WA4CHQ -- A Virginian QRPer and Homebrewer

    

This guy had a Drake 2-B,  Heathkit DX-35 with VF-1, and an FT-101EE.   He builds homebrew rigs.  He sailed from England to Virginia on a reproduction of a 1607 ship. 

He notes that Wes W7ZOI was and is his mentor. FB OM.  

Check out his QRZ page:  https://www.qrz.com/db/WA4CHQ 

SolderSmoke Podcast 263: DR-PR, UM, DCRX, SKN, Design, PSSST, W7ZOI, FT-101, HW32A, VK, HST, AMP, MAILBAG

Pete Juliano N6QW

February 23, 2026

SolderSmoke Podcast #263 is available for download: 

Audio:  http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke263.mp3

Video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn164glxQ6s

Opening 

May 26, 2014, coming up on 12 years! That was the 1^st podcast where Pete N6QW was interviewed by Bill in Podcast #161,  which means 102 podcasts ago. 12 Years of Julian-ismo.  Thanks Pete!  

What to build?  Question faced by VWS Makers Group and by Charlie of RedSummit RF.   Regen?  Test Gear?  Simple oscillator?  

But did you DESIGN it yourself?  What does that even really mean? Barrie Gilbert in Jim Williams' book:  https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2025/12/homebrew-you-say-but-did-you-design-it.html

Grayson KJ7UM on a podcast -- Make it your own way.  Copper Clad and Glue!  Manhattan style! "BUILD SOMETHING!:  Tube testers not necessary.  OK to call thermatrons "vacuum tubes."  No ruling on calling them "valves" yet. 

Pete:  

-- When hams were hams -- Turning a Heath monobander into a tribander

-- Simple SSB

-- W7ZOI rigs

-- The Yaesu FT-101

SHAMELESS COMMERCE DIVISION:   Mostly DIY RF!   Patreon!   But no more Amazon.  We do not want to help Bezos make more money. Even if this will cost us.   So please,  consider a donation or a Patreon sponsorship instead.  But no more Amazon through SolderSmoke.  

Bill:   

-- Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico on 2 meters -- status report. 

-- Working Australia on 20 meter SSB in the morning. 

-- The SpiderWeb net. 

-- The Hubble Space Telescope -- an old friend

-- One contact on Straight Key Night (Dean reminded me).  I worked NB1U on 20 meters with QCX from KD4EBM. 

Dean: 

-- The University of Michigan ant the Direct Conversion receiver project.  

-- Boxing up the amplifier.  A tale of woe.  Identifying oscillations.  A QSO with the Dominican Republic: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2026/02/a-qso-with-dean-kk4das-northern.html 

 Travails with other homebrew gear... Trying to find a working transceiver.

AI assisted repair of Bitx40 PA in my Mythbuster 

VWS club station update, tendency of Flex and other SDR makers to not release even basic technical information.

MAILBAG: 

Ian VK3MO  Huge antennas, big signal, friendship with WA3O https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2025/11/vk3mo-and-wa3o-brotherhood-of-ham-radio.html

Bob KD4EBM  2 meter propagation info

Todd K7TFC  -- Mostly DIY RF

Mike K6STR  Worked Pete on 40, building for CW and SSB on 2 meters

Grayson KJ7UM    German Avionics,  MMM Origin.  Old Steampunk Homebrew rig: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2025/12/a-very-interesting-old-steam-punk.html   

Phil  W1PJE   Forrest Mims III     Mims's sad denial on climate change. 

Ciprian  YO2DXE         Heard the SAQ Alternator  see: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2025/12/alexanderson-alternator-on-172-khz.html

Tom NS6T:  Very useful azimuth map with grey lines: https://ns6t.net/AzShadowMap/experimental.html

Walter KA4KXX -- 20 meter Direct Conversion Receiver.  FB Walter! 

WN2A Mike   Dos Equis man is BACK! https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2026/01/hes-back-dos-equis-man-most-interesting.html

KB4HG Rhett:  On USB on the Old Military Radio Net with a PRC-74.  Want one! 

"Rig Here is Homebrew" -- The Joys and Sorrows of Building your own Rigs

This is kind of a re-run.  I came across it today on YouTube and thought it was pretty good.  So here it is again.  

 -------------------

Dean KK4DAS asked me to speak to our local radio club, the Vienna Wireless Society.   It was a lot of fun.  I talked about my evolution as a homebrewer, some of the rigs I made, the moments of joy, and the tales of woe.   You can watch the presentation in the video above. 

I was really glad to be able to explain in the presentation the importance of people like Pete, Dex, Farhan, Wes, Shep and even Dilbert. 

I was also pleased to get into the presentation the N2CQR sign that Peter VK2EMU made for me.  Thanks Peter! 

Here is the URL to the YouTube video (also above): 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3414&v=VHSr-v4QO7Q&feature=emb_logo

And here are the PowerPoint slides I used: 
https://viennawireless.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/VWS-presentation-Rig-here-is-homebrew.pdf

Hiss, Filters, QRM, and Hearing Loss: Do we need AF filters in direct conversion receivers?

L6 is the 88mH toroid

Messages on Discord about the need to knock down higher frequency audio response in the SolderSmoke direct conversion receiver got me thinking.

I agree with Rick Campbell and others on the benefits of hearing a "wide open" direct conversion receiver. But Rick and others have built DC receivers with 3 kHz low pass AF filters. This made me ask myself a question: Is an audio filter in a direct conversion receiver a good idea?

And I started wondering if perhaps I was being too dismissive about the complaints about high frequency audio -- I had been attributing them to newcomers who were just unaccostomed to radio noise or "static." But maybe there was more to it than that. Maybe a big part of the problem was in my head, specifically in my ears. So this morning I did an experiment. I took an online hearing test. First, without my hearing aids: As expected, it showed significant high frequency loss. (It was as if the US Army had installed a 3 kHz audio low pass filter in my head!) Then I put my hearing aids in and retook the test: This time I passed the test and showed no loss. I then listened to the DC receiver with my hearing aids in. Now I could hear what builders on the Discord server were commenting on: I could hear higher frequency hiss, and, more importantly, stations that were producing 4-5 kHz sounds on my speaker were audible and annoying.

So I went back to Wes Hayward's November 1968 QST article. In his receiver, he has a low pass AF filter using an 88 MILLIHenry coil and a couple of capacitors to ground. I had a few of the coils (given to me years ago by a NOVA QRP club member) so I built it. With my hearing aids in, I noticed an immediate improvement. I then did what one of the Discord builders did and put the filter in with a switch that would let me make "with and without" comparisons. The filter definitely cuts down on any AF above about 3.5 kHz. And it doesn't seem to do damage to the desired signal. This is useful. I left the W7EL diplexer in the circuit.

This filter won't solve the image or "opposite sideband" problem inherent to simple DC receivers, but it will help with signals or noise that are producing tones above about 3.5 kHz in the receiver. I think this is especially important in countries in which there is a lot of SSB crowding on 40 meters. The UK, for example, has an allocation from 7.0 to 7.2 MHz. In the US we go from 7.0 to 7.3 MHz. That is a big difference.

So the answer is probably yes, an AF filter in a direct conversion receiver is probably a good idea, especially if you can switch the filter out of the receiver. You can live without these filters. Not having the filter keeps the receiver very simple, and lets it sound really great. But having the filter in there does help reduce interference and high frequency hiss. So I think this is a useful add-on mod for builders who see a need to cut down on the kind of interference that a lack of this filter causes.

In 2019 W7ZOI noted: "Another unusual element is the 88 mH toroid used in the audio low pass filter at the detector output. A viable substitute would be a 100 mH inductor with radial leads. The muRata 19R107C (from Mouser) should work. Bourns also offers a variety of similar parts."

Simplicity, Presence, Mods, and Direct Conversion Receivers

Over on the Discord server that we set up for the SolderSmoke Challenge project.  One of the guys who succeeded in building the receiver (kudos to him!) commented that, for some reason, his receiver didn't sound good on SSB.  I was kind of surprised by this, because usually we hear the opposite:  that direct conversion receivers sound GREAT on phone.  In fact, this may be the origin of the term "presence" when used to describe the audio quality of DC receivers.  So I sent this note on the issue: 

Sounds like you are on the right track in wanting to understand the circuitry .   I would just point out that even experienced users of commercial SSB radios are usually impressed by the sound quality of simple direct conversion receivers like this one.  This is the origin of the term "presence"  -- Doug DeMaw used this word when describing the experience of listening to Wes Hayward's 1968 direct conversion receiver.  He said it made the guy from the distant station sound as if he were "present" in the room with the receiver!  From an article about this event:  "This was the epiphany, the moment when Doug realized that solid-state technology had produce a new way to build a simple receiver. Doug tuned the receiver higher in the band and found some SSB. Again it was like nothing he had ever heard. It was as if the voice came from the same room. Doug used the term presence in his description."  So you should not have diminished expectations for this simple receiver.    Realize that Wes's receiver was even simpler than ours!    I don't feel a need to defend this design, but will point out that these receiver can sound great if used properly.   Here is a recording of one of these receivers in action in December 2024:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSI7YDJGAos  And this one: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2024/12/listening-to-40-meters-on-dc-receiver.html  Mods are great, but remember that you CAN diminish the simplicity and thus the "presence" of these receivers by strapping on a lot of unnecessary  features:  filters, amplifiers, Digital VFOs, frequency counters, etc.  especially if these mods are put in there to address shortcomings that don't really exist.  73  Bill N2CQR

What do you folks think of all this?  

BTW, you too can get involved in the project by visiting our Discord server.   Just go to Discord and set up (it is easy) you own server.  Then use this logon to get to the SolderSmoke Discord server: 

Join the discussion - SolderSmoke Discord Server:

https://discord.gg/Fu6B7yGxx2

Honorable Mention: Andreas DL1AJG's THREE SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receivers for Biologists

 

Andreas DL1AJG was another of those intrepid hams who,  in the dark of winter 2023 took up the SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver Challenge in order to test our receiver (before we pushed high school kids to build it).  Andreas came to the task with a lot of useful teaching experience. At the time he was an academic  biologist and had been teaching a course called "Applied Electronics for Biologists."  See: 

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2022/08/can-biologist-fix-radio.html

Some of Andreas's students

I put these receivers in the "Honorable Mention" category only because they deviated a bit from the basic schematic:  they used an indoor ferrite antenna, had an RF amplifier ahead of the mixer, and did not use a transformer in the AF amp.  But they are very clearly the SolderSmoke DC receiver, they succeeded in inhaling RF, and Andreas and his students built them to help us.  

Here is the schematic they used: 

Click on the image for a better view

Here is an e-mail exchange I had with Andreas when the scholatic dust had settled in June 2023: 

Dear Bill,

Please my apologies for my late update on our DCR project. We started with the course in the semester break and once the semester started only a handful of students were able to finish their receiver. A long shelf of shame .... 

Here is what we've got so far (those were finished at the end of April already). 3 nice DCRs completely sufficient to copy CW indoors without additional antennas starting from late afternoon. Strong stations can be heard all day. I found that coupling some 6m of wire with one or two windings to the ferrite core can boost the signal dramatically but can also increase noise. 

The PTO is based on your design (Bill Meara N26QR &  Dean KK4DAS) which was sparked by Farhan  (VU2ESE) , except that I've swapped the FET for a NPN. The input amplifier and antenna is from the JUMA active ferrite antenna by Matti Hohtola (OH7SV), the band pass filter is from Hans Summers (G0UPL), the mixer and the headphone amplifier is inspired by Pete Juliano (N6QW), you told me that the diplexer (as well as the whole DCR idea) is attributed to Wes Hayward (W7ZOI) and the perfect schematics of Rick Scott (N3FJZ) where crucial to get me started in the first place. I enjoy keeping track of original sources, as I would do in science. This shows that even little achievements are based on the ideas of many other great people -  and this is nothing to be ashamed of. 

This was a lot of fun! Thank You!

Best and yours sincerely,

Andreas

Wow, the direct conversion re-engineering of education continues, this time at graduate-school level with biologists in Munich!  Amazing.  

Andreas points out that his group was also plagued by semester-related problems that caused many additions to the German shelf of shame.  Let's hope that someday soon these builders will come to their senses and join the ranks of those who have finished their homebrew projects.  

Looking at the schematic (above) of Andreas's project, there are a couple of significant differences from ours:   

-- Their AF amp used a transformer-less push-pull design.  We had considered this but abandoned it thinking that it would be too complicated to explain the workings of this circuit to our students.

-- Most significant, is Andreas's use of a ferrite rod antenna and an RF amplifier.   I think a simple 33 foot quarter wave antenna (with a ground or a counterpoise) might work better.  But hey,  to  each his own!   The important thing is that a number of these receivers were successfully built.  They look beautiful.  

Congratulations to Andreas and the successful Munich homebrewers!  

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

Thanks to Andreas DL1AJG.  Welcome to the Hall of Fame.   

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

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

Homebrew Challenges Much Like Ours: The Direct Conversion Receiver of Wes Hayward W7ZOI and Dick Bingham W7WKR -- QST November 1968

 

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-DX/QST/60s/QST-1968-11.pdf

I was thinking about some of the challenges faced by the builders of the SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Challenge Receiver, and about how similar these challenges are to those described by Wes Hayward W7ZOI and Dick Bingham W7WKR in the November 1968 QST article that launched the direct conversion revolution among radio amateurs. You can read the full article beginning on page 15 in the link above.

Some observations and comparisons:    

--The November 1968 QST article said, "This receiver was designed for simplicity and ease of duplication, rather than ultimate performance."  Ours too! 

-- Wes's receiver has a single tuned circuit in the BP filter.  Ours has two LC circuits. 

-- Wes's mixer is also a diode ring.  He starts out using hot carrier (Shotkey) diodes, but later concludes that ordinary diodes would work just fine.  We reached a similar conclusion.  But I wonder if the ordinary diodes would work well with a low output level from the single FET VFO (see below). 

-- His oscillator uses a single MPF-102 in a Hartley configuration with no voltage regulation, and no buffer.  We have two active devices and a Zener diode.  This article makes me think we could have made our PTO even simpler.  

-- Wes's receiver has a low-pass filter between the mixer and the AF amp.  The cutoff is at around 2 kHz.  This seems quite low in frequency and may reflect a preference for CW.  It features 88 mH coils that are now quite hard to find. The goal of this filter seems to be to prevent signals from beyond the audible frequency range from overloading the AF amp.  We ended up using the diplexer from the W7EL optimized QRP rig.  I think this diplexer takes care of the problem.  

-- The W7ZOI/W7WKR receiver has no AF nor RF gain control.  When encountering a strong SSB signals, the article recommends detuning the BP filter.  I think our AF gain control, and the mod calling for an RF gain control will give the operator, well, more control and will prevent strong SSB signals from overloading the AF amplifiers.  The RF gain pot might also help prevent SW broadcast AM breathrough. 

-- One big difference between our receiver and the November 1968 QST receiver:  isolation of the VFO.  The QST article puts the VFO in an aluminum box above the chassis.  We have the PTO without any shielding right alongside the other circuits.  Builders might want to experiment with the kind of isolation recommended by the QST article.  Would this kind of isolation and shielding improve performance? 

-- Wes also obviously contended with oscillation by the AF amplifier, as did many of our builders.  The QST article contains a number of recommendations: First test the amplifier to see if you can hear noise.  If it oscillates, try increasing the value of the decoupling resistors. (Many of our builders added electolytic caps to the DC power line in the AF amp.)  The article recommends trying a .01uF cap across the output.  It also recommends keeping the output of the amplifier away from the low pass filter at the input.  Wes's design has no transformer as it makes use of high Z headphones. 

-- The QST article says that the product detector performed adequetly with an LO injection level of .6 volts peak-to-peak.  This seems quite low to me,  but perhaps this would work with hot carrier diodes in the diode ring?    This might be one good reason to use diodes that have a lower turn-on voltage -- you could get away with using a super-simple VFO even if it provides lwer voltages to the mixer.  It might be fun to experiment in this area.  

As readers can see, the challenges faced by the builders of the SolderSmoke DC receiver were very similar to those face by the builders of  the November 1968 machine.  I think all of us should find this very encouraging.  

Thanks again Wes and Dick. 

Direct Conversion Receivers -- Some Amateur Radio History

Click on each of the 6 pages below for a clearer view, or on the N5DUX  link at the bottom for a .pdf

https://www.n5dux.com/ham/files/pdf/Direct%20Conversion%20Receivers%20History%20-%20W7ZOI.pdf

Diode Ring VFO Part II: How Much LO into a Diode Ring?

Last week we were trying to determine how much LO injection we really need in the SolderSmoke Direct-Conversion receiver.  The answer seemed to be "enough to turn the diodes in the diode ring on and off."  Ok, but this brought us to the question of how far we should go with this.  Does it make sense to go for more LO signal? If so, why? And how much more?   Todd VE7BPO offered a very thoughtful comment.  He pointed out that for a simple receiver like this, turning the diodes on and off would probably be sufficient.  Sometimes we hear 7 dbm, others say 10 dbm, or even 0 dbm.  But what is the logic that underpins these figures?   Solid State Design for the Radio Amateur (SSDRA) provides the answer on page 120.  See above.  

With a diode ring (or other switching mixer) you want the LO (VFO or PTO) to be the signal that is switching the diodes  You do not want the incoming RF signal to also be strong enough to switch the diodes.  Having the RF do this would result in something of a mess at the output.  

If you have a weak LO signal going into the mixer, it might on peaks reach the level of turning the diodes on.  You will get some mixing action.  But as the SSDRA paragraph indicates, during much of the LO cycle the diodes will not be switched on.  And they won't be firmly turned off either.   A strong RF signal could come in, add to the LO voltage, and switch the diodes.  That would not be good. 

So if you put a strong LO signal in there, on half the cycle that signal will be turning two of the diodes on.  But on the other half of the signal, that same LO signal will bereversed in polarity,  turning those same diodes off.  Hard off.  Definitively off.  It would take one very strong RF signal to overcome the reverse bias signal put on those two diodes by that LO voltage.  That is the advantage of a stronger LO signal.  

 

So Many Great Pictures, So Much Radio History

 

I make it a point to go back to Wes W7ZOI's web site every once in a while.  That is always a good idea. This time I found myself looking at the page that described Farhan's 2017 visit.  Wow, just look at the guys at that table. 

-- Wes W7ZOI.  The man who launched the solid state direct-conversion receiver revolution.  Author of SSDRA and EMRFD.  And so much more. 

-- Roger KA7EXM.  Son of Wes.  The guy who developed the receiver for the Ugly Weekender transmitter.  

-- Rick KK7B.   The guru of phasing type direct-conversion single signal receivers.  

-- Roy W7EL.  Father of EZNEC antenna modeling software. And the optimized QRP transceiver, with the diplexer that we are using (perhaps improperly) in our high school direct conversion receiver project. 

-- Jeff WA7MLH.  Builder of so many of the great projects in SSDRA.  Made me feel good about gear that looked a bit rough.  

-- Farhan VU2ESE.  Creator of the BITX20, the BITX 40 Module, the uBITX, the sBITX and so much more. 

Just scroll through the site.  You will see Rick there with his Classic 40 phasing receiver.  Roy with his  Optimized transceiver.  Roger with the Ugly Weekender transceiver. 

Finally, the morse key that Farhan gave to each of the participants.  Farhan gave me one of these too.  I will try to use it from the Dominican Republic on Straight Key Night. 

Check out the site: 

https://w7zoi.net/Farhan-visit.html

A 40 Meter Direct Conversion Receiver from M0NTV -- With some SolderSmoke Comments

Nick's video appears above. 

First, let me say FB Nick.   It is nice to see you making use of the AGC amp designed by Wes and Bob,  using the board from Todd's Mostly DIY RF, using a mix of homebrew pads and Me-Squares  from Rex, and finally the Franklin Oscillator that we spent so much time talking about on SolderSmoke.  

But here are some comments:  

-- I still don't think you need that RF amplifier in front of the mixer. And I suspect you would be better off without it.  We did not use one in our high school 40 meter project, and never missed it.  In fact, on one version of the high school receiver I even put in a simple 10k pot as an attenuator (no RF amp).  Even up on 20 meters, I do not have an RF amplifier ahead of the diode ring mixer on either of the Mythbuster rigs I have built.  Nick,  maybe experiment a bit more and try the receiver just going from the BP filter into the mixer and see what happens.  

Note that Wes W7ZOI DID NOT have an REF amp ahead of the diode ring mixer in his original 1968 40 meter Direct Conversion receiver (the one that launched the solid-state DC recevier revolution): 

-- The Franklin oscillator is an interesting, but complicated circuit.  The gimmick is, well, gimmicky.  Here is the thing:  You can achieve similar levels of stability using simple conventional, single transistor oscillators.  We dispensed with the variable capacitors, and used PTO--style variable inductors. They worked fine.  This Franklin oscillator still does seem to drift a bit, right?   I would ground the board to the inside of the metal box.    

I would also try putting all the stages on a single ground plane.  This might help.  

Ham Radio -- How To Build Stable Oscillators

Spasibo Vasily!  

Wow, thanks a lot Todd.   There is some great wisdom in your video.  You clearly demonstrate that it is possible to build your own stable LC VFOs.  Sure, for many the arrival of the synthesizer chip put an end to this kind of project.  But some of us still want to fully homebrew all the stages in our rigs, and not be dependent on mysterious chips and software written by others.  

I really liked the way Todd acknowedged the tremendous contributions of Wes, and Roy, and Rick and others. 

Of course, all of Todd's recommendations are right on the mark.  I have been following most of them (but I do fall short and occassionally use a Manhattan pad or two).  Todd even gets into the mysterious and arcane practice of boiling (three times!) toroidal transformers.  I do have a preference for air-core coils, but that boiling sounds like fun. 

One thing that Todd and Brad might also want to consider:   tuning linearity.  Too often LC VFOs end up having the frequency spacing very close at one end of the dial and very broad at the other end.  "Bob's Electron Bunker" provides some great tools for alleviating this problem:

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-cure-for-frequency-bunching-up-in.html

Thanks again Todd! 

Will KI4POV on QSO Today with Eric 4Z1UG

I really liked Eric's interview with Will KI4POV:  

https://www.qsotoday.com/podcasts/KI4POV

Will has appeared on this blog and podcast before: 

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/search?q=KI4POV

There were a lot points in Eric's interview with Will that resonated with me: 

-- Will told about how his very understanding and perceptive wife KNOWS when a homebrew project is not going well.  Yea, we have the same situation here!

-- Will mentions the wisdom of Wes Hayward, Doug Demaw, and Pete Juliano.  

-- Eric mentioned that there is a bit of his own blood in most of his homebrew projects. One slip of he screwdriver is often enough.  My projects also often have a bit of my A+ in them.  This adds soul to the new machine. 

-- Will spoke of S-38s and HW-8s.  I have both these devices here with me in the Dominican Republic. I  have used both of them here.

-- Will mentioned the magic that comes when you listen with a receiver you built yourself.  Yes. 

-- NanoVNA.  Yes, very useful.  

Lots more great stuff in this interview.  Thanks Eric and thanks Will. 

KE5HPY Builds a QRP Transmitter

 

FB Chuck, very cool.  Please send us more reports on this rig.  

Chuck has been on the blog many times, with many projects: 

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/search?q=KE5HPY

73  Bill 

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

Bill/Pete:

 

Thought you would appreciate a recent project inspired by the fabulous EMRFD.  This started as a test bed W7ZOI universal tx to evaluate my stock of RF BJTs and employ some FT-243s in the shack.  That was interesting by itself but the 16-32 dBm output (choice of device really matters!) did not reach the intended targets using my 40m dipole.  So, add a W7EL RF PA and a nifty, clean 7W emerges after damping output from Q2.  The final is pleasantly efficient and needs only a modest heatsink to survive key down for 60 seconds.  KFS then reported S7-9.  Success.  Time to box it up and go XTO, add a meter output at 30dB down and an RF driven LED indicator.  Left room to add an ATtiny85 CQ keyer but ran out of time.  Had to move house and knock down my 40-6m antennas.  That was the most painful part of moving.  So this rig sits while I find a new place to hang antennas.  Eventually, the TX will get a RX mate when it is possible to box up a 40m DC RX with Si5751 and OLED display. Am still trying to solve how to mount an OLED display cleanly in an aluminum box. First, I have to reconstruct my workbench.

 

Keep up your good work, and that is no April Fool’s joke. 

 

73,

 

Chuck KE5HPY

Old Tricks, Lore, and Art -- Freezing and Baking our LC VFOs -- An Example from Cuba

Pavel CO7WT explained why Cuban hams used a process of thermal endurance to improved the frequency stability of their homebrew rigs: 

  --------------------

I'm CO7WT from Cuba, I started my endeavor in ham radio with a islander board.

They (FRC, like ARRL but in Cuba) made a print of a PCB to build the Islander, with component numbers and values, making construction fool proof, I think it was on the 90 or end of the 80...

Mine was built with scraps from an old KRIM 218 Russian B&W TV as Coro's explain, later on I get the 6bz6 and 6be6 tubes for the receiver (this worked better than the Russian parts) the VFO was transistorized, made with Russian components. A friend CO7CO Amaury, explain me a trick: thermal endurance:

For a week put a crust of ice on the VFO board by placing it in a frosty fridge during the night. Put them in the sun by day. This indeed improved stability, this was an old trick.

By thermal endurance I mean improving thermal resistance vs tolerance, meaning that tolerance doesn't vary as much with temperature changes.

 It's crazy, but it worked!!

I remember that my vfo was on 7 MHz, with Russian kt315 as normal Russian transistors and capacitors, nothing 1-5%, 20% at most, it ran several khz in 5-10 min, mounted on a Russian "Formica" board (no PCB) and wired underneath.

After that treatment to the complete board with components and everything, including the variable capacitor; I managed to get it to "only" noticeably in the ear after 30-40 minutes.

To me it was magic!!

Basically, what I'm describing is just "thermal annealing", but Cuban-style and with more extreme limits.

In a refrigerator you could easily reach -10 c and in the sun for a day in Cuba 60-80 celsius at least.

In Cuba in the 1990s-2010s many designs of DSB radios proliferated, both direct conversion and super heterodine (using an intermediate frequency)

At first tubes and then transistors, mostly using salvaged parts, so it was common to find 465/500 kHz (if common Russian) 455 khz and 10.7 Mhz with or without "wide" filters since narrow filters for SSBs were not scarce: they were almost impossible to get.

Not only that, crystals, ifs, PCBs, transistors, etc.

Then, around the 2000s, Russian 500 khz USB filters began to appear (from Polosa, Karat, etc. equipment from companies that deregistered and switched to amateur radio) and that contributed to improving... Even though at 7 MHz 500kc if is very close.

I made many modifications with the years mostly from 1998 to 2004 ish... better filters in front of the first RX stage (same IF described between stages) improved selectivity and out of band rejection, remember we had on that days broadcast as low as 7100 khz

Tx part was a pair of russian 6P7 (eq. RCA 807) in paralell, etc.

The Jagüey and others is one of those evolutions...

 This is something I remember...

73 CO7WT

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This is not as crazy as it sounds.  We can find versions of the same technique in the writings of Roy Lewellan W7EL, Doug DeMaw W1FB, and Wes Hayward W7ZOI.  I found this 2007 message from our friend Farhan VU2ESE: 

I think the word 'annealing' is a bit of a misnomer. the idea is to thermally expand and contract the wiring a few times to relieve any mechanical stresses in the coil. after an extreme swing of tempuratures, the winding will be more settled.
this techniques owes itself to w7EL. I first read about it in his article on the 'Optimized transceiver' pulished in 1992 or so.
but all said and done, it is part of the lore. it needs a rigorous proof.
- farhan

https://groups.io/g/BITX20/topic/copper_wire_annealing/4101565?p=,,,20,0,0,0::recentpostdate/sticky,,,20,1,860,4101565,previd%3D1193595376000000000,nextid%3D1194269624000000000&previd=1193595376000000000&nextid=1194269624000000000

And here is another example of coil boiling: 

https://www.qsl.net/kd7rem/vfo.htm

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I can almost hear it,  all the way from across the continent:  Pete N6QW should, please, stop chuckling.  Obviously these stabilization techniques are not necessary with his beloved Si5351.  Some will see all this as evidence of the barbarity and backwardness of LC VFOs.  But I see it as another example of lore, of art in the science of radio. (Even the FCC regs talk about "Advancing the radio art." ) This is sort of like the rules we follow for LC VFO stability:  keep the frequency low, use NP0 or silver mica caps, use air core inductors, keep lead length short, and pay attention to mechanical stability.  Sure, you don't have to do any of this with an Si5351.  Then again, you don't have to do any of this to achieve stability in an Iphone. But there is NO SOUL in an Iphone, nor in an Si5351.  Give me a Harley, a Colpitts, or a Pierce any day.  But as I try to remember, this is a hobby.  Some people like digital VFOs.  "To each, his own." 

Thanks Pavel. 

My Manhattan-style Termination Insensitive Amplifier Production Line

 

You gotta love the name, right?  It sounds like some sort of psychological condition.  Perhaps someone who just doesn't care  if his girlfriend breaks up with him, or is indifferent to getting fired.   

But no, we know that that's not what it means. 

I recently had to make three sets of TIA amps for my new 15-10 rig.  First, I decided not to use the boards provided by Todd of Mostly DIY RF.  You can see one of these boards above the tin shears in the picture above.  Note how compact it is.  Even though you would need two of these (one for receive, one for transmit) to get what you need for a bilateral rig like the BITX,  using these boards (as I did on my 17-12 rig) saves you a lot of space.   But this time I wanted to build a rig that is TOTALLY DIY RF.  So out came the tin shears and the super glue. 

First I decided on the Manhattan pad placement.  I used a pattern that had worked on previous rigs. Pete is right -- I use a lot of TIAs (but no, I have no tattoo of the circuit anywhere on my anatomy!).  I scaled it down a bit, thinking that I could come a bit closer to Todd's compactness.  

Knowing that I would need three sets,  I first made three boards.   Then it was just a matter of soldering in the components:  I did resistors, then capacitors, then, finally, the transistors.   In this way I was able to put together the three dual TIA amps in a couple of morning build sessions.  It was kind of tight and I had to be careful to avoid wiring errors or unintentional shorts.   But it worked. 

I like the TIA circuit.  It lets me select the gain of a stage by simply using two resistor values from W7ZOI and K3NHI's chart.  And with this circuit I know that it will look like 50 ohms both ways.  This is really important on bilateral rigs like this.  

I don't think there is anything wrong with using BITX-like bilateral circuits or TIAs or LC VFOs.  This is all for fun right?  I just like using these circuits.  

My friend Pete is right in pointing out that the bilateral concept did not originate with the BITX -- it has been around for a long time, going back at least as far as the Cosmophone.  But I think Farhan's BITX definitely moved it into the solid-state homebrew mainstream.   Three cheers for Farhan for doing that.  

F6CRP's FB Homebrew Receiver

I like F6CRP's homebrew receiver.  I like the way he presents it (block by block) and I like the inclusion of the W7ZOI IF board. The JF3HZB VFO is quite cool (even though it is digital),   We have posted about this VFO several times: 

 https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2022/05/who-is-jf3hzb-creator-of-that-nice.html

Denis has a very nice station and workbench: https://www.qrz.com/db/F6CRP

He also has some very nice videos on his YouTube channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@radiorider8249/featured

Thanks Denis! 

Jerry KI4IO (Wizard of Warrenton) Describes His ALL ANALOG Phasing Transceiver -- Bob Crane FDIM interview #3 (audio)

Wow, this one really resonated with me.  Jerry had me won over when, early in the interview, he described his decision to dispense with the Si5351/Arduino combo:  "I said the hell with this digital stuff!"  I hear you Jerry.  I feel your pain OM.  

Jerry then goes on to describe a rig with bits of circuitry from some legendary sources:  The Ugly Weekender transmitter.  SSDRA and EMRFD.  W7ZOI's 1968 Direct Conversion receiver.  

Jerry discusses the "presence" of the direct conversion receiver.  And he decries the pernicious effects of AGC.  (Indeed, real hams MANUALLY control the gain.) 

The Wizard of Warrenton then shares some important tribal wisdom:  After building that new piece of gear, leave it on the bench for a couple of weeks.  Beware of "radio infatuation" (what a great term -- we will have to include this in the lexicon).    Jerry points out that while at first, the new rig will seem just perfect, with time time the need for improvements and modifications will become apparent. 

Jerry also has connections to India and Nepal (where he helped Father Moran).  See: https://www.qrz.com/db/KI4IO

Here is W8SX's interview with Jerry: 

http://soldersmoke.com/KI4IO23.mp3

Thanks Jerry!  Thanks Bob! 

Retro QRP Rigs of the 1960's, 70's, and 80's -- Video by Mike WU2D

It is time to put aside (again!) all of the heated ideological arguments about the power level that defines "low power."  Just sit back and enjoy this wonderful trip down QRP memory lane. 

Mike's description of the simple, single-transistor QRP transmitter was really nice.   I recently made something similar: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2023/02/first-qso-with-high-school-receiver-100.html  And Mike does a nice plug for our beloved Michigan Mighty Mite.  Go CBLA! 

The modular idea:  words to live by my friends. 

40673!  TT2!  And G3RJV's PW Severn - indeed, bow your heads!

Wow, the Ten Tec Power Mite (or Might!) -- I still want one.  Same for the Argonaut -- what a great name (sounds like a "magic carpet), and with SSB to boot!  I want to join the Argonaut cult! 

I have both the HW-7 and HW-8 (the HW-8 is heading to the Dominican Republic).  This video makes me want to fire up the HW-7.  Maybe on 40.  

My 40 meter homebrew rig (Digi-Tia) has in it the filter from that old Yaesu FT-7 rig.  The filter was given to me by Steve "Snort Rosin" Smith.  https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2015/05/bitx-digi-tia-build-update-2-installing.html  

Thanks to Mike for including me in the credit roll at the end.  What a great group of people -- it is a real honor to be listed with those folks.