SolderSmoke Daily News -- Ham Radio Blog

Trevor Woods also sent us this report from Arnie Coro.  It is not clear to me what difference (if any) there is between the Super Islander M...

The saturable magnetic frequency septupler. The tiny computer memory core is submerged in olive oil (Italian...naturalmente). Not ...

Eric 4Z1UG has a really great interview with Michael AA1TJ: http://www.qsotoday.com/podcasts/aa1tj I listened to it as I aligne...

Michael writes: Dear Friends, The UJT transmitter circuit was improved considerably today. The power output has increased to 1.48mW and ...

From a Facebook Post by Mike, AA1TJ: Made 7 contacts with this tiny transceiver on 20m CW today with an RF output power of 10milliWat...

Take a look at Michael's Razor Rig, made from parts salvaged from his electric razor.   I was thinking that perhaps on the receive side ...

  From Mike, AA1TJ: I called CQ on 20m CW for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon with no response. With the cadence of my own Morse...

Wow, Vanguard even looks like a QRPp satellite.  I suspected that something was up:  I noticed that Mike Rainey, AA1TJ has recently be...

In SolderSmoke 147 I mentioned that I had found some old pictures of AA1TJ's underground hamshack and workshop.  People wrote in asking...

Poster by Steve "Snort Rosin" Smith 3 October from AA1TJ: Here's an admittedly late reminder that the Sputnik Party beg...

Here is a recent e-mail exchange between Michael, AA1TJ, and Dale, W4OP.  (Dale happens to be the fellow who built the W1FB Barebones Supe...

  I'm kind of behind on podcast production, but once again I have a good excuse:  I've been melting solder.   I decided to finall...

JBOD! FB! Hi folks, I'd like to share with you a long-cherished dream, that recently came true, forty years after I came to read about h...

Wow, what a beautiful piece of work! And a fascinating story behind it, with hints of wartime romance... Thanks to Mike AA1TJ whose very ec...

A few listeners sent this in. Thanks! Note the mention of AA1TJ's CFL light bulb rig! http://www.edn.com/article/519742-Ham_radio_in_t...

Today is Sputnik Anniversary Day! Michael, AA1TJ, and his intrepid international band of solder melters will be putting their homebrew Sovi...

Oh man, this is some fascinating stuff: old light bulbs found to be oscillating at VHF! Wayne, VA7AT, stumbled upon this phenomenon at age...

The Chief Designer, Michael, AA1TJ, alerted us to this wonderful post on Roger, G3XBM's blog: http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2011/09/sput...

Kettering Group, UK From the Chief Designer (AA1TJ): Fellas, I came across an online blurb for the recent book, Sputnik: The Shock of the Ce...

I like the reminder of Sputnik's IGY connection. This is from an article by John Foley. W7ETS, in the October 2007 issue of QST. Be s...