SolderSmoke Podcast #181 Of Dongles and DX-100s -- SDR vs. HDR, Music & Art, 2B, HB2HB, Noise, The Martian, VK3YE's New Book

Two RTL SDR Dongles in front of a DX-100 Transmitter

SolderSmoke Podcast #181 is available:

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke181.mp3

17 October 2015

-- Our audience IGNORES Pete's guitar intro!
-- Pete on QSO Today Podcast.
-- Part 97, The Radio Art and International Goodwill.
BENCH REPORTS:
-- Pete connects his new beam to the KX3.
-- Pete puts the Bell-thorn on 20.
-- Simple-ceiver update.
-- Pete's new drum machine: http://makezine.com/2015/10/15/learn-electronics-worlds-oldest-drum-machine/
-- Bill fights noise in the DIGI-TIA.
-- Bill fights power-line noise (and wins!).
-- Drake 2B, skirts, reduction drives, and tuning rates.
-- Warming up (with!) the DX-100.

-- N2CQR -- N6QW  First Ever HB2HB QSO.

-- On 40 AM with an HT-37
-- Listening to Chinese CubeSats.
-- SDR Dongle as a bandwidth checker.

-- SDR and the Future of Homebrew Radio.

-- Bryan's LBS Receiver.
-- Dean's First Ever QSO with his HB rig.

-- 32 Mighty Mites Completed

-- The Martian -- Did Mark Watney REALLY have the Knack?

-- MAILBAG:
Peter Parker's New Book
Sparks from Ron Sparks
Armand's 1Watter
Rogier's  pyro machine
BIG boxes from Tim KI6BGE
Mikele's ZIA and N6QW rig collection
SPRAT 141 and SPRAT 164

Dean's TIA Transceiver with Si5351 (Video)

Nice work Dean!  With this rig, Dean recently had his first ever ham QSO.  FB OM.

A Message from South Africa

Hi Bill,

 

I am Pieter callsign ZS3AOR. I came upon your E-Book at Amazon and downloaded it to my Kindle and man, I really enjoyed reading about your endeavors with everything.

 

The way you explained for instance the inner workings of transistors and mixers and problems associated with it is really  good.

 

Subsequently I downloaded the August Podcast and I am hooked with you and Pete.

 

Kind regards from the Namaqualand region of South Africa (Northern Cape Province)

 

Pieter  ZS3AOR

 

 

 

Pieter's Workbenches

HB2HB -- Homebrew Rigs on Both Sides of the Contact

As I've been saying on the podcast, contacts in which both operators are using homebrew gear are increasingly rare, especially on SSB, and especially, it seems, in the USA.  So let's chronicle these rare events.  I've started a Label here on the blog called HB2HB.   Send me reports of good HB2HB contacts -- recent or past -- and I'll try to get them onto the blog. 

I've already described my recent QSO with Pete, N6QW.   My second HB2HB from this location took place on 12 October 2015.   I talked to Jeff GW3UZS in Cardiff, Wales on 17 meters.  I was using my trusty BITX17.  Jeff was running a much more sophisticated homebrew rig -- see above.  More details on Jeff's beautiful rigs are on his QRZ.com page"

https://www.qrz.com/db/GW3UZS

So send in HB2HB reports.  These contacts are almost in "endangered species" category -- they deserve to be preserved!

A VERY Quiet Shack, 4850 Feet Below the Surface

Michael Rainey's underground shack in Vermont is undeniably cool, but these folks have REALLY gone deep.  They are almost a mile down, blocking out that nasty cosmic ray QRN, building sensitive detectors to QSO with some extremely elusive DX:  DARK MATTER. 

SEE IF YOU CAN SPOT THE TEK 'SCOPE.

Wonderful video.  Thanks to Ira Flatow and Science Friday.

Peter Parker's New QRP Book

The wizard of Melbourne Beach, Peter Parker VK3YE, has written a book about QRP.    Check it out here.  

Peter is a true QRP guru. His Beach 40 transceiver is shaking the ether from locations around the world.  I am really glad that he put that Melbourne dock on the cover.  That dock has been the test site for many of Peter's amazing creations.  The railing has supported many great antennas.   So many wonderful YouTube videos have been recorded there.  There really should be a plaque or something... 

Peter's book is available as an e-book from Amazon.   Details on how you can get it are here"
http://home.alphalink.com.au/~parkerp/miniqrp.htm

Thanks Peter for this important addition to the QRP literature.

Mikele's Croatian Zia and the N6QW Cult

I was telling Pete that thousands of years from now, archeologists will be puzzled when they find, in many remote corners of the world, strange homebrew electronic devices with the symbol "N6QW" emblazoned on them.  Who, they will ask, was the cult leader N6QW, and how did he get his followers to build these devices? 

Thanks to the work of Mikele 9A3XZ,  Croatia will surely be a major center for research into the N6QW cult.  Check out Mikele's video.  Stick around for the full 6 minutes and you will see the many N6QW rigs that Mikele has built.  FB Mikele!   Keep up the good work!

The Amazing History of the Gibson Girl Rescue Radio

 

A video about the Kon-Tiki expedition got us wondering about how you could generate hydrogen gas for an antenna balloon while on a raft at sea. (That's the kind of question that keeps Knack victims up at night.)  This led us to the Gibson Girl rescue radio.  This morning I found a fascinating web site that gives the long, multi-country history of the curvaceous rescue rig: 

 

http://www.wftw.nl/gibsongirl.html 

Saskatchewan Mighty Mite (Video)

 

Bill and Pete,

Tonight I have had my first experience with the joy of oscillation!   I'm so happy to have my M3 oscillating!  This was a great first project and look forward to seeing if I can't build a lowpass filter to go with it.  As you recommended Bill, I reconfigured my initial board to make things much more compact thus keeping the lead length short.  For the coil, i used a 1.25in wooden dowel and it worked great!  Here are a few photos.  Thanks a lot for the crystal!  Video will be coming soon.

Looking forward to Pete's 40m transceiver project.  Keep up the great podcast!

Daniel

VE5DLD

 

 

Dean's Double First: First Ham Contact Is Also His First Homebrew Contact

  

Hi Guys,

    I just had my first QSO with my ZIA transceiver!  Contact was with W8ERN in Brighton Michigan, which is approximately 300 miles from my QTH in Nashville Indiana.  W8ERN said I was barely audible and was surprised that he could hear me at all.  Especially when he found out that I was running less than 5W on an end-fed wire.  From what I heard, band conditions were pretty poor due to a magnetic storm.

    Sorry I didn't get any video of the QSO.  I heard him calling CQ and just answered.  I didn't expect him to return my call.  Btw, this was my first QSO as an amateur.  I was a bit nervous, I don't know why.  I plan on installing a 40M dipole before winter sets in so, hopefully my signal will get out a little further. 

    I have one other question.  I am considering purchasing a used rig in the next few months.  What would either one of you recommend?  I am not abandoning my home-brewing but it would be nice to have a back up rig when conditions are bad.  My budget is around $200 or so, and I don't mind something that might need some repairs.  There is a hamfest in Fort Wayne(my hometown) next month, so I might go up there and do some shopping.

    Thanks again for all of your encouragement and knowledge.   

 

73's

Dean AC9JQ

------------------------------

 

Hi Dean,

 

Congratulations on your first contact on the TIA AND your 1st contact as a ham. Bravo. Time to have a real celebration. Get cracking on that antenna before you have snow on the ground!!!

 

W8ERN, Angelo is an outstanding amateur and and a real gentleman. He has a very interesting past life. I think he worked for Multi Elmac and Central Electronics. During the 1940’s to 1960’s these companies produced some of the best ham gear. The AF-67 Transciter and the PMR8 were used mobile and of course the CE 100V and 200V were the first No Tune vacuum tube transmitters. So you were talking to one of the radio gods.

 

Again Congratulations Dean --- Bravo.

 

73’s

Pete

 

--------------------------

 

Dean:

 

Wow that's great.  Indeed the band conditions are about as bad as they get.  So bad that they are seeing Northern Lights (Aurora) far south into the USA.  Give it a few days and you will find much better conditions.

 

My advice on a commercial rig: DON'T!  You may think that they'd do better when conditions are poor, but they really won't.  If you want a bit more power, build an amp for the TIA. 

You are off to such an amazing start as a true homebrew ham.  Stay on the homebrew path.  Build a completely homebrew station!  Congrats! 

73  Bill

Sparks from Ron Sparks: The Grand Pooh Bah and Gilbert and Sullivan; SDR, Ned Ludd and Blaise Pascal

 

Hi Bill,

Thanks very much for the mention in your tenth anniversary podcast!  It is great to know I am embedded in internet history even though I am not that important.

I enjoyed listening to you and Pete on the recent Soldersmoke Podcast.  I really got a kick out of the various discussions and thought I would weigh in.  I am sure you have heard someone say "Well actually...", so here are a few from me

• Grand Pooh-Bah is, as you say, a Flintstones character, but it is not the the origin of the term. It actually goes back bit more than a century.  The original character was named Pooh-Bah and was Lord High of nearly everything.  He appeared in The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan in 1885.
• There really are a fair number of non-software experiments that can be done with SDR.  My first SDR was a set of boards assembled by Gerald when he was first starting Flexradio in 2002.  His plans were very much homebrew and were published in QEX July/Aug 2002.  My second SDR was a homebrew kit put together by Tony Parks, KB9YIG in 2005.  He still sells SDR kits as fivedash.com.  All this is very much home brew and does not rely on obscure hardware blobs.  Have a look at the schematic for the current softrock at Ensemble II Schematic.pdf.  It only uses "jellybean ICs".
• According to the Smithsonian magazine, "Despite their modern reputation, the original Luddites were neither opposed to technology nor inept at using it...A seemingly endless war against Napoleon’s France had brought 'the hard pinch of poverty,' wrote Yorkshire historian Frank Peel, to homes 'where it had hitherto been a stranger.' Food was scarce and rapidly becoming more costly. Then, on March 11, 1811, in Nottingham, a textile manufacturing center, British troops broke up a crowd of protesters demanding more work and better wages."  It was only later that they became associated with resenting the machinery.

I am also enjoying your discussion of the changes to our technology and how it affects hams and other technical people.  I came into electronics as a young boy and at that time transistors were just beginning to displace tubes as a dominant force.  I definitely remember the older techs saying, "These new transistor things are just sand-in-a-can; how can anyone know how a circuit operates with them."

About 12 years later when I was in college I heard exactly the same comment as "jellybean" Integrated Circuits (7400 and 4000) began to displace discrete transistors.  There was much musing about how the future would be one of just plugging ICs together and no design talent would be needed or developed.
Fast forward another 20 years and the microprocessor moved from Primary CPU, to cheap CPU, to PICs and Atmels.  Here came the same comment lamenting the loss of ICs that "we could understand" and "no more electronics is needed, just hook the blocks and write the software."

Now about 10 years from then we are seeing complete transmitter and receiver modules, zigbee, wifi, and many other Adafruit style drop-in modules.  I figure it is about time to hear that old saying once again.  You and Pete need to be careful as you dance about it, don't fall into the trap !

So in the immortal words of Blaise Pascal in 1657, "I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter."
Keep up the good work and great podcast!

73 de AG5RS, Ron

The Coolest Guy on 17 Meters

In our last podcast I mentioned that I had a very interesting contact on 17 meters with Raul Midon AE3RM.  This morning Raul's song "Tembererana" popped up on my Pandora feed.  The song is great, but is was the album cover that attracted my attention. 

Raul has an amazing personal history.  Born in Argentina, he and his twin brother have been blind since birth.  They have both obviously triumphed -- his brother is a NASA engineer.  

You can watch OM Raul sing about technology in his TED Talk:
https://www.ted.com/talks/raul_midon_plays_all_the_answers_and_tembererana?language=en

Here is his Wikipedia page.  Check out the info about his home studio and his technology company:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raul_Mid%C3%B3n

From the Wiki:
Midón's album State of Mind was released on May 10, 2005. The album features a guest performance with Stevie Wonder, one of his idols, another one with Jason Mraz, and a song written in tribute to Donny Hathaway entitled "Sittin' In The Middle." Midón is an avid amateur radio enthusiast,^[2] and in this song he also incorporates his call sign (KB5ZOT) by using Morse code.

Here is his QRZ page:  http://www.qrz.com/db/KB5ZOT
In it he writes:  "He has been an amateur radio enthusiast since Mrs. Redmond introduced he and his brother to the hobby back when they both attended the New Mexico School for the Visually Handicapped."  Good work Mrs. Redmond!

Here is Raul's antenna in Maryland.  Maybe he was thinking of this when he designed the album cover!