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Monday, September 28, 2026

SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Challenge: 139 Receivers Built

Dave M6XTY

As of September 28, 2026  1248Z

So far, total receivers built: 139 (131 plus 8 honorable mentions).  Total Count:  139.  Receivers built in 19 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  (Canada)  
KI5SRY         Mark -- Gears on PTO screw
 
KA1MUQ       Frying pan receiver
AA1N              Adam
ZL1AUN         Aaron -- Using SSB transmitter -- (New Zealand)
W8UC             Never before homebrewed. 
VK4PG           Phil -- Nice case, "really pleased"
G7LQX           Working well, video of CW and SSB.  -- (England)
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.   -- (Scotland) 
KF8BOG          Jim:  A long struggle, but success.  
Chris Wales    Fantastic video.  -- (Wales)
YD9BAX         Wayan! Homebrew transformer!  (Indonesia)
N0NQD         Jeff 
WN3F              Roy -- Made new stickers! 
AB5XQ            Bill  
KB7ZUT          Andy  
AA1OF            Jer

VictorKees        Holland (Netherlands) 
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 (Australia) 
LU2VJM          Juan in Argentina  -- (Argentina)
K1OA               Scott "Most fun in 50 years"
KC9DLM         Ben -- Had EFHW problems
PH2LB             Lex  Yellow, Glue Stick -- (Netherlands)

AI6WR             David
G6GEV            Dave (It was a blast!)  (England)  
KC1ONM        Wayne  MakerLabs NH
KB1OIQ          Andy    MakerLabs NH
KA1PQK         Jay       MakerLabs NH
W1TKO           Mike    MakerLabs NH
K5KHK            Karl
SM0TPW         Mikael  -- (Sweden)
KI7LKB           Brian (coat hanger tube)
M6CRD            Chris  (England) 

W2DAB           Dave in NYC
W4JYK            Wes of VWS
KA4CDN          Mike of VWS
M7EFO             Adrian 
VK5RC             Rob  (Australia) 
KD8KHP          Dave
VK1CHW         Chris (Australia) 
KA0PHJ           Brian
W0IT                Louis
W1PJE             Phil

W2AEW           Alan
KN6FVK          John (Barkhausen-Be-Gone Spray) 
VU2JXN           Ramakrishnan -- (India)
AA0MS            Doug 
9V1/KM7ABZ   Paul  --  (Singapore)
VK2BLQ          Stephen -- (Australia)
N3FJZ              Rick
Daniel               VE5DLD  -- (Canada)
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 (India)
W1DSP             Rick
WD4CFN         Steve

KM5Z             Mike
KF5DAN         Dan
Fritz                 Fritz
N9OK              Joe
WA5DSS         Bill 
K0GDB           Grant
G0JNR            Shane Glow-in-Dark Coil Form
KK7BCO        Tobias
K2BVR            Bob
Robert              Sutton

K5YFO           Dave (Texas) 
KD4PBJ          Chris
KN4GAH        Chris -- EE perspective
F1GMA           Philippe  -- (France)
W2TEF            Todd
EI9ITB            Karl  -- (Ireland)
VU2TUM         Puneit Singh (India) 
AA7EE             Dave Richards
KI5VIR            Jay
CT7AXD       Graham -- Promoted from Honorable Mention! (Portugal)

G3MOT           Josh (England)
KW4H             Steve
NJ7V                Charlie (RedSummit)
N2ETZ            Denny
AB9LM           James
W9XT              Gary
G0PJT             Alex
KF8FZZ         Tyler
N7HPR           Steve (Instructor) (N7HPR Group)
Clark               (N7HPR Group)

KQ4ZHO        Kurt (N7HPR Group)
KQ4OBR        Brian (N7HPR Group)
KR4CUF         Justin (N7HPR Group)
Amanda          (N7HPR Group)
David               (N7HPR Group)
KM4AED       Jamey (N7HPR Group)
KN4MVH      Larry (N7HPR Group)
N5GVW          Dick (N7HPR Group)
W7KAL          Kal
KC9LFP         Joe

SP9DEL         Marian (Poland) 
LB8VA           Ivar (Norway)  
AA7FO          Chuck Adams! 
WE6Z            Doug
N7MN            Jason
VA2GJ           Gerald in Quebec
N6HA             Bill 
Andri             Bandung, West Java, (Indonesia)
K6AUS          Scott
Brett K          Tasmania (Australia) 

Dave             M6XTY 
 
-------------------------
Honorable Mentions: 

*AA7U            Steve No PTO
*VK7IAN        Ian -- No Manhattan boards -- (Tasmania)
*KC1FSZ        Bruce's build on a PC board
* DL1AJG      Andreas -- (Germany)
* Matthew      Student of DL1AJG
* Arash           Student of DL1AJG 
*KA4KXX     Walter -- FB 20 Meter version
*M9KCA-ST2NH  Nader - LM386 in place of AF amp

5 comments:

  1. Greetings Bill and Dean

    Congratulations -- on marking this achievement
    Best to you !
    SSR Crew: Lid and M.J. (plus cats)
    ________________________________
    So Simple Radio -- component_level_analog_hobby_radio_design_and_testing
    * free Elmering by email worldwide
    * free Parts to Canadian builders with SASE
    https://catsuperhet.blogspot.com/
    https://www.youtube.com/@SoSimpleRadio

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Is that you Vasily? I hope it is you! 73 Bill N2CQR

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  2. Hi again Bill !

    Well, old Vasily “retired” with the old website and then after that, the blog that ran for nearly 10 years starting in 2015. In Jan 2025, I started a new video channel from scratch along with a small support blog. Then, a few months later my wife M.J. fully retired and wanted to partner in a new endeavour --- so we morphed that channel into So Simple Radio. We work at it slowly -- and just enjoy this small project and the interesting emails we get.

    M.J. does some video filming and production, emailing and definitely is the brains of the outfit. You will hear her in our next video – but we’re in no hurry to make one. We’re busy learning, designing + soldering -- and also learning some new surface mount techniques from nanofix on YouTube. We are currently making a new soldering station with better technique for our bench adventures. It feels both humbling & great to do this – and it opens the doors for new exciting and very small SMT parts.

    Further, we are dedicated to low voltage designs – mostly 5 volts -- but now were also learning how to manage signals at 3.3 VDC. A good challenge for us.

    Why Lid --

    This came from an emailer – Chen Wei from Singapore.

    I wrote him that as I age and gain wisdom – what I’ve really learned is how little I know about electronics -- and that I’m quite inept as a modern radio operator -- with for example, the machine-to-machine modes like FT8. He remarked – well, then you are a lid.

    It stuck -- Lid is my handle on SSR. It helps me cultivate humility and hopefully helps to fight off cognitive cognitive biases such as Dunning–Kruger effect.

    Most of our small, but passionate reader group are not Hams. So we make both non-amateur and amateur content. Right now a DC receiver – next a VHF AM receiver – etc. People have also requested we build and analyse some circuits from EMRFD at low DC voltage – this sounds like a great challange to ponder.. .

    We don’t spend much time surfing the Internet – but, when we do come on, we’re excited to see that so many people have built your little direct conversion receiver. Great work Bill and Dean!

    Best!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I remember visiting a MacDonalds specifically to obtain a few of their excellent coil winding straws.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sadly , the straws are their best product.

      Delete