Samana Shack

Just like in "How's DX?"

VE7BPO's QRP POPS IS BACK!

We were all understandably concerned when Todd VE7BPO announced this Fall that he was taking down his beloved QRP POPS web site.    I'm pleased to report that Todd has transitioned from Web Site to blog.   The spirit of QRP POPS lives on here: 

http://qrp-popcorn.blogspot.com/

There are also links on this blog to all the great stuff that was on Todd's site: 

http://qrp-popcorn.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_9.html

Three cheers for Todd!  Hip-hip...

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Now in Santo Domingo

I wrapped up my Samana HI9 operation yesterday morning.  I found a very friendly Spanish-language round table - they were all willing to try to pull my QRP DSB sigs out of the noise.  Within a few minutes I worked KI4PZE, CO8OT,WA4RME,and CO8KB.   So that made a total of 18 solid contacts with 3 more that might not qualify as full-fledged QSOs.
We have moved on to very urban Santo Domingo -  no room for antennas here!

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

A Very Simple and Stable VFO

From the November 1964  issue of 73 Magazine, by way of a compendium book sent to me from New York City by Dave W2DAB, comes words of wisdom about how to make a simple, super-stable VFO. Lots of great ideas in this article.  My favorite was running the thing off D cell batteries and leaving it on all the time!  The article was written by Roger Taylor, K9ALD. 

Here is the article: 

http://archive.org/stream/73-magazine-1964-11/11_November_1964#page/n11/mode/1up

Thanks to Dave, Roger, Wayne Green and the Internet Archive. 

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Pete Tries Baluns on the DBM

A couple of weeks ago I ran a post about an old 73 Magazine article that extolled the virtues of putting baluns at the RF input and IF output of diode ring mixers.   Dedicated experimenter that he is, Pete Juliano gave it a try: 

Hi Bill,

I did the modification and used 20 bifilar turns of #26 on a FT-50-43 core for each transformer.

The most important observation is that I did not see any degradation of performance and in fact I think has helped an overloading situation I was seeing on some extremely strong signals.

The photo is of a DBM that is behind a bilateral stage that on Rx is the RF amplifier and on Tx is the Tx pre-driver. I do have another single transistor RF amp ahead of this. In normal operation the next stage would be the Band Pass Filter.

The back end is an IF amplifier, AGC, Product Detector, balanced modulator and mic amp stage all on a board that came out of a Hallicrafters FPM-300 SSB/CW transceiver. There is a you tube video of this prototype project.

73’s

Pete N6QW 

Thanks Pete! 

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Double A DSB DXpedition

Having a lot of fun with my old Azores 20 meter DSB rig here in the Dominican Republic. So far 11 solid contacts. People are amazed when I tell them the power source is 10 AA batteries! I feel I am redeeming myself as a QRPer after transgressing with the 120 watt amp project. We leave Samana and go to Santo Domingo on Sunday. 73 Bill

Sent from my iPhone

In Samana

Current portable ops in Samana!
YouTube video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBCg3-feSrc&sns=em


Also. Today is Pete Juliano's birthday!  Send him greetings!