SolderSmoke Podcast #132

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke132.mp3

April 1, 2011
Fickle Finger of Fate: Lamp falls on QRSS Crystal
Another heroic computer repair
Sleuthing for RFI with Crystal Radios and Peter Frampton
The seductive allure of the British Regen
Watching the Space Station and the Space Shuttle
Packets from SPAAAACE
Don Vorgaard and the birth of SSB (and DSB!)
Electric Radio Magazine
SPRAT and the ZL2BMI DSB Rig
Jerri Elsworth's 555 contest (Did I win?)
73 Magazine
QSO with Mike Bryce WB8VGE
Knack Job Opportunities at Make and Hack-a-Day
Chemical Tailoring of Crystal Mic Audio Response
Pi Day!
Sling Shots, Fishing Poles, and Antenna Launchings
MAILBAG!

A Language Guide for the International Brotherhood of Electronic Wizards

Hello Bill,

I heard mention of your book, Soldersmoke - Global Adventure in Radio Electronics, on the G-QRP reflector and bought it on a whim. Since it arrived I have not been able to put it down. What a great read! Very enjoyable and an inspiration. I say that because my homebrewing had taken a bit of a back seat while other hobbies - flying RC gliders, ballroom dancing etc - came to the fore. But after reading just a few chapters of your book, the old soldersmith in me was stirred and I had to go and make something.

Like most Hams I am the 'caretaker' of a huge stock of components - well let's face it we are really just looking after part of the world's supply of components for the other guy who might need them! - I decided on a simple phase shift oscillator for 600 Hz and soon found a circuit from my old collection of circuit drawings. I had all the parts and quickly soldered it together. Sadly my elderly 'scope confirmed that it was not working and after a bit of head scratching I decided to make it up on a construction board. In the process I realised that my design had included components of the wrong values and if it had oscillated at all, it would have been in the MHz region! The final product worked a treat and I cobbled together some photos (in the attached PDF) to send to my radio pal - Roger DL3RMU - in Berg Bacchaussen in Bavaria. From your podcasts, I suspect you are a bit of a language wizard as well, but just in case - "Jede Schaltung braucht eine Lichtdiode !!" means, 'Every circuit needs an LED!' and "Erfog!" means 'success!' The result was a lovely 600Hz sine wave at nearly 5V p-p. Not exactly wizardry but very satisfying. Now wouldn't it be great if I could get it to oscillate at RF frequencies!?

Roger DL3RMU and I have shared an hour long, weekly, CW QSO since early 2005. Just to make it that bit more interesting we do it in German! Helpfully CW overcomes my pronunciation problems. This all started with my realisation that my urban location and limited antenna space restricted my effective operating range for a number of reasons. I am not a great linguist but I have always been interested in languages and I figured that while I might not have much reach, I could have a lot of fun trying out CW QSOs both QRO and later QRP in the language of the other guy rather than 'rubber stamp English'. To my surprise my rusty schoolboy French and slightly better German were well received. I met Roger a few times on the air and we decided to keep a weekly sched. I decided to give European languages a real go, so I cobbled together a handful of common phrases from dictionaries and online language resources to get by, before embarking on a more ambitious project: a set of translations for every European language.

Originally I wrote to the radio societies of every European country to seek help but this was not an effective approach. So I then contacted every non-English member of WACRAL (to which I belong) and asked them if they would kindly translate roughly 50 common QSO related phrases into their mother tongue. To my delight and surprise the response was great and a number of guys helped put together the translation files. There are now 15 European languages on my fledgling website. I call the website, 'Parlez Vous QSO' and it can be found at: http://web.onetel.com/~stephenseabrook/. I really ought to find out how to get a proper domain name sorted out (any advice welcome!) but it is easiest to find by typing 'Parlez Vous QSO' into your search engine. The site itself somehow caught the attention of a number of enquirers, some of whom simply emailed me the translations in their own language! This is the sort of 'fraternity of amateur radio enthusiasts' that makes our hobby great! There are quite a few 'missing' languages but the pleasure of being able to communicate - even falteringly - in the other guy's language is great and I am delighted with the response I have had from the guys on the other end of the QSO.

My construction was mainly limited to station accessories: PSK interface, RTTY interface, CAT interface and various test equipment before I got into QRP. I built a FoxIII, MFJ Cub for 20m and a couple of Christmas' ago a K1. What a great radio! I never cease to be amazed that if the station Icom 706 or the Kenwood 570D fails to yield a QSO with lots of Watts, a changeover to the K1 often finds a QSO within minutes! How can that be!?

Keep up the good work on Soldersmoke. I thoroughly enjoy the podcasts and look forward to the sequel to the book!

kind regards

Steve Seabrook M0ECS

Sittingbourne

England

Save 20% On SolderSmoke and Other Books

Through tomorrow -- save 20% Coupon Code: SPLISH
http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm

CFL Light Bulb Schematics

Lots of good parts in those new fancy bulbs! This site provides schematics for the major brands. Very useful. Try not to eat the mercury in the tubes.
http://www.pavouk.org/hw/lamp/en_index.html#bigluz20w

Drect Conversion Receivers in New South Wales

Dear Bill,

You might vaguely remember I sent you some audio for Soldersmoke a year or two back that was recorded at the New South Wales home brew group here in Australia.

The home brew group is wonderful: it's not a club. you can't join. no-one is in charge. Every so often we have a "challenge" (which is not a competition - no-one wins).

Anyhow, recently the "challenge" was to home brew a direct conversion receiver that could be used to listen to the sunday morning broadcast here on 80m 3959KHz.

On Sunday we got together to present what we'd come up with. Alan, VK2ZAY, does great work but couldn't come so he sent in a video of his creation.

I videoed the proceedings, badly edited it, and stuck it up here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF1WoPDajsU

This challenge was good because it was achievable by dunces like me and because the objective was the same for everyone - listening to a certain broadcast. I hope the video might encourage new home brewers.

Keep up the great work, I watch your blog and always enjoy a new podcast.

best 73's

Peter, VK2TPM

My Other Car was Homebrewed with Junkbox Parts!

At the SolderSmoke Store we have a bumper sticker to that effect.

Here's a guy who actually did it!
http://jalopnik.com/#!5785679/homeless-man-builds-his-own-car-out-of-junk

BTW: There is FREE SHIPPING from the SolderSmoke store through today: Be sure to order $30 or more through Sunday and use code: 2DAYFREE

SolderJob! Professional Knack and Hack Opportunity!

Oh man, this one is tempting. Almost makes me want to give up up the diplomat gig and move out to San Mateo... Check this out guys. This looks like a great opportunity for one of us. From the always awesome Hack A Day site:

Hackaday.com is looking for an experienced hacker/writer to join our team doing original hacking and modding projects on video. Are you energetic, outgoing, and passionate about hacking/modding? Can you solder AND explain what you’re doing and why? Come join our team and modify/hack/create things daily with a professional film crew to be aired on HackADay, then post a writeup detailing how you did your hack. Let your mind run wild, combine Mythbusters with Ben Heck, can you do it?

http://hackaday.com/2011/03/24/hackaday-is-looking-for-a-full-time-project-builder-video-host/

Back to the Future: Packets from the Space Station

Readers will have noticed that I have an affinity for beacons. All kinds of beacons: WSPR, QRSS, 10 meter CW... (Tony Fishpool says I have broadcaster tendencies.)

My favorite was a VHF Digital Satellite beacon. Out in the Azores, I had my old Kantronics KPC-3 Terminal Node Controller hooked up to a 286 computer and a Realistic HTX-202 HandiTalkie. Antenna was a ground-plane made from a coat-hanger. My rig would burp out packets all day long, and occasionally either PC SAT or the International Space Station would fly over and relay my signal to stations on the European continent or, sometimes, on the east coast of North America. I had APRS data in my packet, including a nice little island with a palm tree icon which would show up on the on-line APRS maps.

Well, after watching the Space Station (and the Shuttle discovery) fly over a few weeks ago, I got the urge to get back into the outer space packet game. Last weekend I dug out the old HT and KPC-3. I even found the cables. For the computer I put to work the OLD Toshiba Satellite Pro (appropriate, eh?) that Kevin, ZL3KE, had helped me revive.

Yesterday before going to work I noticed that there would be a nice pass of the Space Station at around 0750 local. I took a little mag mount antenna and left it on the ground in the backyard. I tuned the HT to 145.825 MHz and fired up the Windows 3.1 terminal program on the Toshiba.

When I returned 10 hours later... SUCCESS! Lots of space packets on the screen: KB1GVR, W1TMS, W1CGT, W1GSH, VE2TMW...

So far I'm only receiving, but soon I hope to be sending
PACKETS TO SPAAAAAACE!

SolderSmoke baby-wear!

A podcast listener sent in this picture of his beautiful baby daughter with a piece of clothing from the SolderSmoke Store that seems to be a bit QRO!

80 milliwatts to New Zealand (and Italy)

I realize that having your QRSS signal show up on a distant grabber is no big deal, but this was the first time I've seen the signal from my little DaVinci Code rig make the trip to ZL. You can see my shark fins in the screen shot above. It was just before dawn here, so gray line must have been helping. A Solar Flux Index of 92 also helped. My shark also made it across the Atlantic (and half the Med!) Mauro IK1WVQ's grabber made this nice capture (looks like this was around dawn at his location):

I measured the voltage at the antenna terminal this morning. Less than 2 volts peak. Assuming a 50 ohm load, that's about 80 milliwatts. This is all especially gratifying because yesterday I was out in the backyard with a slingshot and a fishing reel, putting a bit more wire into the trees. It worked!

Here's the transmitter and the schematic. FSK is from a simple two transistor multi-vibrator (G0UPL's circuit -- you can see it in the lower left):

From the good folks at Sierra Radio (our sponsor):

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Another Mighty Mite Success Story!

Bill:

I started listening to Solder Smoke this winter, and I'm now up to episode 81. Since I'm new to homebrewing, I wanted to say that I enjoy the discussion of good projects to start on for homebrewing equipment, particularly the discussion of the Michigan Mighty Mite, which I understand was your first HB TX project. After hearing you mention the transmitter on the show, I looked it up on the Internet and found the schematic. A few hours later and I was on the air. My first contact with it was with KB1TSG, Jim in Randolph VT, receiving a signal report of 449. From my QTH in Monroe, ME that's a distance of 186.5 mi ( 300 km) as the crow flies.
I've learned a lot listening to Solder Smoke over the past two months and listen to it while in the car, at work, and while walking my dog on the back roads of Maine. Thanks for such a great educational and entertaining show.

73,
Neil

--
Neil Caudill
KB1UAL