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Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Almost Enough to Make You Abandon Manhattan: John's SW-40


Hi Bill,
 
You said you didn't mind if I sent you some of my finished projects so here is the latest.  I scratch built the SW 40 that I had previously built from a kit by K1SWL.  I always liked that radio, and thought by laying it out I would learn more about it.  In testing it out after I aligned everything I made a qso with Mike (K3WAS),and got a good report, and I didn't let out any of the magic smoke or sacrifice any chickens.  You gotta love this hobby. 
The rig tunes from 7.034 to 7.063, and I had about 2.3 watts out, but ran into some slight problems with instability at the end of the qso with Mike. The PA was getting a little hot, but with the excitement of having it work right out of the gate it really didn't matter at the time.  The board layout was done with express PCB, and using the toner method, placed it on the board.  Chuck (K7QO), has some great youtube videos showing the process. I have to admit I got more knowledge by laying out the board as opposed to manhatten construction, and came away with a better understanding of the radio itself. 
Now to build the case.  the board is 5.25 by 7.25 inches, and I may have to sneak one of my wife's alum cookie sheets to fabricate the case.  She doesn't bake till Christmas so it will be a calm summer.  I also made provisions on the board for a digital readout, but for now I just want to enjoy the rig as it is.

Thanks to both you and Pete for taking an interest, as well as the great job on soldersmoke.
73
N8RVE  John



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Monday, March 30, 2015

Rocket Launch, 1969


Through Facebook, I have re-established contact with my fellow members of the Waters Edge Rocket Research Society.   That's me, age 10, hitting the button on a homebrew launch controller.

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

Saturday, March 28, 2015

SolderSmoke Podcast #174:Belthorn III, BITX20(-40), Parasites, Test Gear, Hamfest, SPRAT, Flares, BITX History



SolderSmoke Podcast #174 is available:

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke174.mp3

March 28, 2015

Happy Arduino Day!
Pete's Belthorn III Transceiver (with cool color display)
Bill's BITX 20 (that used to be a BITX20/40)
AD9850 DDS added to Barebones Superhet
Jean Shepherd on Parasitic Oscillations, Obsession, and Madness
Simple Test Gear for the Homebrewer
Digital Oscilloscopes and their amazing capabilities
Dongles and other great stuff in SPRAT 162
The BIG St. Patrick's Day Solar Flare
VK6MV's Amazing Rhombic (+)
VK7XX (Dos Equis!)
A Bit of BITX History
Pete going KX3 QRO


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

Friday, March 27, 2015

March 28 is Arduino Day 2015!


Dave W2DAB alerts us to tomorrow's celebration of World Arduino Day.   https://day.arduino.cc/#/

Dave says the events often produce some interesting video. 

We will attempt to participate by doing something Arduino-ish during SolderSmoke 174, which is scheduled for tomorrow. 

Forza Banzi! Viva Arduino!

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

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Teensy SDR Update (video)



I know this will have some of you thinking that I have been kidnapped or drugged or brain-washed (by N6QW!) or something, but the truth is I'm just being drawn in by that fascinating little color screen.  This is the beautiful work of Rich, VE3MKC.  He has also updated his blog and provided a very nice diagram and written description of all the I and Q action: http://rheslip.blogspot.ca/  Thanks Rich!

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

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

A Box Filled with DDS

 
I put this in a box this morning.  Arduino + AD9850 shield by Paul M0XPD and Kanga UK.  Code by AD7C.  One stage amplifier by Pete Juliano N6QW.    Useful as a VFO or a sig generator.  Thanks to all involved.
 

Note the cool translucent feet!
 
 


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

Monday, March 23, 2015

More on VK6MV



Last week during the big St. Patrick's day solar eruption/CME impact I (with the help of the radio gods) managed to work Roy VK6MV in Western Australia. (A video of Roy working QRP pedestrian mobile stations in the UK appears above.)   Could it  have been that that miraculous contact was ALSO my first ever homebrew SSB to homebrew SSB QSO?   I e-mailed Roy to find out.   Alas, it was not.  But OM Roy sent some interesting info on his station and especially his antenna.  Excerpts from his e-mail:  

Hi Bill

Thanks for the qso and the email.

yes another 'fadeout' but we have had many over the years haven't we ?
Things have changed a lot since 1963 when I had my first license as G3SML.
We came to Aus in 1977 with 3 sons and now have 24 Grandies 13 Grandchildren; 11 Great Grandchildren.

I liked the early Plessey IC's when they came out ~
Carry on with home brew and get that personal enjoyment out of it, it gives you a boost I am sure.  NO I was not on the home brew I was on the Icom IC740 which I bought about 5 years ago at the WA Hamfest it had a fault of jumping to different frequencies, etc. I could not find its intermittent fault at all, but on the internet a 'W' ham in your country posted the same fault with explanations etc,
and it cured it,

So I was on that Rig + a home brew linear pair of old 813's in Grounded Grid and  a Voltage doubler for the + 2 kv,  I could not get the smoothing caps for that voltage so got hold of 3 metal canned ones 800 volt, then got some plastic drain pipe to insulate the cans from ground & then put them all in series with equalising resistors,
and it worked.

Yes I was on the rhombic ~ amazing antenna for a fixed point to point contacts ~
why a rhombic you may ask well when in the Uk I used to work VK2NN [and others] Tom with his farm of rhombics his setup much larger, and I thought one day I would love to put one up. Eventually with our moving to Aus' then came down here with its 8+ acres the opportunity led itself to put one up, and as I used to work into Europe/UK a lot that direction picked. first I put one up a bigger one than now,  but it did not work that good.  Moral the longer you go the higher it needs to be
So a smaller version tried using the contours of the land at a height above sea level of 1260 feet asl helps. Using 12 gauge usa hard drawn copper wire   I needed winches and turnbuckles etc to pull it up, one end is on the 60 ft tower, the others on assorted Wooden Poles +
The termination R for the rhombic is a 3 element TH3 Tribander ~
think of it why waste power into a whopper of a Resistor ~
this is not my idea but came from ~ Nano VK6UN why not connect it to another antenna with how to do it came from now SK Les Moxon G6XN
a clever man how to make a balun out of old ferrite rods from transistor radios,

Will close now my half a dozen lines of text are expanding to much

Cheers have fun Roy VK6MV


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

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Vienna Wireless Winterfest



I had a good time at the Vienna Wireless Hamfest today.  I met up with Armand, WA1UQO, and we went through the hamfest together.   Here is what I picked up (and why):
Crystal Radio Kit (for my nephew Sebastian)
 

Homemade Solar Panel (because someone had taken the trouble to put this together )
Milliammeter Meter (because it was connected to the solar panel)

Drake Dynamic Microphone (because it is Drake)
 
A bunch of BNC connector cables (always useful)


Copper clad boards (thinking of the next rig)

A bunch of RG-174 coax (Belden is usually better, but sometimes you need flexibility)

Lots of Ferrite Beads (because of my recent suffering with oscillations)

A bag full of relays (I like relays)

10 100 ohm pots (great for balanced modulators)

Big copper ground stake and straps (because I need to reform in this area).

An ugly old tube type receiver (because I had a 5 dollar bill in my hand when the lady said "5 bucks!")  I tried to give this to Armand, but he wouldn't take it.

Some connectors for Arduino projects (I'm trying not to be a total Luddite).

Armand gave me three very nice crystal filters.   Thanks Armand!



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

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Kirk's Herring Aid, Tuna Tin, and Regen Adventures

 
Hello Bill!
 
Just a quick hello from MN to tell you how much I have been enjoying your podcast. Although I have "plugged" your stuff in multiple magazine columns over the years, I'm a bit late getting into the listening game. My current contract job has me doing a lot of driving, however, so I now have several years' worth of soldersmoke to enjoy.
 
Several of the most recent episodes have made it clear that we have covered some common ground in our amateur radio careers.
I was licensed in 1977 at age 15 -- a year after I built my Tuna Tin 2 :) The transmitter was a smashing success. I used it with my Tempo One transceiver, or at the electronics repair shop at a local National Guard base (where my mom worked as a civilian administrator). I would ride my bike to Camp Ripley (only 8 miles or so), and the guys in the signal shop would let me use the shop's Collins KWM-2 HF transceiver (and attached dipole). Other than my efforts, I don't think the KWM-2 got much use...
 
I, too, tried to get the Herring Aid 5 to work, with no luck at all. Listening to your podcast was like being in a time machine of sorts :) I wonder if I got the "sense" of the oscillator secondary messed up? I never did get that thing to make even a sound. I don't have it any longer. The same goes for the TT2. They got "lost" when I stored a bunch of stuff at my dad's place in-between moves, as did a home-brew 4-400A amplifier and a 6146B amplifier for my Ten-Tec Argonaut. Darn!
 
Don't forget about the matching VFO -- the Chopped Beef Slider (CB Slider), which was built into a chopped beef can, of course! I didn't build one, but as I recall it was a diode-tuned 40-meter VFO for the TT2.
 
Your "regen rage" and its subsequent easing was also amusing. I have had a love-hate relationship with those buggers, too, although mine was mostly love. You referenced Dave Newkirk's (now W9VES) 40-meter QST regen article in a podcast. I was fortunate enough to be a QST editor at the time Dave was in his "second residence." That guy forgot more about receivers than I will ever know, and he helped me tremendously in official and unofficial capacities.
I have attached a photo (above) of a multiband regen that Dave helped me build (he designed and dispensed wisdom while I built the radio). He took a schematic from a 1930s ARRL Handbook and tweaked it a bit, helping me add a VR tube, "more modern" tubes and a few other goodies. Just to be difficult, I sampled the tank circuit with a tiny-value capacitor and a high-gain MMIC amplifier so I could drive a frequency counter, which displayed the receive frequency as long as the tank was oscillating. It was fun, but it was difficult to isolate the digital noise from the counter, so I only really turned on the counter as necessary, or to calibrate a dial, etc. The chassis used to be an Eico audio signal generator... In the photo the Jackson Brothers dial and bezel/tuning scale isn't completely installed. After sitting in a box for 25 years, the regen still works but probably needs new tubes, as it's rather deaf :) Blasphemy aside, I'm moving on to solid-state regens...
 
I, too, just got a Rigol DSO. Wow, the "one-button" measurement is almost too easy.
 
I'm prepping my book, Stealth Amateur Radio, for release on the Kindle (and maybe other e-book formats), but it's available now from my website, www.stealthamateur.com.
 
Keep up the good work, Bill.

I'll be listening. :)

73,

--Kirk Kleinschmidt, NT0Z
  Rochester, MN

Editor, 1990 ARRL Handbook
Technical Editor, Ham Radio for Dummies
QST Assistant Managing Editor, 1988-1994
Ham Radio Columnist since 1989 for:
   Popular Communications
   Monitoring Times and now,
   The Spectrum Monitor (www.thespectrummonitor.com)
My book, "Stealth Amateur Radio," is now available from
www.stealthamateur.com and on the Amazon Kindle (soon)

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

Friday, March 20, 2015

American Radio History Site -- Lots of Radio Magazines

 
Hi Bill,

I wanted to leave you feedback on your podcast.

I love it!  Keep it up.  I travel quite often in my work and listen to
all your podcasts.

Since my early teens in the late 70's I started subscribing to
electronic magazines (which I have still keep all every issue).  I just
found a site that has all the old electronic magazines scanned and
posted for all to read.  What a resource!
http://www.americanradiohistory.com 
It has all the old Popular
Electronic Magazines, Radio Electronic Magazines, Modern Electronics,
Electronics Illustrated, etc, in pdf format. Information from the turn
of the century ...  Wow.  Back when radio hobbyists made their own
chassis for their valve radios.  Just google American Radio History and
it will be a top link.  You might want to share this link with your
friends, and listeners.

I have purchased your Soldersmoke book from Lulu -- Thumbs  up!! Great Book.

Thanks again for sharing your experience with radio and the knack.

Greg Self
N8YCB
ps:
I have always called  kluge -  KLOO-guh ..  and I don't know why. ;)


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

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Working VK6 Homebrew During the Big Solar Flare


There I was. 0900 UTC (0 Dark Thirty local),  the morning after the big March 17 St. Patrick's Day Coronal Mass Ejection Impact.  Solar Flux Index: 116.  A Index: 117!  I'd never seen the A Index that high.  When I got home from work on  March 17,  I had turned on the BITX 20 and heard nothing but white noise.  No signals.  Nada.  Zilch. So the following morning my expectations for 20 were quite low.  I tuned across the whole band, again hearing nothing.  But wait... there was one signal.  And he was calling CQ.  With an Australian accent.  VK6MV!  The only signal on the band.  I called him with my recently fixed BITX20 (with .12 kW amp) and a dipole.  No problem. We had a nice contact.
A look at Roy's QRZ page shows that he is a fellow homebrewer.  Clearly, the radio gods were making a statement 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

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Software Advice From the Brainwagon (Mark, K6HX)

I was really happy to get this encouraging message from Mark, K6HX.  Mark is a real wizard -- he has been deeply involved in the production of many of Pixar's wonderful animated films.  And his blog -- Brainwagon -- is always a good read.   Mark offers good advice for software and hardware troubleshooting. Thanks Mark!

Hey Bill and Pete:

Just finished listening to your latest SolderSmoke on my commute
yesterday, and thought I'd drop you a line to let you know that I'm
really enjoying the "dynamic duo" format that you've adopted.  Having
different ideas and different perspectives on the show, but with both
of you showing such great enthusiasm really makes the show a pleasure
to listen to.  (Incidently, your audio for this last podcast seemed
much better to me, a couple of episodes seemed to be plagued with much
different levels between Pete, who was booming, and Bill, who
frequently seemed to be quite low.  Whatever you did, keep it up!)

As a guy who does mostly computer/software engineering, I'm especially
liking Pete's continual, good natured prodding of Bill to get with the
program and use more gadgets like the Arduino, the AD9850 and the
Si5351.  :-)  But what's most valuable to me is when you guys engage
in the back and forth of debugging problems like your recent amplifier
feedback issues.  And what I realized (and might come as some comfort
to Bill) is that most of the skills which you guys have developed to
understand and debug radio projects apply equally well to software.

Stop me if this seems familiar:

If you want to learn to program, you do it by programming.  Pick a
simple project and try to get it working, then build on your success.

Don't try to learn it all at once.  Making a computer blink an LED is
a good start.

Make use of the resources of the Internet community.  Look at what
other people are doing, look at their designs, and enlist their help
when necessary.

Keep notes about what works and doesn't.  Make an archive of all the
code you write.  Examples that work can be helpful to create new code
that works.

Don't just poke the program with a stick, hoping it will work if you
prod it the right way.  Develop a theory of why it works, and test
that theory.  If the theory is not born out in practice, then don't
leave that code lying around in your program.

Don't get too wedded to your idea about why a program may not work.
Test your assumptions, even the ones that you are sure of.  Often
those hide the worst bugs.

Think about modularity.  Build simple routines/modules that you can
reuse to build bigger programs.

Build on the shoulders of giants: using tested modules of other people
isn't cheating.  But eventually you may need to understand what is
inside these black boxes, so keep working on developing your skills.

Share your enthusiasm with others, via the Internet, Youtube or social media.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See Bill, you've already learned a lot of the lessons you need to be a
programmer, you just learned them all with respect to radios.  They
will serve you well if you decide to take the plunge into tinkering
with programming.  :-)

On some of the ham radio related Facebook pages, I've been a little
annoyed lately that so many hams seem to lament that "nobody builds
anything anymore".  Ironically, I suspect these are the same sort of
people who decided to pile onto Bill's amplifier project and skewer
him for its audio quality.  If we want more experimentation in ham
radio, we are going to have to tolerate a little more failed (or at
least, not totally successful) experiments.  But even beyond that, I
supect that there is quite likely more people (in absolute numbers)
doing homebrew now than in any time in decades.  It's an incredible
golden age for homebrew.  We have great books out like EMRFD, great
mailing lists, vendors to sell us amazing parts at incredibly low
prices, and the Internet to share and learn.  People like you two are
part of this.  What are all these complainers doing to get people to
build stuff?

I have to really thank you, Bill in particular.  While I've still not
gotten all the way to building my own transceiver, you got me back
into amateur radio, fueled my interest in beacons, QRSS, WSPR and
homebrew in general.  And Pete's approach to radio seems to be the
wedding of electronics and software that I find in sync with my own
ideas.  I look forward to doing more projects, and hearing about
yours in the weeks and months to come.

Well done, sirs.

Mark (K6HX)

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
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