Has AA1TJ Joined the FMLA?

I have learned that esteemed homebrewer Michael Rainey, AA1TJ, recently whipped up a 56 MHz, quarter-wave, helical coaxial resonator (BTW: the spoon is also homebrew).  Hmm, 56 Mhz.  Or perhaps we should say MegaCYCLES?  Michael claims this device is for a low phase- noise VFO, but I find the frequency selection highly suspicious.   The last time I heard of that frequency it had to do with an underground group set up by the late (or not so late) Frank Jones.  
Here is all the info on Frank's Five Meter Liberation Army.  

http://www.sunflower.com/~brainbol/frank/

A man of the '30s awakens one night in the '90s (episode 13) with a new mission: recapture 56-60 mc. He forms a Five Meter Liberation Army from his mobile home in a Barrio trailer park run by Tom Joad of Steinback's Grapes of Wrath (episode 9), and soon draws a decidedly uncolorful bodyguard (episode 7). A six foot tall half Mexican stockbroker named for Ayn Rand makes him rich and a demonic white ferret and a half-siamese cat become his familiars. (episodes 10 and 9). The leader of all this, called only "Frank," settles down in the narrator's basement to be joined by Maj. Armstrong (episode 8), Hiram Maxim (episode 23) and one-time pals Carl and Jerry from the 1950s Popular Electronics (episode 25). His huge 1940s sedan, with contemporary plates, is immune from police (episode 13 et seq) and his breadboarded electronic creations recall those distant days when a ham built his own rig and could "fix a radio." Of course all this is crazy. No one builds anything anymore and the other things Frank stands for, like self- reliance, tolerance and a generally Boy Scout viewpoint are simply out of step. Frank knows that too (episode 20), but he does not care. If you're standing in the middle of the road and see a big brown Frazer coming at you, you better jump - one way or the other.

VIVA EL FMLA!  VIVA!


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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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Author Walter Isaacson was a Radio Amateur

This is the guy who wrote the biographies of Einstein, Steve Jobs, and Ben Franklin that I've been talking about on the podcast. President of the Aspen Institutes, former Chairman of CNN and editor of Time Magazine.  And, as I learned today, a former ham radio operator.   In his new book, "The Innovators," he writes:  

"My father and uncles were electrical engineers,  and like many of the characters in this book, I grew up with a basement workshop that had circuit boards to be soldered, radios to be opened, tubes to be tested, and boxes of transistors and resistors to be sorted and deployed.  As an electronics geek who loved Heathkits and ham radios (WA5JTP) I can remember when vacuum tubes gave way to transistors."

When I told Billy about this, he said, "No wonder you like his books so much!"  Indeed.  Walter has THE KNACK.   I'm enjoying his book, "The Innovators."   

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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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SW Echo Theory Confirmed By a BBC Engineer

BBC Relay Station Singapore

Hi Bill,

I heard your description of the echo on your podcast and before listening I knew the cause - but I think you know that now!

Yes, it's from two separate transmitters, and quite common, though not usually noticed.

It has nothing to do with path length differences - the longest round-the-world echo via the ionosphere is only about 0.15 seconds - so anything more has a different cause.

It's from the audio feed to the transmitter. Your regen receiver picked up two transmitters on different frequencies. It was very noticeable before transmitters used digital land-line feeds, just analogue and satellite.

On a BBC SW frequency (forget the which one now) one tx was in UK and the other in Singapore, on the same frequency with the same programme to completely different service areas. When propagation was right and listening in Europe, the UK signal fed by analogue audio from Bush House came first and the Singapore tx came with two geostationary satellite delays later, plus the tiny bit of UK-Singapore ionospheric path difference.

Now it's worse because there are all sorts of digital delays via land-line and satellite, although using the same frequency for the same service in not common.

In the UK Absolute Radio on AM medium-wave has multiple transmitters (mostly 1215 kHz and 1197 kHz) on the same frequency which are audible at night. If you listen carefully you can often hear multiple (up to FOUR!) echoes from different transmitters all being fed by different internet feeds/satellite links with varying delays. 

As an ex-BBC engineer, I can tell you that in the old days not only were these AM medium-wave group stations all synched to within 0.05Hz, but the phase of the modulation was adjusted so all tramsitters were modulating in phase! Now the commercial boys have taken over most of these syched groups, not only are the frequencies all over the place, but the modulation isn't even time delayed to match, let alone synchronized! Some even put diferent commercials in the breaks so if you're geographically between stations you get a complete, unlistenable-to mess. Apparently these days that's ok.

Why did we bother...?

Anyway, I hope this adds to and confirms your findings.

73,

Ian Liston-Smith, G4JQT

(A grumpy old retired BBC Engineer)

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Swedish Mighty Mite

A thing of beauty!  Check out the key! 

What a great diagram.  Schematic included! 

http://www.sm7ucz.se/MMM/MMM.htm

Remnants of mine

Steve "Snort Rosin" Smith's 

More on all this: 

http://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/search?q=michigan+mighty+Mite

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Thomas KK6AHT's Pacificon Minima Presentation: Noodling! And Maxima Inspiration!

Wow, the Minima presentation by Thomas at Pacificon was really great.   I think he had exactly the right tone and tech level for the digitally-savvy California audience.  His very open description of the ups and downs of his Minima build will surely lure in some new builders, and will at the same time prepare them for the travails ahead!  Great stuff.  I like the mention of Pete's "noodling."  Thomas obviously gets it.  And he obviously has THE KNACK.  Thanks Thomas!  

Thomas has posted his slides and (MOST IMPORTANT) the audio of his presentation.  Just click on the BIG ORANGE play arrow below the slides.  You folks will love this: 

http://www.sarfata.org/2014/10/Minima-Presentation-at-Pacificon/

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

Drake-uino! Arduino DDS puts Drake 2B on 12 meter band!

After using the Arduino DDS as a crystal substitute with my 1982 Barebones Superhet recevier (scroll down), I moved back two more decades and used the DDS as a crystal substitute to put my (early '60s) Drake 2B on the 12 meter band.    This was a hack in which I actually used a hack saw -- I used it to cut open the container holding a crystal so that I could make a socket that would carry the signal from the Arduino DDS into the Drake 2B. 

This video is a bit repetitive, but it stated out at two different videos.  I just put them together.  The last part shows the actual crystal socket hack. 

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Arduino DDS meets Barebones Superhet (Video)

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Pete's 17 Meter VXO Transceiver (Video)

Pete:  

I like it!  You and I may be the only people in the world with that kind of VXO range control switch on the front panel!

 

I checked my VXO.   I run it at around 23 MHz.  I use two single crystals, also switched by a relay. 

The 23.144 rock tunes from 23.127 to 23.151    24 kHz

The 23.166 rock goes from  23.144 to 23.168    24 kHz

 So I could have had 48 kHz were it not for the overlap.  As it is, I get 41 kHz.  Not bad.

 

The reason I went with this LO freq was that I had these crystals from the Dale Parfitt/Doug DeMaw Barebones Barbados Receiver.  DeMaw had used color burst rocks for a 3.579 MHz IF, but Dale shifted up to 5 MHz. I could occasionally hear WWV!  (But with the 3.579 I heard W1AW in the IF!)

 

73

 

Bill  

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

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!

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

Hacker with The Knack Does Well, Working for JPL

Wow.  This guy has a really inspirational Knack story.  He welded (with coat hangers!) a sidecar onto his bike when he was a kid.  He majored in Physics and Theater.  He did all kinds of hardware and software hacks. He plays a Theravin in a band.   He now flies spacecraft for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

And Congratulations to Peter Parker, VK3YE, for having one of his ingenious hacks picked up by Hackaday:
http://hackaday.com/2014/10/06/dusty-junk-bin-downconverter-receives-fm-on-an-am-radio/

Thanks Hackaday! And Happy Tenth Birthday to You!  

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