Thursday, January 29, 2026

Attempting 2 meter contact, Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico

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It is about 100 miles across the Mona Channel.  That is a longshot on 2 meters, but I got the idea when, this past summer, I regularly hear...
9 comments:
Wednesday, January 21, 2026

Watching the Hubble Space Telescope (an old friend) from the Dominican Republic

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  A recent article about the possibility of an early demise of the Hubble Space Telecope caught my eye.  I first saw HST as it came overhead...
1 comment:
Sunday, January 18, 2026

He's Back! The Dos Equis Man -- The Most Interesting Man in the World -- RETURNS!

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Memes with this guy appeared in many SolderSmoke posts.   Examples:  https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2022/10/worlds-most-interesting-man-on...
6 comments:
Friday, January 16, 2026

MIT Technology Review on Why AI LLMs are So Strange and So Alien

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Until recently, I thought that the AI LLMs were just sort of fancy, souped-up search engines.  Google on steroids.   But then they started g...
3 comments:
Tuesday, January 13, 2026

Why is it that AI-provided electronic circuits often don't work in the real world?

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Like many, I have turned to AI for circuit ideas.  And like many, I have been surprised by how many of these ideas just don't work.  I h...
19 comments:
Saturday, January 10, 2026

SolderSmoke Homebrew Direct Conversion Receiver Hall of Fame Update: 106 Completed + 7 Honorable Mentions: Total Receivers Built: 113 (As of February 1, 2026, 2238Z)

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Please let us know if you spot any errors, or if we have inadvertently missed anyone.  Don't worry about being late to the game -- the c...
1 comment:
Friday, January 9, 2026

Artificial Intelligence Not So Intelligent! AI Flunks the Parallel Resistor Test!

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So this morning I asked this of AI:       How should I make a 50 ohm dummy load capable of handling 5 watts from 330 ohm 1/4 watt resistors?...
7 comments:
Saturday, January 3, 2026

More on Spark Transmission and Reception -- From Germany. Spark Transmission using a Piezo Fire Starter

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More spark today.  I really liked how Robert Dalby demonstrated spark transmission and reception.  He used a simple Piezoelectric flame star...
Friday, January 2, 2026

Spark Gaps and Coherers demonstrated and Measured by CuriousMarc

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CuriousMarc provides a good demonstration of how spark transmitters work with coherer detectors.  His measurements are really illuminating. ...
Thursday, January 1, 2026

Walter KA4KXX's Innovative 20-meter SolderSmoke Direct-Conversion Honorable-Mention Receiver

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  It is a thing of beauty.  We were really pleased to see our old friend Walter KA4KXX take on the SolderSmoke challenge, and we weren't...
3 comments:

Let's Start the New Year with... THE KNACK!

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Happy New Year everyone!  Our friend Rogier PA1ZZ sent this to me. I'm sure there are parts of it that people will disagree with, but th...
2 comments:
Wednesday, December 31, 2025

Is the Veritasium Guy Retiring? Google says SolderSmoke is "Low Value Content."

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I have been a fan for many years.  His comments on the vile influence of the algorithm and AI are right on target.   Google recently informe...
9 comments: