Video of Colin's First Contact with his Homebrew Scratch-built BITX20

I love this video.  Colin finished his BITX a week or so ago and has been waiting for an opportunity to test it.  Over the weekend he braved the winter of Northern England and, with his son,  set up his new rig out in his snow-covered garden.   Appropriately for a first contact with scratch-built rig, the circuitry was unencumbered by any kind of case or box.  That's the way it should be done!  Well done Colin!  You are well and truly a member of the International Brotherhood of Electronic Wizards, and the diagnosis of "The Knack" has been confirmed (a severe case, it appears). 

Hi Pete and Bill,

It's been a lovely fine day here in West Yorkshire, so I took a table out into the garden and set up my BITX circuit on it. I set up my SOTA dipole on a 9m fishing pole.

I heard a strong German station calling CQ, so I gave him a call and hoped for the best!

How amazing to contact someone in another country using a rig and mic you've made yourself! Do I qualify as a REAL radio ham now? Do I have a confirmed case of the knack? :-)

Although I may appear underwhelmed in the video, (besides the air punches!), I did really get a kick out of the QSO.

73 and huge thanks to both of you for the encouragement and support.

Colin, M1BUU

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VE3MKC's Teensy Si5351 SDR Receiver with a Tiny Color Screen (video)

From: Rich 

To: "soldersmoke@yahoo.com"  
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2015 9:22 AM
Subject: Cheap, open source Arduino SDR project

Bill

First, thanks for Soldersmoke and all you do for us QRP hackers around the world. I'm a big fan!

I've detected you are getting sucked into the world of microcontrollers of late. I know you are not really that excited about SDR but this is a radio that combines Arduino, the currently popular SI5351 and a Softrock to make a very functional SDR. I started this project last year which uses the fabulous Teensy 3.1 and companion audio shield. I recently packaged it all up and it looks like a QRP radio now. Still doesn't transmit but as I like to say thats "just a small matter of software".

There are several posts about it on my blog. The most recent:

http://rheslip.blogspot.ca/2015/01/teesy-sdr-project-update.html

There's a link to a video and a link to the code in that post.

Rock on Bill!

73, Rich Heslip

VE3MKC

From: solder smoke

Sent: Friday, January 23, 2015 4:09 AM

To: 

Subject: Re: Cheap, open source Arduino SDR project

Wow Rich that is really beautiful.  Amazing!   I am also sending this to Pete Juliano, but I was at first hesitant about this because I feared that your combination of Si5351 and TFT display might be TOO exciting for him. Deep breaths Pete...  

73 and Thanks,  Bill 

From: jessystems@verizon.net
To: soldersmoke@yahoo.com; 
Subject: Re: Cheap, open source Arduino SDR project
Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 06:03:40 -0800

Hi Rich & Bill,

Wow –really exciting project Rich! Congratulations and Bravo!

This is so exciting, for all hams, as this just shows the power of the available low cost technology that is now on the market. Your project is really tempting as I have a V6.2 15M softrock sitting in a box (somewhere). I was somewhat put off with the Power SDR as the opposite sideband rejection is not too good –it is clear you have cracked that nut.

Thanks for sharing Rich and yes Bill I am taking very deep breaths.

73’s

Pete N6QW

  

• Jan 23 at 9:27 AM

• Pete Juliano
• me

Thanks guys! When I saw the Teensy 3.1 with the companion audio codec board the first thing that came to mind was a portable SDR. Since its Arduino compatible I am able to leverage the SI5351 library, encoder library etc so its mostly just putting software blocks together. The digital filter design is a bit tricky but Loftur VE2LJX did quite a bit of work on that and now it works really well.

I hope to add CW decoding and PSK31 at some point. I've used less than half the flash on the Teensy so lots of room for new features. I'm hoping if the word gets out I won't have to do this all myself!

Pete - too bad you missed the Black Friday sale - Teensy 3.1 and the audio shield for $18. Deep breaths... 

: )

73, Rich

VE3MKC

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Digitizing the Barebones Superhet

I did this for Pete.  And I did it to start out the new year with something different.  And because I needed the crystal for my beloved BITX and didn't want to buy more crystals. 

After successfully broadening the filter in my Barebones Barbados Superhet (originally built by Dale Parfiit W4OP) I decided to replace the VXO with an outboard Arduino/DDS device. Nothing new in that  (I was playing with this back in October), but in what I think is a symbolically significant twist, I pulled out the tuning cap for the VXO and, in the hole left by the tuning control, replaced the knob with a BNC connector.  That connector now carries DDS signals into the receiver.  The crystal was at around 23.125 MHz -- that's why the LCD display is showing 23 MHz.  

It works great.   I was listening to the DX station in Iran this morning.  

Here is a video of the October 2014 experiments: 


   

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Goats, a Paraset, and a QSO with a Mighty Mite! (Video)

This is a really wonderful video, made even more wonderful near the end by the appearance of a Michigan Mighty Mite!  Thanks Steve!  Thanks Nick!  

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Jean Shepherd Meets Lee DeForest (video)

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Pete's Video on Connecting Arduinos and DDS chips (video)

After watching all Pete's work with the smaller Arduinos, that Uno R3 board seems HUGE.  That's what I should stick with.   Great idea using those robust terminal strips.  Thanks Pete. 

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The Amazing Rigs of Lee Snook, W1DN

Back in March 2013 we ran a blog post linking to a video of a beautiful superhet receiver built by Lee Snook, W1DN (that's his shop).   Then the video disappeared.  Today Peter Parker, VK3YE, alerted us to the reappearance of the video.  Some Googling led me to Lee's YouTube channel and many other videos of some truly amazing homebrew projects.  

Here is his YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/swradios/featured

And here are all his videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/swradios/videos

Check this out digi fans (from his QRZ page):





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Background on the use of Si5351 -- code and integration with Arduino Nano (video)

I somehow missed this one.  Here Pete talks about how the use of the Si5351 in ham radio has been evolving, who has been working on it, etc.  

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Pete Goes Superhet with the Si5351 generating BOTH VFO and BFO (video)

Congrats to Pete for his amazingly fast development of a 40 meter superhet receiver using a single Adafruit Si5351 paired with an Arduino Nano for ALL of the frequency generation.   No more VFOs, no more crystals.  It sounds great!   Amazing stuff.  

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Pete's "Let's Build Something" Audio Amplifier (video)

Who needs LM386 ICs?  Pete goes discrete!   Love the MePads.   And I knew Pete was going to test it with his finger!  He's just taking stray hum from the power lines and coupling it to the input through that Exacto knife.   

Seems to me like these boards is getting close to actually receiving signals.     

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Pete Builds a Doubly Balanced Modulator (Video -- Part 3)

Another beautiful piece of cinema from Giovanni Manzoni's Newbury Park Studios.  Bravo Giovanni! 

Pete is obviously a doubly balanced kind of guy.   I liked his use of the W1REX MePads and the breadboard.  Also, the balance pot and the un-balance switch are very handy innovations. 
Most of all I like the way Pete's video takes you from schematic to actual circuit.  

Thanks Pete! 

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OH NO! SolderSmoke Goes QRO! Bill's Amplifier Project (video)

I got the Communications Concepts Inc. EB-63A amplifier working today.  Yea!
Kind of ironic that the highest power amp I have ever built gave me the LEAST trouble.  This just goes to show that circuit layout is very important.  This amp is a proven design, with a proven layout and board.  That's why it didn't turn into a 140 watt solid state oscillator!

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Tribal Knowledge Video: Putting Screw Threads in Aluminium

http://youtu.be/LuqliWT1k5A

Thank you Giovanni Manzoni, whoever you are! 

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A Different Kind of Workshop

Sometimes it is good to take a break from the electronics and look at how people are making other things.  I've been working on the heat sink for a 140 watt solid state amplifier, so this fellow's comments about working with metal kind of resonated with me.   


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Homebrew Double Balanced Mixers by Pete Juiano (Part II) Video

Another great video from Pete.  I like the unbalancing mod -- I hate having to whistle into the mic!

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Pete's Homebrew Double Balanced Mixer Video (Part 1)

Another great video from the famed Italian Director Giovanni Manzoni!  Bravo Giovanni! 

Pete's discussion of double balanced mixers and the associated toroids has made me feel uneasy about my efforts in this area.  I wonder if my diodes were completely matched.  And I KNOW that my toroids are not as well done as Pete's.  

I recently put an SBL-1 into my old, long-evolving 20 meter ceramic resonator DSB rig. Careful with those nice little boxes! A bit too much juice and you can fry the little internal toroids (as I have done!). 

A while back I found in an RSGB Handbook a nice diagram showing how the diode ring mixer does its thing: 


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Sines, Squares, Harmonics, 'Scopes, FFTs, and Sounds

Bil Herd of Hackaday did a very nice video on Sine Waves, Square Waves and FFTs.  This is, of course, an important part of understanding how mixers mix.   I look forward to his upcoming video on Direct Digital Synthesis.  

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Let's Build Something! (Video) Part 1

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Shortwave Echo Mystery on Yet Another SW Station. What is this?

A few weeks ago I noticed a strange echo on Radio China International's signal.  If you scroll down a bit you can see my YouTube recording of the problem.  On one of the SWL lists, there was speculation that this problem was the result of a flaw in the RCI digital studio gear.  But then a few days ago I heard it again on RCI -- surely the tech-savvy Chinese would not have let this kind of problem persist for weeks.  

Today I heard the same effect on a very different SW station -- this one an the 24/7 fire and brimstone broadcast that appears at many points on the dial.  The effect is very similar to what I heard on RCI.  

So OK all your shortwave gurus:  What is going on here?

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"Off the Shelf" Regenerative Receiver

I call it the "Off the Shelf" Regen because the base on which it is built is scrap lumber from a recent shelf building project.  Also, all the parts came out of the junk box.  

6-10 MHz, AM, CW, SSB, Data.   4 transistors, no chips.   


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