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Saturday, March 16, 2013

Vanguard!


Wow, Vanguard even looks like a QRPp satellite. 

I suspected that something was up:  I noticed that Mike Rainey, AA1TJ has recently been crossing pond with a QRPp Germanium rig...  Then Steve "Snort Rosin" Smith clued me in: The next period of  Vanguard QRPp Activity Days begins tomorrow.  "Club 72" has a nice write up, and a nice collection of pictures of the Vanguard rigs that have been built around the world:

http://www.club72.su/vanguard.html

Go Germanium!  Go Vanguard!

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QRP SSB with a New Rig


Kelly, WB0WQS, was trying out a new KX3 that his wife had given him as a present.  The radio gods must like that low-power rig because, in what seems like a deliberate demonstration of the awesome power of QRP phone, Kelly's first QSO was with another QRP operator:  me!  The sun was going down and taking 17 meters with it, but neither of us missed a word.  We talked about SolderSmoke and our mutual friend, Jerry, NR5A -- Kelly had known Jerry when they were teenage hams. Good luck with the new rig Kelly!

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

Friday, March 15, 2013

Kludge: Rube-Goldberg Heath-Robinson Ad-Hockery



Wow!  "Ad-hockery... verging on being a crock."  That sounds like my building technique!  I thank Kevin for sending this, but I admit to now being more confused than ever.

Bill:

A snippet from my kluge research.  This was a word I learned from my dad who told me he had heard it first used in the 1930s.  Here is where I find a divergent meaning with the new word kludge which I have often heard pronounced as rhyming with sludge.  I was asked why I pronounced it with the d as silent.  I asked why I should pronounce a letter which was not even in the word.  Thus my introduction to the new word kludge which means something very different than what I had learned from my father.  While a kluge is something clever a kludge is an ad hoc and usually buggy hack. 
I found a little supporting evidence for the etymological timeline. To whit:


Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (2003-OCT-10)

kluge

   /klooj/, /kluhj/ (From German "klug" /kloog/ - clever
   and Scottish "kludge") 1. A Rube Goldberg (or Heath
   Robinson) device, whether in hardware or software.
   The spelling "kluge" (as opposed to "kludge") was used in
   connection with computers as far back as the mid-1950s and, at
   that time, was used exclusively of *hardware* kluges.
 
   2.  A clever programming trick intended to solve
   a particular nasty case in an expedient, if not clear, manner.
   Often used to repair bugs.  Often involves ad-hockery and
   verges on being a crock.  In fact, the TMRC Dictionary
   defined "kludge" as "a crock that works".
 
   3. Something that works for the wrong reason.

   4. (WPI) A feature that is implemented in a rude manner.
   In 1947, the "New York Folklore Quarterly" reported a classic
   shaggy-dog story "Murgatroyd the Kluge Maker" then current in
   the Armed Forces, in which a "kluge" was a complex and
   puzzling artifact with a trivial function.  Other sources
   report that "kluge" was common Navy slang in the WWII era for
   any piece of electronics that worked well on shore but
   consistently failed at sea.
   However, there is reason to believe this slang use may be a
   decade older.  Several respondents have connected it to the
   brand name of a device called a "Kluge paper feeder" dating
   back at least to 1935, an adjunct to mechanical printing
   presses.  The Kluge feeder was designed before small, cheap
   electric motors and control electronics; it relied on a
   fiendishly complex assortment of cams, belts, and linkages to
   both power and synchronise all its operations from one motive
   driveshaft.  It was accordingly tempermental, subject to
   frequent breakdowns, and devilishly difficult to repair - but
   oh, so clever!  One traditional folk etymology of "klugen"
   makes it the name of a design engineer; in fact, "Kluge" is a
   surname in German, and the designer of the Kluge feeder may
   well have been the man behind this myth.

   TMRC and the MIT hacker culture of the early 1960s seems to
   have developed in a milieu that remembered and still used some
   WWII military slang (see also foobar).  It seems likely that
   "kluge" came to MIT via alumni of the many military
   electronics projects run in Cambridge during the war (many in
   MIT's venerable Building 20, which housed TMRC until the
   building was demolished in 1999).

Source: Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)

kluge /klooj/ [from the German `klug', clever; poss. related to Polish
'klucz' (a key, a hint, a main point)] 1. n. A Rube Goldberg (or Heath
 Robinson) device, whether in hardware or software. 2. n. A clever 
 programming trick intended to solve a particular nasty case in an 
expedient, if not clear, manner. Often used to repair bugs. Often
  involves ad-hockery and verges on being a crock. 3. n. Something
  that works for the wrong reason. 4. vt. To insert a kluge into a
  program. "I've kluged this routine to get around that weird bug, but
  there's probably a better way." 5. [WPI] n. A feature that is
  implemented in a rude manner. 

  Nowadays this term is often encountered in the variant spelling
  `kludge'. Reports from old farts are consistent that `kluge' was the
  original spelling, reported around computers as far back as the
  mid-1950s and, at that time, used exclusively of _hardware_ kluges. In
  1947, the "New York Folklore Quarterly" reported a classic shaggy-dog
  story `Murgatroyd the Kluge Maker' then current in the Armed Forces, in
  which a `kluge' was a complex and puzzling artifact with a trivial
  function. Other sources report that `kluge' was common Navy slang in the
  WWII era for any piece of electronics that worked well on shore but
  consistently failed at sea.

  However, there is reason to believe this slang use may be a decade
  older. Several respondents have connected it to the brand name of a
  device called a "Kluge paper feeder", an adjunct to mechanical printing
  presses. Legend has it that the Kluge feeder was designed before small,
  cheap electric motors and control electronics; it relied on a fiendishly
  complex assortment of cams, belts, and linkages to both power and
  synchronize all its operations from one motive driveshaft. It was
  accordingly temperamental, subject to frequent breakdowns, and
  devilishly difficult to repair -- but oh, so clever! People who tell
  this story also aver that `Kluge' was the name of a design engineer.

  There is in fact a Brandtjen & Kluge Inc., an old family business that
  manufactures printing equipment - interestingly, their name is
  pronounced /kloo'gee/! Henry Brandtjen, president of the firm, told me
  (ESR, 1994) that his company was co-founded by his father and an
  engineer named Kluge /kloo'gee/, who built and co-designed the original
  Kluge automatic feeder in 1919. Mr. Brandtjen claims, however, that this
  was a _simple_ device (with only four cams); he says he has no idea how
  the myth of its complexity took hold. Other correspondents differ with
  Mr. Brandtjen's history of the device and his allegation that it was a
  simple rather than complex one, but agree that the Kluge automatic
  feeder was the most likely source of the folklore.

  TMRC and the MIT hacker culture of the early '60s seems to have
  developed in a milieu that remembered and still used some WWII military
  slang (see also foobar). It seems likely that `kluge' came to MIT via
  alumni of the many military electronics projects that had been located
  in Cambridge (many in MIT's venerable Building 20, in which TMRC is
  also located) during the war.

 The variant `kludge' was apparently popularized by the Datamation
  article mentioned above; it was titled "How to Design a Kludge"
  (February 1962, pp. 30, 31). This spelling was probably imported from
  Great Britain, where kludge has an independent history (though this
  fact was largely unknown to hackers on either side of the Atlantic
  before a mid-1993 debate in the Usenet group alt.folklore.computers over
  the First and Second Edition versions of this entry; everybody used to
  think kludge was just a mutation of kluge). It now appears that the
  British, having forgotten the etymology of their own `kludge' when
  `kluge' crossed the Atlantic, repaid the U.S. by lobbing the `kludge'
  orthography in the other direction and confusing their American cousins'
  spelling!

  The result of this history is a tangle. Many younger U.S. hackers
  pronounce the word as /klooj/ but spell it, incorrectly for its meaning
  and pronunciation, as `kludge'. (Phonetically, consider huge, refuge,
  centrifuge, and deluge as opposed to sludge, judge, budge, and fudge.

  Whatever its failings in other areas, English spelling is perfectly
  consistent about this distinction.) British hackers mostly learned
  /kluhj/ orally, use it in a restricted negative sense and are at least
  consistent. European hackers have mostly learned the word from written
  American sources and tend to pronounce it /kluhj/ but use the wider
  American meaning!

  Some observers consider this mess appropriate in view of the word's
  meaning. 

I hope this further muddies the definitional waters for you :)

   73,
      Kevin.  KD5ONS




 
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Thursday, March 14, 2013

Almost forgot! Happy Pi Day!


3-14   Get it?

And happy birthday Albert Einstein! 

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Autographed SolderSmoke Books


I have some books left over from Winterfest.   Please let me know if you'd like a signed copy.  Some folks are ordering them as gifts for fellow Knack victims.  I will inscribe them with whatever you'd like me to write (within limits, of course!)

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

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

The Overview Effect


OVERVIEW from Planetary Collective on Vimeo.

Every once in a while, it's a good idea to step back and consider the big picture.

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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Fabio's Direct Conversion Receiver



Fabio, IK0IXI, is an electronic wizard from Civitavecchia, near Rome.   Check out his very nice DC receiver. Note that wonderful direct conversion sound.   Very cool that has it atop our beloved SPRAT.   Below you can hear the effectiveness of the audio filter.   Bravo Fabio!



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Sunday, March 10, 2013

A Ham Radio HackerSpace


Bill -  Enjoyed your conversation regarding seeing the Maker guys at a recent hamfest.  Thought I'd let you know that, at least on a small scale, we've created a ham hacker space in our club by organizing a "Builders Group" as an adjunct to the Williamsburg Amateur Radio Club (WAARC) here in Williamsburg, VA.  I volunteered my QTH as a meeting place and the majority of projects have been either QRP or test equipment related.  Folks select their own project and bring their own tools to use.  These projects have included the Hendricks tri-band QRP transceiver, NorCal FCC-1 frequency counter, N3ZI digital dial, Tuna Tin II transmitter and others.

I corralled two friends in the club to act as "mentors" to assist less experienced builders with soldering and construction.  Once builders complete their projects my workbench upstairs is available to verify correct operation or troubleshooting as required.

Here are a couple of pix of the guys having fun melting solder.

73 - Dino KL0S



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Saturday, March 9, 2013

Richard's Rip-Van-Winkle Barbados Rig


Dear Bill,

Thank you for taking a few minutes to read my email. I recently found your blog and enjoyed reading the entries.  However, the most interesting and exciting article I discovered was your "Homebrew Radios in the Age of the Internet." The article reminded me of a project started 30 years ago this month and placed in a box in the attic to wait until I could return to it.
Thirty years of health care management work filled the interim.

The project is the 8P6 Hamcation rig by W1FB from QST of June and November 1982!

I searched through the cob webs in the attic and found that all the boards are completed and I even fabricated a case. The original QST's were there too! In response to a (somewhat strong) suggestion from my wife to "get a winter project going", the rig is back on my retirement work bench. Wahoo.

Progress to date has been instructive and fun. The boards are all cleaned, checked, and 95% wired together in the case and working. I attached 2 photo for your pleasure because you wrote specifically about the receiver in some blog posts.

This is where I am scratching my head. As you say in the article, "receivers are tough". I am confused and a bit frustrated about the correct procedure and sequence to correctly align the Barebones superhet. I can already hear stations and the noise level is acceptable. But I am not quite sure how to proceed in peaking up the receiver (hit a plateau?) Any suggestions for a newly retired ham now with the time to get back to the bench?

Thank you very much for your kind comments and interest in my project.

73's
Richard
WB2PEF
Cherry Valley NY


Wow, what a cool resurrection project!   I recognize both the receiver and transmitter boards.   The RX is clearly DeMaw's Barebones Superhet on a FAR Circuit board.  I am listening to one of those AS I TYPE.  Mine was put together by Dale, W4OP, and currently inhales on 17 meters.   The TX board is what became known as the VXO 6 Watter.   It was (I think) designed by W1VD, and appears in the ARRL book "QRP Classics."   This was my first really successful homebrew rig -- I built that transmitter in the Dominican Republic  in 1993.   I still have most of the board, and the 20 meter Barebones RX that I used with it.   Richard's message makes me want to put this old gear back on the air. 

I hope Richard will send us an update on his Barbados revival project.

I'm sure Doug DeMaw would be very pleased to know that his projects are still providing radio amateurs with a lot of fun and inspiration.


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Wednesday, March 6, 2013

SolderSmoke Podcast #150





SolderSmoke Podcast #150 is now available:

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke150.mp3

March 6, 2013

-- SolderSnow!
-- Winterfest Hamfest report
-- N2CQR WINS ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX DSB CONTEST!!!!
-- Homebrew Direct Conversion RX meets PSK-31 and FLDIGI
-- Kludge Controversy II
-- More Q Killing
-- Fixing up old cassettes
-- Pat Hawker, G3VA, SK
-- Mailbag




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Tuesday, March 5, 2013

VE7BPO on "Killing Q"

I'm still scratching my head a bit about HOW the resistor prescribed by Edgardo, LU1AR, cured the 250 kHz oscillation problem that was plaguing the JBOT amplifier in my 20 meter DSB rig.   Earlier I'd posted an excerpt from a CQ article in which Doug DeMaw talks about swamping and Q killing.   Last week I got a very thoughtful e-mail from esteemed homebrewer Todd,  VE7BPO.  Here is an excerpt :

Thoughts and Considerations
Let’s discuss squashing low frequency oscillations in a QRP transmitter; say at 200 KHz or so. A low value resistor across the coil (12t -- FT37-43) often works well to stop these.
Oscillations come from the transistor: gain versus frequency isn’t linear, nor is impedance at transistor ports. We’ll often add negative feedback and such to stabilize an amplifier towards unconditional status. In my Tx circuit that oscillated, no feedback was applied. 
 In the case of an inductor wound on a FT37-43 or FT50-43, the Q is already low (say 8- 15 or so). Obviously a resistor in parallel with such a coil is not going to lower Q since Q is already quite low. That R will reduce the inductor impedance and thus may serve to decrease the low frequency gain of the RF amplifier to stop any low frequency oscillations. This might not work so well with a way-high fT transistor where decoupling might be hampered if UHF oscillations are singing. 
Doug DeMaw often referred to the parallel resistor as a Q-killer. If we examine the equations describing parallel, or series resonant circuits -- if the Q of a tank is high enough, we can practically ignore the effect of resistance at resonance. Conversely if we add a resistance and make it high enough, we might even obliterate the resonant frequency or “kill the Q”. Engineers have long placed an R into a parallel-tuned circuit to drop Q and stop oscillations — they refer to it as damping. 1 example might be in old TV sets where a variable resistance was added to peaking coils to prevent a tank from ringing at a frequency determined by the coil L and distributed C. This applies to higher Q inductors and not our FT37-43 inductor. 
Decoupling
Our teacher, Wes, teaches us in EMRFD that coupling often occurs along the DC power supply lines.  Further, he’s taught us to decouple AC by placing high impedance in this path.  Often the impedance is a low-pass filter with series element(s) of a high Z and shunt element(s) with a low Z.  The filter must present a simple short circuit (or perhaps just a resistance) at low frequency so DC flows to the amplifier.    
Final 
Oscillations should likely be identified and treated according their frequency. This topic looks advanced and all RLC networks deserve more attention from us.
Todd, VE7BPO --- Feb 27, 2013
 

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Monday, March 4, 2013

Three Great Videos from Alan W2AEW

Bill:

While not really homebrew, they do deal with QRP and RF.  The first two are walk-throughs of the schematics of two QRP transceivers, and the last is a discussion of how diodes can be used as RF switches.  I thought you'd find them interesting.

MFJ-9340 QRP Cub CW Transceiver kit schematic review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QSwXv2RJzw
 
Heathkit HW-9 schematic walk-through:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPM1vvGorTo

Using diodes as RF switches:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBNIq_d56sA

73,
Alan
Http://www.youtube.com/w2aew

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Saturday, March 2, 2013

QRO Problem, and THE KLUGER


Hi Bill,

I've been enjoying your podcasts for a couple of years now and have read both of your books. Please keep up the good work it is much appreciated. In fact, as I can now have both your books and your podcasts on my iPod they are quite literally held close to my heart.

Inspired by your "Kludge Controversy" - enclosed are a couple of photos that I took while on Mount Wellington in Tasmania.


THE POWER OF RADIO

Mount Wellington is a high mountain and is a good launch point for radio waves over the city of Hobart. The visitor lookout has this fantastic warning sign "Electronic disturbances to your vehicle" warning that the transmitter on the mountain can seriously interfere with your car and it may not start, the doors may not open, and the immobiliser may permanently immobilise it. The advice is "A metallic sunshade may reflect radio waves away from the vehicle" and allow you to start it. I'm sure your QRP rigs need no such dire warnings!



WHAT WERE THEY THINKING

And in the very same car park I see this car called a Kluger. In what flavour of English is that a good idea? I know the Brits and Yanks differ over a few phrases but I've never before come across an Oz word that means the exact opposite.

Thanks again for all your many inspiring "broadcasts", and may the Magic Smoke (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_smoke) always stay where it should!


Steven
G6VRD



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Thursday, February 28, 2013

73 -- The BEST Number

My kids watch this show.   This appears to be one of the only interesting comments to come from it:

"The best number is 73. Why? 73 is the 21st prime number. Its mirror (37) is the 12th and its mirror (21) is the product of multiplying, 7 and 3. ... In binary, 73 is a palindrome, 1001001 which backwards is 1001001."

-Dr. Sheldon Cooper, (Jim Parsons), "Big Bang Theory"

"Just to invite your attention to "73" in Morse code--also a palindrome."

-W9JEF


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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Kludge Controversy Continues


Forget about the sequester!  The real issue facing our country is the proper pronunciation of the word Kludge.   Several visitors to the SolderSmoke table at last weekend's Winterfest weighed in on this issue.   SolderSmoke Lexicographer Steve Silverman wrote to inform me that I had totally misinterpreted his e-mail -- he is in fact rather firmly in the Klooge as in Stooge camp.  I, however, am sticking to Kludge as in Fudge.  It just feels right.  And I may use the awesome power of the SolderSmoke media empire to actually CHANGE the way people pronounce this word.

Check out the California Kilowatt ad.  In retrospect, probably a poor choice of brand name.


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Sunday, February 17, 2013

SolderSmoke Podcast #149


Podcast #149 is now available:  http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke149.mp3

17 February 2012

IGY intro
Cappuccio turns off TV on New Year's Eve
Pre-inaugural day on the National Mall
The importance of audio bandwidth in DSB rigs
On 15 meters with the HT-37 and the Drake 2B
Q Killing and Swamping
Adding a Filter the Mighty Midget Receiver
Italian lessons via Echolink
Billy and the Raspberry Pi -- Three Cheers for Ada Fruit
Translate Button on the Blog page (upper right)
C.F Rockey SK
Mailbag: Kludge or Klooge?  



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Carl Sagan, Astronomy, and the Zen Pencil


We presented Carl Sagan's beautiful "Pale Blue Dot" quote back in September 2011, along with a nice video.    This week a friend in Kathmandu sent me a link to a web site called The Zen Pencil.   This fellow takes great quotes and draws cartoons to accompany them.   I liked his cartoon for The Pale Blue Dot:

http://zenpencils.com/comic/100-carl-sagan-pale-blue-dot/ 


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Saturday, February 9, 2013

SolderSmoke Blog in Gujarati, Arabic, Chinese (and many others)!

SolderSmoke الأخبار اليومية
خدمة المجتمع في جميع أنحاء العالم من الراديو الإلكترونية من يقومون بذلك. تقديم الدعم إلى بلوق بودكاست

Pretty cool, don't you think?    This morning I added a little Google Translate button to the SolderSmoke Daily News.  It is in the upper right.  This makes the blog available in many, many languages.  I made a quick check of the translation to Italian and Spanish -- not bad.  Not perfect, but not bad. 

Please spread the word, especially to Knack victims who may have been struggling with English.  (Use the little e-mail button at the bottom of this post.)

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Sunday, February 3, 2013

On 15 with HT-37 and Drake 2B

W7FE's Shack and Hex Beam

After I replaced the 6U8 first mixer tube on the trusty Drake 2-B I tuned around a bit on 15 meters.  IZ4NIC was loud, all the way from Bologna.  I gave him a call and we had a nice QSO in Italian.  then I talked to F4GBU.  I was using my 40 meter dipole, but I thought I might do better with my 17 meter dipole (it is higher up in the trees).  I called CQ 15 and got into a very nice QSO with Jim, W0JLG in Wichita.  Jim has a very impressive collection of Boatanchors.  We were soon joined by Stu, W7FE.  Stu was using a Central Electronics 100v from the early 1960s.  Wow, the three of us had a nice long contact. 

The QSO was a real trip down memory lane for me:  My sister Trish is visiting us.  We had been talking about how when we were kids she would come into the shack to watch me try to talk to people... with the very same HT-37 and Drake 2B.  I was 15 and she was 10.   That was 39 years ago!  Here we were again, sitting in front of the same old rig.   It was a lot of fun.

Stu has some great info on his very impressive radio shack.  You guys will really enjoy a visit to his QRZ.com site:  http://www.qrz.com/db/W7FE   

And check out his switching system for all those rigs: http://www.qsl.net/w7fe/ 

Wow,  his site makes me want o move out to the shed and put up a hex beam! 

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Saturday, February 2, 2013

Rich Arland's "Commo Bunker"

Well known QRP author Rich Arland has launched a new blog called "The Commo Bunker."   I'm pleased that one of his first articles deals with Boatanchor radios in general and the Drake 2B in particular.

Check out his blog: http://commobunker.blogspot.com/

Rich's article came at a good time for me, because today's task in the SolderSmoke HQ shack is fixing my suddenly deaf Drake 2B.  Without even taking it out of the case, I think I have most of the troubleshooting done:  signals make it through, but very weak.  And the S-meter is now resting far below zero.  The S meter is a bridge circuit that looks at current through the RF amp stage (V1) and the IF amp (V5).  So my guess is one of these tubes has gone soft.  This should be an easy fix.

I have a nostalgic reason for fixing this rig.  My sister is visiting us. When I was 15 and she was 10  she would sometimes sit with me in the shack as I used the HT-37 and the 2B.   Those same rigs are still with me and we hope to make a few contacts with them this weekend. 

UPDATE:   I fixed the 2B.   V2, the 6U8 used as first mixer and crystal oscillator had gone soft.  This may also explain difficulties I had in getting the rig to work with a crystal in the E band socket.


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