Tuesday, April 7, 2020

ZL2CTM Charlie Morris on "QSO Today" with Eric Guth 4Z1UG



Eric Guth 4Z1UG had a really nice interview with our friend Charlie Morris ZL2CTM.  Charlie shared with Eric a lot of wisdom about how to homebrew radio gear.  I especially liked Charlie's comments on keeping most of his rigs on the wooden prototype boards.  He said something important when he talked about the benefits of taking a break from a difficult problem, then coming back to it with a rested and refreshed mind. I noted, however,  that he said most of these frustrating problems have to do with software.  

 I got got several chuckles out of Charlie's comments on the difficulty of building stable analog LC VFOs (here he seemed to be channeling our good friend Pete Juliano).  I chuckled because as I listened I was happily building the analog LC VFO for my Q-31 Quarantine receiver.  The centerpiece of this project is a variable capacitor that Pete gave me;   Pete took it out of an old  Galaxy V transceiver.   Believe me guys, no rotary encoder could possibly look as nice or have as much soul as that capacitor from Pete, with all its gears, reduction drives, and anti-backlash mechanisms.  It even smells of machine oil.  Call me a Luddite, but I will stick with the coils and capacitors.  

 Listen to the interview here: 

https://www.qsotoday.com/podcasts/zl2ctm

 Thanks to Charlie and Eric. 
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5 comments:

  1. Charlie Morris, ZL2CTMApril 7, 2020 at 2:05 PM

    Bill. You will be pleased to hear that my next build will be a analogue one; VFO and all. I have a couple of nice reduction drives from some old HF radios that I have been wanting to use. Do you prefer Harley over Colpitts for the VFO?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bill MearaApril 7, 2020 at 4:37 PM

    Excellent Chatlie. Glad to hear that you are stepping back from the dark side. I've had good luck with the Hartley oscillator that Wes has in SSDRA. I have it in in one of my most recent podcasts. For a great tutorial on analog VFOs (with a focus on Colpitts, but mush is applicable to Hartleys) see https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2017/04/vfo-tribal-design-wisdom-from-joseph.html
    73 Bill

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  3. Bill MearaApril 7, 2020 at 4:39 PM

    Charlie: Wes's Hartley circuit is shown in this blog post:
    https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2020/04/quarantine-project-am-receiver-for-39.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Charlie Morris, ZL2CTMApril 7, 2020 at 9:21 PM

    Thank Bill. I did see that a day or so ago. Cheers.

    73s
    Charlie ZL2CTM

    ReplyDelete
  5. W3JDRApril 8, 2020 at 9:48 AM

    Hey Bill & Gang!

    My Quarantine project can be seen at
    www.w3jdr.com

    Check it out and leave a comment.

    Joe
    W3JDR

    ReplyDelete