Podcasting since 2005! Listen to Latest SolderSmoke
Thursday, November 30, 2023
AA9IL's Sputnik Tube, Altoids Tin Transmitter
Sunday, July 30, 2023
Understanding Maxwell's Equations (video)
Sunday, July 16, 2023
The Super Islander Mark IV -- A Cuban DSB Transceiver Made From CFL Lightbulb Parts
Trevor Woods also sent us this report from Arnie Coro. It is not clear to me what difference (if any) there is between the Super Islander Mark IV and the Jaguey Five (described yesterday). But the bit about using parts from old CFL bulbs is interesting. This was something championed by Michael Rainey AA1TJ several years ago. See: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2009/01/soldersmoke-98.html
April 2010:
Today, I will be answering a question sent by listener Bruno from Croatia... Bruno picks up our English language programs via Internet, but he is now also listening on short wave too. He sent a nice e-mail message asking me about the latest version of the Super Islander amateur radio transceiver, because he wants to build one.
Well amigo Bruno, the Super Islander Mark IV is now on the air, and results are very encouraging considering that it is a 40 meters band transceiver built using recycled electronic components.
The Mark IV uses a totally different approach to the receiver design, and it adds two solid state audio filters.
Amazing as this may sound, some of the electronic components used to make the Super Islander Mark IV transceiver came from the circuit boards of broken or damaged Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs... and that means that there is virtually an endless supply of those parts.
Here is now amigo Bruno, and amigos listening to the program at this moment, a brief description of the Super Islander's Mark IV receiver module.
It starts with a simple resistive signal attenuator that feeds a dual tuned bandpass input filter.
The filter has a limited bandwidth , chosen so as to limit response to out of band signals... The filter is followed by a cascode transistor radio frequency amplifier stage, that feeds a broadband four diodes product detector.
Low level audio from the product detector goes to the audio filtering and amplifying module, made with discrete transistors, of which several of them are also recycled from the Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs circuit boards...
This version of the Super Islander, the Mark IV , is radically different from any previous ones, as we have now switched over to a totally low cost solid state design , that can be easily reproduced because it uses very common electronic components and straightforward , easy to adjust circuits.
In our upcoming mid week edition I will describe the VFO, or variable frequency oscillator and the transmitter module of this unique low cost amateur radio transceiver, the Super Islander Mark IV... about the lowest possible cost transceiver that will make possible regular two way ham radio contacts on the 40 meters band using either voice or radiotelegraphy modes.
Wednesday, September 7, 2022
Building a Workshop (or a Shack) in a Crawl Space
Monday, December 27, 2021
A Christmas Story: Mike AA1TJ Builds Receiver for 486 kHz, Listens to Fessenden Commemoration (Audio)
True to form, I began scratch-assembling my receiver yesterday afternoon just as Brian went on the air. Then again, a two-transistor regenerative radio for 486kHz isn't exactly rocket science. In any case, I was up and listening inside of a half hour.
What did I hear? Static. Just static. As a sanity test I quickly tuned down to 371KHz to find my favorite non-directional beacon, "GW," beaming in loud and clear from Kuujjuarakip.
Kuujjuarakip?
Kuujjuarakip is a tiny settlement of mostly Inuit and Cree inhabitants located up on Hudson Bay. The villages are primarily accessible by air and water so a robust radio beacon is an obvious necessity.
Satisfied that my receiver was working properly, I re-tuned to 486kHz. Back to static. On the bright side, at least there were no commercials. I continued listening intently until Vic called me to dinner. After the dishes were done I slipped back down to my underground radio shack for one last try.
I heard it right away. Beneath the static I heard a weak, out-of-tune, solo violin playing, "Oh, Holy Night." The signal strength varied wildly with ionospheric propagation. When the signal finally climbed high enough above the noise I ripped out the bipolar transistor audio amplifier stage, connecting my headphones directly to the junction field effect transistor detector output terminals. Of course the audio was far weaker now, yet I could easily follow the tune until it eventually faded away. Not bad for an estimated 15 watt ERP AM signal from a distance of 920km. And on 486kHz, no less, just a hop-skip-and a jump from the old 500kHz Maritime CW band; where countless ship radio operators went to send their last SOS.
Returning to the house, I emailed my reception report and included a short recording that I had made of it. Brian replied just after midnight; apparently, equally as stoked
"Yours’ is the best DX ever given your regen RX! Way to go! I just love it."
He went on to tell me that he was born and raised in Vermont, but he'd been working as a radio scientist down in Virginia since 1990. Told me his heart was still here in the Green Mountains and he was touched to learn his meager signal had found its way back there on Christmas Eve. All in all, a night to remember.
If you're still with me I hope you'll listen to the short NPR story in the provided link. It originally aired on the supposed 100th anniversary of this event. It's not just about radio history. It's about belief, memory and the myths we lug around in our heads. I thought it was well done.
Cheers,
Mike
Monday, November 25, 2019
SolderSmoke Podcast #215 Regen Madness, KWM-4, Paesano, Mailbag
Latest N2CQR version of N0WVA's Regen |
25 November 2019
http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke215.mp3
Happy Thanksgiving!
Transit of Mercury
Book Reviews
Bill's Minimalist Adventures:
-- 15 Contacts with the ET-2
-- Ethical issues: Is spotting yourself OK? OK to use TWO FETs?
-- Using Reverse Beacon Network
-- How to keep receiver on the right frequency
-- N0WVA's receiver sounded better, so I built a second N0WVA receiver
-- Regens reach back to Edwin Howard Armstrong's 1912-1923 breakthrough
-- Regens are fun, but they are not good projects for new builders.
-- Pull out those Michigan Mighty Mites and listen for yourself via on-line SDR receivers.
Pete's Projects:
"WHEN YOU KNOW STUFF YOU CAN DO STUFF!"
-- Left Coast SSB -- "The Paesano" -- To be featured in December 2019 SPRAT.
-- Pete's KWM-4 on The Collins Collectors Net
-- Pete builds an N0WVA regen -- just in time for Sweepstakes CW Saturday!
-- Arduino IDE Library trouble
-- uBITX 6.0? Fake News?
No more BITX40 Modules. Long Live BITX40 HOMEBREW!
BITX-101. Intriguing but on second thought, no.
MAILBAG
Steve Silverman: Lexicon: "Audible Modes."
Felipe CU2BD Old buddy from the Azores
Michael Rainey AA1TJ: Come back Mike! The ionosphere needs you!
Jack Welch AI4SV is in 5G land (Cyprus, not the cell phone thing).
Walter AC4IM is at the San Vito Solar Observatory in Italy. DO SOMETHING WALTER!
Kostas SV3ORA has an amazing homebrew web site. Thanks Kostas!
Mike KC6SAX -- How to deal with the frustration of HB projects that don't work.
Paul KL7FLR -- Pete is 7 Hz high.
Keith W3ISZ sent his photo of the Transit of Mercury.
PLEASE USE THE AMAZON SEARCH BOX ON THE SOLDERSMOKE BLOG PAGE WHEN DOING YOUR CHRISTMAS SHOPPING.
PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE SOLDERSMOKE CHANNEL ON YOUTUBE.
N2CQR's ET-2 with callsign Tattoos |
Saturday, October 19, 2019
QSO #3 with the ET-2 Minimalist Transceiver
Friday, June 21, 2019
Saturday, March 24, 2018
SolderSmoke Podcast #203 Winter, Transceivers, Antennas, DC RX, uBITX, Mixers, 'fests, MAILBAG
N6QW in 1959. Building an SSB transceiver |
http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke203.mp3
24 March 2018
--The reasons for our delay.
Winter, Computers, College, Family Trees, Lawyers....
-- Winterfest 2018
-- Pete launches 2018 THE YEAR OF THE TRANSCEIVER
http://n6qw.blogspot.com/
-- SDR - Satan's Digital Radio?
-- Direct Conversion Receiver Projects
-- Mixer Musings
-- A Thailand Troubleshoot
-- Nor'Easter knocks out Bill's Moxon -- An appliance replacement?
-- Homebrew Electret Mics. Seriously.
-- uBITX Build with Rogier
-- Civilized Crystal Testing
-- Baofeng!
-- DRAGNET
-- MAILBAG
KD4PBJ's REGEN
N6ORS's SDR rig
Mike Rainey's DX-100
Sunday, January 21, 2018
Mike Rainey and Heavy Metal AM Phone
Saturday, January 6, 2018
Straight Key Night at N2CQR
Sunday, September 3, 2017
Nuclear Powered QRPp? Tritium Nuclear Batteries and Plutonium Pacemakers
OK QRPers, it is time to explore another power source. Enough of the nails in lemons and all that mess. It is time to go NUCLEAR! Check out the motor in the video above, then look at the video below for more info on how the nuclear battery was made. Who will be the first to QSO with homebrew nuclear power? Or has it happened already?
Mike Rainey -- this seems like the perfect project for you OM.
Oh and by the way, in the course of reading up on this, I learned that we once used PLUTONIUM to power pacemakers. Check it out:
https://www.mdtmag.com/blog/2016/01/medtech-memoirs-plutonium-powered-pacemaker
And no, today is not April 1.
Monday, January 2, 2017
Straight Key Night -- Bandscan from WA6ARA (audio)
WA6ARA SKN Station |
You can listen by clicking on these links:
http://soldersmoke.com/SKNBANSCAN.mp3
http://soldersmoke.com/SKNQSO.mp3
My own SKN effort was cut short this year by technical difficulties. The HT-37's relays stopped doing their thing. Probably the relay drive tube going soft. But I did manage to make two great contacts on 40:
WA6URY is in Los Angeles. This was a very timely contact -- my wife and I went to see the movie "La La Land" on New Year's eve -- the film features a lot of beautiful LA scenery. Dan was running a kilowatt to a 2 element Yagi on 40. He too owns an HT-37 and a Drake 2B. He was on a straight key "with dirty contacts." FB Dan, thanks.
And then I worked W1PID! Wow! Jim is well known for his operations from field locations and for his intrepid participation in many of the radio adventures of Michael Rainey AA1TJ. Jim was on the Maine sea coast expedition when Michael was attempting to cross the pond with his voice-powered radio. On SKN Jim was in New Hampshire running 35 watts to a Windom off-center fed dipole. His Morse key is a Kent. TRGHS. Thanks Jim.
Happy New Year!
W1PID Maritime Mobile |
Sunday, November 6, 2016
SolderSmoke Podcast #191 RIGS! REAL RIGS!, BITX40 Module, EMRFD, MAILBAG
SolderSmoke Podcast #191 is available:
http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke191.mp3
TRAVELOGUE AND FAMILY DOINGS: Pete son's wedding, Billy's Birthday, Gonzalo safely home in the Dominican Republic, MORE BEARS IN THE SHENANDOAH WOODS
Sunday, September 4, 2016
First Signals from the "Armand HROish" Receiver
Saturday, July 16, 2016
Preserving Vanguard 1
Ira Flatow of "Science Friday" was recently talking about how best to preserve important bits of the history of mankind's exploration of space. Our old friend Vanguard 1 was mentioned several times. It is now the oldest satellite still in space.
You can listen to the Science Friday show here:
http://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/protecting-the-historic-human-record-in-space/
They also have a transcript of the show on the same page.
SolderSmoke fans will remember the Vanguard adventures of Mike Rainey AA1TJ:
http://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/search?q=Vanguard
This seems to be the month for Vanguard: just a couple of weeks ago, on 40 meters I spoke to Dale Parfitt W4OP. Dale was one of the first people to pick up Mike Rainey's Vanguard replica signals (see link above).
AND...
The Vanguard reproduction project came up during Eric Guth 4Z1UG's "QSO Today" interview with Graham Firth G3MFJ of the G-QRP Club:
http://www.qsotoday.com/podcasts/g3mfj
(Graham has such a great voice. He definitely SHOULD build a phone rig!)
VIVA VANGUARD!
Saturday, March 5, 2016
AA1TJ -- On the Air with a Tuning Fork Transmitter using the 2,212th Harmonic and Olive Oil Cooling
FYI: the third attached image illustrates the block-diagram and tuning-fork reference oscillator circuitry for three common-wavelength AM broadcast transmitters operating in Berlin, Stettin and Magdeburg, Germany from 1928 through the mid 30's. A central 2,000Hz tuning-fork generated reference carrier was transmitted by landline to transmitters in the aforementioned cities whereupon the 529th harmonic was generated, amplified and broadcast at 1,058kHz. The equipment was designed by the Berlin-based firm, C. Lorenz A.G.. The fourth image details Lorenz' technique of frequency multiplication via saturable magnetic iron-core inductors. My septupler operates in an identical fashion.
A very pleasant day...
A nasty cold has delayed work on the 20 meter implementation, although some of the time I've spent crashed on the sofa was put to use redesigning the loop filter network. I think yesterday might have been my "hump" day so I'm looking forward to getting in some quality bench-time over the weekend.
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Sputnik Replica Transmitter, an "Error" in the Sputnik Schematic, and Why 20.005 MHz?
Sunday, February 14, 2016
"QSO Today" Podcast Interview with Michael Rainey AA1TJ
I listened to it as I aligned my HQ-100 receiver and worked on a digital frequency readout for the old receiver. The interview was the perfect accompaniment for such a project. Inspirational stuff. Lots of great info on QRPp and homebrewing. Mike talks about some of his more famous rigs including the voice-powered New England Code Talker (pictured above).
I loved the story of Michael carting his DX-100 home in a wagon. And I really sympathized when he described the harsh reaction of the phone operator to his early efforts at voice modulation.
Strongly recommended! You won't be disappointed. Great interview. Thanks to Eric and Mike.
Saturday, February 6, 2016
Michael's Log: AA1TJ Has FIVE Contacts with the Unijunction Transistor at 1-2 milliwatts
Dear Friends, The UJT transmitter circuit was improved considerably today. The power output has increased to 1.48mW and the start-up "whoosh" is now far less objectionable. It's currently running in beacon-mode at 3687.8kHz. I'll resume "CQing" as soon as I've returned from an hour's walk in the woods. I hoping to work K1QO among others. 73, Mike
Added five QSOs today. Seabury/AA1MY is in Maine...exactly 100 miles from my doorstep. It's wild to think that we made a one-hundred mile radio contact on a unijunction.