G3ROO's AMAZING Antenna Book

A few years back Ian Keyser, G3ROO, put together a really wonderful antenna book. It is very "down to earth," very practical, very useful for hams seeking to succeed with homebrew antennas. The book was edited by another great person from G-QRP Club -- Tony Fishpool, G4WIF. It has been out of print, but Ian has just made it available through Lulu.com.

Lulu is the printer who also handles my book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics." This means that you can order both books at the same time, perhaps saving on shipping costs. (But remember, for U.S., buyers shipping is free all summer long. ) And there is a 10 percent off sale for all buyers during the month of May (Coupon Code: FLOWERS).

Check out Ian's book here:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/practical-and-tested-aerial-systems/10904725

For more info on the SolderSmoke book, go here:
http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm

Spotting the X-37B Mystery Space Plane

I thought it was kind of cool that the amateur satellite spotting community has been able to locate and determine the orbit of the X-37B. Heavens Above will tell you where and when to look for it. Space Weather has some nice images and videos. It is all a bit reminiscent of The Kettering Group. Go Space Sleuths!

Special on Book: 20% off TODAY only

Andrew, G4CWX, reminded me that the folks at Lulu are having a 20% off sale. Today only. So you can save a lot on SolderSmoke -- The Book. The coupon code is THANKS305.
U.S. buyers might be better off using the free shipping option, but this 20 percent sale will definitely be a good deal for everyone else. http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm

Portuguese Knack: Balloon Launch May 30

I don't think they are radio amateurs, but these guys seem to have The Knack. That's an edge-of-space balloon payload they built. They plan to launch on May 31. You will be able to follow the event live, on-line. They have a very interesting web site: http://spacebits.eu/

DaVinci Milliwatt Beacon Crosses the Pond

We were out in the country this weekend and I brought along the little DaVinci 10 milliwatt QRSS beacon. I was hoping that it would do better with the big dipole that I have out there (vs. the sub-optimal end-fed wire I use here in Rome). Success! Bill, W4HBK, saw the above image on his screen in Pensacola, Florida on Saturday evening. My signal is the little bumpy line just below the Morse signal. Joachim, PA1GSJ, also saw it, and passed along this image:

Better than EE text books! With Free Shipping and 10 % off

I was feeling kind of bad about the fact that while free shipping for the book is available for readers in the U.S., people from other countries are not eligible. But Lulu came through! During May readers everywhere can get 10 percent off by using the coupon code FLOWERS. Lulu won't let you combine free shipping AND the 10 percent off; U.S. customers are probably better off sticking with the free shipping. Customers from other countries can use the 10% discount during May.

Steve, KC2VNI, sent in some nice comments on the book:
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I am an electrical engineer and I will say that the way Bill explains things is far, far, better than what I've seen in most books dealing with either communications theory or with communications electronics.

Not to go on a rant, but the college level electrical engineering text books are very poorly thought out and are really not written for the beginner (even an undergraduate electrical engineering student) who does not share the author's years of insight.

I would recommend that people who read the book should post comments about it where hams will find it. I posted comments on E-Ham. I will probably post to Ham Radio nation.

Several tweaks to the book (with the understanding that my comments are NOT meant as a slam on the book nor am I an electronics expert):

1) Give me a more detailed troubleshooting methodology- The literature associated with testing and troubleshooting is very,very limited.
A flow chart or diagram of some sort would be very helpful. I get the impression that Bill's efforts in this area were "cut and try" because of his obvious enthusiasm. Having said this, the beginning home-brewer has NO IDEA as to what he needs in the way of test equipment, what he should look for when testing a circuit, what the wave forms should look like, etc. (Note from Bill: A detailed discussion on troubleshooting methodology would be very helpful to students taking electrical engineering online.)

2)Very little discussions about the more mundane things like power supplies, connectors and the like. These trivial items can cause you hours of frustration if you don't think this through. If you want to string things together on a bench, I suppose it does not make difference. However, if you want to operate say QRP mobile in the woods then you need something that has a little bit of thought.

3) Very little discussion about heat sinks and thermal management- This is one of the most neglected areas for most people in electronics (and not just the homebrewer of radio equipment). Here, I recommend the ASME text "Hot Air Rises and Heat Sinks: Everything You Know About Cooling Electronics is Wrong". When I read the discussion about a transistor running hot and extra heat sink compound being applied in the book, I wanted to scream!

One other thing-is there any way I can get an autographed copy of the text?

Thank You very much for this very fun book

73

Steve KC2VNI

Muntzing with Michael

Snappy title, don't you think? I think it could become a TV series, maybe if the Discovery channel someday gets into QRP and homebrew. In his QRP-L message about his latest rig, Michael, AA1TJ, said that he had "spent the morning 'Muntzing' G3XBM's, fine little XBM80-2
transceiver for the MAS (Minimal Arts Session) event." For those of you who don't recognize the verb "to Muntz", Michael is referring to one of the early manufacturers of TV sets, who, in an effort to reduce costs, ruthlessly went through his engineers' designs, throwing out every component that wasn't absolutely necessary. So I think Michael -- who I often refer to as the "Poet Laureate of QRP" -- has given us a new and very useful verb: To Muntz! (This comes in a month in which another very useful word was given to us: G3RJV's "socketry.")

Michael said, "I felt like the guy in the movies yesterday; throwing everything overboard that's not absolutely necessary in order to keep the Zeppelin/balloon aloft long enough to make landfall. :o)" The results speak for themselves. The schematic above and the picture below show Michael's entire transceiver. And he made a bunch of contacts with it.

One word of caution: Minimalist radio is not for the faint of heart. As the parts counts go down, the degree of difficulty for successful contacts goes up.

Check out Michael's page: http://www.aa1tj.com/Menos es MAS.html

Here's a picture of the rig: