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Friday, August 26, 2011
Beautiful Homebrew Gear from Italy
http://nuke.ik0ixi.it/Autocostruzione/Ricetrasmettitori/tabid/484/Default.aspx
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Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Beautiful Shuttle-ISS Shot
For a better (high res) view and more details, go here:
http://news.discovery.com/space/big-pic-shuttle-endeavour-docked-space-station-110607.html
The digipeater on the ISS has been picking up my little 2 meter APRS sigs and sending them back down.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Italian Chemical Tailoring of Crystal Microphone Elements -- The Bugiardo Method
We will discuss this in SolderSmoke Podcast 133, but for those of you who are not among the MORE THAN 200 listeners who went to the recipe site, I thought I should post the REALLY INCREDIBLE e-mail that started all this.
Before you read it, you might want to fire up that Italian-English translation feature in Google and check out the meaning of some of names and places. Like Dr. Andrea BUGIARDO who wrote in the Italian magazine Radio-FURBIZIA while living in the beautiful mountain town of SCERZO-BARZELLETA in the picturesque (I'm sure!) province of TRUCO-IMBROGLIO.
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TO: soldersmoke@yahoo.com
FROM:i.nocente@primaprile.it
SUBJECT: CHEMICAL TAILORING OF CRYSTAL MICROPHONE AUDIO RESPONSE
Ciao Bill! Greetings from not-so-sunny Roma! After I read you blog posting (http://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2011/03/homebrew-literally-your-own-microphone.html) with the video about how to grow your own piezo-electric crystals at home, I was reminded of an article from an old Italian radio magazine that I came across not long ago. Having heard of your recent (well, long-standing) problems with audio quality and microphones, it occurred to me that this old Italian article might be the solution to your audio difficulties.
The article appeared in the Italian radio magazine "Radio-Furbizia" April 1950. Tough times in Italy! Hams had to be inventive and ingenious, and they had to put to work whatever resources they had at hand. Dottore Andrea Bugiardo, I0SOL, was clearly a man for those times. During the post-war period, writing from his hamshack in the beautiful village of Scherzo-Barzelleta, in the province of Truccoimbroglio, OM Bugiardo produced a steady stream of truly incredible ham radio innovations.As you know, life in an Italian home revolves around the kitchen, so it should come as no surprise that Bugiardo based many of his devices on things that he found there.
Bugiardo opens his April 1950 article with a really touching admission of his deep, unfulfilled yearning for a Astatic D-104 microphone. I know this mic was not warmly received by your listeners (insensitive brutes!) but for Bugiardo, the D-104, with its chrome and its art-deco lines was the epitome of ham radio class! As you know, style and good design are important for Italians -- this is the country of "bella figura!" But alas, the dire economic situation did not permit Dr. Bugiardo to buy his coveted chrome lollipop. But, being a true ham, a ham's ham, he decided to "roll his own"as you Americans would say. He decided to build his own D-104.
The exterior did not represent a major problem. He had many friends in Milano who could handle the needed metal and chrome work. The problem was electrical... or should I say electro-mechanical. You see, Bugiardo needed the key component, or perhaps I should say, the key ingredient: he needed the piezoelectric element, the transducer, the piezo-electric device that transforms sound to electricity. It is very interesting. In growing his crystals, Bugiardo employed essentially the same techniques as described in the video on your blog. But -- and here is where I think his article could help you -- he went a significant step further and described how -- by using simple substances found in any kitchen -- the audio characteristics of the microphone can be tailored to the needs of any individual human voice. Bugiardo's research showed that by adding certain common crystalline substances to the standard mix for piezo-electric crystals (the familiar Tartar sauce formula) we can actually come up with the kind of mic we need! No need for EQ or mixer boards! Just start out with the right kind of crystal for your voice, and you are, as you guys say, "good to go!
The physics of this is all based on the physical mechanics of the crystals -- motional inductance and all that. I'll spare you the gory details. Here is the essential information:
-- You start with the standard mix for the crystal element as described in the ARRL Handbooks (this formula appears in all the handbooks from the 40's and 50's).
-- In order to have a mic that accentuates the high notes in the voice, add approximately 5 grams of sugar to the mix.
-- For a stronger bass response, highlighting the low frequencies, add approximately 5 grams of salt. Ordinary table salt will do.
-- For a "punchy" DX-hunter's sound, Bugiardo recommends adding some Tabasco sauce to the Tartar sauce before the initial mixing. (He says this will give you about 3.2456 db gain!)
-- As for your whistling SSSSS problem, Bugiardo's "cook book" does seem to hint at a solution: He says that by adding some molasses to the mixture, you can sort of "smooth out" the response. (This is no doubt caused by the molasses adding its sticky-ness to the crystal matrix.) PLEASE give this a try Bill. Mama Mia! Those whistles hurt my ears!
Anyway, I hope this proves useful. We all really enjoy the podcast.
Ciao,
Carlo
Friday, April 1, 2011
More on Chemically Tailored Crystal Mic Elements
http://soldersmoke.com/microphone.htm
Check it out!
Monday, March 21, 2011
80 milliwatts to New Zealand (and Italy)
I measured the voltage at the antenna terminal this morning. Less than 2 volts peak. Assuming a 50 ohm load, that's about 80 milliwatts. This is all especially gratifying because yesterday I was out in the backyard with a slingshot and a fishing reel, putting a bit more wire into the trees. It worked!
Here's the transmitter and the schematic. FSK is from a simple two transistor multi-vibrator (G0UPL's circuit -- you can see it in the lower left):
Saturday, January 8, 2011
The Arduino Documentary
Arduino The Documentary (2010) English HD from gnd on Vimeo.
Embedded controllers may seem a bit far afield for SolderSmoke. After all, I kind of gave up on surface mount, and have pretty much resigned myself to "hardware defined radios." (Someone sent me a picture of a T-shirt that kind of captured the sentiment: "I PROGRAM IN SOLDER!") But still, for a number of reasons I find Arduino intriguing. Aside from the amazing things you can do with this device, I like the homebrew, hands-on aspect of it. As you will see in the documentary, there is a real spirit of international collaboration in Arduinoland -- Italians, Spaniards, Colombians, Americans all working together on the project (the documentary itself is also available in Spanish). I also like it because it has its roots in Italy. So, even if you are not into embedded controllers, check out the documentary. I think you will like it.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
SolderSmoke in Botswana!
I just completed reading your book tonight. I had taken it with me on the Dxpedition to Botswana and while there Jay W5SL read it and enjoyed it very much. But what was so great in his reading it was to see a good friend of mine mentioned in your book. He was there with us and having a great time working the pileups. This person was none other than Gianfranco I0ZY. I have visited with him at his office and operated his great station in his home there in Rome. What a small world it is. I will be back in Rome to pick up a new Amplifier from Gianfranco. 73' Charles Frost Frosty K5LBU
We had a blog post about Gianfranco and his amplifiers last year. Check it out here:
http://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2009/06/italian-experimental-station-in-good.html
Sunday, August 8, 2010
A confession
All OK here. We are getting settled. Our stuff should be arriving in the USA next week. We may have a new podcast out by early September.
We are still in a temporary apartment. This week Billy and I visited the local hardware store and got some very thin magnet wire. I have about 50 feet of it going from the balcony to a tree. As I type I'm listening to SSB net activity on 40 meters with my little Sony portable receiver. Man, that recent Coronal Mass Ejection really seems to have messed up propagation. But hopefully it is an indication that Ole' Sol is coming back to life.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Sunspot 1057 Doing Good Work for US!
My e-mail inbox also had evidence of good HF conditions. Take a look at this from AA1TJ:
IZ0PEC de AA1TJ/QRPp
Thank you for your patience in copying my signal on 20m CW this evening. I had been calling DX stations for several hours but you were the only one to answer. My homebrew rig has an output power of only 10mW (0.010 watts). The distance between us is 8793km; nearly one million km per Watt!. The antenna here is simply an end-fed wire.
I am amazed that you heard my 10mW signal in Rome. It's fantastic!
Again, thank you for patiently listening for my weak signal, OM. It would not have been possible without your very kind efforts.
Ciao,
Mike, AA1TJ
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Look West OM! (For Venus)
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Marconi's House in London
In London, the places where famous people lived are marked with Blue Plaques. I knew that Marconi's name was on the list, but I had never actually seen his plaque. When we were up in London last month we were staying in Marconi's old neighbourhood (Bayswater) so and Billy and I decided to take a look. Video by Billy.
This house is mentioned in the book Thunderstruck by Eric Larson and in Peter Jensen's wonderful Early Radio. Marconi lived here as a young man. His mother took him to London in order to get patent protection for his wireless invention. The way in which Marconi's mom watched out for her son's intellectual property rights reminds me of the way Bill Gates' dad watched out for his.
Marconi's arrival in the UK was a bit difficult. British customs officers were apparently very suspicious of the strange device being brought in by the young Italian. One book hinted that they might have thought that Marconi was involved in some plot to kill Queen Victoria. During the inspection serious damage was done to Marconi's rig.
Monday, January 25, 2010
More Mars (with olive oil)
We had clear skies this past weekend, and with Mars approaching full opposition, I had the telescope out. We got some better views of Mars than we had last week. When the atmosphere (ours!) would settle down a bit I could make out some of the dark "canali." The Northen polar cap was very visible. The moon was bright (first quarter I think) and so I was wondering if we'd be able to see the M31 galaxy in Andromeda. Even with the moon close in the sky, I had no trouble finding the galaxy using my old Soviet-made 7X50 binoculars. We also looked at the North America nebula in Orion's sword (very appropriate as we had Canadian friends with us).
My telescope (above) has a simple but effective Dobsonian mount. (This system is named for the amateur astronomy guru John Dobson -- interesting guy.) The 'scope basically slide on teflon pads. These pads need a bit of lubrication from time to time. Mine were getting a bit sticky, so I started to look around for something to to grease the teflon. The solution was literally all around me:
Worked like a charm!
Also got on the air with the HW-8 and worked stations on 80, 40, and 20, including two QRP stations.
Monday, January 18, 2010
The Sabine Shack
Here's the view:
Here's a little silent video we shot of the Sabine Shack:
The HW-8 runs of a 7AH Gell Cell that is charged by my Volkswagen panel. Antenna is a doublet fed by TV twin lead. The Blackberry provides internet access, and I can send in blog articles from it by e-mail.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Stradivari, Violins, Sunspots, and the Maunder Minimum
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/01/0107_040107_violin.html
A recent article in The Economist alerted me to the fact that OM Stradivari was busy in the shack, churning out mechanical audio oscillators well into his 90's. I thought that Stradivari's late start, and his success in his senior years makes him an inspiration for many of us. A quick look at the Strad-Wiki page confirms this: Stradivari didn't really hit his stride until age 54, and did his best work between age 54 and 81.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
On the air, out in the woods... Plus, olive news
Next week, a better antenna goes up.
I got some questions about the olive harvest. It seems that the trees around are place are about 200 years old -- mere kids, considering that there are olive trees in the world that are 2000+ years old.
As for the harvesting process, the shaking machine vibrates the tree for about 5 seconds. The workers have a collection tarp on the ground to catch the olives. Then they have machine that reels in the tarp.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Stagnosald! (Italian flux)
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Crossing the Pond to KZ1H
Anyway, from the courteous way in which he persisted in copying my QRP signal, I knew that OM George, KZ1H, was a FB ham. Sure enough, when I plugged his call into Google this morning, I was taken to a site with the above picture of George in his younger days. Note the bug and the mill, and the homebrew transmitter. Here is George's story:
I grew up in Corona, Queens, NYC. I became interested in radio at the age of ten or so. My father bought an "Eilen" and I was introduced to Morse code. I met many hams around town (W2HDK, W2KAP, W2APT, W2KCD, W2JGV?). They were all very cordial and happy to show off their rigs.
In April of 1939 (age 14), I took my test at the FCC office at 641 Washington St, Downtown NYC and became W2MDE. My father bought me a Hammarlund Comet Pro (plug-in coils with shield cans). I built an oscillator/ transmitter using a type 59 tube.
I was invited to join the W2USA radio club at the 1939 NY World's Fair. W2KU was the Chief Op and my boss. We handled a lot of traffic for the fair visitors and kept the station on the air during the winter when the fair closed between summer sessions.
At 16, I graduated from high school and went to work for a large patent law office as a clerk. From there I went to work for Hazeltine in Little Neck, NY. I thought I might faint when I saw that my first check at Hazeltine was signed by Jack Binns, the radio operator who was the subject of the book "SOS to the Rescue".
At 17, I was made chief inspector of Hazeltine's first war-time production line and worked along side of Frank Hinners.
When I turned 18, Mr. Bailey of the ARRL became head of the Bureau of Scientific Research and Development in Washington, DC. He invited me to become a member of the Army Intelligence Service when I was drafted, which I accepted.
After the war, I attended the Cooper Union School of Art in NYC. I worked for PAA, Grace Lines, Andrea, Sperry Gyroscope, Varian Corp, and Global Systems. Much of my career has been in microwaves. I have been retired for 20 years and am still active on the bands. My present call is KZ1H.
I have been married to my wife Mildred for 53 years. We have three daughters, Jean, Janet and Diane.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Olive Interference
Sunday, November 29, 2009
No Smoke, but stars, an HW-8, and one (dead) Cinghiale!
I had the telescope out this weekend -- we were looking at the moon, Jupiter, Mars, and the Orion nebula. Also watched a satellite going over shortly before dawn. And one meteor.
I was on the air a bit, on the CQ WW DX contest. Worked about six stations. Was on 40, 20, and 15 with the HW-8.
I will try to get SS 119 out as soon as I can. I hope all you turkey eaters had a good holiday.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
SolderSmoke Podcast #118
In SolderSmoke 118:
15 November 2009
Trip to the North of Italy -- All the way to Trieste!
SSSSS SSSSSSolution?
Playing with PSK-31 -- Shortwave Watching
I0/N2CQR wins CQ WW DX! (QRP, HB, DSB category)
New England Code Talker
Monitoring Apollo 11
Adventures in Surface Mount Soldering with Softrock 40
MAILBAG