First Images from the Vera Rubin Observatory (in Chile) Were Posted Today

Click above for a MUCH better image

From the IEEE Spectrum article: 

Every night, the telescope will take a thousand images, one every 34 seconds. After three or four nights, it’ll have the entire southern sky covered, and then it’ll start all over again. After a decade, Rubin will have taken more than 2 million images, generated 500 petabytes of data, and visited every object it can see at least 825 times. In addition to identifying an estimated 6 million bodies in our solar system, 17 billion stars in our galaxy, and 20 billion galaxies in our universe, Rubin’s rapid cadence means that it will be able to delve into the time domain, tracking how the entire southern sky changes on an almost daily basis.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/vera-rubin-observatory-first-images

So cool.  Thanks to all those who reminded me that today was the day! 

My Eleven Contacts using the SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver -- It is NOT a toy!

I have made 11 contacts using the SolderSmoke Direct Conversion receiver.  Ten of the 11 were after June 3, 2025. This was in very casual operation, operating with less than 1 watt with a dipole antenna.

Alan W4AMV

1. The first of course was back in February 2023 with W4AMV.   On this one I was using a simple "10 Minute Transmitter" that I threw together thinking that I would use it to demonstrate the receiver to our high school students.  "Wait a minute," I thought.  I called CQ and W4AMV answered.  I was running about 100 mW. He too was using homebrew gear.  https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2023/02/first-qso-with-high-school-receiver-100.html

2, 3, 4.  On June 4, 2025 I again fired up the 10 minute transmitter.  My T/R scheme was VERY simple: I have an MFJ coax switch that I use to select the rigs that will connect to my various antennas.  On the antenna switch I selected my 40 meter dipole.  I ran two pieces of coax from two different positions on the MFJ switch.  One I marked RX, the other TX.  The transmitter and the receiver were working off 9 volt batteries. I quickly worked N2WJW. Gil in New Jersey.  But I noticed that the 10 Minute rig was drifting.  So I pulled out my trusty old Tuna Tin 2 transmitter and used it to heartlessly replace the 10 Minute Transmitter.  Now with SEVERAL HUNDRED milliwatts, I worked W2XS, John in New York on June 5, 2025.  Later that same day I worked N9FGC in Indiana.

 

K1OA's Rig

5. My most amazing contact came on June 7, 2025. Here is my log entry: 40CW K1OA First 2 way contact with station also using a SolderSmoke DC Receiver!At around 0630 EDT on June 7, 2025 I heard K1OA calling CQ on 7030 kHz CW. This was exactly where I had a crystal.  I called him, but he didn't hear me.  I sent him an e-mail.  We tried again -- he heard me calling him and I heard him responding by calling me, but I don't think we succeeded in exchanging signal reports. It was close, but no cigar.  I had to walk the dog. Scott and I agreed to meet on 7030 kHz at 0730 EDT.  Arggh.  There was a QSO there.  I thought we might have to try to change frequency, but this would have been tough because both of us were crystal controlled on transmit.   Fortunately, the contact on 7030 kHz wrapped up.   Scott called me, I responded, and we were able to exchange signal reports.  I was so excited that I almost forgot to hit the record button on my phone.   But I caught the last minute or so.This was really something.  This really goes to prove what Dean and I have been saying all along:  this receiver is not a toy!  It can be used for real ham radio contacts.  And now we have had these receivers on both ends of a contact.  For transmit, Scott was using a KA4KXX transmitter with about 3 watts output.  I was on my Tuna Tin 2 at about half a watt output.

Jim W1PID

6, 7, 8.  Later on June 7, 2025 I worked an old friend, Jim W1PID.  Jim is a friend of Homebrew Hero Mike AA1TJ, and was involved in Mike's effort to cross the Atlantic with a voice-powered rig.  Jim also was one of my contacts with the ET-2 QRPppp rig. I also worked WZ2J  Vin in NJ. I also worked John W2XS again. 

Mike WB8VGE

9.   June 11, 2025  (Really evening of 10 June 2025) Famous homebrewer, Anchorologist, Heatkit authority and fellow member of the QRP Hall of Fame Mike Bryce called me!  40CW 0034 WB8VGE Mike Bryce came back to my CQ! Mike wrote: Nothing like quartz locked frequency control!You know it sounded pretty damn good at 500mW. You were holding your own until QSB would take you out in a deep fade. But all in all, one hell of great QRP QSO.I was running my Ten Tec Scout that I had just put back together a couple of days ago.  Got around to putting the case back on it tonight, and had it cooking in the back ground just listening to the stations come and go. I had worked a few POTA stations near by and found a quite spot. I was working on a project when I heard your CQ through the din of the 40M band. Glad I took a break and worked your QRPp signalbest 73  QRP # 4816 You get a QSL for that QSO!

Here's my post about Mike, WB8VGE:  https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2018/09/wb8vge-on-qso-today-qrp-hb-boatanchors.html

10. Around June 11, 2025 I worked W4MY in a contest. 

11.   On June 12, 2925 I worked some DX with the rig.  It was VA3ICC, Ian in Ontario. 

Ian VA3ICC

All of this reinforces something that Dean KK4DAS and I have been saying all through this build process:  this little DC receiver is not a toy.  It can be used as a serious ham radio receiver and it can -- even when paired up with a very low-power crystal-controlled transmitter and a simple antenna -- make some great ham radio contacts. 

Mike KM5Z's SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

Congratulations to Mike KM5Z on the completion of his SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver. 

Welcome to the Hall of Fame. 

Mike writes: 

First time with 'Manhattan' style construction, although it worked perfectly and was very easy. In this video I just did a scan from about 7.100 to 7.210 MHz. As you can see, I took advantage of another ham's 3D prints.
After all, if an idea is worth doing, then... it's worth overdoing.I used a Milwaukee 1/4" Diamond Max hole saw to cut circles for the solder-points. Everything else is ground. Later, I found that I missed a point, so I used a single "MePAD" glued in that spot.I found the default audio amp to be a bit quiet. I plan to replace it with the 'push-pull' version.  I'm definitely keeping this to hang up on the wall.

More on Agent Sonya

I had completely forgotten that my blog had at least two posts on Agent Sonya way back in 2009.  I know there is a lot of interest in her alleged radio derring-do. 

Here are the two blog posts from 2009: 

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2009/08/sonya-had-knack.html

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2009/09/sonyas-rig.html

And here is my 2025 post on Sonya: 

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2025/04/agent-sonya-did-soviet-spies-really.html

One friend recently mentioned that we have not seen any museum evidence of these kinds of homebrew spy rigs.  If this really was a widespread practice, you would expect to find at least ONE of these rigs in a museum somewhere.   Has anyone seen this kind of thing?  

Here is something more recent about Sonya from the National WWII Museum in New Orleans: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU9-APiIUaQ

The Macintyre interview is really interesting.  A friend told me that he is a very serious writer on the topic of espionage, whose assertions have to be taken seriously.  For our purproses, here are some highllights:

22:18   Sonya goes through Soviet Spy School and is trained on how to build radios.

24:50   In China under Japanese occupation, had bamboo poles supporting antenna over her house! 

25:40  Transferred to Switzerland, "built another radio."

34:18   Transferred to UK, built a "powerful radio transmitter in her loo." 

51:41    Macintyre refers to Sonya as "the only Soviet radio operator in Switzerland." 

So, I still don't know about the claim that Sonya was homebrewing radios.  It does appear that Sonya was building them.  But it also seems like she was more of a radio operator than she was a spy...  Perhaps the Soviets didn't see the same distinction that we do.    Still, it would be nice to find in a museum somewhere at least one example of Sonya-style homebrew radio. 

Macintyre says that "all biography is burglary."  What would autobiography be? 

Hall of Fame Update: 81 Completed SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receivers, with 7 Honorable Mentions. More receivers are being built. As of June 21, 2025 1126Z

Please let us know if you spot any errors, or if we have inadvertently missed anyone.  Don't worry about being late to the game -- the challenge continues.  All of the info is still available (see below). 

As of June 21, 2025  1126Z:

So far 81 completed receivers, with 7 honorable mentions.  Receivers built in 15 countries.   

NE3U (KY4EOD)  Matt 

KQ4AOP       First ham signals ever heard! 

N9TD             Derek

AC3NG          Ryan

VK3TPM       Peter Marks  

W4KAC         Ken 

W4KAC         Ken built a second one! 

N2EPE           Erik

VA3NCA        Wayde    

KI5SRY          Mark -- Gears on PTO screw

 

KA1MUQ       Frying pan receiver

AA1N              Adam

ZL1AUN         Aaron -- Using SSB transmitter

W8UC             Never before homebrewed. 

VK4PG           Phil -- Nice case, "really pleased"

G7LQX           Working well, video of CW and SSB. 

KE2AMP        John     Spring on PTO screw -- great

N9SZ              Steve  nice receiver

KD9NHZ        Piotr  Nice one

KE8ICE          Calvin, Very cool receiver. 

 

WV3V              Jayson!  Got it done!

GM5JDG         Martin.    

KF8BOG          Jim:  A long struggle, but success.  

Chris Wales    Fantastic video.  

YD9BAX        Wayan! Homebrew transformer! 

N0NQD        Jeff 

WN3F              Roy -- Made new stickers! 

AB5XQ            Bill  

KB7ZUT          Andy  

AA1OF            Jer

VictorKees        Holland

KC9OJV           John -- Manhattan-style convert

WZ5M              1, 2 or maybe even 3 receivers!

K1KJW             Jim in Vermont

KC5DI              Dallas -- friend of WZ5M

Gary                 Australian -- Wooden PTO form

LU2VJM          Juan in Argentina

K1OA               Scott "Most fun in 50 years"

KC9DLM         Ben -- Had EFHW problems

PH2LB             Lex  Yellow, Glue Stick

AI6WR             David

G6GEV            Dave (It was a blast!) 

KC1ONM        Wayne  MakerLabs NH

KB1OIQ          Andy    MakerLabs NH

KA1PQK         Jay       MakerLabs NH

W1TKO           Mike    MakerLabs NH

K5KHK            Karl

SM0TPW         Mikael

KI7LKB           Brian (coat hanger tube)

M6CRD            Chris

W2DAB           Dave in NYC

W4JYK            Wes of VWS

KA4CDN          Mike of VWS

M7EFO             Adrian 

VK5RC             Rob

KD8KHP          Dave

VK1CHW         Chris

KA0PHJ           Brian

W0IT                Louis

W1PJE             Phil

W2AEW           Alan

KN6FVK          John (Barkhausen-Be-Gone Spray) 

VU2JXN           Ramakrishnan

AA0MS            Doug 

9V1/KM7ABZ   Paul in Singapore

VK2BLQ          Stephen

N3FJZ              Rick

Daniel               VE5DLD

Student 1          Student of VE5DLD

Student 2          Student of VE5DLD

Student 3         Student of VE5DLD

K7WXW          Bill 

NK3H               Mitch

KN4ZXG         Ted

WA1MAC        Paul

N4AVC             Chuck 

K3IY                 Kevin

N6ASD             Ashish in Bangalore

W1DSP             Rick

WD4CFN         Steve

KM5Z              Mike

-------------------------

Honorable Mentions: 

*AA7U            Steve No PTO

*VK7IAN        Ian -- No Manhattan boards 

*KC1FSZ        Bruce's build on a PC board

*CT7AXD       Graham -- different AF amp

* DL1AJG      Andreas 

* Matthew      Student of DL1AJG

* Arash           Student of DL1AJG 

-----------------------------------------

Candidates for the Hall of Fame: 

SA5RJS              Rasmus

KA9TII               James

AA7FO              Chuck 

VA3ZOT           Tony  Surface Mount -- Honorable Mention? 

AB2XT             John (Done, just need the video)

KO7M              Jeff (Piper Cub)

KD4PBJ           Chris

VU2TUM         Puneit Singh

For more information on how you too can build the receiver: 

Join the discussion - SolderSmoke Discord Server:

https://discord.gg/Fu6B7yGxx2

 

Documentation on Hackaday:

https://hackaday.io/project/190327-high-schoolers-build-a-radio-receiver

 

SolderSmoke YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@soldersmoke

Steve WD4CFN's FB Mid-Tennessee SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

 

Steve WD4CFN has built a FB SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver.  CW reception video appears above. 

From his QRZ page:  "I also enjoy QRP.  A group of us have started a local QRP club this year, MidTN QRP Group. (https://groups.io/g/MidTNQRP). "

Steve writes:  

I finished my SS DCR tonight and connected an antenna. Lots of summer QRN, but also lots of signals. Thank you and Dean for all the work you guys put into this project.  It is so well done and documented.  The whole project has been a great learning experience, especially the mixer part.  I haven't built a diode ring mixer before, just used the SA602/SA612 type mixer.  Testing the mixer pushed me to better understand how to use the FFT function of my scope to make sure the mixer was working correctly.  This was a great project! Thanks to all.

Here is Steve's receiver inhaling SSB:

Congratulations Steve. Welcome to the Hall of Fame.

Radio Astronomy RFI from Starlink

https://futurism.com/spacex-starlink-satellites-radio-signal-emissions

A Nice Quick HW-101 Restoration Video

 This video is almost enough to get me to work on my old HW-101. 

Pete N6QW has been working on an HW-32A monobander. Some of the info in this video might be applicable. 

Car Talk

The video above is really a lot of fun. 

We are approaching the 20th anniversary of the SolderSmoke Podcast.  Our first upload was August 21, 2005.   This has caused me to reflect a bit on those who are responsible for making our podcast what it is.  So, these guys are definitely among the responsible. 

Wow, MIT grads.  Is Phil W1PJE listening?  

 Dewey, Cheatham & Howe!  Right in the window! 

How computers in cars have killed the joy.  "There is just not a lot to be in love with anymore." 

"The show sounds like the kind of thing you'd hear on a high school PA system."  Indeed. 

Other influences:  Jean Shepherd. HCJB.  Radio Moscow.  More to follow.

Here is their 1999 MIT Commencement Speech:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWG1Yxoa_Os

Britain's Secret Listeners

Today Hack-A-Day has an unsually good report on Britain's Voluntary Interceptors. I was especially touched by the story of the guy who provided reports while still bedridden from devastating wounds received in World War I. 

https://hackaday.com/2025/06/12/crowdsourcing-sigint-ham-radio-at-war/#more-786810

I've had the video on the SolderSmoke blog several times.  It is so good that it warrants inclusion yet again: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwbzV2Jx5Qo&t=228s

That regen looks a lot like the one I bought at the Kempton Park rally (London) so long ago.  I still have it.  And those headphones found in the old "radar" station look a lot like some that I have in my shack today.   And of course there is that HRO dial.  I build a whole receiver around that gem from Armand WA1UQO.  

I thought the comments on the ability to detect the nationality of the enemy operator from his Morse Code "fist" (sending style) was very interesting.  

Three cheers for the Voluntary Interceptors!  

Rick W1DSP's FB SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver -- Exploring the Rabbit Holes

Thanks to Rick W1DSP for sending us his "proof of life" video.  It is indeed alive!  Congratulations Rick!  Welcome to the Hall of Fame!

Rick writes: 

Here's another SS DCR proof of life video. I took a bunch of detours on the way to get here - redesigned the coil former to add a fixed coil (learned openscad), spent a bunch of times on the DCR classics (KK7B, W7EL designs), acquired parts to build the original KK7B DCR, and so on. This is the sort of project that's a perfect excuse to explore all the sorts of rabbit holes we hope to find along the way to completing a project. Thanks for a great project. I'd just like to add that you're building a great community of experimenters. Most excellent, sir! Thanks to Bill & Dean!

Phil W1PJE, Director of MIT's Haystack Observatory, visits SolderSmoke East, Talks Radio with N2CQR and KK4DAS

We were very pleased that Phil W1PJE was able to visit yesterday. Phil is the Director of MIT's Haystack Observatory. He is very knowledgeable on topics related to space and space technology. He is also a member of the SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver Hall of Fame. We talked about the history of the Haystack Observatory, famous antennas (dishes), and about the SolderSmoke Direct Conversion receiver project. It was a lot of fun talking to Phil. We managed to shoot this video with him. Thanks Phil and thanks Dean.