The BEST Jean Shepherd Ham Radio Episode

Mark, W8MOJ, found this one a while back, but then somehow we lost it. This morning I found it again. Jean Shepherd talks about ham radio homebrewing, regen receivers, searching for parts at radio row, building stuff in the basement, secretly studying for his ham license during civics class, and one of his teenage ham friends who, in his basement, secretly built a.....

"Other kids would draw Christmas trees and sailboats... I would draw schematics of phone transmitters."

Don't miss this one! Here is the link to the mp3 file: Jean Shepherd, January 24, 1973

N3ZI's $9.99 Counter Kits

Doug, N3ZI, was one of the intrepid participants in the ARRL Homebrew Challenge competition. FB! He is now making available some very inexpensive digital frequency readout kits. Jerry, NR5A, sent me one. (Thanks Jerry!) Obviously this is a kit useful to Knack victims.

Here is the web site for the kits: http://www.pongrance.com/

UK Amateur TV: KNACK TO THE MAX

You will really like the video archive of the British Amateur Television Club. Start out with the "Bob and Brian" show. It is as if "60 Minutes" did a segment on THE KNACK. Don't miss the excellent antenna lecture by Dud Charman, G6CJ. He used small-scale antennas at UHF to demonstrate the principles behind directional antennas. All of the videos in the archive are very good. Thanks BATC!

Here's the link: http://www.batc.tv/channel.php?ch=1

My Beacon (MEPT) Circuit

Guys have been asking to see the schematic for my 30 meter QRSS MEPT beacon. Here's the oscillator circuit. This actually started out on a plane ride. My son Billy and I were talking about electronics. I drew a basic schematic for an oscillator, and we built one when we got home. It originally used a 20 meter crystal. At one point we were playing "find the oscillator" -- hiding it somewhere in the house, and tracking it down with a Sony shortwave receiver. Now, with some modifications, it is the first stage in my 30 meter MEPT beacon.

An ugly schematic for a rig built with the ugly construction technique. Nothing fancy here. Two feedback amps and a PNP transistor as a switch to key them. I let the oscillator run continuously. (Let me know if you can hear the "backwave"!) About 20 mw out. As you can see, it doesn't take much to get a QRSS signal on the air.

Shepherd Learns Morse and Discovers Ham Radio

Here is another gem from Jean Shepherd. He describes his discovery of CW at age 6 or 7, his first shortwave receiver, and his discovery of amateur radio. Plus, some Army Signal Corps madness.

Click here for the mp3 audio file: Shepherd, Morse, Ham Radio

SolderSmoke #87

July 6, 2008     

http://www.soldersmoke.com
               
On the beach at Fregene
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QRSS Mania:
Calibration problems solved
First reports received
The Fun of Grabbers
Checking your signal via Blackberry
The Joy of Milliwatting
Chirp, Click, Drift in QRSS
Temperature sensitivity
Bury that Beacon?
Why so little US QRSS?
More US Grabbers needed
AA1TJ/QRSS?
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Elser in "History of QRP in US"
New Slides, WAC on ClustrMap!
MAILBAG: G0FUW reports EI9GQ victin of Knack
KC0PET on understanding our circuits
ON4FW sends FB pictures
KG6TCJ on QRSS calibration
W7ZOI on FD and calibration
W4NI on measuring harmonics
PE1OIT on GPS calibration technique  

The QRSS View from ON5EX -- July 5, 2008

I wanted to give you guys a sense of what you can see on the QRSS Grabbers. The grabbers are just the output screens from the Argo or Spectran (or other) software that have been placed on-line, updating every few minutes. In the screen shot above, you can see the sophisticated signal of Eddie, G3JZO, pounding into Belgium (this is the Grabber of Johan, ON5EX). My much more basic effort is visible as a line of Morse Code just below Eddie's sig. Above Eddie you can see the "snake CW" of IQ4FJ. Along the bottom right of the screen, you will see the square wave signal from the 5 mw solar powered beacon of Paolo, IZ1KXQ (scroll down a bit to see his rig, and his schematic). I think the vertical stipes must be lightning.

Check out I2NDT's Grabber Compendium (but be aware that not all of them are on 24/7):
http://digilander.libero.it/i2ndt/grabber/grabber-compendium.htm

In this screen shot from I2NDT's Grabber, you can see the effect of me turning the air conditioning on in my shack. I have added a bit of insulation (an ARRL Handbook placed on top of the beacon box!) and things seems to have stabilized. With the entire "QRSS band" only 100 hertz wide, it doesn't take much to slide your signal all the way across the band!