SolderSmoke Daily News: Romania

Showing posts with label Romania. Show all posts

Thursday, December 25, 2025

Alexanderson Alternator on 17.2 kHz Copied by YO2DXE in Romania

On December 1st 1924, the 20kW Alexanderson Alternator with the call sign "SAQ" was put into commercial operation with telegram traffic from Sweden to the United States. 101 years later, the transmitter is the only remaining electro-mechanical transmitter from this era and is still in running condition. On Christmas Eve morning, Wednesday December 24th 2025, the transmitter is scheduled* to spread the traditional Christmas message to the whole World, on 17.2 kHz CW.

You can listen to the CW from Ciprian's setup above. I listened to it carefully and clearly heard the "KW ALTERNATOR" words at around the 3:30 mark in Ciprian's video. I wondered if this was in fact the SAQ Alternator (but then again, who else would be on 17.2 kHz on Christmas Eve?). I looked at the video from Sweden (below) at around the 49.37 mark we see the operator send "200 KW ALTERNATOR." Through Ciprian's video, I copied "KW ALTERNATOR." So Ciprian's operation was a success. Congratulations Ciprian!

Merry Christmas to all!

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

Ciprian YO6DXE Puts the Michigan Mighty Mite on AM! (video)

Excellent work Ciprian!

Here we have a Michigan Mighty Mite being modified for AM in Romania, with input from Hungary, and inspiration from Melbourne, Australia (Peter Parker VK3YE). With a very nice shout-out to SolderSmoke.

I really like Ciprian's emphasis on having fun with the electronics.

TRGHS!

Thursday, August 18, 2022

A Blast from the Past: The First SolderSmoke Podcast

I am gradually -- maybe one every few days -- going to put older SolderSmoke podcasts up on the YouTube channel. Here is SolderSmoke Podcast #1. This podcast was first uploaded on August 21, 2005.

Be sure to check out the new Playlists on the SolderSmoke YouTube channel:

(22) SolderSmoke - YouTube

Thanks to Ciprian YO6DXE for the wallpaper! And thanks to Dave K8WPE for the idea of reposting "Old Smoke."

Monday, July 4, 2022

Ciprian Got His Ticket: YO6DXE (and Romanian Mighty Mite FIXED!)

Ciprian writes:

Thank you so much to you all... and thank you SolderSmoke for always writing about my learning in homebrew gear. I did finally got my license... just waiting for the paperwork to arrive. But now I'm finally YO6DXE ( DX Explorer lol ). I did found my issue with the power... it seems that it's from the cheap BD139 that doesn't seem to work as expected. I get about 500mW with a 2n2222. So I ended up making another version of the transmitter that I'm really happy about. 73 to you all DE YO6DXE.

SolderSmoke posts about Ciprian: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/search?q=Ciprian

Ciprian's QRZ.com page: https://www.qrz.com/db/YO6DXE

Ciprian's blog: https://dxexplorer.com/

Ciprian's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/DXExplorer

Sunday, July 4, 2021

Romanian Mighty Mite and Ciprian's Knack Story

Another wonderful video from Ciprian in Romania.

Any suggestions on his Mighty Mite power output problem?

Here is Ciprian's YouTube channel. His intro video presents his Knack Story.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgaWKPt1P-4D6YI-Opd15_Q

I really hope Ciprian can get a license very soon. His homebrew projects alone should qualify him. Ciprian has The Knack. It would be great if the IBEW (especially the European branch) could help Ciprian get some more parts and test gear.

Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Ciprian's Romanian Ten Minute Transmitter with Roots in SPRAT, KA4KXX, and the Florida Sunrise Net

It sounds great Ciprian! It was really cool to see your video and hear you reference not only the SolderSmoke blog, but also SPRAT, the Michigan Mighty Mite, and Walter KA4KXX. Your little rig has a very fine lineage!

I found Ciprian's video just after seeing the wonderful Herndon Mighty Mite of Jack NG2E. TRGHS! The Color Burst Liberation Army is on the march! For more info on NG2E's Mighty Mite, check out his blog: https://jackhaefner.blogspot.com/2021/05/mounting-to-perfboard-and-scope-test.html

Jack has in his possession one of the 7.123 MHz crystals that Walter KA4KXX sent me back in 2019 (during my ET-2 craze). It seems obvious that Jack should build a Ten Minute Transmitter and use it to check into the Sunrise Net https://qsl.net/srn/.