A Sweet Little Poem for Valentines Day

I was alone and all was dark 

Beneath me and above 
My life was full of volts and amps 
But not the spark of love 

But now that you are here with me 
My heart is overjoyed 
You've turned the square of my heart 
Into a sinusoid 

You load things from my memory 
Onto my system bus 
My life was once assembly code 
It's now like C++ 

I love the way you solder things 
My circuits you can fix 
The voltage 'cross your diode is 
much more than just point six 

With your op-amps and resistors 
You have built my integrator 
I cannot survive without you 
You're my function generator 

You've changed my world, increased my gain 
And made my math discreet 
So now I'll end my poem here 
Control, Alt, and Delete

You might not want to actually use any of that poetry today.  
Sent in to us by Bob Crane, W8SX


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

SPARK FOREVER! George and Tommy Build a Spark Rig

It has been a while since I visited the Amateur Logic TV site.  When I looked in last week I found George and Tommy building a spark transmitter.   Pretty cool!   The sparks begin to fly at about about the 23 minute point in this video.  Very interesting.  Way to go guys!  

SPARK FOREVER! (You will see that emblazoned on the QSL cards of REAL old timers. They were railing against those newfangled Continuous Waves.  There is a lesson in there for me... )  

More AmateurLogic here: http://www.amateurlogic.com/downloads.htm

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 and Ben's "Let's Build Something" Reference Page

Lots of tribal knowledge here!  That's the direct conversion receiver that forms phase 1 of Pete and Ben's "Let's Build Something" project.  Arduinos!  Si5351s!   AD9850s!  And it will morph into an SSB transceiver.  Check it out: 

http://www.jessystems.com/LBS_Detail.html

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

REALLY AMAZING! The Portable SDR Project! 42 Hours Left To Save It!

Holy cow!  Look at that rig.   The whole HF spectrum.  AM,  CW,  SSB,  Digital Modes, Waterfall display,  GPS.  It may even have a Vector Network Analyzer!   (Deep breaths Pete Juliano, deep breaths!)

Michael KE7HIA is trying to get this project going via a Kickstarter campaign.  He needs to get to $60,000   He currently has about $47,000 pledged.  There are only 42 hours to go:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1703258614/psdr-pocket-hf-sdr-transceiver-with-vna-and-gps   

Wow, this rig would have been great for my Double A DR DX-pedition! 

Features:

• Coverage from 0 to 35MHz
• Waterfall display that lets you see radio signals
• Receives AM, USB (Upper Side Band), LSB (Lower Side Band), and Morse code (CW)
• Modulates USB and LSB signals
• Variable bandpass filter

Hardware:

• Powerful ARM processor
• Color LCD display
• Dual DDS frequency Synthesizers
• Quadrature Sampling Detector & Exciter
• Digitally controllable instrumentation amplifiers
• Morse Code key (the "Giblet" on the bottom right corner of the enclosure)
• Magnitude & Phase measurement chip (for VNA and antenna analysis functions) with Impedance Bridge
• Dual SMA connectors, smartphone style earphone/microphone connector, and USB port
• GPS
• Built in Microphone and Speaker
• Internal Lithium Polymer battery with charger and high efficiency switching regulator
• MicroSD slot
• Pads for grabbing raw I/Q signals, both in and out.

Things it will be able to do with your help:

I designed the hardware to be capable of the following, but I can't write all the software myself. Please note that I can't guarantee when or if these functions will be added, or that they will work as desired.

• Work as a full Vector Network Analyzer (VNA)
• Work as a spectrum analyzer
• Cover more modes, including digital modes and image modes
• Work as an emergency location beacon
• Antenna Analyzer
• Frequency Synthesizer
• Media player
• E Reader / Picture viewer
• Have improved audio
• GPS Mapping navigation device
• High end ARM development board
• USB control of any features, including the possibility to operate the PSDR remotely. The USB port supports USB On-the-Go, making it possible to connect keyboards or other devices. Firmware updates will also be possible over USB.

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

Navassa Island 1972

The K1N DX-pedition is currently on Navassa Island (between Jamaica and Haiti).   This made me think of one of my earliest ham radio memories:  The 73 Magazine article on a 1972 operation on that island.   Here is a short video on that trip.  It is kind of wacky and fun. 

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

Lucien's German Mighty Mite (Video)

Excellent Lucien!  Thanks for sending this.   I know what you mean about a project that doesn't work.  It is rewarding and educational to figure out where you went wrong.  I knew a guy who would ask, at a hamfest, "Does this rig work?"  If the the seller admitted that it didn't, he'd reply, "Good, I pay extra for that!"   He liked the challenge of fixing it.  Of course, there are limits to this, and sometimes these challenges will make you wish you had taken up stamp collecting. 

Hi Bill and Pete,

For me too, it's a happy day - I got the Mighty Mite working! Thank you so much for the inspiration to get into homebrewing...

I'm just licensed for a year now and this was my very first project (except for 2 basic kits that I build) and it really was a great learning experience. The best part: Since it didn't work out "plug'n play", I had to debug the thing and actually start thinking - so I put 2 caps in parallel instead of the wrong one I had used (I found them in a little box some guys at a hamfest gave me for free - never thought I would ever use something from it...). And I had to use the voltmeter to look for a short circuit. Basic stuff, but for me, this was a breakthrough!

Here are some more things I learned during this first project (don't laugh):

• Where the heck do I plug stuff that's supposed to go to "ground" in? Now I know: usually to the negative pole!
• When 2 lines cross in a schematic, that doesn't mean there's a connection!
• How do these ready-made breadboards actually work? Had to try out...
• It's important to think about the actual layout beforehand!
• When debugging, trial and error doesn't help.
• There's yet another crazy foreign unit called "gauge"! (I used smaller magnet wire than recommended, it still seems to work...)
• 9V-blocks get VERY hot when shorted for a minute or so!

Attached is an image of my ugly prototype, now I want to give it a better "home"... And here is a little video, demonstrating that it works, inspired by IZ1KSW:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxXyAb_np8I&feature=youtu.be

BTW, frequency is about 3,5793 Mhz.

Thanks again for all the great inspiration and vy 73 from Germany,

Lucien / DH7LM

 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

IZ1KSW's Italian Mighty Mite (Video)

Hi Bill and Pete,

This is a great day for me!

I just managed to get my MMM oscillating!

This is my very first homebrew project guys and I'm so excited! I started from scratch... and when I say from scratch, I mean that I didn't even have one of the 7 components required, no PCB boards, no junkbox, nothing... just the soldering iron and the will to "build something".

Thanks to Pete suggestions I managed to put some components together and now I have a (small) junkbox (I'm very proud of it) and thanks to soldersmoke I entered the ranks of the homebrewers.

I send you also a couple of pictures, I used Manhattan style and I found it very useful to understand the circuit. It's far from being a clean and neat building but it's a first step.

I'm looking forward for the next one!

73 de
IZ1KSW / EA7JUG - Gab

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