Showing posts with label troubleshooting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label troubleshooting. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Vulnerable MOSFETS in NASA's Europa Clipper

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  Oh man, this is terrible.  Just months before launch of the Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter's satellite, they discovered that some o...
8 comments:
Monday, February 5, 2024

"The Soul of a New Machine" -- Re-reading the Classic Book by Tracy Kidder

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This book is especially important to the SolderSmoke community because its title has led to one of the most important concepts in our commun...
6 comments:
Thursday, January 25, 2024

RIP Arno Penzias -- Co-discoverer of the Big Bang Cosmic Background Radiaton

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  Penzias on the right Here it the Penzias Obituary: https://www.npr.org/2024/01/24/1226572843/arno-penzias-obituary-big-bang-theory I think...
1 comment:
Monday, October 23, 2023

Bringing a Faulty Herring Aid 5 Receiver Into the Light -- Fixing the AF Amp Schematic Error (video)

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I picked up this old homebrew receiver in March 2023 at the Vienna Wireless Society's Winterfest Hamfest.  It is a Herring Aid 5.   I wa...
6 comments:
Wednesday, October 18, 2023

A Big Error Discovered in the 1976 QST "Herring Aid 5" Article (After 47 Years)

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Click on image for a better view.  See arrows for Q1, Q5 and the parts list. I tried as a teenager to build the Herring Aid 5 direct convers...
7 comments:
Friday, October 6, 2023

A Pretty Good Troubleshoot -- Fixing the Transmitter in my 75/20 meter Mythbuster Transceiver -- Mind the Gap!

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Bidirectional Termination Insensitive Amplifier by W7ZOI and K3NHI All of a sudden the transmitter in my 75 & 20 meter dual band homebre...
1 comment:
Saturday, September 23, 2023

Sunburst and Luminary -- An Apollo Memoir by Don Eyles (video)

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Buy the book from the Amazon link on the right side of the page >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>...
1 comment:
Tuesday, June 20, 2023

Part 2: CuriousMarc Fixes an All-Discrete Counter -- "Like an IC, but in discrete form."

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Marc nicely sums up this project with this line:  "It's an IC but in discrete form!"  On the same theme, he later says, "...
3 comments:
Monday, June 19, 2023

CuriousMarc Repairs an old DISCRETE COMPONENT HP Frequency Counter

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I really liked this repair video from CuriousMarc (aka AJ6JV).  This counter pre-dates the use of integrated circuits -- it is all discrete ...
2 comments:
Friday, April 28, 2023

High-School Students Successfully Avoid THE SHELF OF SHAME -- Update on the Direct Conversion Receiver Project

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One of the first finished receivers Dean KK4DAS, Mike KD4MM, and I had a good day at the local high school yesterday, even after a month of ...
3 comments:
Friday, March 10, 2023

Troubleshooting an Intermittent with Mr. Carlson. And Troublesome Tube Re-Branding.

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This is a really great video on how Mr. Carlson (VE7ZWZ) did troubleshooting on a tube-type receiver. The problem was an intermittent.  They...
3 comments:
Friday, March 3, 2023

My HP8640B Signal Generator Lives Again

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I'd really come to like this old signal generator.  The construction is superb.  It was built to be repaired.  As you open it up you fin...
7 comments:
Saturday, February 18, 2023

Progress Report: High-School Students Melt Solder and Successfully Build Oscillators

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Dean KK4DAS and I were at the high school on Thursday and Friday of this week for the construction (by the students) of the variable frequen...
6 comments:
Sunday, February 12, 2023

Mr. Carlson Replaces Old Capacitors -- Bathtub Capacitors

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I recently posted a video from CuriousMarc about whether or not to replace electrolytic capacitors in old pieces of gear.  This is a hot to...
1 comment:
Friday, February 3, 2023

CuriousMarc (AJ6JV) Goes to a Hamfest

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Jean Shepherd once said that all of us at one point come to a cross-roads in our lives -- one road leads to success, the other to ham radio ...
Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Save the Antenna!

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SolderSmoke fans have an interest in saving this antenna because it is the site of one of the most amazing RF troubleshooting stories of all...
Wednesday, August 3, 2022

Can a Biologist Fix a Radio?

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  Andreas DL1AJG (who in real life is a professional biologist) sends us this excellent article about how biologists approach problems in li...
3 comments:
Saturday, May 21, 2022

Repairing the Sony ICF SW1 Receiver -- Used for Numbers Station Reception? Why no replacement for C-625?

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Ten years ago, my friend John gave me this tiny Sony receiver.  It wasn't working.   I tried to fix it but quickly discovered that the t...
4 comments:
Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Troubleshooting and Fixing Old Faults in my Long-Suffering Hammarlund HQ-100 (Part 2) (video)

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Work continues on my old Hammarlund HQ-100. I give background on the rig and explain the electrical trauma it likely suffered. Following ...
4 comments:
Saturday, April 9, 2022

WD-40, a Hard Drive, a Coat-Hanger Antenna, Dumpster Diving, and Amateur Radio Satellites from the Azores

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  Last month I was talking to Ira VP2EIH on my new 1712 SSB rig.  Ira is interested in satellites.  Talking to him caused me to dig up some ...
1 comment: