I have had Ian on the SolderSmoke blog several times: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/search?q=%22Ian+Keyser%22
Podcasting since 2005! Listen to Latest SolderSmoke
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Ian Keyser G3ROO and Spy Radios
Monday, April 1, 2024
SolderSmoke Podcast #251 Aurora! CBLA, Winterfest, Legal Action Against SolderSmoke, HB sBITX, SDR, Raspberry Pi, Rounded Passbands, MAILBAG
Audio: http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke251.mp3
Travelouge: Dean goes to the North Pole to see Aurora.
A CBLA Call to Arms!
Winterfest. Lots of goodies. MXM Industries 40 meter transceiver. 1 dollar.
Jean Shepherd. Recording of Bill talking to Shep in 1976.
Legal Trouble: Could put us out of operation for a while. We need listener input.
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Pete's Bench
Homebrew SDR (based on Zl2CTM’s original design) and how good it sounds.
Raspberry Pi Zero W is now working on FT-8 with digital adapter.
Ferrite Cores at Digi-Key (a replacement for the FT-37-43 where you buy 100 and the price is 21 cents/each)
ADE-6 –great specs in HF but more expensive than the ADE-1
For Pete's recent blog posts, go to this site and click on "Archive" in the right column:
https://n6qw.blogspot.com/2024/03/march-31-2924-happy-easter-to-those-who.html
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Dean's Bench
sBITX progress, McGyver-ing a lifted pad, replacing crystal on the CODEC board, sBITX success! See:
https://kk4das.blogspot.com/2024/03/homebrew-sbitx-tx-modules-pa-lpf-and-mic.html
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Shameless Commerce Division: Please use the Amazon link on the blog to start your Amazon purchases. And please consider using Patreon to support the podcast and blog. We try to send extra content to our Patreon supporters. Mostly DIY RF -- Boards, Kits and Pete's PSSST
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Bill's Bench
More trouble with the 15-10 rig. Rounded passbands in 25 MHz filter. See figure 4 in both links:
https://www.arrl.org/files/file/QEX_Next_Issue/Nov-Dec_2009/QEX_Nov-Dec_09_Feature.pdf
https://www.networksciences.com/pdfs/tutorial.pdf
Experimenting with Balanced Mixers and Product Detectors. Paul VK3HN Suggests the MC1496 chip; Walter KA4KXX points to SSDRA circuits
But it is on the air! Using the PA from a BITX40 module and an RD06.
Put an OLD dial from Pericles HI8P on 15-10 version 1. Soul in the new machine.
Grayson KJ7UM's Hollowstate video.
Mike WU2D's amazing 10 meter DSB transceiver.
Jack AI4SV (Dhaka Jack) liked video of recent QSO with AzoresDSB rig
Mike AA1TJ and Dave AA7EE on backwaves and 100 uW QRPpppp
Dave G3UUR on my curved passband problem
Alan W2AEW heard my only QSO with the MXM indsutries SupeRX/TX40
Wes W7ZOI, Mike WN2A, Walter KA4KXX. Farhan VU2ESE on passband,
Ramakrishnan sent article about Charles Proteus Steinmetz. Beautiful.
Justin AC8LV built a receiver! FB.
San Francisco QRP: KDOFNR TouCans Rig, and N6ASD Zinc-Oxide TX
Frank KC8JJL -- Another guy who heard first ham sigs from a homebrew rig.
Nate KA1MUQ's homebrew thermatron superhet
Dino KL0S sent info on the PAL CB VFO I picked up at Winterfest. Airborne!
Bob W8SX will be once again doing SolderSmoke interviews at Dayton. Thanks Bob
Peter VK2EMU Always good to hear from him.
Tobias Feltus -- Wisdom teeth removed, wondering if he will get sBITX hallucinations...
Rick WD5L continues to work on his Herring Aid 5
Ciprian YO6DXE wants to learn CW. No alerts from his FB Blog!
Todd K7TFC -- Likes CW, says it eliminates the Blah-Blah-Blah
Friday, March 29, 2024
A QRP CW Contact (Video) with the Winterfest MXM SupeRX/TX 40 (1 Watt, Crystal Controlled Transmitter)
I picked this transceiver up at Winterfest for one dollar. 40 meters. Superhet receiver with 455 kc ceramic filter and 2 NE602s. Crystal controlled one watt transmitter on 7039.5 kc. I emailed Jeff KA2BKG and asked him to slide up a bit to my freq. I am glad he did. Thanks Jeff.
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
KD0FNR's Amazing San Francisco TouCans Rig -- A Rockmite and a Tuna Topper in a Pineapple Can Mounted on the Dipole in a Shopping Bag
This post has a definite San Francisco vibe.
Hamilton KD0FNR appeared on the SolderSmoke blog way back in 2011. Perhaps he should join forces with N6ASD who lives quite close to him in SF, and seems to share radio interests. Also in their area is the esteemed Bay Areas blogger and homebrewer Dave AA7EE ; Dave recently sounded the CBLA alarm, alerting us to the presence of an intruder on 3579 kHz. In the process, Dave mentioned the Pt. Reyes Web SDR, the presence of which came as welcome news to Hamilton. Finally, Dave and Hamilton mention the KPH Web SDR, which brings to mind Dick Dillman W6AWO who has been on the SolderSmoke blog several times.
Hamilton and his kids have their rig (a Rockmite and a Tuna Topper in a Dole Pineapple can) mounted at the feedpoint of their dipole (in the red shopping bag above). They link to it via WiFi and Bluetooth. FB. Thomas Witherspoon has a nice presentation (by KD0FNR) of the TouCans project on his blog: https://qrper.com/2023/12/field-radio-kit-gallery-kd0fnrs-rockmite-20-and-tuna-topper/
Hamilton KD0FNR writes:
At the moment, the kids whose dad I am, better known as the gang—12, 10, and 8 year-old Diaze, Mota, and Tawnse.. all internet aliases—are big into 20 meters QRP CW with Project TouCans, a Rockmite coupled to a Tuna Topper. The radio and the amp that popped us out of QRPp to plain-old QRP are both housed in a Dole Pineapple can with a tuna can as a cover and antenna mount. The whole rig is still very much mounted in our half-wave dipole!
Project TouCans consists of a Rockmite feeding a 5 Watt Tuna Topper, all of which is housed in our dipole antenna. The Rockmite has a single crystal bandpass filter on it's rx input. That makes it a pretty wide reciever which is fine, but it's particularly sensitive to its tx frequencies, 14075.5 and 14058 kHz AND—for some reason I have yet to understand—10459 kHz. By watching the SDRs that now—thanks Dave—envelope us here at our home QTH in San Francisco, we can see the frequencies of incoming signals. That information keeps me from responding to 14059 kHz signals in vain.
And now, the headphone repeater: TouCans is completely wireless with respect to the ground. That means there's no power line, no feedline, no keyer lines and no headphone line. Keyer controls are handled via wifi to a Raspberry Pi Pico-W on the rig while audio is brought back to my headphones via Bluetooth. Power is provided by a USB-C battery pack that lives in the rig which is mounted above us in the antenna. (Yes, all of this is becuase I thought feedlines matches and baluns were too mystical and hard to understand years ago. Yes, this has probably all been more work than a balun. Yes, I am still totally enamored of my original design decision. :) ) Anyway, the bluetooth range is about 50 feet and the wifi range is shorter than that. The short of it is—pun not intended—that I can't quite use the rig while I'm in my office. But, I can send CQ to the rig every half minute or so via a memory keyer, then turn on the SDR in my office, and then sprint a bit closer to the rig when someone calls back. (It helps that houses in SF are a bit tiny.) So, SDRs are kinda an integral part of our QTH setup and it's awesome to learn about a new—to us—one! Thanks again!Tuesday, March 26, 2024
How to Feel Bad about Carrier Suppression (and How to Get Over It)
Monday, March 25, 2024
CBLA: A CALL TO ARMS!
Dave AA7EE alerted us to this attack. Please follow-up by posting reception reports (and triangulations!) in the comments below. Dave writes:
Recently, an unlicensed beacon (for which read pirate) has turned up on 3579 KHz. It seems to be located somewhere in the Western US, in the tradition of unlicensed HF beacons dating back to the late 80's that were solar-powered, and located in remote areas of the Southwestern deserts. The very first ones were a cluster of beacons around 4096 KHz (a frequency for which crystals were cheaply and easily available).
Friday, March 22, 2024
W1QG's Cave Dust Twins (and other Homebrew Rigs -- SDR and HDR)
I kind of arrived at Dick Benson's QRZ.com page by accident, but what a happy accident it was. There is a lot of homebrew goodness on Dicks page, both SDR and HDR.
Check it out: https://www.qrz.com/db/W1QG/
Monday, March 18, 2024
Listen to me talking to Jean Shepherd in 1976. I was 18 years-old.
http://soldersmoke.com/JeanShepherd1976WMCA.mp3
One side note. I told my wife that some time after the broadcast, I was once again up early in the morning, kind of absent-mindedly getting ready for work when I heard Shepherd talking on WMCA to some guy about ham radio. It took me a moment to realize that this was a re-run, and that that guy was me!
When I first listened to this I didn't realize that later in the recording (around 9:30) another fellow calls in an asks Shep about why he uses CW. Shep is kind of short with him and ends up advising him to "go back to CB." I should note that in my conversation with Shep earlier in the program, I told him that I was usually on "40 sideband." He was nice to me, but said that he was mostly on 20 CW.
Friday, March 15, 2024
Finishing up (?) Version 2 of my 15-10 Transceiver (Video) -- An Annoying Residual Carrier Problem
Thursday, March 14, 2024
"The New Essential Guide to Electronics in Shenzhen" A Book Review by Jenny List (with a video from Shenzhen)
Jenny's review brought to mind an older SolderSmoke blog post about Shenzhen. In this 2012 video Bunnie Huang in Singapore talks about getting parts in that city: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2012/08/singapore-knack.html
Thanks to Jenny, Naomi, and Bunnie.
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Using the RF Power Amplifier of the BITX40 Module
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Justin's Receiver -- A 40 meter Superhet from AC8LV
Bill,
I am sending video and pictures of my 40m superhet that I built. I have it on the floor in an extra room in the house. The antenna is a stock vhf dipole that came with my rtl sdr which I use as a spectrum analyzer. In one of the clips I am receiving RW7K. I have been working on the station for the past year with help from Loren Moline, WA7SKT through texts when I have a problem. The LO / VFO is from Nick Woods Videos.
Next, I will build an outdoor antenna and the transmitter section. I first started homebrewing at the beginning of the pandemic, but this is by far my largest accomplishment. I would like to thank you and Pete for the soldersmoke videos which have been a great inspiration.
I will send more updates when the transmitter section is finish along with a much longer description of the projects
Thank you
Justin Elliott
AC8LZ
Bill, Pete, and Dean