Some Really Amazing Test Gear

Wow. Really great test gear, and an amazing parts collection.   This guy even gets a "nice workshop" comment from Mr. Carlson.   Pac1085 seems to be in Rochester N.Y. and he says he specializes in the repair of vintage audio gear.  He should have more subscribers.  Does anyone have more info on him?  

Here is his channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@pac1085/featured

The Starlink Constellation

Pretty amazing, I think.  They have 6,000 of them up there now, and more to come.  They burn in every five years so there is a constant opportunity to improve and upgrade.   I think they went with Low Earth Orbit to minimize latency and optimize for gaming.  

You can get a live display and more info here:  https://www.heavens-above.com/StarLink.aspx

Amazing Homebrew from Japan -- 7L4WVU's All Homebrew Station

Thanks to Roy WN3F for alerting me to this.  Tadashi-san has really built some beautiful stuff.  Especially impressive to me is his use of the spectrum analyser and two-tone audio tests to look at IMD of the entire transceiver.  See video above. FB OM.  

Be sure to check out 7L4WVU's YouTube channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@7L4WVU

And his QRZ page heralding his all-homebrew station covering 1.8 to 430 MHz: https://www.qrz.com/db/7L4WVU

1,280 Antennas at 12 GHz -- How Starlink Works

One commenter questioned why we went with the more expensive Starlink system.  The simple answer is that it is just better, faster, and more reliable than the alternatives.  Many people here are clamoring for this sytem, and they are doing this for a reason.  On speed tests I am showing downloads of about 150 Mbps.  That is fast.  The truth is that my wife is more of an innovator than I am -- she was the one who decided on Starlink.  

When we were installing this system, I didn't even know what they meant by "Dishy."  I didn't know there were motors in the antenna.  And I certainly didn't know about the complicated software and hardware that allow the Dishy antenna to track the Starlink low earth orbit satellites without the use of the motors.   The above video explains it all very well.  

This is all a great demonstration of what can be done with digital technology, microchips, software and UHF. 

Sticker Madness, HI7, April 1

Our friend Lex astutely focused on the date of the release of our report about legal prosecution by the City of San Francisco.  The truth is that we made almost all of this up.  We did put a sticker on a lamp post at Haight and Ashbury.   Dave AA7EE did visit the site and report that the sticker had been removed.  But all the rest was made up.  We did catch several people in this annual April 1 joke.  Unfortunately, not everyone who was taken in was outraged by the city's supposed action. In fact, we got one e-mail SUPPORTING the prosecution.  This fellow said, essentially, that we were getting what we deserved, that we should take this as a life lesson, and stop with the sticker-vandalism.  He was serious.  Jeez.  APRIL FOOL!   We will talk more about this in the next podcast. 

I know the podcast has been delayed by a lot, but I am still getting things set up here in HI7 land.  I hope we will soon be podcasting with particpation from California (N6QW), Northern Virginia (KK4DAS), and the Dominican Republic (HI7/N2CQR).  

Happily, my Dominican ham radio license came through  -- I will be HI7/N2CQR for the next year.  At some point I hope to take the Dominican exam and get a real Dominican call. 

Lex has been our main point of contact in Europe on sticker distribution (aka VANDALISM!). Lex writes:   

Hello all,

Shocked to hear about the "Legal action against Soldersmoke" in podcast : 

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2024/04/soldersmoke-podcast-251-aurora-cbla.html

Which could mean a few things : 

1. some official is trying to make a career and he will be very busy because there are a lot of stickers in San Fransisco to remove.
2. somebody did remove the sticker because they are highly collectable and somebody at soldersmoke HQ saw a opportunity to made one of the best april fools jokes in soldersmoke history pulling the listeners (and readers) leg. 
   
3. somebody use photoshop and made one of the best april fools jokes in soldersmoke history pulling the listeners (and readers) leg. 

Looking at the release date of the soldersmoke podcast 251, IMHO #3 is the most possible with #2 as a good second. When #1 is the real reason, that sucks big time :-(  (so I'm hoping for the april fools joke outcome)

Let's continue and get on topic to this e-mails subject.

My XYL and I are just back from a holiday to Berlin and aside of the architecture, visiting a large number of museums and historical exhibitions, there was one place on my personal list I wanted to visit : the "Teufelsberg". 

*  The "Teufelsberg" (Devil's Mountain) is a artificial mountain build with rumble of the ruins of Berlin on top of the “Wehrtechnische Fakultät”, covert soil and plated full with trees. In the early 70's the location became one of the most important locations for the United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) outside the United States. The facility monitors Soviet and Eastern Bloc communications and gathers important information on the activities of Warsaw Pact countries. 1992 the side got intrest of creative minds and started to get covert by street art.

More info about the history can be found on there website:  https://www.teufelsberg-berlin.de/en/history/

Not only the historical part of the site, but also because the XYL and I love street art, we took a day visit it. Aside from the nice walk to it, the excellent view and the great pieces of street art, when you are at a site where street art is present all over the place and even is encouraged (and legal) and you "accidently" just happen to have a few soldersmoke stickers in you bag, you just have to use them. So as of this moment, Soldersmoke is present a the formal National Security Agency (NSA) spy station in Berlin. 

I added a few images as a attachment to this e-mail including one to show the great view over Berlin when you on the top deck (only showing one placement, the other 2 are hidden in plane site). 

In short : when you can apricate street art and visit Berlin, a visit to the "Teufelsberg" is almost a must. IBEW bonus : there are a few soldersmoke stickers hidden on the top dek for you to find ;-)

73 from PA 

Lex PH2LB 

mail : lex@ph2lb.nl
home : http://www.ph2lb.nl/   
twitter : https://twitter.com/lex_ph2lb  
call : PH2LB 

"Life's like a role playing adventure. You
need to solve the puzzles first before
they let you go to the next level."

Greetings from Low Earth Orbit

We are in the Dominican Republic for a little while. Yesterday we got Starlink working.   The picture show me holding the cell phone heralding the good news.  I am setting up SolderSmoke Shack South.  More to follow.  

Farhan Talks Radio Tech at SolderSmoke HQ (EAST) (TWO VIDEOS!)

Great stuff!  We were really fortunate to have Farhan and Humera visit the SolderSmoke East shack after Dayton and FDIM.  Dean and I had a chance to talk BITX with the creator. Here is the two part video.  Most of the tech talk is in Part II (below).  

 

Farhan and his zBITX

Dean and Farhan with three sBITXs

Dean's homebrew sBITX

Farhan Phone

2014 "Off the Shelf" Regen Comes Off the Shelf (Two Videos)

Walter KA4KXX spotted an error in the schematic of my 2014 "Off the Shelf" regen receiver: The source resistor on the MPF-102 should be 2200 ohms, not 2.7 ohms. See:

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2014/09/schematic-for-off-shelf-regen.html

Walter's e-mail caused me to take this old receiver off the shelf. In this video you can listen to it in action on the shortwave broadcast bands. In a second video I put it on the 40 meter ham band and listen to some SSB.

Ham Radio in China -- Interesting info from 高大伟 David Cowhig

Chinese Radio Licenses and Operating Certificates

David Cowhig (aka WA1LBP,  aka Gao Da Wei) was Hambassdor for 73 Magazine on Okinawa when I held a similar "position" on the island of Hispaniola.  David is a real Asia hand, and is fluent in both Mandarin and Japanese.   He is uiniquely sitated to provide info on ham radio in China.  In a recent post he provides this info, and describes how we may soon be hearing from ham Taikonauts in space:  

https://gaodawei.wordpress.com/2024/05/22/2024-ham-radio-in-china-soon-chinese-hams-in-space/

Thanks David! 

A Really Cool Homebrew Computer

Wow, very cool.  On Hack-A-Day this morning:

https://hackaday.com/2024/05/26/homebrew-computer-from-the-ground-up/

It caught my eye because the architecture seems similar to that of the MostlyDIYRF PSSST rig.  

There is a lot to learn from this little machine, especially for an analog guy like me. 

Mostly DIY RF PSSST

Pete Juliano's Amazing Videos -- 318 of Them!

Blogs come and go, but (hopefully) YouTube is more permanent and accessible.  This morning I re-found Pete N6QW's YouTube channel.  When you use it, I suggest you click on "oldest" first.  This will take you back 14 years,  to Pete's time in the Pacific Northwest.   The video above (him playing guitar) was shot just before he and his XYL moved back to California.  

Here is Pete's YouTube channel:  

https://www.youtube.com/@N6QW/videos

This is a tremendous resource for ham radio homebrewers.  It should be preserved and protected. 

Subscribe!  

Thanks Pete! 

Version II of 15-10 Rig -- Updates on Bal Mod, AF amp, and RF Amp, DX

Version II of the 15-10 rig is mostly done. I did a lot of work on the AF amp, balanced modulator, Mic amp, carrier oscillator, and filter. Dean KK4DAS and I continue to test and measure the RF power amplifier. I describe the brutally simple, non-sequenced T/R switching arrangement, and the spread-out open air construction style.

Version I of this rig is on its way to the Dominican Republic. Version II will stay in Virginia. I have already worked a lot of SSB DX with this rig, including, Thailand, Taiwan, China, India, Kenya, Australia, American Samoa, and others.

This video was inspired by the recent work of Nick M0NTV and Charlie ZL2CTM. And of course, Pete Juliano N6QW.