Good News! The Termination Event May Be Coming Soon! Solar Cycle 25 Could Rival Cycle 19!

Wow.  Cycle 25 might be as good or better than Cycle 19.  Pete cut his radio teeth on Cycle 19.  I was born during that cycle.  Let's hope these scientists are right!  See chart below. 

https://spaceweatherarchive.com/2021/06/11/the-termination-event/

Thanks to Thomas over at SWLing Post for alerting us to this important news.   

Tom's Receiver -- A 20 Meter Superhet Built From the Junkbox

Wow, this is really an amazing project.  It is so good that I'd like to believe that it is really "all our fault," but the credit obviously goes to Tom, the very intrepid builder.  In a more just world, Tom would be given a ham radio license solely on the basis of this project.  Great work Tom.  We look forward to more Solder Defined Radios from your workbench.   

Dear Bill and Pete,

I stumbled across your podcast a few years ago. I had no interest in
amateur radio, I was just looking for an electronics podcast that
actually discussed electronics (naming no names here, obviously).
Well, the inevitable happened, and some of your enthusiasm rubbed off
on me. I now find myself humbly enclosing a photograph of my first
homebrew receiver for 20m.

The project was one of those "spontaneous construction" affairs,
triggered mainly by breaking up an old satellite receiver (I've
honestly no idea what it was for) which yielded up several SBL1s and a
10.7MHz crystal filter - these form the key elements of the new
receiver. It's a full SDR (solder defined radio) of a conventional
single-conversion superhet arrangement. The chief abnormality is that,
because the IF filter is as wide as the proverbial barn door, I only
use "one edge" - the other half of the passband being provided after
conversion to baseband. Of course, that only works if there are no
massively strong stations in the 6kHz above where you're listening,
but it seems to be ok most of the time. It does give me the advantage
of being able to adjust the lowpass point of the AF signal by
adjusting the BFO, which is nice.

You'll notice there's a lot of "digital nonsense" in the picture, for
what's supposed to be an analogue radio. This "supervises" the two
VCOs: There is an FPGA which implements a pair of frequency meters and
an STM8 microcontroller which is in charge of adjusting the control
voltages to keep the VCOs where they should be. It's all slightly
roundabout because I wasn't clever enough to design a PLL which would
give the required resolution (and I wanted to do something "more RF"
than throw down a DDS chip). 
This gives me stability as well as fancy bells and whistles, like
numeric readout, tuning info via RS232, automatic scanning and
frequency presets. I've used a (cheap) industrial/automation style
encoder for the tuning control, which gives a lovely analogue-like
action.

Despite my best efforts (and a lot of ferrite in strategic places) I
wasn't able to keep all the digital spurs out of the receiver. So I
devised a dirty hack by way of a button which will shift the MCU an
DAC clocks to a different frequency. I can't remove the spurs, but now
I can hide them!

So far I've played with a "long" wire and a little shielded loop for
antennas - I'm in a first floor flat with a lot of noise locally, and
my plan is to get a loop up in the loft space (so the next project
might be a rotator!). I fancy maybe seeing if I've space for an
inverted V, too.

You'll notice that I've not attempted a transmitter. That, of course,
is because I'm not yet a licenced ham! However, I'm intending to put
that right sometime later in the year. Then - who knows - I might make
a contact!

Thanks for reading (although really it's the least you could do given
that this *is* all your fault) and I hope you've enjoyed hearing about
all the trouble your little podcast has got me into.

Keep up the good work gentlemen,
73 from South-West England.
Tom.

PS. I also have a copy of Bill's book, which I've very much enjoyed.

Pete's Drakes

Pete Juliano N6QW has on his blog two very nice videos about the Drake A-line.  

As long-standing fanatical fan of the Drake 2-B, I was struck by the similarities between the 2-B and the R4 seen in Pete's video:  

-- The S-meter is the same. 

-- The passband tuning control and indeed the visible internal circuitry for the passband tuning seem to be the same.  

-- Drake even used the same "hook" for selectivity selection.   

The transceive feature with the T4 seems very nice.  

Pete's first video is above.   Pete's second video, showing his first contacts with the newly acquired A-line, can be seen here: 

http://n6qw.blogspot.com/2021/06/2021-fine-wine-ans-seasoned-women-get.html 

Thanks Pete! 

Dino's Test Gear -- KL0S at FDIM 2021

Great test gear advice from Dino KL0S.  Thanks to Dino and to QRPARCI!  

 

VK3HN on Scratch Building (Video)

Lots of wisdom and good info in Paul Taylor's presentation.

Paul's comment on the impact of abundant LiPo power in the field -- we no longer have to scrimp and optimize power consumption -- was very interesting.   

And thanks for the nice mentions of the SolderSmoke podcast. 

Thanks Paul!

https://vimeo.com/showcase/8253187?page=5

The Perpetual Troubleshooter -- John F. Rider -- W2RID

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Rider

To Mars in 1964 -- Building the Camera and Radio Systems

This is a really excellent video showing how JPL engineers and technicians designed, built and tested the first video camera system sent to Mars. 

-- It was essentially a Slow Scan TV system built around a Vidicon tube. 

-- Data was sent back in digital form. 

-- The first Digital-Analog conversion was done using COLORED CHALK!

-- The method used to protect the Vidicon tube from vibration was derived from the packing material used to mail the tube to JPL from Texas. 

-- During testing, JPL had all the circuitry spread out in what we would call "Al Fresco" style. 

Thanks to Dan Maloney at Hack-A-Day for alerting us to this.  Dan has an excellent article about the mission here: 

https://hackaday.com/2021/06/03/mariner-4-our-first-up-close-look-at-mars/#more-480934

Remastered! The Secret Life of Radio -- With Updated Comments from Tim Hunkin

Thanks to Stephen 2E0FXZ for alerting us to this important video. 

We first posted about the original many years ago.  We were delighted to learn that they have remastered the video and added 10 minutes of retrospective commentary from Tim Hunkin.  

Here are some of my reactions after watching the updated version:

-- The Marconi videos were amazing.   I actually met Elettra at a diplomatic reception in Rome.  

-- I was pleased to learn that Marconi was trying to "call up" Mars.  FB OM. 

-- My son Billy and I sat in that same Royal Institution auditorium where, 100 years before, Oliver Lodge had demonstrated spark gap technology. 

-- Tim's comment on the connection to supernatural beliefs was right on the mark.  We found out that the house we lived in in London was a center for occult beliefs and practices. 

-- Those square lantern batteries brought back fond childhood memories. My first power supplies.

-- The Rexophone -- used by Rex. 

-- Very cool of Tim to homebrew a coherer.  Extra credit for that.

-- One of the capacitors looks familiar.  EF Johnson? 

-- I agree with Tim -- crystal radios are a must-build for true radio hams.  And do it with galena and a cats whisker. 

-- Finally, the RCA ad introduces a term we might want to surreptitiously enter into the Enhanced SSB lexicon:  That "Golden Throat" sound.   

QRP - QRP Contact from Dominican Republic

It took some brass pounding on my homebrew key, but on May 28, 2021 I made a real QSO from the eastern tip of the island of Hispaniola.  KJ4R came back to my CQ near 14.060 MHz. I was running just 1-2 watts from my SST transceiver to an end-fed half wave antenna. Ed KJ4R was in South Carolina running 5 watts, also to an EFHW antenna.  TRGHS.  Thanks Ed.  And thanks to Bob Scott KD4EBM and Wayne Burdick N6KR.

Farhan's sBITX -- Combining SDR with the Traditional Superhet

Here is Farhan's amazing presentation to the virtual 2021 FDIM event.  There is a lot of tribal knowledge in this video.  Lots of old and new technology.  I was especially intrigued by Chris Trask's Kiss mixer.  Farhan's discussion of simple Arduino-based speech equalization and compression made me think that I have work to do in this area. And of course, Farhan's whole discussion of how to bring SDR into -- literally into -- the circuitry of a uBITX is really cool and very educational.   

TRGHS: K3ZO heard from the Dominican Republic

We arrived in the DR just yesterday, and this morning was my first chance to do some ham radio stuff. I fired up my old Sony SW receiver (the one with the busted BFO fine tuning control) and tuned to 20 meters. The very first station I tuned in (after adjusting the BFO with my Swiss army knife) was talking about the Cicadas.  He described weather similar to that which we had just left in Northern Virginia.  Then I heard the call:  K3ZO.  It was Fred Laun up in Maryland!  When I first came to the DR in 1992, the locals were talking about Fred as if he had just recently past through.  I learned, however, that he had been there during the 1960s!  He had left quite an impression.  He had saved one of the local hams during the 1965 political violence.   I gave that same local ham some Vibroplex parts so that he could fix up an old bug that Fred had left him. 

Wow, it was really cool to have Fred Laun be the very first ham I hear during this trip. The Radio Gods Have Spoken.   We need to spend more time (especially winter time!) in the DR!

I have a video of this listening session that I will post when we get back to Virginia. 

Looking for the Apollo 10 Lunar Module

https://www.universetoday.com/142505/apollo-10s-snoopy-lunar-lander-may-have-been-found-in-space/?fbclid=IwAR3xwZowaqKwpK46DXW6u_LbfVu_Co86kq1fpR3ZmaDrqoUouICeIf9bLuI

Parasets, Parachutes, and Tubes in "A French Village" Season 3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Un_village_fran%C3%A7ais

In season 3, Episodes 7 and 8, resistance members parachute in from London.  They are equipped with what looks a lot like a paraset.  One of their tubes develops an open filament.  The Germans engage in radio direction finding.  The Morse code is fairly good (but not great).  All in all, there is quite a bit of radio-related material. 

"A French Village" is a very well-done series.  But it is (of course) quite dark. 

Michigan Mighty Mite, Joy of Oscillation, and the Color-Burst Liberation Army in Washington State

 

Perhaps its the result of a vaccine-induced relaxation of COVID tensions, but for whatever reason we are seeing a resurgence of interest in the Michigan Mighty Mite and the Color Burst Liberation Army. 

Dan AF7O describes his excellent MMM CBLA adventure here: https://af7o.campclan.net/?p=144  Extra points for the use of George Dobbs' Ladybird book technique, and for the 3D printed variable cap holder (made by Dan's son). 

Yes Dan, rebuild that antenna, build an LP filter, and get that MMM on the air.  At the very least you can get some reports from the Reverse Beacon Network.  And, as Jack NG2E recently demonstrated, it is possible to make contacts with a simple rig like this: 

https://jackhaefner.blogspot.com/

LONG LIVE THE COLOR-BURST LIBERATION ARMY! 

VK3HN's Homebrew 30 Meter SST QRP Transceiver

It turns out that many people homebrewed SST rigs.  Here is Paul VK3HN's version.  Really nice. 

https://vk3hn.wordpress.com/2016/12/27/summit-prowler-two-a-scratch-built-30m-cw-transceiver-wilderness-sst-for-sota/

AA7EE's Amazing Homebrew SST QRP Transceiver

 

Look at that rig.  It is truly a thing of beauty.    

I was very pleased to see Dave AA7EE's comment on my SST rig.  This caused me to search his site for his SST article.  And wow, it is an SST treasure trove.  Lots of discussion of the circuit and mods. And Dave's usual wonderful photography and videography. 

Check it out.  

https://aa7ee.wordpress.com/2016/09/09/a-scratch-build-of-n6kr-and-wilderness-radios-sst-for-20m/

Thanks Dave! 

Cicadas Arrive in Northern Virginia

Usually the only bugs we talk about here are dead bugs (components with their leads up on circuit boards) or perhaps CW keying devices.  But in the last podcast I mentioned  the arrival in Northern Virginia of Brood X Cicadas.  They are coming to the surface after 17 years underground.  This morning I found this amazing animation that explains the lifecycle of these fascinating creatures. 

This morning Elisa mercifully took the time to take several dozen of them off the tires of her car.  

Here is the animation.  Just scroll down to follow the life cycle. 

Be sure to turn on the audio!  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/interactive/2021/cicadas-lifecycle-brood-x/?fbclid=IwAR39n951RzQfNPvr3iurHjCDcnDEj2ues0c1UmJFiYV8k5vwO2NZoekKN18

The SST QRP Transceiver

 

Click on the schematic for a better view

Bob KD4EBM recently sent me an amazing package of radio goodies.  Included was a little metal box not much larger than a deck of cards.  It is a 20 meter SST transceiver designed by Wayne Burdick N6KR during the late 1990s.  This transceiver is built around three NE602 Gilbert Cell mixer chips.  It arrived in my shack as I was struggling to understand the Gilbert Cell.  TRGHS.  It also put me back on the path of QRP CW righteousness.    Thanks Bob.  Thanks Wayne. 

I e-mailed Wayne Burdick (now of Elecraft fame) to tell him I was now using the rig he had designed so long ago.  Wayne e-mailed back, saying that the SST was the smallest "real" radio that he had ever designed.  SST stands for Simple Superhet Transceiver. 

I've been using the SST every day for the last week or so.  It is a pleasure to operate.  I'm using it with the key from India that Farhan brought for me.   It is truly QSK -- the receiver stays on when I transmit.  I've never used a QSK rig before and I can now see the big advantage that this provides:   When I am responding to a CQ, I can immediately hear if the other guy put out another CQ or respond to someone else -- I can stop calling at that point.  My first contact with it was with F6EJN.  Again, TRGHS. 

I made two small mods to the SST:  I added 1 uH to the RFC in the VXO; it  now tunes 14.053 -- 14.063.   And I took out a noise blanker that had been installed. Removing the noise blanker left an ugly hole in the front panel which I promptly filled with a completely cosmetic machine screw. 

Here's the manual:

https://qrpbuilder.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/sst_manual_042217.pdf

HRDX Interviews Paul Taylor VK3HN

Wow, Paul Taylor, VK3HN is working on homebrew rig #11.  FB.  

This interview was quite thought-provoking. 

-- I agree with Paul about the importance of not being dogmatic about 

always staying under 5 watts.  It sounds like Paul is having fun with his 

100 watt SOTA project. 

-- It was great  to hear that Leon VK2DOB is still active in ham radio and running a QRP company in VK.  FB.  An article by Leon on CMOS mixers in the summer 1999 issue of SPRAT played a key role in my understanding how switching mixers really work.  I put Leon's diagram in my book SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics. 

-- On blowing up the finals in simple HB gear.  The first real transmitter that I built was the VXO-controlled 6 watter from QRP Classics by the ARRL.  It had a 36 volt Zener diode across the collectors of the final.  This was to prevent the kind of final destruction Paul suffered up on that summit:  "D2 is used to clamp the collector voltage waveform to protect the output transistors if the transmitter is operated into an open circuit or high SWR antenna system."  Maybe we should revive the use of that simple SWR protection circuit, especially for SOTA rigs. 

Bill N2CQR Talks to Dean KK4DAS about the Simple SSB Group Build

Dean KK4DAS visited the N2CQR SolderSmoke shack.  We talked about a lot things including chess, Mars, and AI.  Dean is an amazing guy -- he used to work at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a couple of times  actually spoke with Richard Feynman. We also shot a video about the Vienna Wireless Society's group build of Pete Juliano's Simple SSB transceiver (video above).  

This group build all started with Dean's build of Pete's rig.  He built his early in the pandemic, while on furlough from work,  thus the name "The Furlough 40." That makes all of this very much a quarantine effort. As we have learned, dark clouds often do have silver linings. 

For more details on the group build, check out Dean's blog:
https://kk4das.blogspot.com/

And here is the Vienna Wireless Society's Group Build page: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cQMGPfG1aAZyksIa9fIkS90TjX2_TMuv

Thanks Dean!  And three cheers for all the Vienna Wireless builders!

SolderSmoke Podcast #230 is available! Apr 1, Mars, Group Build, SDR, SSB, Mich Mighty Mites, Mailbag

SolderSmoke Podcast #230 is available for download

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke230.mp3

N2CQR was down for maintenance 

A few words about April 1

The Ingenuity helicopter

China lands on Mars

Brood X Cicadas arriving in NOVA 

Pete's Bench

The Dentron Project

The Spillsbury Tindall SBX-11A

KK4DAS and the Simple SSB Group Build

TenTec mods

Shack Mystery solved.  Maybe 

Changing the channels at age 9 

Bill's Bench

Why LSB below 10 MHz? The "SSB Legend" Rig

WU2D RTL-Dongle Up converter

Understanding the Gilbert (Jones) Cell

SDRSmart  RTL-SDR.com V3 Dongle 

VK3HN and 2 meter SSB

Jack NG2E, MMM and the 10 minute transmitter

KD4EBM sends me SST by Wayne Burdick. DX!  

A new computer 

Mailbag: 

MM0ACN

VK2EMU

N5VZH

VE3KZJ

HS0ZLQ

AD0JJ

VK8MC

KK0S

VE3VVH

KB3SII

WA9WFA

M0NTV

W2DAB

 60 Minutes Story on Mars Ingenuity Helicopter: 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-drone-mars-60-minutes-2021-05-09/

The Homebrew Spirit of the Radio Amateur

I just liked this picture.  It seems to capture the pride and satisfaction that comes from getting on the air with homebrew gear. It's obviously a simple QRP station, but it is all homebrew.  And -- from the QSL cards on the wall -- we can see that he has had some success with it.  The map on the wall is of the United States and the QSLs are from the east coast and the mid-west, so my guess is that he's probably on 80 or 40.   FB OM.  

The Joy of Fixing Broken Things (a really amazing video)

This amazing 10 minute video captures very well the joy of fixing broken things. It comes to us through a recommendation from Paul VK3HN in Melbourne, Australia. Thanks Paul.

I hope we will see more from Van Neistat.  He already has a bunch of videos on his YouTube channel:   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5mPJA4y5G8Z6aNkY6AxgAw

I often tell the story of the OT (probably now an SK) who at hamfests would ask if a piece of old gear was working. If the vendor answered honestly and said no, OT would reply, "Good, I pay extra for that."  He too liked to fix things.

Help India's Makers Build Oxygen Concentrators for COVID Victims-- The M-19 Oxikit Initiative

Why building oxygen concentrators is NOT rocket science. 

To make a donation: 

https://www.ketto.org/fundraiser/m19-oxygen-concentrators-make-in-india

Hack-A-Day Article: 

https://hackaday.com/2021/05/10/building-an-oxygen-concentrator-it-isnt-rocket-science/

Chuck Penson WA7ZZE, Heathkits, and the Titan Missile Museum

                                             WA7ZZE Shack

The video above popped up in my Facebook feed today and reminded me of Chuck Penson WA7ZZE.  Chuck is the author of a wonderful book on Heathkits (and several other books). 

The Titan missile explosion (not of the warhead) in Arkansas is described in an excellent but horrifying book entitled "Command and Control" by Eric Schlosser.

https://www.amazon.com/Command-Control-Damascus-Accident-Illusion/dp/0143125788/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=Command+and+control&qid=1620478171&sr=8-4 

PBS made a video out of the book.  You can watch it here: 

https://www.pbs.org/video/american-experience-command-and-control-film/   

Here's an interesting article on nuclear weapons tourism.  It has a great title. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/05/travel/escapes/05atomic.html

It is easy to see how an interest in ln old technology would lead someone to both Heathkits and Titans.  I get that.  But on the other hand the Heathkits and the Titans are at completely opposite ends of the humanity spectrum:  Heath made friendly technology that ultimately brought people together on the ham bands.   We know that the Titans were supposed to do. 

In any case it was great to be reminded of Chuck WA7ZZE.  We last posted about Chuck more than 10 years ago: 

http://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2009/08/chuck-penson-heathkits-nukes-and-qrp.html

In a comment to that post, Steve "Snort Rosin" Smith WB6TNL noted that Chuck had spoken at the 2009 CactusCon hamfest, and that the club pledged to put his presentation on-line.  But Google and I can't seem to find it.   Do any of the Scorpions or anyone else out there know where Chuck's hamfest talk is? 

Bob KD4EBM has been out there.  He reports that hams can bring their rigs and make use of the Titan site's large Discone antenna:

 https://titanmissilemuseum.org/museum/ham-radio-operators/

NASA Rocket Launch from Virginia to Create Artificial Aurora Saturday Night

 

https://www.news4jax.com/weather/2021/05/06/friday-nights-nasa-rocket-launch-may-produce-high-energy-auroras/?fbclid=IwAR1b3PX3VrT0IzljFiOCYYC1W2HmBMZZqpHqdB7xwNU7MmOeID3BMjHlbwo

"Adventures in Electromagnetism" Video by Julius Sumner Miller

This guy is quite a character, with a real knack for describing physics.  At the start of this video he says that these kinds of adventures are "good for the spirit and the soul."  Right you are Professor Miller.  I am currently recovering from a minor back injury.  It is nothing serious, but it has delayed the production of the SolderSmoke Podcast #230.   These videos are, for me, just what the doctor should have ordered.  

I liked Miller's references to Michael Faraday. 

There are many videos on the Julius Sumner Miller YouTube Channel.  They are indeed "good for the spirit and the soul."   Thanks to Hack-A-Day for alerting us to this treasure trove. 

Ciprian's Romanian Ten Minute Transmitter with Roots in SPRAT, KA4KXX, and the Florida Sunrise Net

It sounds great Ciprian!  It was really cool to see your video and hear you reference not only the SolderSmoke blog, but also SPRAT, the Michigan Mighty Mite, and Walter KA4KXX. Your little rig has a very fine lineage!  

I found Ciprian's video just after seeing the wonderful Herndon Mighty Mite of Jack NG2E.  TRGHS!  The Color Burst Liberation Army is on the march!   For more info on NG2E's Mighty Mite, check out his blog: https://jackhaefner.blogspot.com/2021/05/mounting-to-perfboard-and-scope-test.html 

Jack has in his possession one of the  7.123 MHz crystals that Walter KA4KXX sent me back in 2019 (during my ET-2 craze).   It seems obvious that Jack should build a Ten Minute Transmitter and use it to check into the Sunrise Net  https://qsl.net/srn/. 

A New Michigan Mighty Mite Oscillates in Northern Virginia

We are pleased  to report that OM Jack, NG2E, has successfully built a Michigan Mighty Mite transmitter, and has experienced JOO (the joy of oscillation). You can see Jack's prototype in the video below: 

Jack has his eye on more ambitious homebrew projects, but is wisely taking a step-by-step approach.  He described his plans this way: 

1. Capture this MMM into a semi-permanent design: ie, perf board.
2. Measure performance. What does the carrier wave look like on a scope? 
3. Build a low-pass filter.
4. Can I amplify the signal? Maybe add an amplifier stage or two. Transistor? 
5. Next, let's look at receivers. Pete & Bill recommend that I build a Direct Conversion receiver. I know Peter Parker (VK3YE) has a simplified version. 

Trying to Repair Some Old Gear, He Got Hit with a Dose of LSD!

Oh no, here's something else for us to worry about when working on old gear.  As if the treat of electrocution or radioactive poisoning were not enough, now we have to worry about being hit with a dose of  the 1960's drug culture. That could be one bad trip indeed.  Imagine if you were having a hard time troubleshooting the Buchla Model 100.  All of a sudden things start getting weird and your test gear starts dancing on the bench.  

Fortunately, this is not likely to happen with a rig like the DX-100.  With rigs like that the only similar danger is nicotine poisoning. 

https://allthatsinteresting.com/engineer-accidentally-takes-lsd?fbclid=IwAR2KzZl3qoL6oqq5SqWYquKpHR2mGxk2GN2Kk0O-ytUb9MNXmVNX9XnyeaU

Thanks to Stephen Walters for finding this groovy story. 

Coming Soon! An N6QW Action Figure!

 

A few quick mods and Bob will be our uncle!  

(Pete will be our Fauci!) 

Think of the many possible accessories:  

A soldering iron!  A beret!  An Si5351!  Pasta!    

It's an INVESTMENT!

 

Exactly what we've been saying about Drake 2-Bs and copies of SSDRA!