30% off on SolderSmoke, The Book. December 7

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

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Messaging ET (METI), and Silicon-based Life Forms

My fellow beacon fans will like this one. The ultimate (REALLY ultimate) beacon! http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21236-lets-build-a-beacon-to-tell-aliens-who-we-were.html?page=1

And then there is this article about silicon-based life forms. (At first I thought they were talking about us!) http://www.universetoday.com/91449/why-silicon-based-aliens-would-rather-eat-our-cities-than-us-thoughts-on-non-carbon-astrobiology/

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

SolderSmoke Podcast #139

December 3, 2011

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke139.mp3

Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Billy's Birthday (on the range!)

Astro-Knack: CCD camera in the telescope. Solar astronomy.

Winter approaches: Shack heating by Heath, Halli, Hammarlund and Drake.

2B troubles on 17 meters.

Rig Re-Cycling: Rebuilding 17 meter rigs from the last solar cycle.

Azores DSB re-build: Oscillator troubles then adding a JBOT.

Manhattan style construction and the need for urban renewal.

Book Review: Steve Jobs. (Woz has the Knack!)

MAILBAG

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

An Inspirational Homebrew Motor from Spain

Bruce, KK0S, alerted me to this inspirational masterpiece from Spain. It is, as he points out, one of a number of really great videos about top level homebrew craftsmanship from Europe (remember the French homebrew tubes?).

Other comments from Bruce:
Did you notice that the calipers and micrometer this guy was using were seriously old-school. Totally manual readout. Not even a dial on that set of calipers! On top of that, his little lathe was manually fed. Notice in one of the shots, he is shown turning the cross slide feed wheel. No CNC anywhere. I can't be positive, but I don't think the lathe had a digital position readout either. This man is a machinist in the truest sense of the word. The Knack not only lives - it thrives!

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

Secret Listeners -- The Voluntary Interceptors

Jim, AL7RV, and several others sent me the link to this really interesting video about the British radio amateurs in WWII. Real "stiff upper lip" spirit in this video. Musn't grumble! Great stuff from Great Britain: http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/5108

That regen receiver they showed looks a lot like the beast that I brought back from the UK with me. Once again, I am hearing the siren song of the diabolical regens....

Progress continues on my Indian-ized Azorean DSB transceiver (with JBOT amp). I now have the amp nicely stabilized (thank God!). Now I just need to get the output from the balanced mod close to the 1 mW PEP level needed by the amp. Should be done soon. And my cold seems to be going away, so maybe I'll be able to share my tales of JBOT derring-do in a podcast this weekend.

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

30% off on SolderSmoke, The Book. Cyber-Monday Sale. November 28

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

A Re-balanced Modulator for my Re-cycled Rig

My effort to bring my Azorean 17 meter DSB rig back to life continues. This is proving to be harder than I thought. I'm still taming my version the JBOT amp. It still seems to break into oscillation -- I think the oscillation freq is around 1 MHz. But I am making progress.

I had to go back and work on the balance modulator circuit. I really like the simple two diode singly balanced mixer circuit. But my original Azorean board had, like the oscillator board, been through a few too many rounds of modification and repair. I decided to start over. See above. I even came up with my own little innovation on this circuit. Doug DeMaw's original design called for a 100 ohm pot at the junction of the two diodes, with the signal coming off the tap. You adjust the pot to balance the circuit and null out the carrier. But I didn't have a 100 ohm pot. Lots of 1K controls were available, so I put in two 50 ohm resistors in place of the pot, then put the 1k pot between the diodes, with the tap to ground. This balances things out nicely. See below.

I hope to get a podcast out next week, but I've been suffering from a nasty headcold that would have introduced all kinds of weird audio effects.

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