SolderSmoke FDIM Interview: Jack Purdum W8TEE on the Challenges of Decoding CW by Software

 

In his interview with SolderSmoke correspondent Bob Crane, Jack Purdum made some very interesting comments about the challenges of decoding CW with software. He notes that W1AW's code practice CW is perfect, but that below 18 wpm, they deliberately insert a "Farnsworth Delay" that increases the spacing between words -- this complicates automatic CW decoding.  

Jack also talked about the distinctiveness of different CW operators.  Jack  noted that W1AW has no real "fist" in this sense:  "It has the personality of a stick!" 

Jack mentioned that Pete Juliano had been reading book on SDR radios that Jack and Al Peter recently published:  https://www.amazon.com/Software-Defined-Radio-Transceiver-Construction/dp/B09WYP1ST8/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2KPYAMPOW5P6J&keywords=DR.+Jack+Purdum&qid=1654598559&sprefix=dr.+jack+purdum%2Caps%2C40&sr=8-1  

Here is our correspondent Bob Crane's interview at FDIM 2022 with Jack Purdum: http://soldersmoke.com/2022 W8TEE.mp3

Thanks Bob.  Thanks Jack.

SolderSmoke FDIM Interview with Farhan VU2ESE -- The sBITX is Coming!

Bob Crane W8SX --  our correspondent in Dayton/Xenia --  once again collected interview with FDIM presenters. Thanks Bob!  Here is his talk with our friend Farhan:  

http://soldersmoke.com/2022 VU2ESE.mp3

Here is a great post on the sBITX (May 30, 2022) from Farhan's web site: 

https://www.vu2ese.com/index.php/category/uncategorized/

Here is Farhan's amazing presentation on the sBITX at the 2021 FDIM: 

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2021/11/farhans-amazing-knack-story-from.html

Vienna Wireless Winterfest Hamfest 2022

After a two-year pandemic hiatus, yesterday the Vienna (Virginia) Wireless Society's annual "Winterfest" hamfest was back.  And the weather was in fact COLD -- it definitely felt like Winterfests of years-gone-by. 

Club President Dean KK4DAS kindly invited me to participate in a forum on homebrewing.  You can watch the presentation STARTING AT 2:04:06 (hours:minute:seconds) here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s48of3uS9tM

It was especially cool to be able to tell the audience about Pete N6QW and Farhan VU2ESE. We talked about Pete's Simple SSB transceiver, the Michigan Mighty Mite and the BITX rigs. 

Some observations on the hamfest scene: 

-- There are lots of boatanchor radios out there, and it seems like a buyer's market.  These old rigs do not seem to be selling nearly as fast as they did a few years ago. 

-- There is a lot of older analog test gear on sale too, and it too seems to no longer be as in demand as it was a few years ago.  Perhaps the availability of cheap, small, and very effective digital oscilloscopes is affecting the sale of these once sought-after items. 

My purchases: 

-- A really old beat-up (crashed?) ARC-5 R-23 receiver.  I have already extracted the variable capacitor. 

-- A nice box of smaller variable caps. 

-- 100 feet of 550 parachute cord. 

-- Two nice metal chassis/boxes 

-- A bag of shaft adapters/connectors

With Armand WA1UQO (left) and Steve Boles W4SB (center)

With Charles AI4OT 

Thanks to Dean KK4DAS and the entire VWS team for a great event. 

Jean Shepherd Goes to a Hamfest -- And Much More

Here is something nice to listen to in your shack...  

I hadn't heard this one before.  It is about Shep's teenage trip to a hamfest, but it also about his youthful enthusiasm for ham radio and electronics.  Many of us can identify with this very easily. 

He talks about what must have been a very early use of "blue boxes" -- the audio tone generators that allowed young miscreants (including the Woz) to make long distance phone calls for free. I wish I had gotten into this.  It sounds like fun. 

He talks about how painful it was to be on phone (AM phone) with just 2.5 watts homebrew, when everyone else was running a lot more power. 

And wow, they played a baseball game at the hamfest.   Phone guys vs. CW guys. 

I won't spoil it by telling you the results of the hamfest raffle.  

FDIM: Listen to Bob Crane Interview Hans Summers, G0UPL

Bob Crane, our intrepid correspondent at the 2017 Four Day in May event, caught up with Homebrew Hero Hans Summers G0UPL.  Hans's amazing web sites have been the inspiration for many projects in my shacks.   My favorite so far was his QRSS transmitter using an LED based multivibrator circuit to generate a shark fin pattern on grabber screens.  That was fun.  I am now really tempted to send one of Hans's WSPR transmitters into the stratosphere using party balloons. 

Listen to the interview here:

http://soldersmoke.com/FDIM17G0UPL.mp3

Visit Hans's QRP-Labs here:

https://www.qrp-labs.com/

Thanks Bob!  Thanks Hans!

HOMEBREW HERO: REX HARPER W1REX AND THE WORLD'S BIGGEST BUILD-A-THON

Rex, shortly before questioning by authorities

Wow, Rex Harper W1REX deserves some sort of big award.  I hereby grant him the coveted Brass Figlagee with Bronze Oak Leaf Palm, but that is clearly not enough.  Rex spent a month of 20 hour days putting together kits for the Four Days in May QRP event at the Dayton Hamvention.   The results were spectacular:  246 hams succeeded in building QRP transmitters, and they all did it in under 70 minutes.   

Just as impressive as the results were the ways in which Rex overcame the technical and organizational hurdles prior to the event.  You can read all about this in Rex's excellent write up:
http://www.qrpme.com/docs/FDIM%202016%20Report.pdf

The OFFICIAL SolderSmoke Correspondent at Dayton was once again our friend Bob Crane, W8SX.  Bob caught up with Rex and somehow managed to get him to stand still long enough to do this interview:

http://soldersmoke.com/W1REXDaytonInterview.mp3

And it was very nice that Rex did this as a tribute to Dave Ingram K4WTJ whose magazine articles about simple QRP rigs inspired many of us.  Years ago, right after completing a homebrew QRP transceiver, I talked to Dave on 30 meter CW and told him that his articles had helped motivate me to build. 

Finally, no SolderSmoke post about Rex would be complete without a repetition of the video showing him transferring the prodigious mojo of the original Tuna Tin Two into my BITX-17 transceiver.

Soldersmoke Podcast #186 Is Available -- April 1 Rap Up, Pi Talk from Pete, Collins and Raspberries, Bill's Analog RX, Visits and Hamfests, MAILBAG

SolderSmoke podcast #186 is available:

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke186.mp3

-- April 1 WireWrapRap Rap-up.  Feedback from participants.

-- Bench Reports:

   - Pete talks about his Raspberry Pi SDR DSP rig.  

   - Bill talks about on his Mate for the Mighty Midget Receiver and his R2 Frankenstein.

-- A story from Pete's youth: Cruising the "Miracle Mile" with a Heathkit "Ten-er."

-- Why do we need more RF amplification (in receivers) on 20 than on 40?

-- Have you ever tuned the BFO freq in a superhet by the "sound of the noise?"  

-- A visit to Washington by Jonathan W0OX and family.

-- Bill goes to Winterfest Hamfest with Armand WA1UQO

-- Pete on the importance of balance (in life).

-- Great interviews on QSO Today: Peter Parker, Grayson Evans, and Ashhar Farhan.

-- MAILBAG:

- Paul Darlington M0XPD has a new book about life, travel, and the Dayton Hamvention.

- Michael AA1TJ QRV with a tuning fork at its 2,000th harmonic.

- Jonathan M0JGH living dangerously with homebrew QRP in Italy.

- Ben KC9DLM JoO with MMM

- Stefan DL1DF needs 3.579 MHz rock "with mojo." We have it for you OM.

The music for SolderSmoke 186 was written and performed (the bass lines) by Pete's son Tim.  Thanks Tim!

Pete also suggested that we have some rap lyrics for this music, so renaissance man that he is,  he composed some words. We are still looking for a performer.  

Yo we solder no more – its wire wrap and cables

The cables connect to the small  black box

hold on to your pants and pull up your socks

A cable goes here and a cable goes there

Turn on the switch and its Shazam all software

 

From Paul Darlington M0XPD: A Book!

Our friend Paul Darlington M0XPD is a member in good standing of the International Brotherhood of Electronic Wizards. His AD9850 Arduino shield propelled me into the world of I and Q. His "Shack Nasties" blog is a valuable resource for all of us. And now he has written a book.  Paul was kind enough to let me read it before it was published -- I enjoyed it very much.  It is the story of a very personal journey. At one level it is about Paul's trip to the Dayton Hamvention.  But the trip goes much further than Dayton, both geographically and personally.  I especially enjoyed Paul's observations on the United States -- our British cousins often see things we ourselves overlook.   I'm really pleased that George Dobbs wrote the foreword -- he is the ideal person to do this for Paul's very philosophical book.

We give "Getting There" our highest review:  the coveted FIVE SOLDERING IRONS. And we are nominating Paul for a Brass Figlagee with Bronze Oak Leaf Palm.  

Read Paul's description of the book here:

http://m0xpd.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-new-book.html

Buy the book here:

http://www.amazon.com/getting-there-Paul-Darlington/dp/1523452196

Congratulations Paul!

SolderSmoke Podcast #167: Arduinos, Amplifiers, Books, and Tribal Knowledge

SolderSmoke Podcast #167 is available: 

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke167.mp3

3 November 2014
Who the heck is Giovanni Manzoni? 
Pete's Bench Report: 
     "Let's Build Something"  Project 
      Arduinos and Si5351s
Bill's Bench Report:  140 watt Amplifier Completed! 
      Low Pass Filter Design with the ELSIE Program
      Samlex Power Supply
     How I almost blew it up! 
     The new amp and the lids in the FT4TA pileup
Tribal Knowledge!
"Nature abhors a vacuum (tube)!"  "The Innovators" by Walter Isaacson. 
Carter, WA9DNF, REALLY knows which end of the soldering iron to grab! 
Meeting with Thomas, KK6AHT.  The two electronic cultures. 
Interviews by Chris, KD4PBJ, at Two Days in Huntsville: 
     Glen Popiel, KW5GP, Author of "Arduino for Ham Radio" 
     John Henry of TenTec
     Steve, WG0AT  

                                               Giovanni Manzoni
Giovanni Manzoni b. circa 1950 Civatavecchia, Lazio, Italy is a noted videographer specializing in the avante garde use of YouTube in ham radio homebrew settings.   Long noted for his insistence on the use of completely home-made video equipment, Manzoni went so far as to demand that his cameras and recorders only use discrete components -- he claimed that integrated circuits "freaked him out."  Manzoni's collaborators have long been puzzled by his claim that all his videos are filmed "on location."  What he means by this remains unclear, however, in a 1997 interview in QST-Italia, he was quoted as saying "No matter where you go, there you are!" 


Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20