http://hackaday.com/2014/10/17/detect-cosmic-rays-with-your-smartphone-using-crayfis/
I find this cosmic ray project very appealing.
Also, Adam Fabio over on Hackaday recently posted a Hack-let on ham radio:
http://hackaday.com/2014/10/17/hacklet-19-ham-radio/
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"
http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm
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Showing posts with label web sites. Show all posts
Showing posts with label web sites. Show all posts
Friday, October 24, 2014
Saturday, July 26, 2014
My Moxon on Hackaday!
I was really pleased to see my Moxon on Hackaday. Their write-up was a lot of fun.
http://hackaday.com/2014/07/23/fishing-for-radio-signals-with-the-moxon-antenna/
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
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Pete Friedrichs' Amazing Books, Projects, and Guests
H.P. "Pete" Friedrichs is the author of two books that belong on our book shelves: "Voice of the Crystal" and "Instruments of Amplification." http://www.hpfriedrichs.com/mybooks/mybooks.htm
This morning I got a nice e-mail from Pete. He's been listening to the podcast.
His e-mail caused me to revisit his web site. Lots of minimalist homebrew gold there!
Check out the collection of projects sent to Pete from all around the world by readers of his books:
http://www.hpfriedrichs.com/guestgallery/guestgallery.htm
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
Labels:
books,
minimalist radio,
web sites
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Remotely Controlled Stations on the Internet
Now for something completely different!
I find myself talking fairly often to hams who are using remote transceivers. The operator will be in say, Michigan, with the rig in Florida. Some of them are using the online system:
http://www.remotehams.com/
I signed up and downloaded the software. It works very well. Many of the stations are closed to outsiders, and some of them don't let you transmit, but it is fun to listen from remote locations.
This morning I hooked up the Tuna Tin 2 and was able to hear my 200 mW signal through AI4W's receiver in Kentucky.
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
I find myself talking fairly often to hams who are using remote transceivers. The operator will be in say, Michigan, with the rig in Florida. Some of them are using the online system:
http://www.remotehams.com/
I signed up and downloaded the software. It works very well. Many of the stations are closed to outsiders, and some of them don't let you transmit, but it is fun to listen from remote locations.
This morning I hooked up the Tuna Tin 2 and was able to hear my 200 mW signal through AI4W's receiver in Kentucky.
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
Labels:
Tuna Tin 2,
web sites
Friday, March 14, 2014
The Wizard of Sao Paulo
It has been about 4 years since Miguel, PY2OHH, has been mentioned in this blog. That's too long! Miguel has churned out an impressive series of homebrew rigs, the latest of which he calls the Baita Tche. Does that name look familiar? It is a play on words using slang from Southern Brazil. "Baita" means big or enormous. "Tche" means "you." Together they sound sort of like BITX! Miguel has been building BITX rigs and rigs (like Baita Tche) similar to Farhan's rig. Here is his page on Baita Tche:
http://py2ohh.w2c.com.br/trx/baitatche/baitatche.html
Here is his home page with a LONG (almost JF1OZL-ish!) list of projects:
http://py2ohh.w2c.com.br/
Here's his YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/py2ohh
Here's a Photostream of some excellent Brazilian homebrew:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/py2jcm/2066764415/in/photostream/
Muito obrigado Miguel!
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
Saturday, December 14, 2013
University of Twente's Online Receiver
Wow, I played with this on-line SDR receiver a few years ago and thought it was fantastic. It is now even better. I'm sitting here listening to 40 meters in the Netherlands. Great stuff. Check it out. It is really amazing:
http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/
Thanks to Bob, KD4EBM for letting me know about the updates.
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
Labels:
Netherlands.,
SDR,
web sites
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
BITX (and W2AEW) on Hack-A-Day
The guys over on Hack-A-Day ran a little follow-up article on the BITX-17. Check it out:
http://hackaday.com/2013/11/13/bitx-a-return-to-hackers-paradise/#comments
They also had an article about Tek-Wizard Alan Wolke earlier in the week:
http://hackaday.com/2013/11/11/diagnose-and-repair-a-yaesu-ft-7800-ham-radio/
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
Labels:
BITX20,
web sites,
wolke -- Alan
Saturday, October 19, 2013
From Bits to Atoms -- Software vs. Hardware
I thought this was pretty good. On Hack-A-Day.
http://hackaday.com/2013/10/18/guest-rant-from-bits-to-atoms/#more-105097
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
http://hackaday.com/2013/10/18/guest-rant-from-bits-to-atoms/#more-105097
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
Labels:
web sites
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Hackers' Paradise
http://hackaday.com/2013/09/23/guest-rant-ham-radio-hackers-paradise/
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
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
Labels:
web sites
Sunday, March 17, 2013
A Beautiful Workshop in Scotland
A nasty Coronal Mass Ejection hit our magnetic field at around 0600 UTC today. The HF bands are now in poor shape. What better time to visit a really impressive workshop in Scotland?
Ian has an interesting site: http://www.ianjohnston.com/
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
Sunday, February 3, 2013
On 15 with HT-37 and Drake 2B
W7FE's Shack and Hex Beam
After I replaced the 6U8 first mixer tube on the trusty Drake 2-B I tuned around a bit on 15 meters. IZ4NIC was loud, all the way from Bologna. I gave him a call and we had a nice QSO in Italian. then I talked to F4GBU. I was using my 40 meter dipole, but I thought I might do better with my 17 meter dipole (it is higher up in the trees). I called CQ 15 and got into a very nice QSO with Jim, W0JLG in Wichita. Jim has a very impressive collection of Boatanchors. We were soon joined by Stu, W7FE. Stu was using a Central Electronics 100v from the early 1960s. Wow, the three of us had a nice long contact.
The QSO was a real trip down memory lane for me: My sister Trish is visiting us. We had been talking about how when we were kids she would come into the shack to watch me try to talk to people... with the very same HT-37 and Drake 2B. I was 15 and she was 10. That was 39 years ago! Here we were again, sitting in front of the same old rig. It was a lot of fun.
Stu has some great info on his very impressive radio shack. You guys will really enjoy a visit to his QRZ.com site: http://www.qrz.com/db/W7FE
And check out his switching system for all those rigs: http://www.qsl.net/w7fe/
Wow, his site makes me want o move out to the shed and put up a hex beam!
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
Labels:
antennas,
Drake 2B,
Hallicrafters,
Knack Stories,
Old radio,
web sites,
workbench
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Rich Arland's "Commo Bunker"
Well known QRP author Rich Arland has launched a new blog called "The Commo Bunker." I'm pleased that one of his first articles deals with Boatanchor radios in general and the Drake 2B in particular.
Check out his blog: http://commobunker.blogspot.com/
Rich's article came at a good time for me, because today's task in the SolderSmoke HQ shack is fixing my suddenly deaf Drake 2B. Without even taking it out of the case, I think I have most of the troubleshooting done: signals make it through, but very weak. And the S-meter is now resting far below zero. The S meter is a bridge circuit that looks at current through the RF amp stage (V1) and the IF amp (V5). So my guess is one of these tubes has gone soft. This should be an easy fix.
I have a nostalgic reason for fixing this rig. My sister is visiting us. When I was 15 and she was 10 she would sometimes sit with me in the shack as I used the HT-37 and the 2B. Those same rigs are still with me and we hope to make a few contacts with them this weekend.
UPDATE: I fixed the 2B. V2, the 6U8 used as first mixer and crystal oscillator had gone soft. This may also explain difficulties I had in getting the rig to work with a crystal in the E band socket.
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
Check out his blog: http://commobunker.blogspot.com/
Rich's article came at a good time for me, because today's task in the SolderSmoke HQ shack is fixing my suddenly deaf Drake 2B. Without even taking it out of the case, I think I have most of the troubleshooting done: signals make it through, but very weak. And the S-meter is now resting far below zero. The S meter is a bridge circuit that looks at current through the RF amp stage (V1) and the IF amp (V5). So my guess is one of these tubes has gone soft. This should be an easy fix.
I have a nostalgic reason for fixing this rig. My sister is visiting us. When I was 15 and she was 10 she would sometimes sit with me in the shack as I used the HT-37 and the 2B. Those same rigs are still with me and we hope to make a few contacts with them this weekend.
UPDATE: I fixed the 2B. V2, the 6U8 used as first mixer and crystal oscillator had gone soft. This may also explain difficulties I had in getting the rig to work with a crystal in the E band socket.
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
Labels:
Drake 2B,
Knack Stories,
Old radio,
web sites
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
SolderSmoke on Tinkernation
SolderSmoke is on the Tinkernation web site:
http://www.tinkernation.com/your-story/bill-meara-homemade-radios-and-magic-carpets/#more-698
(Note that SPRAT is in both pictures.)
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
Friday, June 8, 2012
Vintage Tektronix Museum
The radio gods seem to have been guiding me to this web site. Last night I was listening to 17 meter phone and I heard a station calling TEK guru Alan, W2AEW. I couldn't hear Alan (skip zone and all that) but just hearing his call turned my thoughts to Beaverton, Oregon. This morning I found a message from Dino, KL0S, alerting me to the VintageTEK museum. FB! Analog Rocks On!
http://www.vintagetek.org/
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
http://www.vintagetek.org/
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
Labels:
oscilloscope,
web sites,
wolke -- Alan
Saturday, May 12, 2012
EDN Article on Performance of Modern Ham Transceivers
Mike, KC7IT, alerted us to a very interesting EDN article about the performance of modern ham transceivers:
http://www.edn.com/article/521690-High_performance_HF_transceiver_design_A_ham_s_perspective.php?cid=Newsletter+-+EDN+Fun+Friday
On the phase noise, how do old fashioned LC or crystal oscillators compare to modern PLL or DDS circuits?
And congrats to Elecraft for the high ratings on their K3.
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
http://www.edn.com/article/521690-High_performance_HF_transceiver_design_A_ham_s_perspective.php?cid=Newsletter+-+EDN+Fun+Friday
On the phase noise, how do old fashioned LC or crystal oscillators compare to modern PLL or DDS circuits?
And congrats to Elecraft for the high ratings on their K3.
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
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Marconi Archive
Brian, G0NSL, alerted us to this very interesting archive on Marconi:
http://markpadfield.com/marconicalling/museum/html/archivehome.html
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
Labels:
Marconi-Guglielmo,
radio history,
web sites
Monday, December 26, 2011
Homebrew Hero: Kazuhiro Sunamura, JF1OZL
In case anyone in the SolderSmoke community has not yet visited the site of Kazuhiro Sunamura... Be sure to check out his site. He has a really amazing range of projects:
http://www.intio.or.jp/jf10zl/
Here is the bio of OM OZL. As you can see, he definitely has the Knack, and clearly has the sharing attitude of a true member of the International Brotherhood of Electronic Wizards:
My name is Kazuhiro Sunamura. I am a 50 year old mechanical engineer, born in 1956. I am not an engineer in electronics. I have been interested in electricity and radio from the age of ten. For the last ten years, I have been active on my ham radio station JF10ZL. I have also written articles about my some of my radio projects in Japanese for the Japanese CQ Magazine. Now I have decided to get onto the internet and will take the opportunity of showing you my equipment and ideas. Please have a look at my schematics. I will be very happy if this material helps you with your own radio projects. I am a member of the J.A.R.L. affiliated Tsuchiura Club, the local ham club in my home town.
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
http://www.intio.or.jp/jf10zl/
Here is the bio of OM OZL. As you can see, he definitely has the Knack, and clearly has the sharing attitude of a true member of the International Brotherhood of Electronic Wizards:
My name is Kazuhiro Sunamura. I am a 50 year old mechanical engineer, born in 1956. I am not an engineer in electronics. I have been interested in electricity and radio from the age of ten. For the last ten years, I have been active on my ham radio station JF10ZL. I have also written articles about my some of my radio projects in Japanese for the Japanese CQ Magazine. Now I have decided to get onto the internet and will take the opportunity of showing you my equipment and ideas. Please have a look at my schematics. I will be very happy if this material helps you with your own radio projects. I am a member of the J.A.R.L. affiliated Tsuchiura Club, the local ham club in my home town.
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Labels:
Japan,
Knack Stories,
web sites
Saturday, November 5, 2011
21st Century Ham Radio -- EDN Article
A few listeners sent this in. Thanks! Note the mention of AA1TJ's CFL light bulb rig!
http://www.edn.com/article/519742-Ham_radio_in_the_21st_century.php
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
http://www.edn.com/article/519742-Ham_radio_in_the_21st_century.php
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Another Treasure Trove: The Royal Society's Archive
I'm a big fan (wanna-be really) of The Royal Society. In SolderSmoke 138 I noted that Isaac Newton (former Society president) seems to have had The Knack. And when I was in London one of the major perks of my job was that I occasionally got to visit the Society's headquarters. Bill Bryson recently edited a book about the Royal Society -- in his intro he noted that they have always been a very international group (just like us!)
Several readers wrote in with the happy news that the Society's 350 year archive has been placed on-line. Here it is:
http://royalsocietypublishing.org/site/authors/free-archive.xhtml
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Several readers wrote in with the happy news that the Society's 350 year archive has been placed on-line. Here it is:
http://royalsocietypublishing.org/site/authors/free-archive.xhtml
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Friday, October 14, 2011
SolderSmoke: Engineering Site of the Day on EE Web!
Dilbert would be so proud! In spite of my Bachelor of Arts Degree, yesterday the SolderSmoke blog was named Engineering Site of the Day by EE Web. I'm especially pleased that the Sputnik rig of the G3XBM team was the featured photo. Check it out:
http://www.eeweb.com/websites/solder-smoke-daily-news
http://www.eeweb.com/
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
http://www.eeweb.com/websites/solder-smoke-daily-news
http://www.eeweb.com/
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Labels:
satellites,
UK,
web sites
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