Thursday, December 4, 2025

Jim Williams -- Analog Man -- Book Review: "Analog Circuit Design -- Art, Science, and Personalities"

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  Jim Williams at his bench.  Note the mess.  The Bob Pease book that KD4EBM gave me led me to the Jim Willams book entitled Analog Circuit...
6 comments:
Wednesday, December 3, 2025

The Audio Archivists: "Somewhere Between Hard Science and Garage Alchemy"

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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/arts/music/iron-mountain-audio-tape-preservation.html?unlocked_article_code=1.5k8.-ksX.71L7e9Is_3LN&s...
1 comment:
Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Grote Reber -- W9GFZ -- Radio Astonomy Pioneer, Homebrew Hero

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First off, what a great name. It is a real ham radio name.  Grote Reber.  And he was indeed a ham:  W9GFZ.    We don't have names like t...
5 comments:
Monday, December 1, 2025

Book Review: "Big Ear Two -- Listening for Other-Worlds" by John Kraus (1995)

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This book is kind of weird, but give it a chance.  The author seems too prone to describe the physical attributes of his colleagues, especia...
Saturday, November 29, 2025

Jay KI5VIR's FB Homebrew SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

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Jay KI5VIR is a new ham, but you would never know this by looking at his build of the direct conversion receiver: It looks like something bu...

Dave AA7EE's Beautiful (Typically Beautiful) SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

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Dave Richards AA7EE is justifiably famous in homebrew circles for the beautiful photographs of his rigs, and for the superb documentation of...
7 comments:

California Typewriter -- Full Movie with Tom Hanks

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I think this one is a bit over the top.  They are way too interested in the old typewirters.  The artist who destroys the old machines to ma...
Friday, November 21, 2025

A Great Story about the Benefits of Repairing Old Gear -- The Bremerton Typewriter Company

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Listen to this in its audio form.  Maybe follow along with the (type?)written text.  Enjoy the pictures and the videos and -- above all -- t...
2 comments:
Wednesday, November 19, 2025

How VU2RM Got Into the Satellites

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  Readers will remember last week's post about the homebrew rivalry between VU2RM and VU2NR. (Note the bio about VU2RM below).  This mor...
3 comments:
Tuesday, November 18, 2025

Internet Archive / Wayback Machine in an Old Church in San Francisco

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  Three cheers for the Internet Archive!  Among its millions or trillions of things saved, there is the SolderSmoke podcast and blog.   Chec...
5 comments:
Monday, November 17, 2025

HAARP Test 17 -- 22 November 2025

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  Details here (click on November 2025):  https://haarp.gi.alaska.edu/transmissions Submit signal reports here:   https://haarp.gi.alaska.ed...
1 comment:
Friday, November 14, 2025

Early SSB in India: Espionage, Stolen Secrets, and Kleptomania

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  Earlier this month I had stumbled across a 1964 QST article entitled "A Sideband Transceiver, VU2 Style."  I forwarded the link ...
5 comments: