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Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Born to Solder: Harv's Knack Story


From Harv, WA3EIB:

I'm an avid follower of Soldersmoke and builder of sorts.  I began as a ham operator in 1965.
My parents claim I was born with my hands wrapped around a soldering iron.
 
As you may have noticed, the Michigan Mighty Mite has become a popular rage thanks to Bill and Pete and the Soldersmoke gang. They have encouraged a great number of individuals to study, build and learn. The basics of a simple one transistor transmitter can be a key element to creating, inventing and pushing the brain to greater understanding.
 
When I was first licensed I was encouraged by a fellow ham. This wise man, was way more senior than myself and out of kindness, he sat me down in front of his workbench and grilled me on the key components and reasons for adding a Low Pass Filter in radio transmission. Following the lecture, he pulled the parts for the filter from his cabinet and said, "Now build it!"
 
Fifty years later, that same nurturing education is still with me and our hobby. When I was in New England in the 1970's & 80s, I became friends with Ted Gent, G3ODG. He was a good friend and a real inspiration to art of build. We have long since lost contact with each other however, Ted helped me along as I ventured into solid-state homebrew receivers. 
 
I have enclosed a  photo of a similar one valve oscillator that I built when I was 15. So much thrill is derived when your hands construct a useful element of your radio shack.
 
 
73's

Keep building, keep enjoying!
 
Harv -=WA3EIB=-
Idaho Falls, Idaho  USA


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

Monday, April 27, 2015

Greg W's Australia-Finland Mighty Mite (VIDEO)




Greg is a VK6 Australian ham living permanently in Finland.   He has been a SolderSmoke listener for many years.  Greg sent a nice picture and a video of his VK-OH Mighty Mite.   FB Greg!


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

SDR Dongle Modified for HF. Watch it work on 40 meters (VIDEO)



With SPRAT 162 by my side, armed with an FT37-43 trifilar wound transformer, I popped open the RTL-SDR dongle.  I had hopes of being able to solder two tiny wires to the unused input pins (3 and 4) but I quickly realized that I was NOT going to be able to do that -- they are far too small for me to work on.  So I did what Ken Marshall G4IIB did:  I took out the SMT caps going to pins 1 and 2 and soldered two small wires there.  This will limit this dongle to HF only -- if I want VHF/UHF I'll just spend another $13 dollars!  You can see the results in the video above.

 
I used the yellow stuff to hold the wires in place.  It was later removed.

Tony Fishpool did a neater job.  See his work here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1987387/Even_more_on_using_the_RTL2832U_Dongle.pdf


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

Sunday, April 26, 2015

"Basta Blues" with Pete Juliano on the Guitar



What makes this short video special is the fact that the music was all completely designed (composed) and homebrewed (played) by Pete himself.

From Pete:

In Italian when one has finally had enough --the Hue and Cry is BASTA! I have been having some Basta Moments in trying to make Arduino 1.6.3 work with sketches developed in Version 1.0.5.

So for some comic relief I decided to program a 240X320 Color TFT with a random pattern generator using the word Basta! Of course is was done in Arduino 1.0.5!
Pete N6QW


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

Saturday, April 25, 2015

"Dongle" USB SDR Receiver $13 (VIDEO)



I was recently commenting to Pete that I could use some gear that would give me a better means of checking the bandwidth of my transmissions.  Pete.  pointed to the latest issue of our much-loved SPAT magazine.  Indeed on SPRAT 165 (Spring 2015) there is an article by Ken Marshall G4IIB on how  use the RTL2832u R820T DVB-T "dongle" (USB stick) as an SDR receiver.  I sent 13 dollars to Amazon.  The device arrived yesterday.   I followed Ken's instructions and soon I had the little device inhaling on 12 meters.  It is really amazing.  Lots of technology in a little box the size of your thumb!  I use it with the free HDSDR software and have been listening to 12 and 10 CW and SSB.  See the video above.  Tomorrow I will attempt Ken's mod that will open up the other HF bands.  Then I will be able to put to use a second SPRAT article about this device :  Also in SPRAT 165 Tony Fishpool  G4WIF  describes how to use this device as a rudimentary indicating instrument for bandwidth measurements. 

Great stuff.  Get yourself one of these devices.  You will in effect be getting an all-band all-mode computer controlled receiver for $13 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D3GRU24/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks Ken, thanks Tony.


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

Thursday, April 23, 2015

SolderSmoke, ArduinWoes, and BrainwagonBastas!


It might not be apparent, but I have it on good authority the guy with the blue face pulling the Brainwagon was saying "BASTA!" when this drawing was made,  probably after an evening spent with Arduinos and their fascinating I2C libraries. 

Mark, K6HX, kindly offered to help us with our ArduinWoes (painful details are available in SolderSmoke Podcast #175).   Mark went to the trouble of getting the display and I2C backpack that have been giving us trouble, and then went and did a lot of testing to find the origins of the problems.   He has written this all up in two brilliant blog posts: 

http://brainwagon.org/2015/04/21/a-not-entirely-simple-lcd-display-for-the-arduino/

http://brainwagon.org/2015/04/22/using-a-sainsmart-lcd-panel-with-the-arduino-1-6-3-ide/

You will notice that Mark has made quite liberal use of the word "basta."   As Pete has noted, in order to get the full effect of this very therapeutic Italian word, you have to make use of the correct hand gesture.  Veronika nails it at about 1:28 in this video  (WARNING: VERONIKA CAN BE QUITE EXPLICIT):



Thanks Mark for all your help on this.  I'm not sure if we are entirely out of the woods yet, but it is reassuring that we are not the only ones screaming...
 


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, April 22, 2015

Harv's Idaho Mighty Mite


Greetings Bill, Pete,
While between tasks, I put a little work in on the LPF for the Michigan Mighty Mite.
I will soon be ready to light this thing up. I fit everything on a copper board 3.5 X 5.
I even put some non-skid rubber feet and fashioned the tank circuit for 40 Meters.
The Color Burst frequency was a bit too low for a practical antenna on this small city lot so, I did the next best thing.
It's like reliving those teen years, routing through boxes of misc parts and soldering them in place one at a time.
The thrill involved kind of brings those days back to future.

I wanting to construct a regen-receiver but, the pile in front of the solder station is urging me to continue on with the Minima.

I love the variety of Mighty Mites that have been built thus far. Each one is like a painting where the artist has left their signature on their work.

Keep building, Keep having fun and Keep learning. 

73's

Harv -=WA3EIB=-
Eastern Idaho


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
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