAG