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Tuesday, March 8, 2011

AA1TJ's Dream: No Tubes, No Transistors... ALTERNATORS!

Treat yourself today to an experience in radio enthusiasm and innovation: Go to AA1TJ's blog and read about his latest creation: The Schmidtschem. Michael begins his post this way:

I've dreamed and schemed, off and on, for the last twenty five years over the prospect of constructing a complete, high-frequency (HF) amateur radio station without the use of vacuum tubes or semiconductors... Having considered and subsequently rejected a number of esoteric possibilities, I eventually concluded that a system based on electromagnetic alternators was the most promising.

He has a prototype on the air, using it with a no-gain receiver, and he is making a lot of contacts. Check it out: http://aa1tj.blogspot.com/

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Crystal Radio Sleuthing

As part of my effort to stamp out broadcast interference to the SolderSmoke podcast, this weekend I reassembled the crystal radio that Billy and I had built in London. It is REAL simple: Just a parallel LC circuit with a germanium diode detector and some high impedance phones. (I also put a chunk of galena and a cat's whisker on the board -- that's for when I get the urge to form my own PN junctions.) As expected, I immediately heard two AM broadcast stations: WFAX 5 kw 1220 kHz (religious) and WUST 20 kw 1120 kHz AM (mostly foreign language). I found out the hard way that these stations reduce power at night: I was bragging to my wife about the EXCELLENT reception I'd been getting on the crystal set, but when, after dinner, I brought her into the shack for a demonstration, she could barely hear anything. Oh well...

But here's a surprise: These are NOT the stations that are getting into the podcast! With the crystal radio in operation, I did some audacity recording and then quickly checked to see if the breakthrough sounded like what they were playing on WFAX and WUST. NO! The breakthrough was ZZ Top! I'm guessing that the breakthrough was from an FM broadcaster. I note that the length of the cord to the microphone would seems like it would be a nice antenna for the FM broadcast band... What do you guys think?

Whatever the source, I think I have taken care of the problem. I got big ferrite toroid core and wrapped about ten turns of the mic cable through it. No more broadcast breakthrough.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

The Knack in Mexico, Engineer and Inventor

Our correspondent in Guadalajara, Roberto XE1GXG, had earlier posted a comment on Guillermo Gonzalez Camarena, an inventor who worked on color TV. This morning I had the chance to check out the Wikipedia article on OM Guillermo. I was struck by the telltale signs of The Knack. This is further proof that the phenomenon is truly global. Excerpts from the Wikipedia article:

Guillermo González Camarena
(February 17, 1917 – April 18, 1965) (aged 48), was a Mexican engineer who was the inventor of a color-wheel type of color television, and who also introduced color television to Mexico.

Born in Guadalajara in 1917, his family moved to Mexico City when Guillermo was almost 2 years old. As a boy he made electrically propelled toys, and at the age of twelve built his first Amateur radio.

In 1930 he graduated from the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineers (ESIME) at the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) with an engineering degree; he obtained his first radio license two years later.

He was also an avid stargazer; he built his own telescope and became a regular member of the Astronomical Society of Mexico.

González Camarena invented the "Chromoscopic adapter for television equipment", an early color television transmission system. A U.S. patent application (2,296,019) states:

My invention relates to the transmission and reception of colored pictures or images by wire or wireless...
On August 31, 1946, González Camarena sent his first color transmission from his lab in the offices of The Mexican League of Radio Experiments, at Lucerna St. #1, in Mexico City. The video signal was transmitted at a frequency of 115 MHz. and the audio in the 40 meter band.

He died in a car accident in Puebla on April 18, 1965, returning from inspecting a television transmitter in Las Lajas, Veracruz.

A field-sequential color television system similar to his Tricolor system was used in NASA's Voyager mission in 1979, to take pictures and video of Jupiter.[1]

In 1995, a Mexican science research and technology group created La Fundación Guillermo González Camarena (The Guillermo González Camarena Foundation), which benefits creative and talented inventors in Mexico.

At the same time, the National Polytechnic Institute began construction on the Centro de Propiedad Intelectual "Guillermo Gonzalez Camarena" (Guillermo González Camarena Intellectual Property Center).


Friday, March 4, 2011

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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Thursday, March 3, 2011

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

Monday, February 28, 2011

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.
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