What Homebrew Looks Like (And W9BRD comment on the High School receiver project)

Clikc on the picture for a clearer view of this fantastic image

Dave Newkirk is the son of Rod Newkirk, the guy who wrote the inspirational "How's DX?" column for QST for so many years.  Dave is obviously a very prolific and proficient homebrewer himself.  I really appreciate his comment on the High School receiver project.  Thanks Dave. 

Dave wrote on QRZ.com: 

Rummaging around the net for such phrases as "TJ receiver" or variations that include AA1TJ and receiver returns no solid hits, but by following clues I found a/the article with schematic at https://hackaday.io/project/190327-high-schoolers-build-a-radio-receiver. That's a well-thought-out design that'll provide fun, fun, fun.

I think I have something like 8 homemade receivers available at the moment at W9BRD, tube-based and solid-state, regenerative and superhet. all told covering 160 through 17 meters (if I include my tube-based and solid-state converters), and about the same number of homemade transmitters. With some exceptions for particular on-air celebrations and events, commonly my entire station lineup is homemade from stem to stern, so to speak.

I've been building radio gear since 1968. Here's some recent fun:

Zed thread covering the development of a converter-plus-regenerative-tuner combo that I came to call the "Super 3-in-9":

https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?th...ceiver-using-one-9-pin-miniature-tube.897249/

Zed thread covering construction of my version of a coffee-can-based receiver/converter combo my father used for 15ish years as his main station receiver after beginning its construction in 1951ish "on a kitchen table in Hartford" while working at ARRL HQ:

https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?th...building-a-160-meter-coffee-can-regen.938709/

To which discussion our own @N2EY kindly posted the mid-1960s "How's DX?" lead in which Dad laid out his station design/configuration/construction philosophy ( https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?th...0-meter-coffee-can-regen.938709/#post-7021505 ).

To us, commercial/mil/pro gear has been and always will be various shades of inspiring to fabulous, but only with homemade gear are we home.

A little Night Radio Romance at W9BRD, featuring the BRD-160CC 160-m regenerative receiver and converter (transmitter and antenna tuner not shown).