Just go to http://soldersmoke.com. On that archive page, just click on the blue hyperlinks and your audio player should play that episode.
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You guys really have to listen to this. This is culturally important. In this 1965 radio broadcast, Jean Shepherd describes his teenage struggles with parasitics and other technical problems in his homebrew 160 meter transmitter.
He describes the sound of parasitics on a signal, saying that they sound as if the signal is being attacked by "debauched erotic locusts."
He really nails it in describing the scornful, dismissive tone that many hams use in telling their fellow radio amateur that there are problems with his signal. ( I have recently been on the receiving end of this kind of treatment.)
He observes that no one is more worried, "than a man who has built something and can't get it to work." Indeed.
During a date with a girl from his high school, he is so obviously preoccupied with his transmitter trouble that she tells him that something is wrong with him and that his mother "should take him to a doctor."
And he describes the joy that comes when you figure out the problem and get the thing to work.
The REALLY good stuff begins at about the 25 minute point.
In SolderSmoke podcast #229 Pete and I were discussing my rather flaky effort to turn the Hodgepodge BITX40 Module into a CW rig by injecting keyed 700 Hz audio into the mic jack (see video below). We got some very helpful responses from ND6T and VK2EMU:
Hi Bill,
You mentioned generating CW by modulating SSB: Collins did that in their
first SSB transceivers, I believe, as did SGC, but the results were less
than optimal. The problem is that you are involving the audio chain and
modulator. You know from experience how difficult it is to maintain low
intermod there and the tone is no exception. So we end up with lots of
spurs within the filter passband and then also have the opposite
sideband suppression less than perfect. If you check your transmitted
signal with a spectrum analyzer or SDR you can easily see the nasties.
Listening to a CW signal thus generated makes it obvious unless it is
buried way down in the noise. It IS a valid CW signal (not MCW) since it
is (almost) a single signal. However, in actual operation it doesn't
work very well.
I know because I have done that. I bought one of Farhan's original
BITX40 boards and wanted to put it on CW. I ended up injecting a keyed
signal from one of the spare clocks on the Si5351 into the RF amplifier
chain (thus avoiding the above stated problems) but still had garbage
from the audio and IF stages. I fixed that by shorting out that signal
during transmit by a transistor to ground. That was documented on your
With putting an audio oscillator into you hodgepodge radio, your transmission is not the same as a standard CW rig.
If we have a transmitter as described in the ARRL handbooks from the 1940's or 1950's, (or even the Michigan Mighty Mite) it is a crystal oscillator and maybe a PA tube. By keying either the oscillator and/or the final PA on and off, then we can send Morse code as ICW Interrupted Continues Wave. If we check the list of emission designators, we have A1A.
However, if we feed a tone into a SSB transmitter, then we have J2A.
At the other end it may sound the same, but because it is created in a different way, it has a different designation.
A quick look at Part 97 shows that J2A and J2B are classed as CW, so you are in the clear. However, if you put a tone oscillator into an AM signal to send CW, then that would be classed as A2A and not classed as CW, but as MCW. MCW can be used on 6 meters and above, but not HF.
So I say BASTA with the J2A! If I want to go CW, it's all A1A for me. I dusted off my Fish Soup 10 and am now back on 40 CW with 200 mW.... A1A all the way!
Putting "Basta" in the SolderSmoke search box yields many blog posts. The cry of ENOUGH! from six year-old Mafalda has been part of the podcast for many years and is now part of the SolderSmoke lexicon.
We don't do a lot of obits on this blog (we try to keep it all upbeat) but the passing of Mafalda's creator Quino is news that many of you may have missed, and that I think merits mention here. This link has a nice 3 minute report from NPR:
The early fascination with small light bulbs, switches, and batteries confirms the diagnosis. The Ladybird group seems to have led many a young British person down the path to OTD (see the web site for more info on this malady). https://g6lbq.blogspot.com/ Andy writes:
Hi Bill
I have built a few BitX transceivers and developed a 9 band version which has been built by various hams around the world.
Always look forward to the SolderSmoke podcast which I enjoy immensely.
For your interest I have attached some pictures to show you some of the modules I have designed/developed and built for my Multi-Band projects. The SMD boards are for my latest project which I call the Irwell Transceiver, my intention is to make it all band HF and multimode.
Hopefully my pictures will meet with the SolderSmoke approval and the inauguration can take place for recognition that I officially have The Knack, failing this it will be a Basta moment at the G6LBQ workshop!
Keep up the great work you do with SolderSmoke which brings pleasure, fun and inspiration to hams all over the world.
The "al fresco" phase has ended for my HRO receiver project. As has happened with homebrew projects around the world, this rig was literally pushed aside on the workbench to make room for BITX-40 Module Mania. I began to worry that the circuitry of the HRO receiver might suffer damage from the various kinds of electronic construction mayhem that take place on our workbenches. Also, I wanted to see what it would look like in the nice big metal box that Tim Sutton had sent me (thanks again Tim.) And I was hoping that the box would help with the AM broadcast breakthrough that I sometimes hear with this receiver. So, as you can see, I have good excuses for declaring Basta! on the HRO Al Fresco. I think it looks great. Black on silver is very cool. It sounds great. I'm listening to 40 right now. Thanks to Armand WA1UQO for the very cool HRO dial that got this all started.
Perhaps this was a reaction to a frustrating morning spent trying to get a 20x4 digital display to work with an Si5351 and an Arduino Uno via an I2C bus (I feel my blood pressure rising just due to the typing of those words). After much digital fiddling, I declared a "BASTA!" and looked around the shack for an antidote for the digital frustration. There on the bench was my fully analog BITX40Module rig, with its homebrew L-C analog VFO. It needed a better frequency readout. And this morning, it got one. The pointer is Sharpie ink on a bit of PC board. It is held in place by superglue, suspended by a piece of wood about 1/4 inch off the chassis (to reduce dial parallax). The numerals are in Dymo tape -- there was not enough room for the "7" but I think I will be able to remember this.
Hi Bill, Pete "The Crossword Guy" K4PHS here again. In the New York Times Crossword for Tuesday June 21, 2016 the clue for 52 across is: "Enough, Enrico!" And the answer is: "Basta!" 72, Pete, K4PHS And from October 5, 2015 Hi Bill,
The clue for #7 across in todays New York Times Monday Mini Crossword puzzle is:
It turns out that Pete and I may not be the first homebrewers to make use of the word "basta!" At lunch time, while sitting near the Einstein memorial in Washington, I found a short article in SPRAT 83 (Summer 1995). In it, Robert PA3BHK presented some ideas for reverse polarity protection, and noted that his friend Peter PE1MHO had discovered an interesting phrase from antiquity:
"SPIRITUS TRANSISTOR BASTA"
According to Peter this was the diagnosis of a classical Roman engineer when checking a transistorized PA that went dead after an accidental reversal of the polarity of its supply. Above we see that same engineer, obviously setting up a 2 meter Moxon.
David GM4JJJ was the fellow who sent us the video of early Scottish moonbounce ops. This morning he sent me a tale of woe involving some transverters and several BASTA! moments. I will spare you all the painful details, but I really liked this paragraph about David's use of sigs from a French space surveillance radar:
... While the transverter for 144 MHz was being tested out into my new homebuilt antenna I tried receiving the French space surveillance GRAVES RADAR on 143.050 MHz. It is easily detected here in Scotland via meteor scatter. It is also so strong that passing space hardware like the ISS reflect the RADAR and can also be detected, showing up on FFT displays with their rapid Doppler shift. GRAVES is also easily detected by moonbounce, I could see it and hear it on my single 10 element yagi pointed at the horizon without a preamp. Even when the moon was at 15 degrees elevation here, and even higher in France the signal was strong enough to be picked up in one of the lobes of my antenna. You can actually see what the vertical pattern of the antenna looks like as the moon rises through the peaks and nulls of the antenna in conjunction with the constructive and destructive interference patterns caused by ground reflections and the direct path to the moon.
What makes this short video special is the fact that the music was all completely designed (composed) and homebrewed (played) by Pete himself.
From Pete:
In Italian when one has finally had enough --the Hue and Cry is BASTA! I have been having some Basta Moments in trying to make Arduino 1.6.3 work with sketches developed in Version 1.0.5. So for some comic relief I decided to program a 240X320 Color TFT with a random pattern generator using the word Basta! Of course is was done in Arduino 1.0.5! Pete N6QW
It might not be apparent, but I have it on good authority the guy with the blue face pulling the Brainwagon was saying "BASTA!" when this drawing was made, probably after an evening spent with Arduinos and their fascinating I2C libraries.
Mark, K6HX, kindly offered to help us with our ArduinWoes (painful details are available in SolderSmoke Podcast #175). Mark went to the trouble of getting the display and I2C backpack that have been giving us trouble, and then went and did a lot of testing to find the origins of the problems. He has written this all up in two brilliant blog posts:
You will notice that Mark has made quite liberal use of the word "basta." As Pete has noted, in order to get the full effect of this very therapeutic Italian word, you have to make use of the correct hand gesture. Veronika nails it at about 1:28 in this video (WARNING: VERONIKA CAN BE QUITE EXPLICIT):
Thanks Mark for all your help on this. I'm not sure if we are entirely out of the woods yet, but it is reassuring that we are not the only ones screaming...
-- Some enhanced audio testing (Mellow, with Presence!) -- Pete's trip to Fake-shu-out, China -- My visit to the National Academy of Sciences --Bench Reports: Pete's JBOM Re-born Bill's plans for a new SSB Transceiver -- Arduino Woes BASTA!!!!!!!!!!! -- Si5351 VFO/BFO development -- Chuck Adams, Tribal Knowledge, and Muppet boards -- KX3 QRO? -- What antenna for Pete? MAILBAG
You guys really have to listen to this. This is culturally important. And it is a great follow-up to SolderSmoke 173.
In this 1965 radio broadcast, Jean Shepherd describes his teenage struggles with parasitics and other technical problems in his homebrew 160 meter transmitter.
He describes the sound of parasitics on a signal, saying that they sound as if the signal is being attacked by "debauched erotic locusts."
He really nails it in describing the scornful, dismissive tone that many hams use in telling their fellow radio amateur that there are problems with his signal. ( I have recently been on the receiving end of this kind of treatment.)
He observes that no one is more worried, "than a man who has built something and can't get it to work." Indeed.
During a date with a girl from his high school, he is so obviously pre-occupied with his transmitter trouble that she tells him that something is wrong with him and that his mother "should take him to a doctor."
And he describes the joy that comes when you figure out the problem and get the thing to work.
The REALLY good stuff begins at about the 25 minute point.
Shep was quoting from King Lear: "O, that way madness lies; let me shun that; No more of that." In other words: "BASTA!" That is what I have said about my 40 meter troubles. My BITX 20/40 is now a BITX 20.
Bench Report: Pete's Progress on the Let's Build Something Rig: http://www.jessystems.com/LBS_Detail.html Ben's cool case for his LBS rig Bill's Tale of Woe: QRO troubles with the BITX 40 -- QRO amplifier taking off on 40 (but not 17) -- Criticism and public humiliation on 40 -- Troubleshooting -- Suggestions from Allison -- A sad realization about my VFO frequency selection -- Exorcism needed -- Pete suggests a digital solution -- Wow, my 'scope has an FFT! Almost a spectrum analyzer! -- Some thoughts on trouble shooting -- On the meaning of "BASTA!" The Spring 2015 Issue of Hot Iron http://www.walfords.net More on Pete's KX3 Encouraging other hams to build
"SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" is now available as an e-book for Amazon's Kindle.
Here's the site:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004V9FIVW
Bill's OTHER Book (Warning: Not About Radio)
Click on the image to learn more
Where are the readers of SolderSmoke Daily News?
Pete Juliano N6QW
SolderSmoke Co-Host and Master Homebrewer
Dean Souleles KK4DAS
With beret and with a Michigan Mighty Mite in hand
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