Pete's Drakes

Pete Juliano N6QW has on his blog two very nice videos about the Drake A-line.  

As long-standing fanatical fan of the Drake 2-B, I was struck by the similarities between the 2-B and the R4 seen in Pete's video:  

-- The S-meter is the same. 

-- The passband tuning control and indeed the visible internal circuitry for the passband tuning seem to be the same.  

-- Drake even used the same "hook" for selectivity selection.   

The transceive feature with the T4 seems very nice.  

Pete's first video is above.   Pete's second video, showing his first contacts with the newly acquired A-line, can be seen here: 

http://n6qw.blogspot.com/2021/06/2021-fine-wine-ans-seasoned-women-get.html 

Thanks Pete! 

Dino's Test Gear -- KL0S at FDIM 2021

Great test gear advice from Dino KL0S.  Thanks to Dino and to QRPARCI!  

 

VK3HN on Scratch Building (Video)

Lots of wisdom and good info in Paul Taylor's presentation.

Paul's comment on the impact of abundant LiPo power in the field -- we no longer have to scrimp and optimize power consumption -- was very interesting.   

And thanks for the nice mentions of the SolderSmoke podcast. 

Thanks Paul!

https://vimeo.com/showcase/8253187?page=5

The Perpetual Troubleshooter -- John F. Rider -- W2RID

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Rider

To Mars in 1964 -- Building the Camera and Radio Systems

This is a really excellent video showing how JPL engineers and technicians designed, built and tested the first video camera system sent to Mars. 

-- It was essentially a Slow Scan TV system built around a Vidicon tube. 

-- Data was sent back in digital form. 

-- The first Digital-Analog conversion was done using COLORED CHALK!

-- The method used to protect the Vidicon tube from vibration was derived from the packing material used to mail the tube to JPL from Texas. 

-- During testing, JPL had all the circuitry spread out in what we would call "Al Fresco" style. 

Thanks to Dan Maloney at Hack-A-Day for alerting us to this.  Dan has an excellent article about the mission here: 

https://hackaday.com/2021/06/03/mariner-4-our-first-up-close-look-at-mars/#more-480934

Remastered! The Secret Life of Radio -- With Updated Comments from Tim Hunkin

Thanks to Stephen 2E0FXZ for alerting us to this important video. 

We first posted about the original many years ago.  We were delighted to learn that they have remastered the video and added 10 minutes of retrospective commentary from Tim Hunkin.  

Here are some of my reactions after watching the updated version:

-- The Marconi videos were amazing.   I actually met Elettra at a diplomatic reception in Rome.  

-- I was pleased to learn that Marconi was trying to "call up" Mars.  FB OM. 

-- My son Billy and I sat in that same Royal Institution auditorium where, 100 years before, Oliver Lodge had demonstrated spark gap technology. 

-- Tim's comment on the connection to supernatural beliefs was right on the mark.  We found out that the house we lived in in London was a center for occult beliefs and practices. 

-- Those square lantern batteries brought back fond childhood memories. My first power supplies.

-- The Rexophone -- used by Rex. 

-- Very cool of Tim to homebrew a coherer.  Extra credit for that.

-- One of the capacitors looks familiar.  EF Johnson? 

-- I agree with Tim -- crystal radios are a must-build for true radio hams.  And do it with galena and a cats whisker. 

-- Finally, the RCA ad introduces a term we might want to surreptitiously enter into the Enhanced SSB lexicon:  That "Golden Throat" sound.   

QRP - QRP Contact from Dominican Republic

It took some brass pounding on my homebrew key, but on May 28, 2021 I made a real QSO from the eastern tip of the island of Hispaniola.  KJ4R came back to my CQ near 14.060 MHz. I was running just 1-2 watts from my SST transceiver to an end-fed half wave antenna. Ed KJ4R was in South Carolina running 5 watts, also to an EFHW antenna.  TRGHS.  Thanks Ed.  And thanks to Bob Scott KD4EBM and Wayne Burdick N6KR.