Part III with Pete Juliano this Saturday

 

It looks like Pete Juliano, N6QW, and I will be able to do Part III of our discussion of homebrew SSB gear this Saturday.  We might start out with ladder filters.  Other possible topics include construction practices (shielding, decoupling, the handling of heat, etc), junk-box practices, essential test gear and, time permitting,  tube (or, as Grayson would say, "thermatron") gear. Speaking of which,  here are some pictures that Pete sent me of a 20 meter CW rig he is working on. 

"Here is a 20 Meter station that I recently got working and hope to have it on the air soon. The Rx is something I cobbled together and it does have a Crystal filter. The Tx is an amalgamation of several Handbook radios – one feature it uses a bandpass tuning network from the oscillator to the final. The screen voltage has a separate regulator. Each unit  size is 4 inches high, 4 inches wide and 8 inches long. There is still some work needed for the control and TR."  

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Moxon Aloft!

We put it up on the roof this afternoon.  I think it looks great!   The neighbors have not yet risen up in opposition to the new skyhook.   My family thinks it cool that I can spin it around.   I have it pointed at Europe and I notice a big difference.  I've worked F5LIW, OT4A, YL2BJ,  F5BBD.  Lots of fun. 

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Gravity Light -- A Potential Power Source for QRP Ops in the Field

Nice idea.

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Our First Listener: Brad Smith, WA5PSA

I got a nice message yesterday from Brad Smith, WA5PSA.  Brad told me that he had listened to both of the Pete Juliano podcasts...TWICE.  As a result, he is planning to build a phone rig.

In the message Brad reminded me that he was the source of the very first feedback that Mike, KL7R, and I received about the SolderSmoke podcast.   I remember it very well.  We had uploaded SolderSmoke#1, and were wondering if ANYONE had listened.  Then came this message from Brad (was it an e-mail?) saying that he'd listened to the show AS HE JOGGED THROUGH TULSA, OKLAHOMA.  Wow!  Tulsa!  Our voices from London and Juneau had been heard in ear-buds by a jogger in Tulsa, OK.   It was a bit like when you were a kid and you ran into the kitchen to tell your mom that you had just talked to a guy in TULSA.  Somehow, that day, Tulsa seemed as exotic as Tokyo.

Thanks Brad!  Good luck with the phone rig.  Hope to work you on 17.

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

VK2SJA's Minima in a Realistic DX-100 Case

Steve, VK2SJA, is doing to a Realistic DX-100 what I have been thinking about doing to a Heathkit HW-101.   With this kind of encouragement, who could blame me for making a Minima-101?  I've been planning on keeping the 6146s and all the final (and perhaps driver) circuitry.    

Here is Steve's very nice description of his project thus far:

http://www.hfsignals.org/index.php/UnRealistic_Minima

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Scrap wood, some wire, four fishing poles and an old tripod: Moxon Update

 

It is not up on the roof yet, but we are getting close.   Above you can see he center "hub" -- just some scrap plywood and 8 u bolts.



 

Here is how I handled the corners.  The coil thing is from the end of a bungee cord. It makes for easy disassembly. 

 

 

 

Here is how the mast connects to the hub.  I had some 1x1 scrap wood. The 1x1 will be U-bolted into the rotator.  



 

 

 

Made of wire and fishing poles, Moxons are not very photogenic.  But I think mine looks great.  The 17 meter version is quite small. 

 



 

A bit of a balun.  Just to keep RF currents off the outside of the braid.

 



 

That tripod was last aloft in the Dominican Republic (1992-1996!).  Two spray cans of flat black paint have been applied.  Stealth!  

 

Four 16 foot "crappie" telescoping fiberglass poles purchased from Amazon.   



 

The only thing holding me up at this point is a safety concern.  The roof has a somewhat steep pitch, and I am not at agile as I used to be.   So before I install this magnificent sky hook I'm getting one of those roof safety harness systems that roof workers are supposed to use (but rarely do).  This sill also benefit the poor fellow who comes to clean our gutters.  



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Crazy Joe May Have THE KNACK

http://www.crazyjoe.org/studio.html

Check out Joe's VERY long-running audio studio project.  It appears to be mostly appliance/commercial gear, but look closer and you will discover that most of it is homebrew.


Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Thomas's Magnificent Minima

Wow, Thomas's page makes me really want to build a Minima.  Note the Manhattan style with Rex Harper's Me-Pads.  Excellent.   Thomas provides a really great stage-by-stage description of the project with the kind of candid descriptions of mistakes that SolderSmoke listeners are so fond of!  

http://www.sarfata.org/ham/minima/

Thomas himself has an interesting "international brotherhood"  personal history:

http://www.sarfata.org/about.html

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

ISEE-3 Recovery Hiccup

Now that's a McDonald's that you would want to work in!  That's the headquarters for the ISEE-3 recovery effort. (Is it also the place where they recovered the long-lost moon photos from the 1960s?) 

This week the ISEE-3 effort hit a bump in the road.  Getting old gear to work properly is never easy.   Be patient fellows! 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/us/in-effort-to-shift-abandoned-nasa-craft-a-hiccup-or-burp.html?action=click&contentCollection=Science&region=Footer&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article

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Finally! Dis-Intergrated Circuits! Discrete Component Op Amps!

That, my friends, is a discrete component version of the 741 op amp chip.  I like it!  No more mysterious miniature black boxes -- here's a "chip" that you can understand, troubleshoot, and modify.   Seven Forty Fun!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1208645775/open-analog

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Jason's WBR Regenerative Receiver

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Alan Wolke Explains Varactor Diodes

As always, a very illuminating presentation by Alan.  I wish my oscillators were that stable!
And I couldn't help thinking how much simpler this circuit is in comparison to the DDS devices we've been talking about. 

Homebrew Radio Rock Video! By N6QW

Watch out MTV!   There's a new music channel in town! 
Music and rigs all by Pete Juliano, under the direction of the famed Italian producer/director Giovanni Manzoni.

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

I Wrote Another Book

This one is not about radio or electronics, but over the years many SolderSmoke listeners have written in saying that they liked the opening "travelogue" portion of the podcast.   This book may appeal to them.  It might also be of interest to spouses who've been hearing about these "soldersmoke people."  This would be, I think, a good "beach book." 

The title is:  "Us and Them -- An American Family Spends Ten Years with Foreigners"

 Here's the description:

What happens if you take an American family and send them to Europe for ten years? In the summer of 2000, Bill and Elisa Meara, accompanied by 2 year-old Billy and 4 month-old Maria, left their home in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. and moved to the Azores. There they experienced the highs and lows of diplomatic life on a small distant island. After three years in the Azores, they spent four years London and three years in Rome. Overseas they lived in two houses and two apartments, went to five schools, used four different health care systems, experienced one earthquake, 9-11, the terrorist attack on London, tea with the Queen, the election of Barack Obama… and all the ordinary things that families go through. They lived mostly with the locals, learned Portuguese, Italian, and a bit of Cockney, and made many friends (foreign friends!) They returned to the United States in 2010 with a changed view of the world. This is their story.

In print form is available from Amazon and from Lulu:

AMAZON:  http://www.amazon.com/Us-Them-American-Family-Foreigners/dp/1499286287/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1403693380&sr=1-2&keywords=meara+us+and+them

LULU: http://www.lulu.com/shop/bill-meara/us-and-them-an-american-family/paperback/product-21687240.html

And it is available in e-book form from
AMAZON KINDLE:
http://www.amazon.com/Us-Them-American-Family-FOREIGNERS-ebook/dp/B00L8DR4RK/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1403653620&sr=1-2&keywords=us+and+them

If you know anyone who might like this book, please use the little MAIL icon (below) to forward this post to them.  Thanks.


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A New Look at BITX Carrier Suppression; N6QW IN EMRFD!

Bert, WF7I, was recently struggling to get his BITX 20 going and he asked some good questions about carrier suppression.  I realized that I hadn't really paid much attention to this.  Perhaps as a result of my long experience with DSB, I was happy as long as I was able to null out MOST of the carrier. 

I fired up the scope and took a look at the output from the BITX 2040 on 40 meters.  Here's the test setup:  Coax from the antenna terminal to a 50 ohm resistive load at the Rigol O'scope probe.  Just keying the transmitter (no mic connected),  carrier was at 980 millivolts rms or about 19 milliwatts.  I then connected an AF sig generator into the mic in connector and pumped in some 1000 Hz sine wave. Peak output was 20.7 volts rms, or about 8.6 watts.   That puts the carrier about 27 db down.  I felt I should be doing better. 

I took a look at the shape of my crystal filter and the frequency placement of my carrier oscillator.  I noticed that the carrier oscillator freq was fairly close to the bandpass portion of the crystal filter -- fairly high up the skirt, only about 9 db below the passband level.   I figured that if I just moved that carrier oscillator up around 300 Hz, I would get around 10 db of additional carrier suppression. 

Sure enough,  with the carrier moved a mere 300 Hz further away from the passband,  the residual carrier dropped to 346 millivolts rms, or about 2.4 milliwatts.    Now peak output was 20.9 volts rms, or 8.7 watts.  36 db of carrier suppression. 

I guess I could do better if I moved the carrier up another little bit, but I like the sound of it now.  I may have been able to better if I'd fiddled with the balanced modulator diodes a bit more.  But what do you guys think?  Should I worry about 2 milliwatts of residual carrier?  Heck I once ran a CW rig (W1VD' VXO 6 watter) that kept the oscillator running on key up, producing about 15 mw of "backwave." No damage was done, few noticed, no one complained.

Oh yea, is this the way to measure carrier suppression? 

----

While doing all this, I pulled out my trusty copy of EMRFD.  The index led me to the balanced modulator section on page 6.56.  There I spotted a familiar call:  W6JFR!!!  That's Pete Juliano, N6QW!  Pete is credited with a mod to the SBL-1 mixer that adds a balance control pot to the device.   Wow, actually being IN EMRFD fully confirms Pete's homebrew guru status.


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SolderSmoke Podcast #162: Part II with Pete Juliano, N6QW

 

SolderSmoke 162 is now available at  http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke162.mp3
 
June 21, 2014
Part II of our interview with Pete Juliano, N6QW
 
-- Bill's Moxon Monstrosity
-- Amplifiers and Exorcisms (See slideshow link below)
-- Varactor tuning
-- Polivaricon capacitors
-- The challenge of building small rigs
-- Heat, layout, components and VFO stability
-- "No frills" as a building philosophy
-- The future of Bill's Heathkit HW-101    
 
We still have a lot more to talk about.  Stay tuned for Part III!

Slideshow of Pete's RF Amplifiers: 
https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=4f1e8c71e0d4f1dc&id=4F1E8C71E0D4F1DC%212640&Bsrc=Photomail&Bpub=SDX.Photos&sff=1&authkey=!AGq3hc4UajARH1s




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Bert WF7I Finishes BITX, WORKS ITALY

 

That, my friends, is the look of exhausted contentment that comes after you have FINALLY gotten your new homebrew rig to work, and were rewarded by crossing the mighty Atlantic on your first call.    Congrats Bert!   Details here:

 

http://wf7ihomebrew.wordpress.com/2014/06/18/bitx20a-on-the-air/



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Confucian Wisdom from VU2BK in Hyderabad

I'm not a big collector of QSL cards, but this one has been kicking around in boxes and on various hamshack walls for more than 20 years.  I like the bit of Confucian wisdom that arrived in Santo Domingo all the way from Hyderabad.  I was running my trusty HT-37 and Drake 2-B.  Anyone know OM Kab, VU2BK?

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BITX 5 Watter Makes the Trip to Tokyo

The solar flux index was only 151 this morning, but grey line conditions to Japan were very good.  Yoshi, JA1OJJ, was booming in on 17 meters.   We had a nice chat.  He said I was 55.  His 5 element quad helped a lot!   

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

F6FEO's BITX 20 (and DSB Rig)

This morning I was looking at F6FEO's wonderful web site (Frank, KM4AXA is building the 28 Mhz DSB rig from Michel's site) .  The drawings have a nice JF1OZL feel to them.

Check out Michel's site.  Just hit the translate button if you have trouble with the French language:
http://f6feo.homebuilder.free.fr/index.html

Merci Michel! 



Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

MOXON Antenna Project -- Need Rotator Advice

 

 

I've been put together a fishing pole MOXON antenna for 17 meters.  It will be used with my 5 Watt BITX rig.  I need something to spin it around.   I know that many of the cheap TV rotators don't hold up very well.  I had one die quickly out in the Azores.  There seems to be several brands out there, but the rotators and the control boxes look suspiciously similar. 

 

Is there any brand out there that is more robust and reliable than rest? 

I came up with a pretty cool way of affixing the corners of the antenna elements to the fishing poles.  That coil-like thing is the wire part of a bungee cord.  It fits nicely into the end of the fiberglass pole. You have to be sure to get the pole length and the element dimensions properly proportioned, with a sufficient amount of bend in the poles.

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Fireballs Emitting RF at HF!

Yea, and that damn gamma ray bust static has been totally messing up the 12 meter band! Someone should complain to the FCC!

https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/1382596c320d

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Some DX That You Can Never Work. Never.

There is some amazing info in this site. It is worth reading.

https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/the-disappearing-universe-d7447467c63a

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Pete Juliano's Enclosures

 

I'm sure many of you are, like me, impressed with the enclosures that Pete Juliano has been using with his rigs.   Here's an e-mail that he sent yesterday to Bert. 

Hi Bert,

 

You have a ready source of material right there in Seattle and they will cut it to size. Check out On-Line Metals. The transceiver project has a 4 x 8 inch base plate I bought from them and the front and back are pieces of single sided copper PC Board. The support material is 1/2 inch aluminum angle stock (Home Depot). Interesting use of round aluminum pillars. The front and back are stabilized using 1/4 inch threaded aluminum spacers that were fitted inside of small diameter hollow aluminum tube I bought in a hobby shop. A dab of Gorilla Glue holds the spacers inside the tubing and it forms a rigid support structure.

 

The subject of mechanical construction is a good one and perhaps Bill would like to cover that in a future podcast. That said I do have a bench top 3 axis manual milling machine and a 3 axis CNC milling machine (that one cost me about $250K). The cost was not in the machine but the cost of sending my youngest son to WSU where he got an ME degree. He designed and built the machine for me.

 

Boeing Surplus (now gone) in Kent used to sell aluminum plate by the pound and a lot of my stock (now all gone) came from there. As a retired Boeing employee I used to get a discount.

 

73’s

Pete

And here is a slide show illustrating Pete's technique:

https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=4f1e8c71e0d4f1dc&id=4F1E8C71E0D4F1DC%212607&Bsrc=Photomail&Bpub=SDX.Photos&sff=1&authkey=!ADzJ4SgPn5OzRqk


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Video of Pete Juliano's 20-40 Bilateral Rig

Wow, what a beautiful rig.  Nice work Pete.  Kind of eerie how we both chose the 20/40 combination after building 17 meter rigs. We'll have to talk more about this in SolderSmoke 162.  Soon!

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A Post Card from Paris

This arrived from Paris, from our friend Rogier, PA1ZZ KJ6ETL. "Men are like computers: one never knows what's going on inside."  But it looks to me like the OM in the picture knows EXACTLY what's going on inside that rig.  So I guess this is commentary on the perils of black boxes, and the benefits of an analog, discrete component, Hardware Defined Radio approach.    I'm with you Rogier!  Merci!


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Thought Provoking Comments from Bert, WF7I

 
Hey Bill. 

 I enjoyed the interview with Pete N6QW very much.  So many main points were covered and I kept nodding in agreement, especially some of the stuff about the ease of doing homebrew that we have these days.  Like you, or similar to you I'm guessing, I have memories as a kid staring at the pages of an ARRL handbook, saying "huh?"  These days almost any question can be answered with a Google (and if not, an appropriate book overnighted via Amazon).  You guys both nailed it too with the comments about the free design software that is plentiful and the cheap crystals (I still need to order some "bags" of these!).  When I started out it seemed crystals were a big expense.  I guess not so much now.  It's really a great time to be a homebrewer.

I was trying to think of more questions for him for the second half of your interview but most of what I could come up with was too pedestrian probably or already covered.  I am curious about amplifiers but I believe he's going to talk about that next anyway.  Nothing was said about using varactor diodes in VFOs (unless I missed it) and I'm a little curious about his experiences with them.  And whether he still uses air variables or not (and if he has an opinion on these more compact "polyvaricons", one of which is in the Hendricks version of the Bitx-20 I'm building).   It sounds like most homebrewers these days are pairing up their VFOs with digital architecture of one type or another for stability and the display.  I guess you can't argue with the price of some of the needed parts.  But like you I feel like I'm not wanting to jump into the complex digital too far, the simplicity and ease of understanding of the simple circuits is really refreshing and fun for me.  The moment you have to rely on software for something I feel that the project is lessened a bit, not as robust in a way, kind of like having to rely on cholesterol-lowering meds so that we can keep eating cheeseburgers (had to slip in a food reference somewhere).

Something else dawned on me a few weeks ago, soon after I'd built my 40m direct conversion rig ("mrad-40") -- does anyone consider the audience on the band they're designing for???  I'm only partly joking!  There are some rude and coarse dudes on 40m.  It takes a little bit of luster off the whole "first light" experience of a new homebuilt radio when you turn it on and hear some drunks arguing politics or making fun of a YL ham on another frequency!  Probably not a suitable question for Pete!

I also really enjoyed the FDIM edition.  As always, it's one of the best of your podcast series.  My favorite was the interview with the ham near the end, I think he was 2nd to last.  He seemed to really sum up the entire homebrew motivation and experience.  I don't remember his name offhand.  But his description of sitting there with store-bought radios and the sort of transactional nature of appliance operating ("telephoning strangers") perfectly describes how I felt about a dozen years ago.  I'd migrated towards DX chasing and 6m grid collecting but that too can get pretty stale after awhile.  I'm getting closer to having a station that is all home-built, but I'm not sure I'll ever sell my commercial rigs as he did (although it would free up money for more test equipment!).

Maybe one final comment for Pete or just in general.  Since I've been a ham I feel like there's always been this pressure to build/design something that is in some way "cutting edge" or new.  In today's landscape that would be along the lines of the FDIM guy turning an Android phone into a ham rig.  I'm wondering if others feel some sort of peer pressure to "push the envelope" in some way with what they're doing, to establish bragging rights of some kind or to somehow feel that what they're doing is important or relevant.  I've never been clever enough to succumb to this pressure and invent something ingenious!  And I find doing lots of software coding incredibly boring and I know I'm not very skilled at it. 

So...I guess the question or point is, should we all in some way as "responsible" hams feel obligated to break ground in some new technical aspect of the hobby somehow, especially as builders and homebrewers (and hams)?  In other words, should I be riddled with guilt if I decide to devote the rest of my life to building regens and not SDRs?  Do you know what I mean here?  There seems to be a mindset among some hams that the hobby was founded on experimentalists pushing the boundaries of what was known, and in some way we all carry that torch.  For me, I've always pretty much seen it as a hobby, and if it felt like work I didn't do it!  Any thoughts on that?

Bert WF7I

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El Peregrino (The Pilgrim) from Spain

Eduardo, EA3GHS, sent this to me.  It looks like a wonderful bilateral SSB rig for 17 meters.
They said they wanted a "daylight" rig (for a daytime band) because in Spain the religious pilgrims walk all day and are tired at night.  Hence 17 for Los Peregrinos!

http://ea3ghs.qrp.cat/peregrino.html



Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Alan Wolke's GREAT Video on Transmission Line Termination

An outSTANDING Wave video from Alan!  Check out the comments from new hams on the YouTube page:  Alan has a real knack (!) for explaining technical material, and for imparting real understanding. 

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Harv's Minima

Good Evening Bill & fellow Solder-smoke friends,

 

Well, I’m following the pack. I began gathering items for the Minima Transceiver back in March 14. There had been a good bit of strong back-N-forth discussions on the Minima Blog about what works and what doesn’t work. Some circuit refinements had been agreed upon while other were left to individual preferences. So, I decided to just be silent an learn from the experts. As a result, I did several months of observing before I took the plunge. While my efforts are not nearly as aggressive as others, I decided to forge a much slower path to success.

In my own quirky way of doing things, I kitted each module, measured all the parts statically, laid out the components, and finally built & tested each assembly before going to the next.

As a result, the learning’s were great and the performance of each section equal or better than my expectations.

 

I went the Manhattan Style this time but,  I have purchased several sets of Minima PCBs to use in the future. As I see it, there is a lot more solder melting ahead.

 

Bill, building radios is NOT DEAD yet. That desire to get back to the golden days of home-brewing still lives on.

 

At the end of the Memorial Weekend, this is my current Minima progress…

 

·         Construction of all 3 Audio Stages now complete (see photos)

·         The Microphone Pre-Amp is now awaiting voice testing

·         Audio Amplifier and Final Amplifier have been tested together

·         The results of audio testing has been superb for all stages thus far

·         3 complete sets of Micro Relays have been order and I’m now awaiting their arrival

·         24 – various ferrite and powered iron cores arrived several weeks ago, these are the heart of the front-end RX/TX stages

·         100 - 20 Mhz. crystals have arrived and await characterization

·         25 - 8” Male to Male SMA Cables have arrived this weekend, will need to order 15 – 4” Male to Male SMA Cable Assemblies next

·         5 – 12” X 15” Copper Clad Boards have arrived this weekend

·         25 –J310 N-channel J RF Power FETs were ordered and arrived this weekend, these are used in the Mixer Stage

 

 

Final Audio Stage

 

 

Audio Amplifier Stage

 

 

Microphone Pre-Amplifier Stage (see microphone connector mounted at rear)

 

I’m ready to begin kitting the Side Tone Oscillator and RX/TX Relay Stages.

The largest and most intense modules are yet to be tackled.

The Bi-Directional Amplifier has 34 parts alone.  So far I have installed over 40 parts in the three modules I’ve completed…

I realize it is just a start but, I’m motivated to see this one project through to completion.

 

73’s & Happy Soldering

 

Harv -=WA3EIB=-

Albuquerque, NM.

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Contact Reestablished with ISEE-3 Satellite

http://spacecollege.org/isee3/we-are-now-in-command-of-the-isee-3-spacecraft.html


Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

SolderSmoke Podcast #161: Homebrew SSB: An Interview with Pete Juliano, N6QW

 

SolderSmoke Podcast #161 is available:

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke161.mp3

26 May 2013

Homebrew Single Sideband -- An Interview with Pete Juliano, N6QW

-- Pete's background:  55 years in radio.  Boatanchors AND Arduinos. 40673 Mosfets.  Guitar!
-- A personal transition from CW to phone.
-- The importance of passing on "tribal knowledge."
-- What you need:  A library, tools, test gear and a junque box.
-- A new word in the homebrew lexicon:  Pete explains "noodling."
-- One stage at a time!
-- The attractiveness of standard circuit blocks (that work!)  
-- The importance of IF selection.
-- Building your own crystal filters is easier than ever.
-- Thinking (early) about the enclosure.
--VFOs, VXOs, and (gasp) Direct Digital Synthesis

Thanks Pete! 

Pete's Web Site:  http://www.jessystems.com/

Pete's YouTube Channel: 
 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4_ft4-oTdCMlWlL4XXHScg/videos


Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Meteor Shower Tonight

If the skies are clear, and if I can stay awake, I'll be out there looking for the new meteor shower. 

But there is no real need to go outside.  David, EA1FAQ has an SDR receiver tuned to a radar frequency in France.  You can see and hear the meteors as they create a path for the RF.  Very cool. 
Thanks David:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/live-meteor-radar

You can also listen for meteor pings here:

http://spaceweatherradio.com/

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Overheard at Dayton: Drake 2B Market Manipulation! (& Help needed with 455 kc IF can)

I received a very nice message from Preston Douglas.   Conveniently, he is an attorney, and I have asked him to stand ready to defend me in court should I ever be accused of manipulating the markets for Drake 2-Bs (and perhaps the market for SSDRAs). 

Can any out there help Preston with his SX-110 455 kc IF can?
 

May 20 at 3:38 PM

Hi Bill,

 

I enjoyed #160, even though I heard those talks, live at FDIM. 

I thought you'd be amused by what I overheard in the flea market on Saturday in Dayton.  I was looking at a Drake 2B and Q multiplier being offered by a lady who said they were her father's.  They looked to be in pretty clean shape, though of course there was no way to know what was going on under the hood.  She was asking $200 for both, and said she was open to reasonable offers.  Now, I already have a 2B and haven't found any need for the Q multiplier.  And I had flown out to Dayton from NY, so would have had to ship the pair of boxes home--probably should have bought them anyway and sent them home by UPS for that kind of money.  

 

Anyway, there were two other guys looking at the 2B.  One said to the other that these were among the best receivers of the tube era, but that the prices had become inflated by this guy who does the Soldersmoke podcasts talking up the virtues of the 2B.  Couldn't help smiling at that.

 

As to the Hallicrafters SX-110 on the repair bench.  Well, I worked out a deal with a professional tech guy to trade him my non-working HP 8640b sig gen for some bench time on the 110.  He found that the first IF  transformer that I was having so much trouble aligning was non-working.  He had no replacement, so he bypassed the whole transformer with a cap to get signal to the next stage.  This is, of course, not a satisfactory solution.  And nobody has that IF can to sell.  I did read on another radio repair guy's web site  that he, too, usually stops working on a set with a bad IF can because repair is so labor intensive.  

Frankly, I don't accept that.  I mean what's inside there?  A couple of coils and some open silvered mica leafs. So, I plan to remove the can, open it, and fix it.  According to the Internet, the built-in caps on these cans become defective and need replacement by modern capacitors.  Or, maybe a wire is broken off.  Before I do anything, I am going to see if that transformer is really unable to peak at 455.  Anyway, maybe I'll get some time to mess with this radio over the holiday weekend.  

 

One of the guys (or was it you?) recently said he builds 'em, makes a few contacts to prove they work, and then puts them on a shelf.  Then he builds another one.  It's like that sometimes.

 

PRESTON DOUGLAS

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Latest Project: 17 Meter Moxon

17 Meter Moxon by AE6AC

That's what I have in mind.  I ordered four fiberglass "crappie" poles yesterday.  I have a tripod for the roof.   What should I use to spin this thing around?  A TV rotor is an obvious solution, but the last time I used one it didn't hold up too well.  There is always the Armstrong method...  

Here's AE6AC's site:

http://www.moxonantennaproject.com/ae6ac/ae6ac.htm


Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

SolderSmoke Podcast 160: Special Four Days in May (FDIM) issue

   

George Dobbs, G3RJV

SolderSmoke Podcast #160:

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke160.mp3

Bob Crane, W8SX, was out at the Four Days in May event and did an excellent series of interviews with the guys who made presentations:
 

Harold Smith, KE6TI
    Many Ways To Homebrew
 

Chris Testa, KD2BMH 
     Battery Powered Software Radios:
   Having your cake and eating it, too
 

George Dobbs, G3RJV 
    The Classic World of the Regenerative Receiver
 

Gary Breed, K9AY 
     Why Does My Rig Have a Receive Antenna Jack ?
 

Craig Behrens, NM4T 
    The Great Arduino, JT65 and Rebels Caper
  High adventure with new radio paradigms
 

Dave Cripe, NM0S 
     PoW QRP

 
-------------------------------------
 
VIDEOS OF THE PRESENTATIONS ARE HERE:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/47599691


Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Message in a Bottle -- Beacon in a Bottle

Wow.  Very cool.  Don't get hung up on the legalities or the environmental consequences.  Just enjoy the simplicity and the technique.   All the details are on this very nice Italian site.  Google will translate it for you, but the pictures and the schematic tell most of the story.  Bravi!   

http://air-radiorama.blogspot.it/

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20