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Friday, October 20, 2017
The Quantum Indians
Beautiful video. Strongly recommended.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=350&v=bI7sasQsQWI
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Ham Radio, Dilbert, Dating, and the Baofeng Breakup
Was the young lady turned off by his obvious "appliance op" status? Was it the Baofeng? Would he have fared better with a homebrew rig?
Dilbert addressed the relationship between ham radio and success in the dating game:
I blame Peter VK2EMU for this digression.
Labels:
Australia,
Knack Stories
Saturday, October 14, 2017
SolderSmoke Podcast #200! 17, Knack Nobel, QCX, 630, UHF, Fessenden, TROUBLESHOOTING
DL3AO 1950 |
http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke200.mp3
-- Old friends on 17 meters.
-- Another Knack Nobel in Physics.
-- Hans Summers' QCX transceiver: $50 IS THE NEW 10 GRAND!
-- New Bands! 630 and 2200 Meters. BIG ANTENNAS!
-- Nuke Powered QRP. No joke!
-- The Challenge of UHF. Not for the faint of heart.
-- Reginald Fessenden, Father of Phone.
PETE'S BENCH REPORT: The New Simple-ceiver. Soon to be a Transceiver.
BILL's BENCH REPORT: Discrete, Direct Conversion, Ceramic Receiver in iPhone Box.
THE EDUCATIONAL PORTION OF TODAY's PROGRAM:
HOW TO TROUBLESHOOT A HOMEBREW RECEIVER.
MAILBAG.
DL3AO 1950 |
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
SPRAT -- The 007 Connection
Wow -- I just knew those GQRP guys had to be much cooler than they seemed. I guess there were some indications: They do seem to talk quite a bit about "Q". There is that weird fondness for Parasets. I understand that several of the senior GQRPers drive Aston Martins. And that Dobbs guy -- a kindly retired Anglican minister you say? Really? I can just hear him saying it: "Dobbs, George Dobbs."
Labels:
Dobbs-George,
GQRP,
SPRAT
Monday, October 9, 2017
DL1YC's Flat Moxon with Armstrong Rotation
DL1YC Moxon |
I couldn't resist a little front to back testing. Jan's antenna does not have a rotator -- he used the "Armstrong" method of antenna pointing. I didn't want to make him go outside to spin the thing around by hand, so I just turned mine and asked him to take note of the difference front to back. He saw 3 S units. 18 db. Not bad.
Jan said his antenna weighs about 8 pounds -- mine is very similar at 9 pounds. Jan expressed some concern about UV deterioration of the fishing pole fiberglass. Mine has been up there three years without any problems.
Like me, Jan had considered "nesting" an element for another ban (perhaps 20 or 12) but -- like me-- had concluded that this would be too difficult.
N2CQR Moxon |
Sunday, October 8, 2017
A Direct Conversion iPhone!
Well, really a DC receiver in an iPhone box.
I think the Apple iPhone boxes have great potential as project enclosures. They are cardboard, but they are very rigid and solid. I decided to use them for a Direct Conversion receiver project I've had in mind.
This is a 40 meter DC receiver. No chips. Ceramic resonator VXO tuned by a varactor diode. 9V battery as the power source. Ear buds as the transducer. Passive, two diode, singly balanced detector. It sounds great -- so great that I may have to add a gain control.
The nice fit is no coincidence -- I cut the board so it would fit in the iPhone box.
Take a look at that top cover. It is all, well, empty. I could put another board in there, right? Maybe a balanced modulator, a mic amp and an RF amplifier. Then this thing would be a Double Sideband transceiver. We could even make use of the little microphone that comes with most of the ear buds.
I'm thinking that this might be the kind of project that people would like to take on this winter. Build the VXO first. Then the AF amp. Then the product detector and front end. At that point you've built a receiver. For extra credit you could go on to the transmitter. No need to use Apple boxes (but they are cool...) I will try to get the schematic done soon. My nephew John Henry will test the prototype.
Labels:
direct conversion,
DSB
Saturday, October 7, 2017
IZ7VHF's Video on on Hans Summers' QCX Rig, and a Video from Hans
Thanks to W8SX for alerting me to this.
There is a lot of good stuff on Roberto's site. He obviously has THE KNACK.
http://radio-signals.com/
Hans himself has a less detailed video on the rig:
Labels:
CW,
Italy,
Kits,
QRP,
Summers-Hans
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