The King's Speech Regen

In SolderSmoke 131 I talked about this old homebrew receiver. I picked it up at a radio rally in London and almost sold it at a hamfest in Virginia. A fit of UK nostalgia provoked by a screening of "The King's Speech" caused me to hold onto it. Now it is luring me into two areas that I don't really want to get into: high voltage and regeneration. But here we go... I turn now to our British cousins: What can you tell us about this receiver? 1920s? 30's? What tubes should I be looking for? How would they have powered this receiver? Does anyone have a schematic that might describe this device? (Or something close?)

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SolderSmoke Podcast #131

SolderSmoke Podcast #131
http://www.soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke131.mp3
28 February 2011

--Winterfest!
--UK nostalgia: "King's Speech" saves British Regen
--Dark Cloud, Silver Lining: ice storm gets us back on the air
--40 meter phone (AM and SSB)
--K2ZA interview: John Zaruba's DX-100
--OUR NEW SPONSOR: SIERRA RADIO SYSTEMS
--SolderSmoke audio woes: interference! Lollipop ditched.
--Buzz Aldrin's lunar seismograph
--Watching the space station fly over Virginia
--Twain, Tesla, Edison and Halley's Comet
--Capuccio on Drugs
--MAILBAG

Hamfest Report

Bert, WF7I, at Winterfest

I had a great time at the Vienna Wireless Winterfest. The weather was very nice, so I moved my sales operation out to the tailgate area. I managed to sell the Heathkit Twoer that I was trying to get rid of (the receiver is a REGEN). Also sold a bunch of old books, an old o'scope, and some other odds and ends. I picked up a few things I needed, including some solder wick, a replacement rubber band for my wrist rocket antenna launching sling shot and a backup mic for the podcast (just like the one you guys are so find of).

I met many podcast listeners. Bert, WF7I, and Mark, KJ7IEA, from the University of Virginia (the guys with the rhombic) were there and it was great to meet them. N3UMW, the designer of the SolderSmoke logo, was there at my sales table, but I didn't realize until after the hamfest that he'd been there - -I would have liked to have talked to him! Oh well, more 'fests in the DC area are coming up, and I still have some junk to sell.

SolderSmoke 131 should be out tomorrow.

SolderSmoke at Winterfest

I'll be at the Vienna Wireless Society's Winterfest hamfest tomorrow morning. I've gathered up all the unnecessary junk in the shack, and hope to replace it all with new and better junk tomorrow. I'll also have a few copies of "SolderSmoke -- The Book" for sale. I'll be at table D4 inside the facility. Hope to see many of you there!

Watching the International Space Station Fly Over

Thanks to a tip from spaceweather.com, Billy, Maria and I were in position to watch the International Space Station fly over the Washington area on the evening of 23 February. The map above (from heavensabove.com) shows the pass we saw. All times are local. Maria spotted it first. She seems to have a talent for this -- she last spotted the ISS six years ago (at age 4!) from the streets of Central London.

This was a very nice pass to watch. We were in twilight. We first saw the spacecraft as it flew past Jupiter's position in the sky. It was red at first, then turned bright white.

This time we felt a special connection to the ISS because the twin brother of Astronaut Mark Kelly is currently on board. We all met Mark (and his wife Gabrielle) when they came to London. Mark will be heading up to ISS himself in April. Godspeed to Mark and to his brother. And we're all hoping for the best for Gabrielle. They are very nice people.

LOFAR -- World's Largest Radio Telescope

Here is a really well-done video on the new EU radio telescope. Very interesting. They are listening as low as 10 MHz. (I hope my little QRSS shark fins don't cause any ET confusion!) The antenna elements pictured looked a lot like the devices that Paul, NA5N, has been working on out at the Very Large Array. One thing I didn't quite get in the video: the shot of Arecibo.

Anyway, check out the video. You will like it.

http://www.motherboard.tv/2011/2/22/listening-to-the-universe-the-largest-telescope-on-earth--2