How to Homebrew your own Transistors

No store-bought transistors for these guys -- they homebrew their own point contact transistors using a bit of Germanium from a diode.  This makes me feel like such an appliance operator.   

This video is in Polish, but The Knack is a universal language, and this guy obviously speaks it.  Turn on captions, then opt for auto-translate to English.  You will then get English subtitles and Bob will be your uncle.  

I really liked this one.  This fellow has obviously DONE this;  his video is filled with both practical tips and theoretical explanations.   He talks about the virtues of beeswax, and about how to borrow red nail polish to mark the collector lead.  FB. 

Here's the channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@Marcin_Marciniak

In their next episode they promise to build a radio receiver using the homebrew transistors.  That'll be great. 

Thanks to Marcin and company, and to Jenny List of Hack-A-Day who alerted us to this. 

Marcin is a ham  -- SP5XMI:  https://trafficlist.altervista.org/radio-officer-friend/marcin-marciniak/

But who is the fellow who built the homebrew transistor? 

Mr. Carlson Makes a Thermatron Power Supply for a BC-348

When I was 14, I had to make a power supply for a Heath HW-32A.   Mine ended up working, but it was nowhere near as nice as Mr. Carlson's BC-348 supply (shown in the video above).  I didn't have a sand blaster, nor a drill press, nor much of anything else, really.  

But hey, don't real boatanchor hams use Greenlee chassis punches?  What's with the drill press and the hole saws? 

Note that Mr. C takes care to make sure that the rectifier tube is in the proper angle FOR OPTIMAL VIEWING.  That's some serious attention to detail OM.  And whoa, DELICATE SURFACE MASKING TAPE from 3M?  Respect!  Also, era-specific looming material. 

His point about the importance of the cardboard washers in the power transformer was really useful.  I hadn't thought about that. 

Here are the two previous BC-348 videos: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX87kwSshZ8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zqe6CBe0iGs

Thanks Paul! 

SolderSmoke Quiz Question: Who is the actor in this Bell Labs video?

He appears at 8 minutes, 17 seconds.  And he is somehow in the YouTube title frame.  I think I know who it is.  Any ideas?  (DON'T LOOK AT THE COMMENTS!) 

 

"Matter Waves" -- A 1961 Bell Labs Film

I continue to mine the AT&T video archive.  Here's a really wonderful 1961 film showing how particles really are waves also.   The simplicity of the gear that the Bell Labs folks used to demonstrate this is really admirable.  I would love to see the preceding film (the one that shows how light waves are really also particles). 

Arthur C. Clarke Talks about Satellites, SETI, Remote Work, and Wrist Radios (1976 Video)

He was, of course, right about the impact of satellites, but he was the inventor of the geo-stationary concept.  I wonder how he would react to the low-earth orbit Starlink system we are now using. 

He coments about how contact with extraterrestrial civilizations could come at any time, but notes that false alarms are common -- this made me think of recent explanations of the famous "Wow!" signal. 

His "Communicate don't Commute" idea seems to foreshadow the "remote work" via  Zoom that kicked in during the pandemic.  

And he talks about Dick Tracy-like wrist radios.  I sort of have one now (thanks to Elisa), in the form of my Apple Watch.  But it may be that putting a camera in there would be a bit too much... 

"The Far Sound" -- Bell System Video from 1961 -- Good Radio History (video)

This is a really OLD video, but there is a lot of great material here: 

-- Tubes.  (Valves or Thermatrons)

-- Coax.  

-- Frequency Division Multiplexing. 

-- Negative Feedback and the fight against distortion. 

-- Transistors and early experiments with semiconductors.

-- Fiber optics and Masers.

-- Satellite communications.

-- Early hopes for video communications.

The video is, by today's standards, extremely misogynist.  And the sound experiment with the poor woman wearing a male head was just weird.   But still, an interesting film. 

Thanks to Mark KM4GML for reminding us of this wonderful Bell Labs (AT&T) video archive. 

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

 

Harry Caul had THE KNACK -- Movie Review -- "The Conversation" --1974 by Francis Ford Coppola (Harry Caul based on W3VCG)

 

I give it FIVE Soldering Irons! 

I found it on Amazon Prime.  The workshop scenes remind me of ham workshops.  The movie character Harry Caul was based on real-life Marty Kaiser.  Was Marty a ham? 

POSTSCRIPT (August 23, 2024):  Yes, he is a ham!   W3VCG!   FB.  Here is his web site: 

http://www.martykaiser.com/fbi1~1.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conversation

http://www.martykaiser.com/odyssey2.htm

Thanks to Roy WN3F for reminding me to watch this film.  Roy found a clip that is reminiscent of hamfests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joM5VDCIQg8

How Big is a Photon? (Video)

As I have mentioned in the podcast and in blog posts, I have a lot of trouble picturing HOW 20 meter photons somehow fly off my antenna.   I understand how EM WAVES are generated.  But there doesn't seem to be any corresponding explanation for how the photons are generated.  

This video looks at a related question:   How BIG are the photons of visible light?   I am not sure this is all correct (and neither, apparently, is the creator of this video) but it is very interesting.  

Comments are welcome.  

The Tropics Defined: Sun Directly Overhead on July 31 in Punta Cana DR

July 31, 2024  12:30 Local Time

Check out the shadow at my feet.  The sun is directly overhead.  This happens here on July 31, shortly after noon.  We define "the tropics" as the area of the earth at which -- as some point in the year -- the sun will be directly overhead.   Here we are at about 18 degrees North latitude, so for us, the overhead date is July 31.  We are definitely in the tropics.  A good graphical description of what is happening appears here: 

https://www.suncalc.org/#/18.5548,-68.3853,12/2024.07.31/12:37/1/3