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Friday, January 9, 2009

Eldon's QRSS Rig

Eldon, WA0UWH, says the podcast inspired him to build some QRSS transmitters for 30 meters. His first effort was atop a 9 volt battery. The latest version has a more traditional enclosure. Eldon hopes to be seen on some of the grabbers -- please help him out if you can. In my case the hard part was getting the transmitter into the frequency band for QRSS (only 100 Hz wide!).

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

N0TU's Straight Key Night Video - 5 STARS!

Steve, N0TU, has put out a really great video on his Straight Key Night operation. It is really well-done. I was delighted to see both a Drake 2-B and a Heath VF-1 in use in Steve's shack. The video also has clips and photos from the stations Steve contacted during the event. Wow, a homebrew Spider! I remember that one from a 1993 issue of 73 magazine. You guys will love this video. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAk7gRdwpGs

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Mars Rovers Complete 5 Years on Red Planet

There is a very nice NASA video here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=795#

SolderSmoke 98

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January 4, 2009
New Year's in Rome, Fireworks, Abruzzo snow trip.
AA1TJ and the compact fluorescent bulb rig; "Michael the red-nosed Rainey, you'll go down in history!"
Billy's Asus eeePC : Amazin' piece of gear.
The Lure of Logic: Fixing my old Global Specialties counter (chip needed).
The Joy of Troubleshooting.
N3ZI's FB counter.
Balsa boxes.
Todd, VE7BPO, also getting logical.
Hans, G0UPL, back on 30 meter QRSS from London.
Lawrence, KL1X grabbing VK QRSS sigs in N. China.
My sigs steady in ON5EX grabber.
Dan's deals.
Book of the week: "Empire of the Air." Armstrong as a teenage ham.
MAILBAG:
Todd K5TAK on new name for Knack (no!)
Rick KC0PET has new 'scope, analyzer, Elsie
Bill N8ET Kanga USA getting going again.
Alan WA9IRS on Pete Millet's free online tech books
Wayne VA7AT on SDR
Frank VK2AKG is NOT the solenoid musician
Bill N3HQB was in Ade Weiss's summer camp ham class!
Roger K7RXV on shaving resistors
Dino KL0S on other free books on-line
Gareth G1DRG on BBC Digital Planet Podcast
Tim Walford's FB ham construction magazine
A word about words from our sponsors

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Homebrew Receiver from KC9KEP

Nice workmanship on this RX!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

My 75 Meter "Kickpanel" DSB Rig

I've been talking about it so long, I thought I should let you guys have a look at it. The box on the top is N3ZI's FB freq counter. It sits on the top cover of the TX -- the cover is made from the side panel of a dead computer that I found on a street in London. The metal cabinet is a "kickpanel" -- the kind of thing they often put on the bottoms of frequently used doors. Mine was purchased at Farmer Brother's Hardware on Fulham Road, London. One switch is for T/R. The other is for spotting (netting). I put the LED in there so I wouldn't forget to turn it off (and because Billy likes LEDs!) Circuit diagrams and LTSpice models appear in previous blog posts.

Moving inside, we see that the "chassis" is actually a kitchen cutting board, this one from a Dyas store in Windsor, England. In the lower left there's a board with the AF (mic) amp. Center front is the VFO box (elevated above the main chassis by wooden blocks in order to put the tuning cap in a comfortable position). The balanced modulator is on the left. The long rectangular board in the center-right is the 4 stage amplifier. Note the black wire suspended above the connectors -- that's an antenna for the oscillator -- it allows me to hear the oscillator signal with my Drake 2-B while in "spotting" mode (while putting the TX and the RX on the same freq.)

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM ROME!

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Free Electronic Books Online!!!

Alan WA9IRS alerted me to this technical treasure trove. Pete Millett is an engineer who, in his spare time, scans and uploads books about electronics that are no longer under copyright. Great stuff! Thanks Alan! Thanks Pete!
http://www.pmillett.com/technical_books_online.htm
Designer: Douglas Bowman | Dimodifikasi oleh Abdul Munir Original Posting Rounders 3 Column