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Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Dino's Awesome Workbench
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Ok, can't stand it anymore....had to show off my workbench as well. BTW, will be making a presentation at Dayton Hamvention in May on "Building Your Ham Radio Workbench." So if guys have any great ideas to pass along would love to hear them and include as possible. Am gearing this toward the beginner and focusing on basics, soldering equipment, tools, safety, the bench, parts accumulation, etc. Over the past two years have made pitches at Hamvention on Test Equipment and Station Engineering Manuals....always lots of fun.
73 -- Dino KL0S
Monday, March 22, 2010
AA0MS's FB Workbench
Sunday, March 21, 2010
The FUNKY Keyer
Hi Bill
Further to the kind words of introduction you gave me as a “new homebrewer” in Soldersmoke 104, I’m writing to let you know about a little project of mine which I think you might appreciate…
I made a h/b keyer a while back and recently added the ability to send automated 3*3 cq calls (and cq FISTS calls).
On doing this, I realized how much I HATE the sound of machine generated CW – so mechanical and lifeless. I want to hear a real fist – preferably with some chirp and drift thrown in for good measure!
So – I’ve come up with an alternative – The FUNKY keyer!
It adds some random timing "jitter" to each automated cq call, to simulate the sound of a real fist on a straight key.
You can read all about the Funky Keyer on my blog, http://m0xpd.blogspot.com
The blog also documents some of the other outcomes of my personal puffs of solder smoke, including the “Funster PLUS” 40m CW Transceiver and the “Not-so-superhet” experimental valve receiver. There’s some operating stuff, including WSPR on 40 and 80m with my Softrock SDR and I was inspired by Soldersmoke to include some travelog – ZL, VR2, BY, HB, etc.
Hope you enjoy it.
Let me take this opportunity to thank you for all the enthusiasm and inspiration you continue to give us in Soldersmoke,
73 de Paul, m0xpd
Paul Darlington
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Vernal Equinox!
Today marks the Vernal Equinox, an important day for QRP radio amateurs. In the Northern Hemisphere, conditions usually start to improve. And this year's equinox is accompanied by higher sunspot numbers. So cheer up guys! Better conditions are on the way.
The equinox comes at 1732 UTC today, 20 March 2010.
Spring seems to be getting off to a good radio start here in Rome. My 20 mW WSPR signal made it across the pond this morning, 8289 kilometers to W3HH (see below). This was the first signal report of the day. I only seem to cross the pond around my local dawn -- never around sunset.
Date/Time TX station SNR PWR RX Station Grid km az
2010-03-20 05:44 I0/N2CQR -7 0.02 PE1DCD JO21fu 1262 334
2010-03-20 05:44 I0/N2CQR -20 0.02 DF6DBF JO31si 1116 342
2010-03-20 05:42 I0/N2CQR -17 0.02 PE1DCD JO21fu 1262 334
2010-03-20 05:40 I0/N2CQR -15 0.02 PE1DCD JO21fu 1262 334
2010-03-20 04:40 I0/N2CQR -29 0.02 W3HH EL89 8289 296
2010-03-19 21:22 I0/N2CQR -28 0.02 LA6TPA JP54rl 2512 359
2010-03-19 21:16 I0/N2CQR -30 0.02 LA6TPA JP54rl 2512 359
2010-03-19 20:54 I0/N2CQR -29 0.02 LA6TPA JP54rl 2512 359
2010-03-19 20:02 I0/N2CQR -29 0.02 G4KFK IO91pk 1457 321
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Look West OM! (For Venus)
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
G.W. Pierce and the AA1TJ GiGi
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From AA1TJ on March 8, 2010:
It was an exciting QRPp afternoon here on 20m. It started off well
with a ten minute contact with G3MJX. Tony was running 5w to a dipole.
I'm still using the breadboard, two-tube, 250mW (Gigi) station that I
wrote about last week.
KB0PCI in Minneapolis was my next contact. Wayne was using 5w to an
indoor loop. I thought that was pretty cool.
Things seemed to be going so well that I felt the urge to further
reduce my output power. Dropping back to 56mW, I soon snagged Jack,
W7CNL. He's out in Boise with 5w and a five-element Yagi. It was a
great contact with 579/539 reports.
After we signed I resumed calling CQ. Sometime later I heard my call
coming back at me; always a happy moment when you're running QRPp. But
wait...he's signing DH1BBO...Holy Toledo!
With a pounding heart I sent off a 559 report. Olaf came back with a
529 for me, and get this...he says he's running 300mW to a windom! The
first round was an easy copy for both of us, but thing got a little
rougher after that. Still, we were able to hold it together through
the finals for a complete QSO.
Again, my transmitter circuitry is right out of 1928; a
crystal-controlled, push-pull oscillator using a single, 3A5 (a
twin-triode introduced by RCA in 1942). The receiver uses a second
3A5. The first triode forms a crystal-controlled autodyne converter.
The second stage is a standard regenerative detector driving the
headphones directly. My antenna is an end-fed wire at 35'.
Anyway, it was one of those QSO's that I dream about; QRPp on both
ends from start to finish, wire antennas at both stations and an
ultra-simple rig from the days of yore. It was Olaf's first QRPp DX
contact ever, and 57mW now stands as my lowest USA-to-Europe contact
power (230mW was my previous best).
As for working a 300mW German station with a receiver made from a
twin-triode; I think it's a testament to what these little
regenerative detectors are capable of. I was awestruck at the age of
12 or 13; having built my first genny. I love 'em no less some forty
years later as they truly are a beautiful technology.
73/72,
Mike, AA1TJ
From AA1TJ on March 3, 2010:
Bill,
Gigi worked AA7VW (running 5w to a Moxon) in Oregon today with 250mW.
I've been reading a bit of history here in preparation for my
presentation at MassCon next week. For example, I've traced the
crystal-controlled, push-pull transmitter (used in Gigi) as far back
as 1928. Cady and Pierce did their ground-breaking work on quartz
crystal-controlled oscillators in 1923, so it didn't take long for
hams to jump on this one. BTW, Professor George Washington Pierce
("G.W." to his friends) was a real character!
I send my best wishes to you and the family, Bill. The sap has just
started flowing here this week. It's Maple sugaring time in Vermont
again. Spring can't be far away now.
73/72,
Mike, AA1TJ
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Here is a bio on Pierce: http://profiles.incredible-people.com/george-washington-pierce/
This all makes me want to reconsider my opposition to regens... Maybe they are NOT possessed.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Online Preview of SolderSmoke -- The Book, SALE!
SolderSmoke Store on Lulu: http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=3999032