Bob Crane Interviews Eric Schwartz of Elecraft About the New KX2 (with Si5351!)

Our ace correspondent Bob Crane W8SX caught up with Eric Schwartz WA6HHQ of Elecraft at the FDIM event n Dayton last month.    Here is Bob's interview with Eric:  

http://soldersmoke.com/WA6HHQFDIM.mp3

Pete and I were very pleased to see that Elecraft made use of our beloved Si5351 chip in their amazing new KX2 rig.   Check it out:

You can click on the diagram or see it directly on page 62 of the manual at this site:

http://www.elecraft.com/manual/KX2%20owner's%20man%20A4.pdf

Here's the KX2:

Three cheers for Elecraft!  Three cheers for Bob Crane! 

Excitatation! The Inspiring Knack Story of N3IC

Steve Silverman sent me this link.  This web site has been getting a lot of attention from the solder melting community.  And justifiably so.    Behold (above) the first transmitter built by Robert Glaser,  now N3IC, circa May 1969. The chassis and front panel were made from flimsy printing press sheet metal.  Note the key (as in lock and key) switch that the OM put on the front panel -- he took his responsibilities under FCC regs quite seriously.   My favorite part of this rig's story is that when he got it done, he didn't have the two 6146s for the final.  So he just took a capacitor and used it to connect the driver tube to the output network. Brilliant!  With that arrangement he made his first contact.  No wonder he labeled it "Excitatation!"  It was clearly more exciting than your standard excitation.  

Those TV power transformers look very familiar.  I was using similar devices to build a power supply for an HW-32A a few years after Dr. Glaser built this rig.  It's a wonder we survived.

FB.   Check out his site.  It is a wonderful catalog of all the stuff this very prolific builder has made over the years:

Ham project here:

http://www.icengineering.com/n3ic/projects/ham/

A broader range of projects here:

http://www.icengineering.com/n3ic/projects/

   

ANOTHER SSB Transceiver made in India

Check out the GEK:   http://homebrewcorner.blogspot.in/p/r.html

Spectacular Solar Weather

This amazing picture was taken last night at the Bharati Indian Base Station in the Larsemann Hills of Antarctica. The researchers there report that the aurora was so bright that it cast shadows.

Yesterday I was having a nice 40 meter SSB contact with N3TDE.  Rich is 179 miles away, in Pennsylvania.  At 1650 UTC, his signal very suddenly dropped into the noise. 

The purple lines along the bottom of the chart below probably explains both the aurora and the abrupt end of my 40 meter contact.

Re-purposed Computer Power Supply Box Provides a Home for a BITX Transceiver

Jaydip VU3JOJ came up with a really inventive way to box up his new BITX transceiver.  Nicely done. I especially like the way he put the speaker  in the space intended for the fan. Very nice.

This appears to be one of the new BITX 40 meter "modules" described in yesterday's blog post.  FB!  How fortunate the new board fits in the power supply boxes.  That's very lucky.

You know, I had an old computer power supply in my hand  just yesterday.  I almost threw it out.  Obviously that would have been a mistake.

Today was a BITX day.  Using my BITX DIGI-TIA on 40 I had a long QSO with Rich N3TDE.  Rich has a BIT20 built from a Hendricks kit acquired at Dayton.  He takes it with him on the Appalachian Trail.  

A Really Nice Project: Farhan's BITX40 Module

Wow, that board is a thing of beauty.   And the story behind it is even more beautiful. Our friend Farhan took his famous BITX circuit, shifted it to 40 meters, and put the whole thing on one small board. It is now a module, but a module that makes up an entire SSB transceiver.  The idea is that this module can provide a base for expansion and experimentation.   You can add a digital display.  Or a (gasp!) digital VFO.  Or an RF amplifier.  Or more bands.  Or all of the above.  It is a very cool idea.

Here is the most beautiful part:  In an effort to help people who need help, Farhan has arranged for a collective of women to assemble the boards in their homes. They needed work, and Farhan gave it to them on good terms.  Bravo Farhan!

In keeping with the earliest purpose of the BITX rigs (simple transceiver for Indian radio amateurs) this board is currently only available in India.  

Check out the site:

http://www.hfsigs.com/buy.html

The circuit description is especially good:

http://www.hfsigs.com/circuit.html

Ryuu's Receiver (Superhet using Si5351 and Color Display with IF at 10.7 MHz from JA2NKD)

The influence of Pete Juliano is spreading far and wide.  Those little color screens attached to Si5351s seem especially popular in Japan.  Above is the receiver of Ryuu JA2NKD.  Below is the schematic.  Click on it for a better look, or use this link:
http://ja2nkd.c.blog.so-net.ne.jp/_images/blog/_206/JA2NKD/7MHzcolorLCDSchematics.jpg?c=a1

Ryuu's blogs are here : http://ja2nkd.blog.so-net.ne.jp/
and here: http://ja2nkd.blogspot.jp/
They are in Japanese.  Google Chrome does a poor job at translating them, but you can get the gist.  In any case the pictures are great and the schematics are understandable by all of us.  Thanks Ryuu!