It is a thing of beauty. We were really pleased to see our old friend Walter KA4KXX take on the SolderSmoke challenge, and we weren't a bit surprised to see him do so using some real twists in the design. You see, Walter is a very experienced homebrewer. He has built many, many rigs over the years. Just check out his QRZ page and you will see what I mean:
Walter supported our original high school effort by offering the students a $500 prize for any student who used our receiver (and a similar transmitter) to check in to the 40 meter Sunrise Net. Sadly, there were no takers. But we really appreciated the attempt.
We have listed Walter's receiver in the Honorable Mention category, only because his build is so innovative: 20 meters instead of 40. An IC in the audio amplifier. There were differences, but even a quick look at the above picture above shows that Walter's receiver is very much a SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver.
Here are some additional photos from Walter.
Congratulations Walter. Welcome to the Hall of Fame!
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From Walter's QRZ page