BITX40 to BITX40 In Australia -- Both Rigs on the Beach, Video at Both Ends

There is so much great homebrewing going on down-under.   It makes me jealous.  And so much of it is for phone.  FB.

I really like VK3YE's sand graphic proclaiming to the world (or at least to the beach!) that a BITX40 to BITX40 contact had been made. 

Looks like both rigs were using VK3YE's ceramic resonator mod for the VFO.

Be sure to check out the BITX 40 Mods blog:
http://bitxhacks.blogspot.com

N6ORS's Franken-SDR Superhet

Of course, I love it.  MOSFETS!  NE602's!  10.7 Mc IF cans!  Cycles, not hertz! And a Tayloe Quadrature Sampling Detector made from junkbox parts from the Reagan administration. FB Keith.   And the frequency display is icing on the cake.  

Bill:

I thought the group might find my new Franken-SDR interesting.
It is an SDR with a superhet front end. 

I wanted to play with an SDR but I didn't want to get a kit or buy
parts, so I scrounged through he drawers and found a mux chip
cd-4016 circa-1980 some old 7400 logic that is probably per-1980.
This could make a QSD but only very low frequencies. Well I thought
how about at IF frequencies?

The frontend is a MOSFET mixer (1975) , the 10.7 IF is a dual gate MOSFET
(1975), the second mixer is a NE602, the IF cans are all stagger tuned to
give a bandwidth of 50kcs.
The only thing modern is the DDS but I old-time-ifyed it with BCD switches.

Keith N6ORS

VK6FTH did something similar: http://www.vk6fh.com/vk6fh/SDRradio.htm

Understanding the "O" (organic) in OLED

That's the one I'm using.  Less than 1 inch on each side.  No back light.  8 bucks shipped:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KRZY7PW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Here is a thorough description of the technology:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLED

Boatanchors! HT-37 to HT-37 contact with W1ZB

Jerry W1ZB and I met up on 40 a week or so ago.  He was running a Hallicrafters  HT-37.  This spurred me to clear up the T/R problem that had knocked me out of the competition on Straight Key Night  (I'm sure I would have won!).  One spray of DeOxit D5 on the HT37 relay contacts was all it took.  Jerry and I set up a schedule for this morning on 40 minutes.   Above you can see a short video of the first part of our HT-37 to HT-37 contact.

Jerry has an amazing collection of beautiful old tube radios.  Check out his QRZ.com page:
https://www.qrz.com/lookup/w1zb

BTW:  Speaking of old rigs talking to identical old rigs:   Last night on 40 I worked TI2NF in San Jose, Costa Rica.  He was running a Collins KWM-2 to a Collins 30-L1.  It was real nice to talk to somebody who was using an unusual rig.  Right after we finished, VE3OCZ called  TI2NF.   VE3OCZ was ALSO running a KWM-2 to a 30-L1.   TRGHS.  

Great Interview with Farhan Re BITX 40 and BITX History

W5KUB has a really good interview with Farhan.  There are several spots where the Skype connection gets quite choppy, but hang in there -- it gets better.  Farhan provides a lot of good info on the history of the BITX rigs, his design philosophy, and the importance of the EMRFD book.  He also talks about how the BITX 40 Module is produced.  And he talks a bit about possible future rigs.  Great stuff. 

I was very pleased to hear that Farhan is trying to eliminate the need for his FT-817 (he currently needs it for its general coverage receiver) so that he can have a completely homebrew hamshack.  FB!