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Friday, July 10, 2009

Clayton's Cool Solar QRSS Rig, WA5DJJ, TESLA!

Clayton (who is NOT crazy) has put together a really neat solar-powered QRSS rig with the two wires for the dipole antenna sticking out the ends of the transmitter box. During the testing phase he went the extra mile by first freezing the circuit into a block of ice and then heating it up in an oven. I guess he really wanted a wide range of temperature data! Clayton's web site on the project is very interesting and very well done. Check it out:
http://clayton.isnotcrazy.com/mept_v1

In other QRSS news, David, WA5DJJ, just back from vacation, fired up his QRSS rig only to discover that there are no grabbers on in North America. What's up with that? Can someone out there help out OM DJJ?

Did you guys see that Google is today marking Tesla's birthday. Clearly there are some Knack vicitms in the Google-plex.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

The End of Field Day... and SDR

Deon, K6WH ZS1ACP has been having a great time with Software Defined Radios and stealth vertical antennas in San Diego. His blog site has this great shot of what the band (was it 40?) looked like at the moment that Field Day ended. Check out Deon's blog:
http://capesafari.com/hamradio/SDR/SoftRockLite.html

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

World Moonbounce Day

I was thinking that if you have World Moonbounce Day marked on your calendar, you probably have The Knack.

The picture above is of a dish in Tasmania.
Check out the article in Wired about this very interesting event:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/moonbounce/

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Nice Video on 40 Meter Receiver Project



Tom, AK2B, put up a nice video about a 40 meter receiver that he made from the small circuit boards that Diz sells at PartsAndKits.com. Also, you will see KD1JV's digital dial and the New England QRP club's NEScaf. Nice work guys!

Monday, July 6, 2009

Links from #111: W7ZOI, VU3ICQ, AA1TJ

Here is the excellent discussion of bi-directional amps I mentioned. From the web site of W7ZOI:
http://w7zoi.net/Bidirectional%20Matched%20Amplifier.pdf

Here is Farhan's new JBOT 5 watt final amplifier:
http://www.phonestack.com/farhan/jbot.html

Here is the mysterious (and perhaps diabolical) Xtaflex from AA1TJ (the first rig EVER to promise "buns of steel.")
http://mjrainey.googlepages.com/xtaflex

Sunday, July 5, 2009

SolderSmoke Podcast #111

Lunchtime on Ponza (with Palmarola Island in the background)

http://www.soldersmoke.com

In SolderSmoke 111:

July 5, 2009
Ponza and the Pontine Islands
The Xtal Set Society -- Great guys!
Spark plugs as lightning arresters
The Grundig Mini 300 SW receiver
Jupiter from Rome and from Mars
Saturn from the window
More tremors
Back to visual MEPT
Is my antenna down, or is it conditions?
W7ZOI on bidirectional amps
Farhan's simple "JBOT" 5W BJT amp
AA1TJ's Xtaflex
Regens from hell
WD-40
Sprat 139
Arthur C. Clarke's "Voices from the Sky"
MAILBAG

Check out the new book "SolderSmoke -- A Global Adventure in Radio Electronics. " Read the first chapter here:
http://www.lulu. com/content/ paperback- book/soldersmoke /6743576

Saturday, July 4, 2009

The Pontine Islands

We were out on Ponza island this week. Amazing place. Part of the Pontine Island group. Brave Ulysses was an earlier visitor. Roman emperors used it as a summer place. It is only about 33 km from the mainland and you can get there from Anzio in about one hour by fast hydrofoil. We took a small boat over to the beautiful island of Palmarola. I did a bit of shortwave listening. More about this trip in the next SolderSmoke.
Designer: Douglas Bowman | Dimodifikasi oleh Abdul Munir Original Posting Rounders 3 Column