A Homebrewer

 

That is Homer Price, the lead character in two books by Robert McCloskey, published in 1943 and 1951.  The thing in the valise is Homer's pet skunk.  Of course. 

More info here: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Price?fbclid=IwAR2cRUCurQBXaP-m4LdPFBOnBU4nvgZwtOZqrAzF8MaGvS4Xb_eTWHSWE2E

Homer is clearly a fellow we need to know more about.  I have ordered the book. 

Making Transistors in 1957

Thanks to Thomas K4SWL for alerting us to this video -- he had it on his excellent SWLing Post blog. 

Many things crossed my mind as I watched this video: 

-- Pocket protectors!  Pete recently noted that this was a common fashion accessory among electronic techs and engineers back in the day. 

-- HP test gear. 

-- "Extreme cleanliness" that doesn't seem quite so clean.  

-- 550 transistors per hour.  Now we have upwards of 50 billion on a single chip. 

-- The Germanium salami that Pete mentioned in our last podcast. 

-- Hints of Silicon's impending replacement of Germanium. 

-- A transistor factory in Spring City, Pa. that "hums with excitement" (seemed kind of sleepy). 

-- The 1957 assumption that Philco transistors would be in the first orbiting satellite.  Then came Sputnik.

-- The transistor that moves like a "Gulliver through Lilliputian lands."  

-- Our voices or accents seem to have changed, at least the voice used in products like this.  No one talks that way today. 

-- As I watched, I tried to remember if Pete's CK722 was made by these folks.   But no, that was a Raytheon product.   Here is a nice short description of the early days of the CK722:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CK722   We need to learn more about the hobbyist Carl Todd.

The Secret Life of LEDs -- A new Tim Hunkins Video

Thanks to Tony G4WIF for alerting us to this really nice video from the fellow who made all those great "Secret Life of Machines" videos.   This video on LED's makes me want to improve the lighting in my work shop.  And I think I need some more high wattage resistors.   I'm really glad Tim Hunkins is making more videos.  His look at the Secret Life of  Radio was a real masterpiece. 

Hodgepodge: Moving the Carrier Oscillator Frequency (and a Flashback to 2002) (Video)

As explained in the video, in the course of using my RTL-SDR dongle I noticed that the signal being put out by my Hodgepodge rig had some problems.  There was poor opposite sideband rejection, and in terms of audio quality I has putting out too many lows and too few highs.  I figured the problem was the result of the carrier oscillator frequency being a bit too low, a bit too close to the flat portion of the crystal filter passband.   I needed to move that carrier oscillator frequency up a bit. 

BITX40 Module BFO 

In the actual BITX40 Modules, L5 was replaced by just a jumper wire, and the C103 trimmer was not on the board.  Farhan and his team instead selected X5 crystals to match the passband of the 12 MHz crystal filter. Mine was originally at 11.998653 MHz.  But I wanted to tweak mine a bit -- I wanted to move it up about 500 Hz.  Reducing the capacitance would move the frequency up. Putting capacitance in series with C102 would have the effect of reducing the capacitance in the circuit.  I just removed the jumper wire and used the holes for L5.  First I put in a single 30pf capacitor.  This dropped the capacitance between X5 and ground to 18 pf.  That resulted in too large a shift.  So I added another 30 pf cap in parallel with the first one.  This resulted in a total capacitance from X5 to ground of 26 pf.  This was about right -- the carrier oscillator/BFO frequency was now 11.9991 Mhz.  I had moved the carrier oscillator frequency up by 447 Hz -- just about what I was hoping for.  

This was a very satisfying fix.  it was a chance to put to use experience with other SSB rigs, to make use of the RTL-SDR dongle as a diagnostic tool, and to tinker with the BITX40 Module in the way that Farhan had intended for it to be tinkered with.  

I'd done this kind of adjustment before, but without the benefit of an SDR display.  Below is the story of one such adjustment. 

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

A Flashback to 2001-2002

(From my book "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics")

Now it was time for some debugging and fine tuning.  I needed to make sure that the frequency of the carrier oscillator was in the right spot relative to the passband of the crystal filter.  If it was set too high, the filter would be chopping off high notes in my voice that were needed for communications clarity, and it would allow too much of what remained of the carrier (residuals from the balance modulator) through. If it was set too low, the voice signal transmitted would be lacking needed base notes.  I didn’t have the test gear needed to perform this adjustment properly, but my friend Rolf, SM4FQW, up in Sweden came to my aid.

One night, during a conversation with Rolf, I explained my problem and he offered to help me make the adjustments… by ear.  Performing an electronic version of open-heart surgery, with power on and Rolf on frequency, I opened the case of the new transmitter.  The carrier oscillator has a small capacitor that allows the frequency of the crystal to be moved slightly.  With Rolf listening carefully, I would take my screwdriver and give that little capacitor a quarter turn to the right.  “Better or worse?” I would ask. 

I think this little adjustment session captures much of the allure of ham radio.  There I was, out in the North Atlantic, late at night hunched over a transmitter that had been forged from old Swans and Heathkits, from cell phone chips, and from bits of design from distant members of the fraternity of solder smoke.  Pericles, the source of many of the key parts, was gone.  So was Frank Lee, the amateur whose SPRAT article had inspired the project.  But Rolf and I carried on with the core tradition of the radio fraternity: hams help their fellow hams overcome technical difficulties.  

Straight Key Night 2021 at SA2CLC in Sweden

Wow, check out the FB gear of Tommy SA2CLC in Sweden, in use on Straight Key Night 2021. There is some German WWII gear,  a BC-348,  a homebrew transmitter, and some FB QRP kits. 

More on Tommy SA2CLC here: https://www.qrz.com/db/SA2CLC 

The culvert under the road for coax to the antennas is very cool. 

FB Tommy!  A belated HNY to you OM. 

Taking Care of an Old Analog Machine -- The Scanimate

Of course, I understand and sympathize completely.  

Thanks for Rogier PA1ZZ for sending this.  

AA7EE Casually Kills a Direct Conversion Receiver, then Coldly Discards a Diode Ring Mixer

I was really glad to see that Dave AA7EE has -- after a long absence -- posted another article on his blog.   The article has some great personal reminiscences about his involvement with direct conversion receivers.  Here is one passage: 

I spent many happy hours tuning around and listening on 80M with the DSB80. It was this first experience that cemented my affinity for direct conversion receivers built with commercially available diode ring mixer packages. It just seemed so simple – you squirt RF into one port, a VFO into the other, and (after passing the result through a diplexer) amplify the heck out of the result. The seeming simplicity of the process of converting RF directly to baseband audio has held great appeal for me ever since. Unfortunately, that project didn’t survive. One day, in later adulthood, in my apartment in Hollywood, I reversed the polarity of the 12V DC supply and, discouraged at it’s subsequent refusal to work, tossed the whole thing away. Now, I cannot quite believe that I did that, but it was during a long period of inactivity on the ham bands, and complete lack of interest. If only I could go back, and not have thrown it into the dumpster of my apartment building! Hollywood is ridden with recent notable history. My little double sideband transceiver met it’s unfortunate end just 100 feet from the spot where Bobby Fuller, of The Bobby Fuller Four, was found dead in his car, in 1966, the subject of a still unsolved mystery to this day. The death of my little DSB rig was a lot less mysterious. To think that I heartlessly tossed an SBL-1 mixer into a dumpster, is a mark of how far I had strayed from my homebrewing roots, forged in a little village in England. Now, a few years later, in a city known for it’s sin and excess, I had cruelly ended the life of a stout and honest diode ring mixer. I suppose I should spare a thought for the polyvaricon but, well, you know – it was a polyvaricon!

  https://aa7ee.wordpress.com/2021/03/04/the-ve7bpo-direct-conversion-receiver-mainframe/

EXORCISM! 40 Meter RFI Problem Resolved

BEFORE

David W. suggested I use my RTL-SDR dongle to look for the source of the 40 meter RFI that I have been mentioning.  (It appears as an ugly stipe in the waterfall of my Hodgepodge transceiver.) So I fired up the RTL-SDR -- there were the tell-tale spikes, spaced neatly every 50 kHz.  The ARRL Handbook says this is typical of a switched power supply.  Before I started patrolling the neighborhood with a tin-foil hat and a portable receiver, I decided to check my own house for any recently installed electronic devices.  It didn't take long -- when I unplugged the new (mid-pandemic) treadmill the spikes disappeared.  This treadmill was located about ten feet above my rigs, and between the rigs and the antenna.  Duh.  I should have thought of this earlier. Mystery solved.  Thanks David. 

AFTER

ZL2CTM's Simple SSB Transceiver

Congratulations to Charlie Morris ZL2CTM for his first contact with his Simple SSB rig.  

There are so many cool things in Charlie's video, starting with his mention of having been woken up early (2 am)  by the very strong earthquake off New Zealand.   Exhibiting true homebrew spirit, Charlie apparently went straight for the shack and worked on his rig.  FB OM. 

Al fresco!  I love the spacious layout on the board and the obvious division into stages.  And I like the wooden board that holds it all together. 

I like the idea of two bandpass filters -- this is simpler than switching one from transmit to receiver.  

Hooray!  Homebrew diode ring mixers!   Yes! 

I think Charlie follows the UK convention with his T/R switch -- they have up as off.  I may be wrong but I think most US homebrewers have up as on, and up as transmit.  Cultural differences. 

Notice Charlie touch-testing the heatsink during that first QSO.  We all do that. 

I like the 24 volts on the IRF-510 drain.  Allison always said that IRF-510s run better at 24V than they do at 12V. 

Of course I disagree a bit on the issue of analog VFOs. But this is just a matter of personal circuit preference. 

Charlie's calculations and notes are really wonderful.  His candid discussion of impedance matching is especially useful.    I think his use of loose-leaf  sheets of paper is wise and it paves the way for a useful folder for each HB rig. 

Here is the introductory video for Charlie's Simple SSB project: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgQUG0AImKY&list=PLxU5OX0SLgIPdYj_MZG03CeimbRU6Btml

Here is Charlie's 10 part video series on his simple SSB rig: 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxU5OX0SLgIPdYj_MZG03CeimbRU6Btml

And here is Charlie's YouTube channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/c/CharlieMorrisZL2CTM/videos

Thanks Charlie! 

Over the Waterfall into the Dark Side: Hodgepodge SDR

This one's for Pete. My effort to add features and modes to my Hodgepodge transceiver took a dramatic turn when I connected the rig to my computer via an RTL-SDR dongle. Woohoo! A Hodgepodge waterfall! Check it out.

The dongle was modified for direct sampling at HF. In the box with the dongle I have one amplifier stage, consisting of a 40673 dual gate MOSFET and one parallel tuned circuit, now tuned to the Hodgepodge IF of 11.998 MHz. I tap the the Hodgepodge's BITX40Module at the output of the first mixer, just before the crystal filter. This was a lot of fun. I can even check my own signal on transmit! This is like having the best of both worlds.

"The Secret Life of..." Tribal Knowledge!

It is great to hear that Tim Hunkins is producing this new series.  It looks like it will be largely about "know-how" -- about what we'd call "tribal knowledge." 

The SolderSmoke Team Talks to the River City Amateur Radio Communication Society (Video)

Pete and I had a great time speaking to this really nice California ham radio club (video of the event appears above).  Special thanks to club president Dr. Carol Milano, MD.  Wow, what an impressive person and ham radio operator she is:  https://www.qsl.net/kp4md/#New%20York

This club is doing a group build of a version of the famed Tuna Tin Two.    I mentioned that I had held the original TTT in my hands, and that Rex Harper had conducted a "Mojo Transfer Ceremony" that imparted TTT Mojo to my BITX17 transceiver (which was also discussed).  I promised to share the video of that momentous event.  Here it is: https://youtu.be/9RZRaFUtTcc

Thanks to Carol and the members of the RCARCS.  This was a lot of fun.