Chuck Adams' Modification of the MXM Simple Transceiver -- An Early QSO with the MXM Thirty Years Ago

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Esteemed Homebrew Hero Chuck Adams AA7FO saw me struggling with the T/R switch on my hamfest-found MXM SupeRX/TX transceiver. Chuck kindly sent me a modification of the circuit that allowed for automatic T/R.  I see it also envisioned the use of a VFO.  We are not sure if this version of the MXM transceiver ever made it to market, but it certainly would -- in any case -- be of interest to homebrewers.  

Chuck wrote: 

Attached is a schematic I drew for Bruce almost 30 years ago with a program that I wrote.  This is for the Simple Transceiver where Bruce and I worked out the solid state switch to replace the slide switches you have to use to switch between receive and transmit.

BTW.  MXM stand for 1990, the year Bruce started his kit adventures.  I worked Bruce on the first beta build of the transceiver Denton TX to Smithville TX on 40m during the day.

Thanks a lot Chuck.  

So Many Wonderful Things on W7ZOI's Site

 

There he is.  Wes Hayward, W7ZOI in 1957.  I had never seen this picture before.  I found it on Wes's recently updated "shackviews" web page: http://w7zoi.net/shackviews.html . 

There are so  many treasures on that page, and on all the other portions of Wes's site.

Some highlights for me: 

-- Wes's description of the station in the above picture. 

-- On his page about Doug DeMaw, Wes mentions that after Doug edited Wes's 1968 article about direct conversion receivers, Doug built some himself, experimenting with different product detector circuits. Having used Doug's mixer circuit in many of my rigs, and having recently experimented with different product detectors for my HA-600A, I kind of felt like Doug was watching over my shoulder, guiding me along as I experimented. 

-- Wes's use of a digital Rigol oscilloscope.  Makes me feel better about giving up on my Tek 465. 

-- The page about Farhan's visit to Wes, and the awesome gathering of homebrew Titans that ensued... 

-- Wes's meeting with Chuck Adams.  

Thanks Wes.  Happy New Year and best of luck in 2021!  

SolderSmoke Podcast #225: Mars, uSDX, G-QRP, HP8640B, DX-390, Rotary Tools, Walla Walla SDR, MAILBAG

SolderSmoke Podcast #225 is available

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke225.mp3

Mars,  West Coast smoke.

Pete's Activities: 

-- DC receivers.

-- CW offset

-- GQRP talk

-- The uSDX project

Bill's Bench

-- Sliding into the Vintage Test Gear Cult:  HP8640B . 

-- Fixing up and figuring out Radio Shack DX-390 receivers.  

-- 220 to 110 on a few remaining devices.     

-- Got myself a Dremel-like rotary device.  

Tech News: 

-- ARRL/TAPR Convention:  SDR project from Walla Walla University students.   Intuitive explanation for why desired and image freqs in a mixer come out with very useful phase differences.  

-- Chuck Adams' Amazing Lab Notebook.   Includes a simple circuit to measure resistance and Q in crystals.  FB. 

MAILBAG: 

-- Dino KL0S  SITSing in his shack, homebrewing 9 MHz filters  FB Dino.  Airborne! 

-- Dave NT1U sent us the famous 1968 QST Article by W7ZOI re DC RX.  

-- Ron K0EIA listening to SWBC staions with uBITX.  

-- Ted AJ8T  Korguntubes making a 12AX7 equivalent.  

-- Joel N6ALT sent me a nice DX-390 manual.  Thanks Joel

-- Bob KD8CGH alerted us to the uSDX project -- story on the blog. 

-- Craig AA0ZZ Sent a great message with insights on computer code -- I will put up on the blog. 

--Tracy KN4FHX reports on optimistic prognosis for SolarCycle 25.  Some chickens may have to be sacrificed.   

-- Stephen M0OMO Thanks SolderSmoke for rekindling interest in this hobby. 

-- Paul VK3HN  has a cool new rig -- The Prowler -- check it out

-- Steve N8NM working on his Sunbeam car -- Pete already knew about the carburetor synch problem.  N6QW knows everything. 

Chuck Adams K7QO's AMAZING Lab Notebook

Thanks to Tony G4WIF for alerting me to this amazing (and free!) e-book by QRP Master Builder Chuck Adams K7QO: 

https://www.k7qo.com/lab.pdf

There is a lot of wisdom and tribal knowledge in that .pdf.  

Thanks Chuck. 

Putting Junk Mail to Excellent Use: Tony G4WIF's Proto-boards

Tony's Version of Audio Section of N6QW's LBS Receiver

Tony Fishpool, G4WIF writes:

I’ve been intrigued by Pete’s matrix pad method. Of course, few of us have the machinery to mill them as Pete does, but etching is a possibility. Now some of Pete’s boards clearly have a lot of noodling behind them. His boards are quite big with little areas of pads and space between. The layout for the whole project has clearly been considered in advance.

I wanted a board that I could make modular, take little time to etch and adapt for the circumstances. These “proto-boards” are the result.

The project is Farhan’s “sweeperino” and one board is for the Si570, and the other the AD8307.

The Si570 board is now complete and working:

The PCB method is pure Chuck Adams. His videos on YouTube describe the toner transfer method better than I could.

The only difference for me is that my glossy paper comes free from travel agent brochures.

Just express a passing interest in Viking River Cruises and you will never pay for PCB paper ever again!

There is a free printing only version of the software I use, so if SolderSmoke listeners want to use the proto-board design, I will happily email them the files.

Kind regards

Tony G4WIF

The 1Watter

There are currently only 2 in the universe.  And they have been talking to each other.  Soon there will be more.  Many more.

http://www.kitsandparts.com/1watter.php

http://www.1watters.com/

http://www.k7qo.net/onewatter.html

Chuck Adams explains (via the qrp-tech mailing list):
 

Aug 3 at 7:07 PM

 

Gang,

I and Diz have been playing on 20m with 1W.
OK, I've been playing. Diz has been working night
and day.

He has a kit coming out in two weeks or so. Don't rush
him. 

He has S/N 0001 and I have S/N 0002. These are the
only two 1Ws in the Universe. Yesterday (local time)
but 0000UTC today, I went to the lab to put a WWV
atomic clock above the desk for logging purposes.
I turned on the rig to listen while I put the screw into
the side of the shelf to hang the clock on. No warmup
drift. I'm tuned to 14.059MHz, the freq both Diz I start
out on and low and behold I hear him calling CQ. I pound
the paddle to call him and he went back to AF5XF in NTX.
Darn.

At 0031UTC I call him and I get a 229 and later a 339 and
he was a 539 here in AZ. So all the 1Ws in the Universe
have talked to each other. :-) The race is on, when and if
you get one to work us all. Or work us with the rig of your
choice and the power level of your choice....

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

SolderSmoke 175 Mellow Audio, Pete in China, JBOM&BITX, ArduinoWoe, BFOVFO Chip, Chuck Adams, Mailbag

SolderSmoke Podcast #175 is available:

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke175.mp3

18 April 2015

-- Some enhanced audio testing (Mellow, with Presence!)
-- Pete's trip to Fake-shu-out, China
-- My visit to the National Academy of Sciences
--Bench Reports:
   Pete's JBOM Re-born
   Bill's plans for a new SSB Transceiver
-- Arduino Woes   BASTA!!!!!!!!!!!
-- Si5351 VFO/BFO development 
-- Chuck Adams, Tribal Knowledge, and Muppet boards
-- KX3 QRO?
-- What antenna for Pete?
MAILBAG

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Chuck Adams' Secret Recipe for Muppet PC Boards (and lots of other homebrew tips)

A few days ago I shared an e-mail from John N8RVE on his re-build of the SW-40.   John used a "Muppet" board, Muppet being a combination of Manhattan and Ugly techniques.  But there is nothing ugly about it really.  I joked in the title of the blog post that the beauty of this technique is almost enough to get a homebrewer to abandon the Manhattan technique.  Now, I was born on Manhattan island, and I went to Manhattan College, and I have been using the Manhattan technique for many years, so there is a lot of homebrew inertia at work here.   But that SW-40 looked good.  John mentioned that Chuck Adams K7QO has a series of YouTube videos on how to make Muppet boards.   This morning as I waited for the bands to open up, I  decided to take a look. 

Wow, they are really great.  I couldn't stop watching them. I kind of "binge watched" the whole series. Chuck Adams is a really great teacher.  There are lots of great homebrew tips in those videos, and not just about the boards. I NEED one of those new G3UUR crystal testers, the version that also gives you ESR!  I WANT a laminator, an infrared thermometer, some Krylon clear, and pool chemicals!  And a harmonica reed tuner!

I've been sort of planning my next rig.  It will be a version of the BITX.  But having recently built two BITXs using the Manhattan technique, I kind of feel the need to do something different.  I am planning to use some different circuitry (termination insensitive amplifiers) and MAYBE an Si5351.  Perhaps plug-in filters.  But now I want to also move forward in terms of building technique.  I want to Muppet!

Thanks Chuck! 

Here is the link to part one of Chuck's excellent video series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6AmT1trO60


Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Almost Enough to Make You Abandon Manhattan: John's SW-40

Hi Bill,

 

You said you didn't mind if I sent you some of my finished projects so here is the latest.  I scratch built the SW 40 that I had previously built from a kit by K1SWL.  I always liked that radio, and thought by laying it out I would learn more about it.  In testing it out after I aligned everything I made a qso with Mike (K3WAS),and got a good report, and I didn't let out any of the magic smoke or sacrifice any chickens.  You gotta love this hobby. 

The rig tunes from 7.034 to 7.063, and I had about 2.3 watts out, but ran into some slight problems with instability at the end of the qso with Mike. The PA was getting a little hot, but with the excitement of having it work right out of the gate it really didn't matter at the time.  The board layout was done with express PCB, and using the toner method, placed it on the board.  Chuck (K7QO), has some great youtube videos showing the process. I have to admit I got more knowledge by laying out the board as opposed to manhatten construction, and came away with a better understanding of the radio itself. 

Now to build the case.  the board is 5.25 by 7.25 inches, and I may have to sneak one of my wife's alum cookie sheets to fabricate the case.  She doesn't bake till Christmas so it will be a calm summer.  I also made provisions on the board for a digital readout, but for now I just want to enjoy the rig as it is.

Thanks to both you and Pete for taking an interest, as well as the great job on soldersmoke.

73

N8RVE  John

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20