Pete's Beautiful New Blue Rig

A thing of beauty.  

Read about it here:   http://n6qw.blogspot.com/

Listening to New Zealand on the Barbados RX via the Gray Line (40 meter CW)

John: 
For the last couple of mornings you have been coming in quite strong on 40 meters around dawn here.    Attached is a short video from today.  I am listening with a homebrew superhet receiver:

http://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2016/05/a-lot-of-soul-in-barbados-receiver.html

73  Bill N2CQR

Hi Bill,

Thanks for sending the video clip.

It’s really made my day!

I’ve sometimes wonder what I sound like at DX now I know.

The IC7410 sounds quite respectable and the sending is reasonably decipherable.

Interesting about the receiver.

The signal seems to stand out well from the noise.

Really well done. But then that’s what ham radio is all about.

We all enjoy radio and  we all like to enjoy the various aspects to the hobby.

Modes, antennas ,QRP whatever.

It’s great fun.

It would be good to have a QSO. perhaps some time soon?

Thanks again,

Very Best 73,

 John ZL1ALA

Swedish Michigan Mighty Mite Beacon Project

sTef DL1FDF/VY1QRP alerted us to this multi-band Michigan Mighty Mite beacon project out of Sweden. They certainly have some fine looking rigs! 

Check out the reports:
http://www.radiorud.se/fyren.php

Audiophoolery

Hi Bill:
 

   I remember reading an outraged letter in a stereo magazine back in the 80's, right after CD's came out.  The writer had condemned a particular CD player for having a single digtal-to-analog converter that was time-shared between the two channels, consequently inducing an "unlistenable" phase error in the audio.
    An engineer (and I hope a ham!) wrote in to observe that this was indeed correct, but helpfully noted that the phase error could be corrected by moving one of the speakers about a half inch farther away from the listener. That's noodling!  :-)

And you might enjoy this article:

...Some audio scams are so blatant you wonder how anyone could fall for them, like a replacement volume control knob that sells for $485. The ad copy proclaims, “The new knobs are custom made with beech wood and bronze … How can this make a difference??? Well, hearing is believing as we always say. The sound becomes much more open and free flowing with a nice improvement in resolution. Dynamics are better and overall naturalness is improved.” ...

 http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/10-01-06/

  James Randi, magician and hoax-buster, had a standing offer of $1M to some makers of "paranormal" audio equipment, like $700/foot cable, if they could prove it was better in blind A/B testing.  Nobody took him up on it.

http://gizmodo.com/305549/james-randi-offers-1-million-if-audiophiles-can-prove-7250-speaker-cables-are-better

 73,

  Bob

SolderSmoke Podcast 187: 2nd Anniversary N6QW. Dayton. Bench Reports. Mailbag

SolderSmoke Podcast #187 is available:

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke187.mp3

Second Anniversary of Pete Juliano's arrival on the SolderSmoke Podcast.

Dayton and FDIM underway

Bench Reports:
Pete:
-- Repurposing old Circuitry
-- Pete's small Display
-- New Transmitter
-- LBS in Japan and at Dayton

Bill:
-- S38-E   The lipstick has worn off.
-- Reduction drive for the Mighty Midget's Mate
-- Back to the Barbados Barebones Receiver:
    Which LO to use for 40 Meters with a 5 MHz IF? 
    Sideband Inversion and "Lower Sideband" filters.
    Eradicating WWV with parts from AA1TJ
    Improving VFO stability
    A bandspread/bandset arrangement with fixed caps
    Soul in the Old Machine

"The Amateur is FRIENDLY..."

MAILBAG