SolderSmoke Daily News -- Ham Radio Blog

Rogier PA1ZZ sent me this today.  I think I may have seen pieces of it before, but this restoration  is really nice.  But ham radio seems to...

As you know, here at SolderSmoke East HQ we are all about TRADITION.  So last night (New Year's eve) I fired up my venerable HT-37 / Dra...

  Unlike Pete (see below), I don't have any cool pictures of me in front of an early station.   But in the picture above,  there I am, a...

This has been one of the major complaints about our beloved analog LC VFOs:   The frequency tuning on these circuits is often not linear.  F...

  Original HT-37 VFO Circuit A couple of things before I start:   First, this is not my fault.  The Radio Gods are to blame.  I innocently t...

I just kind of like this picture.  This is the HT-37 dial that came with the HT-37 VFO assembly I recently bought.  Note the retro designati...

Is that thing beautiful or what?  That is the VFO assembly from an HT-37.  This one includes the fly-wheel mechanism.  It tunes 5 - 5.5 MHz....

I like this old receiver, with all its shortcomings.  I picked it up in the Dominican Republic in 1993 or 1994.  I've been using it on A...

I heard about this video while trying to track down information on John Stanley Anderson's 1939 television receiver.  "Patrolling t...

... send them this video.  Lin is in Hong Kong. What a great job she does with very simple tools.  Notice how she casually mentions that for...

  I've been watching with great interest Mike WU2D's excellent series on VFO construction.  His second video is especially interes...

I made a few contacts on 40 meter CW using my old Hallicrafters HT-37 and Drake 2-B.  Happy New Year to all!  73   Bill 

Rarely if ever will we come across a high quality NETFLIX series built around a shortwave broadcast transmitter.  But that is what we have i...

There is so much important SSB history in this video from Bob Nichols, W9RAN.  I liked all of it,  but the on-the-air recording of a 1961 tr...

  Thanks to Jeff Murray for alerting us to this.  It is obviously from World War II.   If the new neighbors had  S-38s, well, that might hel...

This is almost like a nightmare.  I guess it could be worse -- they could all be E models.  https://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/ele/d/arl...

RTTY Model 15 Hello Bill, Greetings from a fellow ham in Northern Virginia. I have enjoyed the SolderSmoke podcast for a few years...

I liked both these videos.  Mike WU2D really does a great job.  He covers a LOT of technology and theory in two videos.  Thanks Mike!  

Winterfest S-38E on the left, junker on the right  I have been talking bad about the Hallicrafters S-38E receiver for several years now....