15 Meter Homebrew SSB Rig As Heard in Mexico City

 19 August 2023. Ralph XE1RK recorded part of our QSO and played it back to me. Thanks Ralph!

I was running about 75 watts to a hex beam aimed Southwest.

A Surprisingly Good Movie from the Late 1960s: "The Ham's Wide World" (Video)

I found this movie to be surprisingly good.  Narrated by Arthur Godfrey, it features Barry Goldwater, and a lot of other hams.  There is a homebrewer too!  Lots of  old rigs we know and love:  a Drake 2-B, a couple of Galaxy Vs, a Benton Harbor lunchbox, Heathkit SB-series rigs, many Swans, and was that an HQ-170 that I saw in there?  There are also many cool antennas, including a 15 meter quad set up by a bunch of Southern California teenagers. 

Near the end, when they visit ARRL Headquarters, we briefly see none-other-than Doug DeMaw, W1FB!  FB!  

Please take a look at this video and post comments about the rigs, antennas, and radio amateurs that you see in the film. 

Emilio's Mirror of JF1OZL's Site

JF1OZL's site was for many years a real treasure trove and source of inspiration for homebrewers around the world.  It recently disappeared from the internet.  And I find no listing for JF1OZL on QRZ.com.   I hope Kazuhiro is OK.  

Emilio in Mexico has put up a mirror site.  Thanks Emilio.  We need to protect and preserve JF1OZL's work. 

https://www.emilio.com.mx/jf10zl/

Here is a SolderSmoke blog post on Kazuhiro from 2011: 

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2011/12/homebrew-hero-kazuhiro-sunamura-jf1ozl.html

Elser-Mathes Cup Opportunity!

I'm sure he'll be on the air.  With a homebrew rig.

Stay thirsty my friends!

The Knack in Mexico, Engineer and Inventor

Our correspondent in Guadalajara, Roberto XE1GXG, had earlier posted a comment on Guillermo Gonzalez Camarena, an inventor who worked on color TV. This morning I had the chance to check out the Wikipedia article on OM Guillermo. I was struck by the telltale signs of The Knack. This is further proof that the phenomenon is truly global. Excerpts from the Wikipedia article:

Guillermo González Camarena (February 17, 1917 – April 18, 1965) (aged 48), was a Mexican engineer who was the inventor of a color-wheel type of color television, and who also introduced color television to Mexico.

Born in Guadalajara in 1917, his family moved to Mexico City when Guillermo was almost 2 years old. As a boy he made electrically propelled toys, and at the age of twelve built his first Amateur radio.

In 1930 he graduated from the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineers (ESIME) at the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) with an engineering degree; he obtained his first radio license two years later.

He was also an avid stargazer; he built his own telescope and became a regular member of the Astronomical Society of Mexico.

González Camarena invented the "Chromoscopic adapter for television equipment", an early color television transmission system. A U.S. patent application (2,296,019) states:

“

My invention relates to the transmission and reception of colored pictures or images by wire or wireless...

”

On August 31, 1946, González Camarena sent his first color transmission from his lab in the offices of The Mexican League of Radio Experiments, at Lucerna St. #1, in Mexico City. The video signal was transmitted at a frequency of 115 MHz. and the audio in the 40 meter band.

He died in a car accident in Puebla on April 18, 1965, returning from inspecting a television transmitter in Las Lajas, Veracruz.

A field-sequential color television system similar to his Tricolor system was used in NASA's Voyager mission in 1979, to take pictures and video of Jupiter.^[1]

In 1995, a Mexican science research and technology group created La Fundación Guillermo González Camarena (The Guillermo González Camarena Foundation), which benefits creative and talented inventors in Mexico.

At the same time, the National Polytechnic Institute began construction on the Centro de Propiedad Intelectual "Guillermo Gonzalez Camarena" (Guillermo González Camarena Intellectual Property Center).

Homo Ludens!

Brought to our attention by Jim, AL7RV.
Check it out: http://ludens.cl/index.html

Balloons! Space Stations! Aurora!

My in-box seemed to have an outer space theme today. First, from Guanajuato, Mexico comes word that the radio club there is planning a second edge-of-space balloon launch. SARSEM ICARUS II is scheduled to go up on 20 November carrying a VHF/UHF repeater. SARSEM ICARUS I was obviously a big success. Check out the picture it took from 29000 meters up (above). Thanks Roberto!

A couple days ago we noted that the International Space Station would be visible over N. America this week. So far we have only one report of a sighting: Jim, AL7RV saw it from Mississippi. This morning Yahoo carried some pictures taken from the crew's cupola. This one shows some territory dear to our hearts!

Finally, spaceweather.com carried this beautiful aurora shot from Tromso, Norway. It was taken by Ole Christian Salomonsen on November 14. Spaceweather notes that "a solar wind stream has been buffeting the earth's magnetic field." This probably explains why Maria and I could hear very few stations on 75 meters last evening. And 75 seemed totally dead yesterday morning.