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

Dean KK4DAS and Pete N6QW Talk to the River City (Sacramento, Ca.) Radio Club about the 40 meter Direct Conversion Receiver

On April 7, 2026 Dean and Pete spoke to the River City Radio Club about the 40 meter Direct Conversion Receiver project (see above).  Great job guys! 

Thanks to Carol KP4MD for the invitation. 

SolderSmoke Homebrew Direct Conversion Receiver Hall of Fame Update: 108 Completed + 7 Honorable Mentions: Total Receivers Built: 115 (As of February 20, 2026, 1503Z)

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. 

As of February 20, 2026 1503Z:

So far 108 completed receivers, and 7 honorable mentions.  Total Count:  115.  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

CT7AXD       Graham -- Promoted from Honorable Mention!

G3MOT           Josh

KW4H             Steve

NJ7V                Charlie (RedSummit)

N2ETZ            Denny

AB9LM           James

W9XT              Gary

G0PJT             Alex

Ohio                Tyler

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

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

Walter KA4KXX's Innovative 20-meter SolderSmoke Direct-Conversion Honorable-Mention Receiver

 

It is a thing of beauty.  We were really pleased to see our old friend Walter KA4KXX take on the SolderSmoke challenge, and we weren't a bit surprised to see him do so using some real twists in the design.  You see, Walter is a very experienced homebrewer.   He has built many, many rigs over the years.  Just check out his QRZ page and you will see what I mean: 

 https://www.qrz.com/db/KA4KXX

Walter supported our original high school effort by offering the students a $500 prize for any student who used our receiver (and a similar transmitter) to check in to the 40 meter Sunrise Net.  Sadly, there were no takers.  But we really appreciated the attempt. 

We have listed Walter's receiver in the Honorable Mention category, only because his build is so innovative:  20 meters instead of 40.  An IC in the audio amplifier.  There were differences, but even a quick look at the above picture above shows that Walter's receiver is very much a SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver.  

Here are some additional photos from Walter. 

Congratulations Walter.  Welcome to the Hall of Fame!  

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

From Walter's QRZ page

"Homebrew you say? But did you DESIGN it yourself?"

Raymond A. Heising  (1922)

That is a question we get fairly regularly when we tell the other fellow that our rig is homebrew.  I often get the feeling that the question stems from a certain insecurity -- the guy who asks it may feel a bit insecure because the "rig" he is running is completely commercial and his only role in its production was to flash a credit card number.  

But lately I have been reading through Jim Williams' wonderful book "Analog Circuit Design -- Art, Science, and Personalities" and I can see that there may be something to this question. 

It was the chapter by Barrie Gilbert that made me think more about this. Barrie is the legendary designer for whom the Gilbert Cell is named.  This circuit is at the heart of the NE602 chip that many of us used to build our first "Neophyte" receivers and other homebrew rigs.  Barrie's chapter is entitled "Where do Little Circuits Come From."  Uh oh. 

Barrie grew up in the post-war United Kingdom.  He father had been killed in a German bombing raid. As a kid, he built crystal radios and, with his brother, "shortwave sets" on softwood bases.  He used a TRF receiver that employed Manhattan-style construction.  Barrie, it seemed, was one of us.  

But then, he suddenly seemed more advanced.   He wrote:  

"Later, I began to build some receivers of my own but stubbornly refused to use circuits published in the top magazines of the day, Practical Wireless and Wireless World.  Whether they worked as well or not they had to be "originals" otherwise, where was the satisfaction?  I learned by my mistakes but grew to trust what I acquiered in this way:  it was 100% mine, not a replication or mere validation of someone else's inventiveness."  

Wow, that is certainly hardcore.  I will note,  however,  that in getting back to the the question about whether I have "designed" the rig myself, I have NEVER had the questioner come back to say that HIS rig was homebrewed from HIS OWN original design.  Never.  Not once. 

And I will note that building a rig from the schematic is an enormous challenge.  It is not easy.  It is not the mere replication of someone else's inventiveness.  Anyone who thinks it is easy should try to homebrew a simple direct conversion receiver.  They will discover that it is NOT easy. 

I guess this comes down to what we mean by "homebrew."  I prefer to stick to the old ham radio meaning of the term:  It is homebrew if it was built at home, even if it is built from a schematic done by someone else. When Jean Shepherd built his Heising Modulator, was he working off a schematic from a ham radio magazine?  He almost certainly was.  But he gathered the parts, laid out the chassis, and put the circuit together.  Most importantly, when trouble cropped up, he was able to step in and make the needed corrections.  Was his modulator "homebrew?" Of course it was.  Did he design it himself?   No, his name was not Heising! 

More than 100 people built our SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver.  We resisted pressure to turn this project into a kit.  The folks who built it worked off schematics that we had prepared.  They gathered the parts and built their own circuit boards, Manhattan style. They struggled to get the whole thing to work, to make sure the VFO was on the right frequency and at the right level, that the AF amplifier was not oscillating.  Were these receivers "homebrew?"  Of course they were. 

Jim Williams warned that Analog Circuit Design was "A wierd book."  He strongly discouraged collaboration between the authors, and noted that this would probably result in "a somewhat discordant book."  We see that discord in the hardcore position taken by Barrie Gilbert.  Many of the other designers seem to take a more flexible, less austere position.  Some even seem to downplay the role of mathematics.  

I think Barrie had a right to be proud of his fundamentalism.  But not all of us are capable of that.   Writing in Jim Williams' book,  Samuel Wilensky sums it up nicely: 

"I classify analog designers into one of two categories.  There are those who do truly original work, and these I consider the artists of our profession.  These individuals, as in most fields, are very rare.  Then there are the rest of us, who are indeed creative,  but do it by building on the present base of knowledge."   

Dave Richards AA7EE Builds and Documents the SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

As always with Dave's builds, " 'tis a thing of beauty."  His photographs and documentation make it even better.   Please go directly to Dave's site and enjoy his look at the SolderSmoke HOMEBREW Direct Conversion Receiver:  

https://aa7ee.wordpress.com/2025/12/04/the-soldersmoke-direct-conversion-receiver/

Thanks Dave! 

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!  

SolderSmoke Podcast 262: Hybrid Wireless, 100 Watt Amplifier, Antipode VK6, Tropo DR to PR?, Mixers, MAILBAG

SolderSmoke Podcast #262 is available: 

Audio only: http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke262.mp3

Video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSUyE4IaHFw&t=61s 

Intro: 

-- We are over 100 on the Direct Conversion Receiver Builds.  We talked about the receiver project at the GQRP convention.  Video on the blog.

-- G4 Geomagnetic storm November 11-12.  Messed up my computer.  Blackout in the DR?  

Pete: 

-- USMC Birthday. Having served alongside them they have my deepest respect. Veterans Day. 

-- Think about supporting those without a job this Thanksgiving. Cash to various organizations is best.

 -- 50 Hz off frequency -- What does that mean if you tune by ear and not by mouse/waterfall?

--  The Hybrid Wireless is on the air. A unique build and not often seen.

Dean:  

-- Progress on the HOMEBREW MOSFET amplifier.  Claude helped. 

Dean's 100 watt amplifier

SHAMELESS COMMERCE DIVISION:  Mostly DIY RF.   Become a SolderSmoke Patron.  Buy stuff from Amazon through the link on this blog (in the right side column). 

Bill:  

Bill's antipode from Virginia

-- VK early in the morning.  Also E51MWA and FW5K.  All homebrew SSB. My antipodes. VK6ACF Charley 11,629 miles.  Might be my most distant station worked. 

-- Preping for VHF in HI7.  Can I kerchunk Boricua repeaters with Tropo?  See: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2025/09/puerto-rico-dominican-republic-tropo-on.html

-- Bill's mixer obsession. Grayson's HSD Chapter 12. The importance of knowing "the paticular go of it." EMRFD Chapter 5. 

-- The new look for the SolderSmoke blog. 

MAILBAG:  

-- Todd VE7BPO -- Doing well. 

-- Grayson KJ7UM on the loss of Jim Tonne W4ENE.  Gone, but through his writting, continuing to contribute.See: https://web.archive.org/web/20220429224036/http://tonnesoftware.com/appnotes/demodulator/EnvelopeDemodulators.pdf

-- Camden is a 23 year-old blind ham who is looking for some homebrew help. He lives in Pleasant City, Ohio, about an hour east of Columbus.  Can you help him? camden@bopp.net

-- Dale Parfitt into the QRP Hall of Fame!  The Radio Gods Approve! 

-- Paul VK3HN -- Bricolage, Cacharreo, Artilugio, and Jugaad.  SA612 going obsolete. 

-- Mike WN2A Mixers and all that. Tropo.  "Greetings from the National Radio Noisy Zone!" (NJ) 

-- Peter Marks VK3TPM -- SolderSmoke template help -- Digital HF Voice

-- Walter KA4KXX -- A great book by L.B. Cebik

-- Bob KD4EBM  -- The Bob Pease Analog Troubleshooting book. Pease quote: "My favorite programming language is solder," 

-- Cor PA3COR  Difference between mixers and adders

-- Mike WA3O  I still have his HW-7.  Amazing water-cooled amplifier.   VK3MO.  

-- Samuele IU2QBW     An Italian Homebrewer  https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2025/10/a-wonderful-homebrew-direct-conversion.html

-- Pil Joo VA3GPJ  Experimenting with TIA amps. 

-- Farhan VU2ESE -- USB and LSB LC filters -- Applicable for crystal filters too? 

-- Rogier PA1ZZ Thanks for the great videos! 

-- Captain Mike  KX4WC   Aeronautical Mobile --Santiago, Chile to Panama!  With Mike WA3O and Ian VK3MO:  https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2025/11/vk3mo-and-wa3o-brotherhood-of-ham-radio.html 

-- Dave AA7EE  A completely AI SolderSmoke? "Open the pod bay doors Hal." 

-- Pat W3RGA heard my 1 watt HI7 beacon.  Thanks Pat. 

-- Patrick Voets -- A Belgian living in the Netherlands -- supports our defiant NIMCEL position! 

-- Brian "Moses" Hall K8TIY, Father of Robert of "Crank it in Robert" fame.  Check out the video.  Young Robert appears around the 45 minute point:  https://youtu.be/Xqs2Ihucr6I?t=2730

-- Will Harris KI4POV -- an esteemed homebrewer -- asks about using 75 ohm coax. I say yes, Pete tells him how to do it right. 

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. 

 

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. 

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.