Now we have (above) a Claude-produced video of KK4DAS in contact with me, N2CQR. Claude (and KK4DAS!) did all the heavy lifting. I think it looks pretty good for something that never really happened.
What do you guys think? We may be getting closer to the day where we can have Pete N6QW on video, convincingly singing the praises of LC VFOs and bad-mouthing the Si5351. That will be a momentous day indeed. Paper clips may soon follow!
The Last Ditcher CW rig. Frank Jones would approve! Construction technique combining wooden slats and copper clad boards is FB.
Homebrew CW rigs -- update.
Schematics and Co-Pilot
Shameless Commerce Division:
Mostly DIY RF
Become a Patron through Patreon.
Do you want an emailed heads up about blog post and pocasts? Send your e-mail to bill.meara@gmail.com
Please comment on the Podcast (on YouTube or on the blog) and about blog posts (on the blog page). Comments let us know that we are not speaking into the Google void!
Bill: Fixing the receiver in my 17-12 rig. Adding 12 db to the TIA.
Inspired by the ZL2BNE card sent to me by VK3HN, and the excellent question from Walter KA4KXX, I endeavored today to create a QSL card that was sort of like that of OM ZL2BNE.
I kind of like the result:
-- We have the wooden box rigs. I am working on one of them. (That happens a lot!)
-- There is a D-104.
-- We see the EB-63 .1kW Linear.
-- There are books on the shelf: SSDRA, EMRFD and SPRAT in a binder. And we see a book by Hayward.
-- There is an oscilloscope.
-- There is a nice map of Northern Virginia and my Maidenhead Grid Square.
-- We see Guapo, and a cup of coffee.
-- We also see the SolderSmoke sticker.
Here is how I did this:
I used https://www.canva.com/ You have to select the AI option. Then I told it I wanted it to look like the ZL2BNE card (I sent them a copy). At that point you have to start modifying what the AI comes up with. You have to do this many times until you get it sort of right.
Please send me your results!
Here are a couple of QSLs that Bruce KK0S did with ChatGPT:
That's the spirit! The solder is melting. Note the oscilloscope. Note the books on the shelf. This amazingly good QSL card was sent to us by homebrewer Paul VK3HN, who made the contact with ZL2BNE.
This card reminded me of my first real DX: ZL2ACP many years ago. 15 meter CW with my new Drake 2B receiver. I had crossed the Pacific before I had crossed the Atlantic. I ran upstairs and woke my parents to tell them of this amazing feat! I still have that QSL card.
Our good friend Peter Marks VK3TPM sent this to me, after QRP Guru Peter Parker VK3YE alerted him to it. Silicon Chip is the electronics magazine of Australia.
This is a really basic, but very cool SSB transmitter that Andrew ZL2PD built into the case of an old microphone. I think it does a good job of illustrating some of the key elements of an SSB transmitter: the balanced modulator (to get rid of the carrier), the crystal filter (to get rid of the unwanted sideband), a very simple mixer circuit, followed by a bandpass filter to select only the difference frequency while rejecting the sum. Finally a good low pass filter. This transmitter operates on a fixed frequency of around 3.7 Mhz. The schematic and most of the article appears in the free online version of the magazine: https://www.siliconchip.com.au/Issue/SC/2026/June
I've been interested in the Solomon islands lately because my wife and I have been watching a YouTube video channel about a family living on Uepi island:
There are WWII remnants still visible (underwater) at Uepi:
AI Overview
Uepi Island in the Solomon Islands is famous today for its World War II history, particularly its abundant, accessible WWII wreck dives (aircraft & ships) in Marovo Lagoon, a key battleground during the Solomon Islands Campaign, offering divers a tangible connection to the fierce fighting between US and Japanese forces. The area, near major WWII sites like Guadalcanal, features underwater artifacts like Japanese Zeroes and US Corsairs, with the modern Uepi Island Resort preserving these historical relics within its dive operations.
Uepi's WWII Significance
Location: Uepi is situated in the Marovo Lagoon, part of the Solomon Islands, which were central to the brutal Pacific Campaign of WWII.
Wreck Dives: The waters surrounding Uepi are a "treasure trove" of sunken WWII aircraft (like P39 Air Cobra, Japanese Zeroes) and shipwrecks, making it a prime destination for historical diving.
Preservation: The Uepi Island Resort actively manages and promotes responsible diving at these sites, emphasizing that removing artifacts is illegal.
Key WWII Sites & Wrecks Near Uepi
Wickham Harbour: Located near Uepi, this area contains significant WWII wrecks, accessible via boat trips from the island.
Aircraft: Divers can find Japanese Zeroes, American Corsair fighters, and potentially B24 bombers, often in challenging conditions, with efforts to move some to cleaner areas.
Marovo Lagoon: As one of the world's largest saltwater lagoons, it holds numerous historical remnants from the intense fighting.
A short time ago Paul VK3HN told us about the term bricolage. It seemed to capture much of the homebrew spirit. This morning I heard Van Neistat's video-cast (also something that came to me from Paul VK3HN) talking about the related term "bricoleur." His video (above) also has some great workshop ideas.
MacGyver is a television series in which the protagonist is the paragon of a bricoleur,[28] creating solutions for the problem to be solved out of immediately available found objects.
First off, what a great name. It is a real ham radio name. Grote Reber. And he was indeed a ham: W9GFZ. We don't have names like that anymore. But we should.
Second, Grote Reber's mother was also the teacher of Edwin Hubble. Hubble was the guy who discovered that there were OTHER GALAXIES in the universe, and that they were all moving away from each other. That was a BIG discovery! Later, Grote's mom also had her son in her class. Both students were from Wheaton, Illinois.
Lest there be any doubt about Grote's dedication to radio, consider the following. (Much of the following comes from Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grote_Reber)
When he learned of Karl Jansky's work in 1933,[5][6][7] Grote Reber decided this was the field he wanted to work in, and applied to Bell Labs, where Jansky was working.
In the summer of 1937, Reber decided to build his own radio telescope in his back yard in Wheaton, Illinois. Reber's radio telescope was considerably more advanced than Jansky's, and consisted of a parabolic sheet metal dish 9 meters in diameter, focusing to a radio receiver 8 meters above the dish. The entire assembly was mounted on a tilting stand, allowing it to be pointed in various directions, though not turned. The telescope was completed in September 1937.[8][9]
Here is a really great article from Sky and Telescope magazine (July 1988) about Reber's homebrew radio telescope:
He was limited by the size of locally available 2X4 lumber. Neighbors thought he was trying to control the weather or to bring down enemy aircraft. Between Wheaton and the NRAO site in West Virginia, Reber's telescope spent some time at the National Bureau of Standards site in Sterling, Virginia. I was in Sterling just yesterday. I wonder if there is a plaque or something noting the telesccope's stay in that town. I note that at age 15, Reber had built a ham radio transceiver.
AND THEN HE MOVED TO TASMANIA
He did this because of propagation and low noise conditions. (This reminds me of how we sometimes said that very few people have actually said the words, "And then we moved to the Azores.")
Starting in 1951, he received generous support from the Research Corporation in New York, and moved to Hawaii.[12] In the 1950s, he wanted to return to active studies but much of the field was already filled with very large and expensive instruments. Instead he turned to a field that was being largely ignored, that of medium frequency (hectometre) radio signals in the 0.5–3 MHz range, around the AM broadcast bands. However, signals with frequencies below 30 MHz are reflected by an ionized layer in the Earth's atmosphere called the ionosphere. In 1954, Reber moved to Tasmania,[12] the southernmost state of Australia, where he worked with Bill Ellis at the University of Tasmania.[13] There, on very cold, long, winter nights the ionosphere would, after many hours shielded from the Sun's radiation by the bulk of the Earth, 'quieten' and de-ionize, allowing the longer radio waves into his antenna array. Reber described this as being a "fortuitous situation". Tasmania also offered low levels of man-made radio noise, which permitted reception of the faint signals from outer space.
His Homebrew House in Tasmania
In the 1960s, he had an array of dipoles set up on the sheep grazing property of Dennistoun, about 7.5 km (5 miles) northeast of the town of Bothwell, Tasmania, where he lived in a house of his own design and construction he decided to build after he purchased a job lot of coach bolts at a local auction. He imported 4x8 douglas fir beams directly from a sawmill in Oregon, and then high technology double glazed window panes, also from the US. The bolts held the house together. The window panes formed a north facing passive solar wall, heating mat black painted, dimpled copper sheets, from which the warmed air rose by convection. The interior walls were lined with reflective rippled aluminium foil. The house was so well thermally insulated that the oven in the kitchen was nearly unusable because the heat from it, unable to escape, would raise the temperature of the room to over 50 °C (120 °F). His house was never completely finished. It was meant to have a passive heat storage device, in the form of a thermally insulated pit full of dolerite rocks, underneath, but although his mind was sharp, his body started to fail him in his later years, and he was never able to move the rocks. He was fascinated by mirrors and had at least one in every room.
To Canada -- And a Rejection of the Big Bang
The same July 1988 issue of Sky and Telescope magazine has a good historical vignette of Reber, with a focus on his actvities in Canada late in life (click on the image below). Reber had big doubts about the big bang. Unfortunately this seemed to spill over into scorn and ridicule for those who -- well -- believed in the big bang. We see this at the end of the article. Oh well, even great people sometimes get cranky.
Three cheers for Grote Reber.
I had trouble making the WayBack Machine links to work on my blog. But they seem to work on the Wiki page. So to see them, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grote_Reber Then go to the Reference section and take a look at the second and third items.
This book is kind of weird, but give it a chance. The author seems too prone to describe the physical attributes of his colleagues, especially female colleagues. But he was born in 1910 -- he was an old guy when he wrote this book, so perhaps we should cut him some slack. And there is one memorable episode where he defends a female applicant. In spite of the shortcomings, there are many real gems in there, often hidden among the descriptions of 1930's era Kleenex machines and refrigerators. I picked up the book a long time ago and only read it recently.
Some highlights:
-- Crystal Radios in the 1920s.
-- Working Australia from Michigan on 40 CW in 1927. And waking up his parents to tell them. (Decades later, I did the same thing after a ZL contact).
-- Doing a radio propagation survey using the 5 meter band (FMLA!)
-- Jansky's discovery of an extraterrestrial hiss in 1932. (It seems like that was the big discovery, So why did Penzias get the Nobel prize?)
-- A youthful trip to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
-- A regular ham band schedule from Ann Arbor to Berkeley that featured Ernest Lawrence and Robert Oppenheimer.
-- Lots of mention of Fred Terman, Grote Reber, and Karl Jansky,
-- Some discussion of how Jansky was turned down for a job. And about how being a radio amateur actually hurt chances for employment; there are a few lines about anti-ham prejudice.
-- Lots of people known to us show up in the book: Joe Taylor, Shoemaker and Levy of Shoemaker-Levy 9 fame, Arthur C. Clarke, Maarten Schmidt of "First Light," and many others.
-- And of course, the WOW signal (that has recently been explained as probably having a natural origin).
-- Kraus tells of how the Latin words "Ad Astra per Aspera" (to the stars, with difficulty) were engraved above their radio telescope receiving room. He goes on to (correctly) criticize those who write about radio telescopes, without having ever built one. Remarkinig on one such critic, John Bolton, a revered Austialian radio astronomer and radio telescope builder, wrote, "If the writer had built a radio telescope his story of radio astronomy would be a different story."
Here is a good review of Kraus's "Big Ear Two" book:
