SolderSmoke Daily News: DC RX Hall of Fame

Showing posts with label DC RX Hall of Fame. Show all posts

Saturday, November 29, 2025

Jay KI5VIR's FB Homebrew SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

Jay KI5VIR is a new ham, but you would never know this by looking at his build of the direct conversion receiver: It looks like something built by someone with a lot more time the amateur ranks. (See above.)

Jay writes:

I have completed the direct conversion reciever and I can't thank Bill, Dean and those that commented and asked questions on discord enough. This was my first build and I can't believe how much I learned. I have a long ways to go, but this was just what I needed to get started in homebrewing. 1- (BIGGEST CHALLENGE) was probably the diode ring mixer and learning to use my scope and setting it up to test the circuit. (this was also the most rewarding stage) 2-(WHAT DID YOU LEARN AND WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE?) I got a basic understanding of how to read a circuit and what different components do in the circuit.(I still want to revisit each stage and make sure I get a little more) 3-(WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO HOMEBREW NEXT?) I want to first dissasemble each board and rebuild while it is fresh in my mind and make sure I get a little better understanding. After that, I want to either build a transmitter to go with this reciever, or build a complete transciever. Not sure whether to build ssb or cw, but I definately want to build something I can make at least a few contacts with.

Congratulations Jay, and welcome to the Hall of Fame!

Dave AA7EE's Beautiful (Typically Beautiful) SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

Dave Richards AA7EE is justifiably famous in homebrew circles for the beautiful photographs of his rigs, and for the superb documentation of his builds. You will see what I mean when you visit his blog:

https://aa7ee.wordpress.com/

We were very pleased when Dave told us he would build the direct conversion receiver that we have been discussing on Discord.

Dave writes:

Phew! Well this was a bit of a journey, and a slightly humbling experience. I looked at the schematic and thought, "Hey, I can build this. Shouldn't be too hard!" But the homebrew Gods judged that it was time to remind me of my place in the big scheme of things, by imbuing my receiver with in-band breakthrough from SSB, CW, and digi stations. Strong in-band stations within about 50KHz were breaking through and being heard in the same way that you'd hear SSB, CW, and digi signals on an AM receiver without a BFO. Their pitch wasn't changing as I tuned, because they had no pitch. Bill suggested that RF was getting into places it wasn't supposed to be, and being envelope detected by the AF amp. As it turned out, he was right. If anyone's interested, I can post a video of the issue I was experiencing. In the meantime though, I'll keep this post brief. I have quite a lot of pictures from various stages of the build, but posting them all here might be a bit TMI. I wanted to make this receiver reasonably compact and build all the stages on one board. My near-pathological tendency to try and build things fairly small could have contributed to the breakthrough problem that I experienced. I won't go into all the details of the troubleshooting process here, unless people are really interested, though I'll detail them in a post on my blog, as I think that sharing this stuff can be helpful to other builders - just as I have benefited greatly from others sharing with me. I made a few small changes from the original schematic, to cure the issues I was experiencing. Will detail them in another comment underneath, as the free version of Discord puts a character limit on posts.

I made the following small changes, to cure a couple of issues this little receiver was experiencing - 1) The AF amp was motorboating at anything above about medium volume, so I swapped out the 47µF capacitor in the +ve supply line to the AF amp (C10) for a 470µF part. This killed the motorboating dead in it's tracks. 2) To solve the in-band breakthrough issue, I did two things - a) At the suggestion of Peter VK3TPM, I placed a 1K resistor in the +ve supply line to the first AF amp stage, Q5, between C15 and R8. In conjunction with C15, this forms a lowpass filter with a 3dB cutoff point at about 3Hz. With a 12V supply, ~3.5V is dropped across this resistor and at 9V, the voltage drop is ~2.3V. If this voltage drop is too much for you, you can try a lower value of resistor and perhaps increasing the value of C15. This voltage drop does decrease the gain of the stage a little. In my case, it was welcome, as the amp was tipping over into feedback at full volume. Adding the resistor eliminated this, so I can now run the AF gain pot at full tilt. b) I added a 0.22µF capacitor from the wiper of the AF gain pot to ground, as an RF bypass. Physical placement of this cap was close to Q5. It also shapes the audio a little, cutting out some of the high-frequency hiss. You can experiment with different values here. I was initially going to use a 0.1µF part, but 0.22µF provided better protection. Greater values cut out too many of the higher frequencies for my liking. For a relatively simple receiver like this, I like the wide open sound.

I removed the spring from the tuning shaft. Tuning is smoother now, and free from backlash.

Dave
AA7EE

Here is a video of Dave's receiver inhaling CW during the CW Sweepstakes contest:

Here is one of Dave's iconic photos of the receiver:

Thanks Dave! Congratulations and welcome to the Hall of Fame!

Monday, November 10, 2025

SolderSmoke Homebrew Direct Conversion Receiver Hall of Fame Update: 99 Completed + 7 Honorable Mentions: Total Receivers Built: 106 (As of November 29, 2025, 1305Z)

Please let us know if you spot any errors, or if we have inadvertently missed anyone. Don't worry about being late to the game -- the challenge continues. All of the info is still available (see below).

As of November 29, 2025 1305Z:

So far 99 completed receivers, and 7 honorable mentions. Total Count: 106. Receivers built in 17 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

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
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
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!)
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

W2DAB Dave in NYC
W4JYK Wes of VWS
KA4CDN Mike of VWS
M7EFO Adrian
VK5RC Rob
KD8KHP Dave
VK1CHW Chris
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
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
AA7EE Dave Richards
KI5VIR Jay
-------------------------
Honorable Mentions:

*AA7U Steve No PTO

*VK7IAN Ian -- No Manhattan boards -- Tasmania

*KC1FSZ Bruce's build on a PC board

*CT7AXD Graham -- different AF amp -- Portugal

* DL1AJG Andreas -- Germany

* Matthew Student of DL1AJG

* Arash Student of DL1AJG

-----------------------------------------

Candidates for the Hall of Fame:

SA5RJS Rasmus
KA9TII James
AA7FO Chuck
VA3ZOT Tony Surface Mount -- Honorable Mention?
AB2XT John (Done, just need the video)
KO7M Jeff (Piper Cub)

For more information on how you too can build the receiver:

Join the discussion - SolderSmoke Discord Server:
https://discord.gg/Fu6B7yGxx2

Documentation on Hackaday:
https://hackaday.io/project/190327-high-schoolers-build-a-radio-receiver

SolderSmoke YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@soldersmoke

Puneit Singh VU2TUM's FB Homebrew 40 meter SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

It was really good to see Puneit Singh finish this receiver project. He overcame many difficulties, including a lot of travel and an acute shortage of time, but he got it done. Congratulations Puneit Singh and welcome to the Hall of Fame.

Puneit is also a CW man -- we hope he pairs this receiver up with a simple CW transmitter and makes some "fully homebrew" contacts.

Tuesday, October 28, 2025

2025 ARRL Technical Service Award

Thanks to the ARRL for the award. It is much appreciated. Thanks too to all the people who built this receiver. There are more than 100 of them and they come from all around the world. We hope that they will go on to become homebrew Elmers, and help others to discover "the magic that emerges in a room full of solder smoke, and that only comes from a receiver that you have built yourself."

And special thanks to Bruce KC1FSZ for nominating us for this award.

Sunday, October 19, 2025

Karl EI9ITB's FB SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver -- First Receiver Built in Ireland

Congratulations to Karl EI9ITB for the successful completion of his SolderSmoke direct conversion receiver. Above you can see Karl's receiver inhaling SSB on 40 meters. We also got a nice CW video.

Karl worked hard on this, taking seriously our admonition that builders should try to understand each of the four stages. Karl went the extra mile with the audio amplifier, building a virtual copy in a simulator. Karl is following the long Irish tradition of being "radio experimenters." FB Karl.

Karl is our first ever builder in Ireland. This receiver was built in Ireland. Karl is American by birth with the call sign of KB8SWH.

Welcome to the Hall of Fame Karl!

Friday, September 19, 2025

Todd W2TEF's FB SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

Admirably, Todd W2TEF proved that you can build this receiver even if you don't have an oscilloscope. He used a lot of simple tests, including listening for the band noise when he had all four boards finished. He got the kind of help from friends that all of us use while homebrewing. And he tuned in SSB signals for the first time. FB. SSB in the video above, CW below.

Todd writes:

... thanks to Dean and Bill for putting this together and guiding me into a great beginning project. And to Chris and others offering guidance here in Discord. I love seeing a project through to completion, and am still amazed that twisted up coils of wire can grab intelligence out of the air!

Friday, September 12, 2025

Philippe F1GMA's Fantastic SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

SSB

Wow, congratulations to Philippe F1GMA for his wonderful build of the SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver. Phillipe deserves extra credit for achieving this goal while working in a foreign language, and with parts acquisition even more of a challenge for him. That AF transformer was hard to get in France. And I see that a companion CW transmitter may be in the works. FB.

The SSB signal that Philippe provides includes a clip from special event station TM120ESP. That station commemorates the 120th anniversary of the first Esperanto congress. FB. TRGHS!

Congratulations Philippe and welcome to the Hall of Fame. I think you are our very first French builder.

Click here for a CW clip

Saturday, September 6, 2025

Chris KN4GAH's 100th! SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

This was the 100th SolderSmoke receiver! It was really cool to see Chris KN4GAH's receiver inhaling CW (sbove) and SSB (below). I especially like the ink pen markings on the pine board. FB. Maybe make note of memorable QSOs heard, or -- later -- contacts made with this receiver.

Chris is an electrical engineer, so it was particularly useful for us to get his perspective on this project. We started this at the High School knowing full well that most of the students would spend their careers in the high tech, digital world, and might never again touch a soldering iron. But we thought it would be good for them to build something like this at least once. Chris comments on this idea below.

Chris writes:

Thank you for putting this all together for all of us and creating such a great community full of knowledgeable and helpful people. I work as an RF engineer and mentor a few junior RF engineers and will be proposing this challenge to them as a learning opportunity. As this challenge provides a lot of insight into how common blocks used in RF designs operate. It is just too easy to go on mini-circuits and find a filter, amp or mixer that meets ones needs. Actually building these components provides valuable knowledge that all us RF engineers should have.

Thanks Chris, Congratulations and welcome to the Hall of Fame!

Wednesday, September 3, 2025

Chris KD4PBJ's FB SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

Chris KD4PBJ is one of SolderSmoke's most loyal fans. Over the years Chris has supplied many of the parts and ideas used in SolderSmoke projects. We were really delighted when Chris took on the Direct Conversion challenge. As you can see, his build was superb.

Chris had promissed to have the receiver completed by September 2, 2025. As it happens, that was the day of some very powerful solar activity and very poor band conditions. So the video above doesn't really do justice to Chris's receiver. We hope he will send us some more video, perhaps under better conditions, and perhaps with some more SSB.

As you can see from this message from Chris in mid-July, he is a busy guy. We were pleased that he found time to build this receiver. Chris wrote

Good Morning guys!
I spent my July 4 weekend and 1200 round trip miles heading up to Richmond to pick up two 50 watt decommissioned airport non directional beacons that I hope to get working on either the 630m or 2200m bands. I'll most likely just use the amplifier, power supply and matching sections as they are modulated CW which isn't permitted.
At least I have a nice high current power supply, outdoor enclosure and inner workings. I was told one worked and one doesn't.
I got them off eBay and the seller is a television engineer in Richmond named Greg. He listens to Soldersmoke too and is a builder like I am.
He said these are government surplus from a place called Camp Peary in VA.

The DC receiver is still coming along, I've just been overwhelmed with things on my to do list as well as a new job (learning lots about high power lasers) so I promise it will get done soon.

Chris

Here are a couple of pictures of Chris's receiver. Thanks Chris, and Welcome to the Hall of Fame.

Tuesday, September 2, 2025

Dave K5YFO's FB Texas SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

The pine board is key. Frank Jones (W6AJF) would approve. FB Dave. CW video above and SSB below.

Dave writes:

Bill,

After many diversions from the work bench I finally got the Solder Smoke Challenge Receiver to operate. There were the usual problems with the audio amp but my main problem was a faulty trimmer in the BP filter.

I hope I’m in the first 100 to complete the project.

Hopefully the attached videos make it. One is a CW and the other is SSB.

73 de Dave K5YFO

Monday, September 1, 2025

Robert Sutton's Amazing SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

It is amazing that Robert (who is not yet licensed) got this receiver to work. Check out his homebew coil form. Excellent work Robert. Congratulations and welcome to the Hall of Fame.

Here is a Dicord exchange with Robert. I think we see the true homebrew spirit here:

Sunday, August 31, 2025

Hall of Fame Update: 96 Completed SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receivers, and 7 Honorable Mentions. Total: 103 receivers as of October 19, 2025 1649Z. More receivers are being built.

As of October 19, 2025 1649Z:

So far 96 completed receivers, and 7 honorable mentions. Total Count: 103. Receivers built in 17 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

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!

*AA7U Steve No PTO

*VK7IAN Ian -- No Manhattan boards -- Tasmania

*KC1FSZ Bruce's build on a PC board

*CT7AXD Graham -- different AF amp -- Portugal

* DL1AJG Andreas -- Germany

* Matthew Student of DL1AJG

* Arash Student of DL1AJG

-----------------------------------------

Candidates for the Hall of Fame:

SA5RJS Rasmus
KA9TII James
AA7FO Chuck
VA3ZOT Tony Surface Mount -- Honorable Mention?
AB2XT John (Done, just need the video)
KO7M Jeff (Piper Cub)
VU2TUM Puneit Singh

For more information on how you too can build the receiver:

Join the discussion - SolderSmoke Discord Server:
https://discord.gg/Fu6B7yGxx2

Documentation on Hackaday:
https://hackaday.io/project/190327-high-schoolers-build-a-radio-receiver

SolderSmoke YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@soldersmoke

Bob K2BVR's FB SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

Bob K2BVR homebrewed a really nice SolderSmoke Direct Conversion receiver. On his "Proof of Life" video we hear some nice SSB signals, some great CW signals (including N7DZ/6 POTA) and even the well-known tones of FT8. FB Bob. Congratulations OM! Welcome to the Hall of Fame.

Bob writes:

Hi Bill,

I wanted to send you a quick note of thanks. I’m very grateful to the SolderSmoke Discord users for their help, and to you and KK4DAS for all of the work you’ve both done in developing this project and sharing it through your videos.

I’ve been making progress on my build and thought I’d share a little update. I ran into some challenges with the bandpass filter – it turns out that reducing the trifilar winds per inch helped improve the performance. I also fought with a shorted test fixture along the way, which made things more confusing than they should have been.

On the audio side, my first amplifier module is still giving me trouble. I hated not getting it fixed right away, but I’ll be coming back to it. I did have to add a 470uF cap to the power rail to control oscillation but I haven't added the 220 ohm resistor. I’m thinking about putting the different modules into their own boxes so that I can experiment with them more easily in the future.

Thanks again for all of the inspiration and guidance — I really appreciate it.

73s

K2BVR

Tobias KK7BCO's FB SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

Sounds great Tobias! Congratulations -- Welcome to the Hall of Fame!

Tobias writes:

Bill, I have joined the few.

You guys created a project that even I could build. Thank you for the journey!

Now I plan to make duplicates of some elements, and create some kind of a terrifying musical instrument.

Perhaps a Theremin Tobias? AKA Etherphone! This was reportedly one of Neil Armstrong's favorites!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin

Friday, August 29, 2025

Shane G0JNR's FB SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver -- With a Glow-In-The-Dark PTO Coil Form

I was really pleased to see Shane G0JNR finish this receiver. He has been an active member of the SolderSmoke community for many years. For example, back in 2018 we see him commenting on KU4NO's FB rig:

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2018/07/a-rig-with-maximum-soul-5-band.html

Shane writes:

Shane G0JNR here. I've just got my Soldersmoke DC rx up and running! The thing that put me off earlier in the year was the 3d printed coil former. But my son has now got one and printer and printed one for me - as an added bonus, it glows in the dark! It didn't work straight away but perseverance has paid off. 73

Thanks Shane! Congratulations and Welcome to the Hall of Fame.

Glow-In-The-Dark PTO Coil Form

Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Grant K0GDB's FB SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

Congratulations to Grant K0GDB on his FB SolderSmoke Direct Conversion receiver. Welcome to the Hall of Fame Grant! That PTO former is especially FB! Grant is a relatively new ham, making his smooth construction of this receiver even more admirable.

Grant writes:

Proof of life video! Many thanks for the helpful YouTube tutorials, everything went together pretty smoothly.

The windings are actually as close to the specification as I could get them on the nanoVNA. It's been a bit since I built that part, but if memory serves I had one fewer turn and had to do some bunching to get it to read correctly. The main difference in the PTO is that I made the former on a laser cutter from slices of quarter-inch plywood since I don't have a 3d printer. The center cyllinder is actually just rolled up paper.

Thursday, August 7, 2025

SolderSmoke Podcast 261: Travel, AI-Apocalypse, ARRL Award, Amplifiers (with Claude) , Transcoms, Smoke released in DR, QRP, CW, MAILBAG

SolderSmoke Podcast #261 is available for download:

Audio: http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke261.mp3

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rzw8lxBzRo

Alaska, Colorado, Dominican Republic

Opening: Travel notes: Pete to Denver. Dean to Alaska. Bill in the Dominican Republic.

The future of the podcast. We will embrace our NIMCEL status and fight on in spite of the AI Apocalypse. Thanks to Peter VK3TPM, Hamilton KD0FNR, Sam AI7PR, Todd K7TFC and the WayBackMachine for providing backup and transfer options for the blog. Google could end Blogspot at any time.

Dean and Bill win the 2025 ARRL Technical Service Award. Thanks to Bruce KC1FSZ for the nomination. And thanks to Bill Morine N2COP for letting us know. 91 receivers completed so far!

SolderSmoke East was pleased to host Phil W1PJE, a distinguished MIT radio astronomer AND member of the SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver Hall of Fame.

Dean: Amplifier design, woes, triumphs, tribal knowledge. And help from Claude.

KK4DAS 100W MOSFET AMP

Pete: Project X -- The Transcom SBT-3, Crossroads and Decisions.

Transcom SBT-3

SHAMELESS COMMERCE DIVISION: FIGHT THE AI-APOCALYPSE -- BECOME A PATREON SPONSOR.

GET BEZOS TO SEND US BEZOS BUCKS! Use the Amazon link on the upper right.

BUY PARTS AND STUFF FROM MOSTLY DIY RF.

Bill:

-- Smoke released in TWO RD06 finals. Scrounged IRF-510s to the rescue.

-- Working VK6 on 20 SSB.

-- My old HW-101 -- inspired by Pete and by Will N5OLA.

-- High frequency hearing loss and direct conversion receivers.

-- Eleven contacts on 40 with the DC RX and a Tuna Tin 2. Mike Bryce WB8VGE came back to my CQ! First ever QSO with SolderSmoke DC receivers on both sides: K1OA-N2CQR.

-- Do real hams use ALC? Do we really NEED ALC?

Mailbag:

Who is the Project 326 Guy? A British engineer resident in China for last 20 years.

Steve EI5DD Ham Radio Ireland magazine. Hey -- Why no Irish DC RX builders?

Paul K9ARF -- Thanks for the very kind e-mail about SolderSmoke.

Rogier PA1ZZ -- Many nice videos and suggestions on blog backup.

Grayson KJ7UM on the EF-50 valve (thermatron!)

Bruce KC1FSZ Four DC RX builders at the Wellesley Mass radio club.

Chris KD4PBJ -- Long trip to pick up two directional beacons possibly for 630m or 2200m bands!

Alan W2AEW did a Minimum Discernible Signal test on the DC RX. FB!

Mike WN2A -- Many great comments on MDS in its various forms.

Philippe F6GUH is a FB homebrewer.

Mike EIOCL -- Always great to talk on the air with an old friend.

Walter KA4KXX -- I checked into the Sunrise net! With my HW-101! Thanks Walter.

Farhan VU2ESE -- Watched our interview with Phil W1PJE

Phil W1PJE was an SWL with an old Halli receiver. VOA? Boo! But Radio Marti is BACK! Also, the hydrogen line from the cosmic dark ages has red shifted to... 7.1 MEGA hertz! So LISTEN UP!

Phil W1PJE with a Halli and the Haystack Observatory Dome

Saturday, August 2, 2025

Bill WA5DSS's FB SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

Bill WA5DSS built this beautiful receiver back in December 2024. Somehow I failed to include him in our Hall of Fame. Well, better late than never, right? Please let me know if we have missed anyone else.

I think it looks and sounds great, on both CW and SSB. Note the Costa Rica station in there in the SSB portion of the recording.

Back in December 2024, Bill wrote:

Bill, Dean,
I forgot to send you a recording. This is what I recorded last night. I did not let it “warm up” so the stability is a little better after awhile. Also, I have a knob for tuning…just haven’t hacked off the head of the bolt yet.

I have put the receiver up for now. I am trying to get a Heathkit DX-60 on the air for New Years Eve Straight Key night. It’s the only time I attempt a straight key. Also I am amazed at how difficult it was to operate these old cw radios. No wonder I didn’t get many contacts back in the early sixties...

...This has been an interesting project for me. I have built many kits since becoming interested in electronics during the 1960s but this is the first time I have started with unetched boards. I think I prefer the “dead bug” style over Manhattan. I don’t have the patience to plan out where all those islands go!

Bill WA5DSS

Sunday, July 27, 2025

Joe N90K's FB SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

Congratulations to Joe N9OK on his homebrew build of the SolderSmoke direct conversion receiver. Welcome to the Hall of Fame Joe.

Joe makes some very nice comments on the benefits of doing this in a homebrew way:

I've build many dozens kits over the years, esp Knight, Heath, K2, K3, and others. This was my first receiver built from scratch. It works surprisingly well and has decent sensitivity. Thanks @Bill N2CQR and Dean @Soldersmoke for creating this challenge. It was fun and non-trivial. The only stage I had issues with was the amplifier, which was too compact on v1. v2 works well.

I think Joe should hold onto that smaller version of the AF amp. I think he could get that stablized and it could become the heart of yet another FB DC RX.

Joe went the extra mile and measured the minimum discernible signal of the receiver:

I see no problem with Joe's measurment technique. I think the key word here is "discernible." Often people will focus on the RF signal that will produce a 3 db or 10 db increase in audio signal. But Joe has just looked at the RF signal level that will create a discernible audio signal. That is fine. As Joe demonstrates, this simple DC receiver is remarkably sensitive.