SolderSmoke 96

SolderSmoke 96
December 8, 2008

http://www.soldersmoke.com

Moj Music
Rome winter: Snowcapped mountains, Starlings
Billy’s Blog – Please visit!
“Make” redeems itself with LED video
80 DSB rig: LTSpice, Design, Diplexers, Decoupling
Properly terminating balanced modulators
The virtues of feedback
80 meter DSB QRP (in a contest)
Reading Recommendation: January 2009 “Air and Space”
Jupiter and Venus aligned
Saturn picture with (sorta) homebrew rig
Ben’s Balloon Beacon
Laurence KL1X in N. China – will set up QRSS grabber
MAILBAG
Roger K7RXV and Bob KD4EBM on SolderSmells
Jerry NR5A has WSPR-mania
Scott KD5NJR on “Soul of a New Machine”
Bob K7HBG “Real radios have knobs”
Akshay VA7AAX 15 year-old listener, homebrewer

Check out our neighborhood and flea market

Go to Google Earth, or even just to Google Maps (available without download from the Google home page) and search for this: Piazza di San Cosimato, 00153 Rome, Italy. Look for the "Street View" button and click on it. Now you can explore our Piazza.

GM8EUG sent me this great link for a 360 degree shot of the neighborhood flea market. Let the picture fully download, then click on it and you will be able to look around (and up and down!) Click on this:

http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/worldwidepanorama/wwp305/html/ToniGarbasso.html

Pictures of Saturn with a (sorta) Homebrew Rig

The e-mail and picture I received from Randy N3UMW could easily launch me (and perhaps others) into some adventures in the fascinating world of electro-astronomy. I have a telescope. I have an old webcam. I have some PVC...

Randy's message:

Attached is a photo of Saturn that I took with a modified webcam through an 8 inch scope in my very light polluted back yard near Washington DC. I can normally only make out a dozen stars due to all of the nearby street and porch lights. Luckily this does not affect the viewing of planets.

Taking the photo was very easy. You simply remove the webcam lens and add a telescope adapter (can be made from PVC tube), then you take a 2 minute movie through the webcam and use free software to align and stack each frame of the video. The end result is a hundred times better than what you actually saw. It's funny that a cheap scope and cheap webcam can equal what the observatories were doing 20 years ago! The attached photo was my second attempt.

Damien Peach uses this same method with better hardware in better locations and takes fantastic photos. See them at http://www.damianpeach.com/

N1VF's MIT Balloon Beacon Transmitter

1.5 watts out on 30 meters with total cost of 25 dollars. Here is the transmitter that Ben, N1VF, and friends are using for balloon operations.
For more details see: http://web.mit.edu/bgelb/www/balloon/hfbeacon/

Billy's Blog

The fellow who helps me introduce SolderSmoke mailbag ("That's awesome!") has launched a blog. Billy would really get a kick out of getting some visits and comments. Thanks!
http://thebillymearapage.blogspot.com

Very interesting video on the LED

I've made some disparaging comments recently about the MAKE blog. I noted that they seemed to be drifting away from soldering irons and toward knitting needles. But they have redeemed themselves with this excellent video on LEDs. It even features HOMEBREW LEDs!!! Thanks MAKERs!


MAKE presents: The LED from make magazine on Vimeo.

Update: My Kickpanel Amplifier

Here's an updated schematic for the amplifier chain I've been working on.

Here's the latest version of the Spice file: Bill's Kickpanel Amps

I'd appreciate feedback and comments on this project. Do I need more de-coupling on the first three stages? Am I running too much current through Q3? Should I alter the load on Q3?