K6RRE's One Tube Rig Project

Mike will send us more info later... 

The Elektor SDR Kit: Arduinos, Si5351s, Sound Cards, WSPR, QRP Transceiver (video)

Obviously a lot of potential here.  Thanks to Hack-A-Day for the alert. 

https://hackaday.com/2020/02/14/rf-shield-turns-arduino-and-pc-into-shortwave-radio/#more-398447

The Si4730 Radio Chip (Luddite Alert!) (video)

I have misgivings about this.  Hack-A-Day presents it as a DIY radio project and wonders if this might be the modern equivalent of the crystal radio projects of days-gone-by.  But notice that the "build" video focuses mostly on building the box.  The electronic "building" of this radio mostly involves plugging in two chips, or two boards with chips. My questions are: 

1) When this project is finished, who REALLY built it? You, or the Si4730 manufacturer?  

2)  After you've "built" this thing, would you have the same sense of accomplishment that you get from an analog, discrete component project?  Or even from that crystal radio?  

Of course, to each his own.   This is all for fun.  Have fun with the Si4730.  But today I'll be working on my Hallicrafters S-38E. 

https://hackaday.com/2020/02/12/all-band-radio-uses-arduino-and-si4730/

TRGHS: Hallicrafters S-38E will NOT be Discarded (video)

My Hallicrafters S-38E was on very thin ice.  I had grown tired of the little beast.  Its dangerous no-transformer power supply had caused me to risk death and to fry one of the RF input coils (that happens if you short the antenna input to an inadvertently hot chassis). It is rickety and old and I just got tired of working on it.  I had down in the basement, awaiting disposal of some kind.  (I'd been afraid to give it away, fearing that the recipient might electrocute himself.)  But recently I've been doing some shortwave listening and this caused me to reconsider the S-38E.  

Around this time, while looking at e-bay, I saw some guy selling just the RF input coil that I had fried.  So I bought it.  Then I pulled the S38-E out of the basement and fired it up.  I realized that I had already done a lot of work on it.  I had put in an isolation transformer, so the receiver was no longer quite so dangerous.  I'd already replaced most of the capacitors.  It sounded pretty good on the AM broadcast band.  Then, in my first scan of the shortwave bands, I heard the William Tell Overture pouring from the speaker (see video).  Could it be?  Perhaps a replay of the Jean Shepherd show?  No, but I soon heard the familiar voice of Tim WA1HLR -- he was doing his show on (I think) WBCQ shortwave, just above our 40 meter band.     

THE RADIO GODS HAVE SPOKEN.  THE S-38E STAYS!  

Volcano Light in Chile

This popped up on Twitter today.  It is from 2018 -- the Villarrica volcano in Chile.   Interesting shot. The label said it was taken during a snowstorm, but I don't think that is right -- the "snow" is actually stars and that big white thing in the cone of red light is the Large Magellanic cloud.  

https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/photos-of-the-week-idUSRTS209HO

W6IQY's Homebrew SSB Transceiver from the mid-1960s

Oh wow, it is definitely a thing of beauty.  Bob W9RAN acquired this homebrew gem and put it back on the air.   Bob also wrote a very nice article about the rig and how it was made.  (Mike WU2D should brace himself -- many surplus rigs were cannibalized in the process.)  It is especially fitting that I post this today because February 9 is the day of the Classic Exchange on-the-air event.  (My DX-100 is warming up.) 

Here is the article:   http://tinyurl.com/rjqq6eo

Bob's site has some more really wonderful articles.  You can read about Heathkit monobanders, DX-60s. ELMAC power supplies and -- my favorite --  Mike Hopkins and the Five Meter Liberation Army.   The FMLA was, of course, the forerunner and inspiration for our current Color Burst Liberation Army. 

See it all here: 

https://www.rantechnology.com/index.cfm?key=browse_resources&PostDate=all&CategoryID=8E884CE4-9CED-4957-872B-5EBDB058D540 

Thanks Bob! 

AM Rally Report -- Great Contacts on 40 AM

The AM Rally this past weekend was a lot of fun.  I was reminded of how the guys that you talk to on AM are just so much more likely to be running interesting homebrew or vintage gear.

First contact was with Howard VE2AED who has one of the most amazing antenna farms I have ever seen.  Take a look:  
https://www.qrz.com/db/VE2AED
He also has an R-390 and a KWM2 in his shack. 

Next I spoke to Robert W0VMC (Voice Modulated Carrier) out in Wisconsin.  Robert is a homebrewer of AM gear with a Knack story that is very familiar:  http://w0vmc.com/

Next up was W4GON.  Joel was on the homebrew AM transmitter that we reported on back in 2017:
https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2017/08/thermatrons-al-fresco-w4gons-fb-hb-am.html

Joel has completed his rig, adding a FB front panel.  Here it is: 

Then came the W1AW contact.   See the video above. 

Finally, I talked to Jack W9GT who was running a rig that must be unique on the amateur bands: A Federal 167 B Maritime transmitter.  You can see this magnificent transmitter here: 

https://www.qrz.com/db/w9gt