QRSs QRPp

I blame Hans Summers for this. His articles in SPRAT on very slow speed, very low power CW on 30 meters have caused me to develop a new set of Knack symptoms. I now listen intently to CW that is so slow that by the time I get to the end of a letter, I've forgotten if it started with a dit or a dah. I've become intimately familiar with the refresh rates of strange web sites known as "Grabbers" (I'd never heard of them before. See above for a sample.) And for the first time in my life as a radio amateur, using crystal control is no guarantee that I'm "in the band."

My 30 meter QRSs 200 mw "MEPT" beacon is on the air, but no one has heard me yet. This is almost certainly due to the fact that I'm probably outside the QRSs "band." This band is only 100 HERTZ wide! I'm using a 10.140 Mhz crystal, but the circuit values of my oscillator could easily put me out of that band. And Murphy struck: Just days before I started all this, my frequency counter died. My trusty Drake 2B is of little help in measuring frequency to this accuracy: The dial increments are 10 KILOhertz! And the 2B suffers from a problem totally unfamiliar to those who have grown up with glowing numerals: DIAL PARALAX! (It sounds like Knack-related disease, doesn't it? "I'm sorry m'am, your son Dilbert also has a bad case of DIAL PARALAX!!!")

Wish me luck. Don't blame me if you succumb to QRSs madness. Remember: it is all Hans Summers' fault.

DUGA-3 aka STEEL YARD aka WOODPECKER

Mama mia! Now that's an antenna! Put your HW-8 on that one and you'd be in business!
Here are some more shots of the Woodpecker antenna complex:
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1200861

Jean Shepherd: KNACK VICTIM!

Guys, stop what you are doing. Put down that soldering iron, or that cold Miller High Life ("the champagne of bottled beer") and click on the link below. You will be transported back to 1965, and will hear master story-teller Jean Shepherd (K2ORS) describing his teenage case of The Knack. He discusses his efforts to build a Heising modulated transmitter for 160 meters. He had trouble getting it working, and became obsessed with the problem, obsessed to the point that a girl he was dating concluded that there was "something wrong with him" and that his mother "should take him to a doctor."

This one is REALLY good. It takes him a few minutes to get to the radio stuff, but it is worth the wait. More to follow. EXCELSIOR! FLICK LIVES!

http://ia310115.us.archive.org/2/items/JeanShepherd1965Pt1/1965_01_29_Ham_Radio.mp3

SolderSmoke 85: Special QSO with WA6ARA

June 8, 2008 

Echo-QSO with WA6ARA! 
Phoenix lands on Mars.
Beacon operations.
Adrian Weiss, W0RSP. FB QRP Author.
Need correspondent for Flea at MIT.
Understanding balanced modulators.
Dan's accident (Dan's Small Parts).
Hendricks Cap Kit.
"Hot Iron"  Journal of The Constructor's Club
The Woodpecker.
MAILBAG (Return of the GONG!):
W6DWF
KC0PEI on "IP Telepathy"
Mark Z on a crank-up Pocket Pixie.
Ramakrishnan in Singapore.
Niels PE1OIT on Robert E. Pease.
Jerry NR5A: Cursed with Beacon Madness.
Echolink QSO with Mike, WA6ARA.

Download the SolderSmoke Podcast at
http://www.soldersmoke.com

The I-QRP Club Magazine

The Italian QRP Club (I-QRP) has a very nice quarterly bulletin. They have recently started to present a good portion of the articles in both Italian and English. The May 2008 edition is very FB, with many good articles, including one on impedance matching with broadband transformers.
Thanks to the I-QRP Club for making this available to hams around the world!

Here's the link:

http://www.arimontebelluna.it/i_qrp/bollettino.htm

Beacon Rig I0/N2CQR 28.240 MHz 1 Watt

Just a few shots of my new beacon rig. The first shows the Beacon Box on the shelf above the HW-8, attached to the battery. I've been running the beacon on solar power, using my two Volkswagen panels.

Here's a look under the hood: The larger board is a crystal controlled 1 watt transmitter (Dour DeMaw's ("Lil' Slugger"). The smaller board is K1EL's amazing keyer. I've left space for a 30 meter QRPp QRSS transmitter.

Finally, here is the "Sideswiper" aka "Cootie Keyer" I threw together in order to get my beacon message into the keyer. I discovered that I need a lot of practice on horizontal CW!

Adrian Weiss, W0RSP. Very FB!

I'm reading Chapter 11 ("Milliwatts and Miles") of the book "The History of QRP in the U.S.; 1924-1960" by Ade Weiss, W0RSP. What a gem this book is! I find it particularly inspirational that a book of this high technical level was written by someone with a PhD. in Renaissance Literature. Thanks Ade!

Parachuting on Mars

What a great shot! This is the Phoenix lander descending to the Martian surface by parachute. The photo was taken from Mars orbit by the MRO probe. You can even see the shroud lines!

Well done! Bravissimo!

(And Phoenix features solar panels and antennas, making it an entirely suitable subject for SolderSmoke News.)

Beacon Operations

On Saturday 24 May I connected my newly acquired K1EL keyer to a little homebrew 10 meter beacon transmitter that I'd built about 10 years ago. (The transmitter is based on the "Lil Slugger" design by Doug DeMaw -- about 1 watt out.) Ten meters seems pretty dead these days, so when I turned the thing on and put it on the air, I had the feeling that no one would hear me. It sort of felt like throwing a message-in-a-bottle into the ocean. I put my e-mail address in the beacon transmission. I've had the thing on the air very intermittently over the last few days.
Imagine my surprise when this morning my e-mail box contained a message from Andre in Germany. He'd heard the beacon in its first day on the air! Wow!

During daylight hours I can hear beacons from all over Europe on ten.

I have left space in my "beacon box" for a very QRPP 30 meter transmitter. The K1EL keyer will generate QRSS. Where is the best place to get a crystal for 10.140 Mhz?

See if you can hear my beacon on 28.240 MHz. I'll have it on during daylight hours (Italian daylight hours).

I'll post some pictures soon.

SolderSmoke Podcast # 84 FDIM Special

Listen at: http://www.soldersmoke.com

SolderSmoke #84
May 25, 2008

SPECIAL FDIM PROGRAM!!!!
Flying a glider over Circus Maximus
THE NEW SOLDERSMOKE BLOG:
SolderSlides!
SolderLinks!
SolderChat!
SolderYouTube!
Subscribe today!
W7ZOI/W7PUA Power Meter Calibration
Bifilar toroids in LTSpice. Help!
Variations in Type 43 Ferrite
Finding friends in old SPRATS
Beacon Madness hits I0/N2CQR
AA1TJ crosses the pond (really)
80 Meter DSB project (design first, build later!)
Bob, W8SX, interviews FDIM speakers!
MAILBAG:M0NDE, WB6NTL, ZS1I, NR5A, M0EEJ, ON6CSV
7J1AWL, KC0PET

Tired of listening to The Who or Wagner on your I-Pod? Wouldn't you like to be able to carry with
you the kinds of ham radio conversations that you
listen to while in your radio shack? Tune in to SolderSmoke!

RSS FEED: You can subscribe to the program, have
them downloaded to your MP-3 player, and listen to
them at your convenience. To subscribe, just cut and
paste this URL into your I-poder (or similar)
software.
http://www.soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke.rss

If you don't have an MP3 player you can just go to the
site below and listen to the latest program (and
earlier editions) using the audio software on your
computer.

http://www.soldersmoke.com
All the programs are available here.
I hope you enjoy the program. Please send us
feedback.
73 from Rome
Bill M0HBR N2CQR CU2JL
http://www.gadgeteer.us

Farhan's Site

http://www.phonestack.com/farhan/bitx.html

Farhan updated his BIT20 site. Very nice. Every time I visit this site, I leave wanting to build a BITX20. What a great circuit. Thanks Farhan. I may soon join the worldwide BITX 20 movement!

The only station on 80 in Rome at 0430 local: W1AW... then K1JJ

I was up earlier than usual this morning (my Italian ham friends think my schedule is totally nuts!). As usual, I tuned across 80 -- it seems 0430 is a bit too early even for the hardcore fanatics who can be heard starting at around 0530 local. But there was one CW signal distinctly audible: good old W1AW, pounding out code practice close to the color burst frequency.

A bit later I tuned up around 3.8 Mhz, where the DXers hang out. There I heard a familiar call (and voice!) from the homeland: K1JJ. I used to listen to OM JJ on 75 Meter AM. What a signal he has in Europe! The Italians were all saying "Mama mia!" And what an antenna! From JJ's web site (at QRZ.com) :

NE/Europe: Dual quads system. (4 elements total) A two-element quad on a 40' boom at 190' high (63 meters) phased to a second identical two-element quad at 190' high on a separate tower. These two-element quads are spaced 1.17 wavelengths apart from each other, (spaced 100 meters apart) beaming broadside to Europe. The horizontal pattern is narrow, only about 35 degrees wide because of the collinear gain...intended for central Europe. The two quads are fed with equal length coaxial hard-lines that are run into the shack, and connected in-phase. The take-off angle is about 28 degrees, much like a flat, horizontal Yagi at 135' high. The AVERAGE height of the quad loops dictates this take-off angle.

I went out for pizza last night with I0YR, IK0JNI, and IK0ZMH. We had a great time.

K1EL Keyer

I just got a very pleasing dit dah dit from my new K1EL keyer. The board went together quickly. It is a very nice kit. Lots of capabilities in that little thing: beyond the normal keyer function, there is beacon capability. And QRSS! I plan to match mine up with my 10 meter beacon transmitter and my Volkswagen solar panels for a self-contained, solar powered beacon.
I may have to buy another one of these for use with my HW-8 -- this keyer may actually cause me to abandon my straight key.

Thanks Steve!

http://www.k1el.com

Building for 80, Listening to 17, Ragchewing on 20

Just a quick Sunday morning report from Rome: With my 20 meter DSB rig finally tamed, I've been trying to decide which band to build for next. Italian hams just got access to more of 40 meters (now 7.0 -- 7.2 vice 7.1 MHz) so for a while I was thinking of 40. But 40 is pretty quiet at 5 am here, while there ARE stations operating on 80 at that time. So I'm building for 80. Actually I am rehabilitating a DSB rig that I built in London for 40. This morning I changed the coil in the VFO and have it percolating nicely from 3.55 -- 3.8 MHz.

I've been having a great time on 20 DSB. We have a local roundtable in Rome each night at 2030 local. I0YR, IK0JNI, IKOJMH, and I0ZY are all regulars. Very FB. Yesterday afternoon I worked Renato IZ1MJU up in Torino. He too was running a homebrew station. It is rare to have an HB-HB qso, especially on phone.

Right now I am tuned to my old stomping ground on 17 meters, listening to my old friend Chris, SM0OWX. I'll have to get that 17 meter rig going...

I should have another SolderSmoke podcast next weekend. I've added some stuff to the blog page: Check out the slide shows (2 of them) and the Dilbert Knack animations.

73 from Rome.

LB Cebik, WN4RNL, and the "Ham Spirit"

As all of you probably know, LB Cebik, esteemed antenna expert and mentor, recently passed away. This morning I happened to find his entry on the wonderful "Novice History" web site:
http://www.novice.bappy.com/index.html

Note what LB says about "the ham spirit."

L.B. Cebik, W4RNL (WN4RNL, 1954)
I was licensed in 1954 as both a Novice and a Tech, since
then you could take both exams in one session and
privileges were separate. (W1APS/WN1APS)I got on
the air for the first time with a ham a couple of blocks away,
an fine old timer.

However, I got key fright half way through. My dad,
James S. (Jim) Cebik, came to my rescue and finished
the contact, although he had not touched a key in
over 20 years.

Jim Cebik had been 1ATG and later W1BUK in the late
1920s and early 1930s (and wrote a few articles on
his experiments). He gave up amateur radio
when he married in the depression years. Relative
parts costs were high, and family came first. In fact,
he rarely mentioned amateur radio, and my
entry was independent via some high school
comrads and a cousin. But he had not forgotten
his CW or key skills and saved me from
embarrassment on that first day. I returned the favor
by renewing his interest in amateur radio
and about 1964, he was relicensed and obtained
his old W1BUK call, which he used for very many
years. He died in 2002 in his high 90s.

So my Dad was a part of my Novice beginning
in amateur radio, and I strove to send CW with
a straight key so that one could not tell it from
a keyer.

He remains a strong part of my effort. He noted
that the ham spirit is to give, if needed, the shirt
off one's back to a fellow ham and to expect--not
its return--but rather that it be passed on to the
next ham who needs it.
That is the spirit of my web site.

My Novice days were a joy, and I have been
pleased to carry my father's amateur radio days
into everything that I do.

Hope this is useful.
-73-
LB, W4RNL

QST 1924 -- THE AMATEUR BUILDER

A few episodes back I was talking about the old QST articles in which amateurs were extolled to focus more on efficiency and technincal quality, and less on high power and brute force. Wes, W7ZOI was kind enough to send me some of these articles. Here is the header for one of them.

FB QRP Homebrew From India

I always liked the descriptions of the ingenious homebrew stations used by Indian radio amateurs. This morning I came across VU2LID's site and found this:

A typical Indian QRP station will use a modified AM broadcast (BC) receiver, for the receiving part. The transmitter will usually have a final RF power amplifier using BD139 (or some power MOSFET like IRF530), driven by a Variable Frequency Oscillator (VFO) and chain of buffer/driver amplifiers (2-3 stage). Most of the stations use Amplitude Modulation (AM). Commonly available medium power Hi-Fi audio amplifier modiles using integrated circuits (like the TBA810), driving a modulation transformer forms the AM modulator part.


The above drawing was done by OM Bhasi, VU2UCY (SK)

From Sicily: An SSB Transceiver using only 5 tubes!

It's 5:30 am. I'm in the shack with a cup of coffee. The only sounds are birdsongs from the window and an Italian 80 meter SSB QSO from my Drake 2-B. Life is good.

And it got better when I found the rig pictured above. It is the work of Andrea IW9HJV and Johnny IW9ARO, two obvious victims of "The Knack" from Sicily.

It is a beautiful 20 meter SSB transceiver. And it uses just 5 tubes. While it doesn't have the bi-directionality of the BITX-20 (you can't really do that with tubes) it does share the BITX-20's simplicity and elegance of design.

The web site of Andrea and Johnny is another work of art. Check it out!
http://www.webalice.it/hotwater/RTX5x20.htm
Bravo Andrea! Bravo Johnny! Bravissimo!

Calibrating my W7ZOI/W7PUA Power Meter

In the course of testing my 20 meter DSB rig, I discovered that the chart I prepared for my

W7ZOI / W7PUA power meter had some problems. In my first effort to get some calibration points, I used a simple diode and cap peak reading signal probe to measure voltage across 50 ohms, but I may have neglected to convert from peak to RMS before calculating the power. That would certainly mess up the chart!

This morning I used my old Heathkit SG-8 signal generator and my HAMEG (20 Mhz) 'scope to get a couple of points for my graph of the response curve (line) for my meter.

I drew the new line, then used my trusty HW-8 at 1 watt to see if my chart was accurate. It was right on the money!

I look forward to happily measuring milliwatts with this very FB piece of test gear. See the June 2001 issue of QST for more details. Thanks to Wes and Bob for the great project. And thanks to Thomas in Norway for sending me the AD8307 chip.

Farhan on Schematic Drawing Software

I'm really in the dark ages on this subject -- I usually just draw something by hand and then scan it. Others (like JF1OZL) have good results with this technique. I don't. So I was glad to see this suggestion from Farhan on software that can be used to draw professional-looking schematics:

"i have used something called schemat.zip available freely on the
internet. it consists of a bitmap file with all the symbols that we
use in ham radio. i open it in ms paint, start a new copy of ms paint
and start selecting the symbols from the first ms paint window and
pasting it into the fresh ms paint window. Remember to UNSELECT
OPTIONS->DRAW OPAQUE. Sorry for the caps, but it is important. You can
use the line tool to draw the 'wires' connecting individual
components. holding the shift key down while drawing lines forces the
lines to come out perfectly horizontal or vertical."

Thanks Farhan!