LightSail 2 Rides to a Higher Orbit, Propelled by Photons from the Sun

Success!  Congratulations to the Planetary Society.  Amazing achievement.  

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/lightsail-2-successful-flight-by-light.html

Pete N6QW's Three Dozen (AT LEAST THREE DOZEN!) Homebrew Rigs

In our last podcast I was saying how Pete's many, many analog homebrew transceivers have earned him the right to shift into the digital world.   Incredibly, someone chose to question Pete's credentials in this area.  Troll!  Pete's blog has pictures of many of the rigs.  It is quite inspirational.  Check it out: 

http://n6qw.blogspot.com/2019/07/what-difference-one-letter-doth-make.html

N8NM's Homebrew Stereo

https://n8nmsteve.blogspot.com/2019/07/a-homebrew-stereo-for-shack.html

Excellent work Steve.   You are right -- lugging something around for 30 years does create an obligation to put it to good use.  FB.  Love the cakepan.  And the multiplexer chip.  And above all THE JEWELED LENS.  

Walter KA4KXX Operates his FB Al-Fresco HB Scratch-Built BITX 75 (Video)

Dear Bill N2CQR:

For your amusement, the attached video (from 2:20 - 3:40) shows

me operating portable at a tailgate event using my second

scratch-built  BITX, with this one running 45W on 75M. 

Features include analog VFO, a 16-pin LM380 with all ground

pins heat-sinked for powerful audio, and 3-transistor uBITX-type

low-level RF amps.  The 8-crystal filter is also like the uBITX design

but at an 11 MHz IF.  The microphone amp is a 741 Op Amp which I

believe has better gain, gain adjustability, and frequency response than 

any of the transistor designs. The transmit adjustable driver amp is adapted from the FET 

circuit used in the Wee Willy.  The Transmit LPF is hard-wired to the antenna connector 

for simplification and to minimize RF losses, so in receive mode the single relay in the rig 

connects the receive section in parallel, which causes some signal loss, but not much. 

Finally, and most notably, I believe that my RF Power Amp is the only one in the world to use 

model airplane engine mufflers as heat sink cores...

72,

Walter

KA4KXX

Orlando, FL     

Fish Soup 10 QRP Transceiver in Action on 40

I took this quick video during a QSO on July 20, 2019 with Ed K3VA in Philadelphia on 40 meters.  Note: Plenty of of audio from the Herring Aid 5 -- no additional amplification in the speaker. 

Drake 2-B "The most talked about HAM RECEIVER"

Thanks to K9YA

Light Sail 2 Successfully Deploys Its Solar Sail

Congratulations to the Planetary Society. 

https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/23/the-planetary-societys-crowdfunded-lightsail-2-deploys-its-solar-sail-in-orbit/

Making Fish Soup from Herring and Tuna (How to Build a Fish Soup 10 Transceiver)

Just in case some other fanatic someday thinks about trying to turn a Herring Aid 5 and a Tuna Tin 2 into a Fish Soup 10. This will also serve as a note to myself on how I did this.  Above are my suggestions on how to get the VFO signal into the transmitter and the receiver.  Both RX and TX can easily be returned to their original condition. 

A Frequency Readout for the Fish Soup 10 (with cool BLUE numerals)

Note the cool BLUE numerals.  They represent 7040, 7050, 7060, 7070.  The little black "pointer" is from a power cord wall fastener.  My tuning cap has a nice reduction drive -- the pointer follows the movement of the capacitor blades.  The VFO is very stable. 

Simplicity is a virtue.  CW is, I think, outmoded and kind of absurd (one letter at a time?  really?), but it does allow for extreme simplicity.  Using a rig with just 10 transistors, putting out half a watt of RF,  I am regularly communicating with people.  This is what I like about CW.   

I've had about 12 solid contacts with this rig since putting it on the air earlier this month.  The VFO was a huge improvement over being crystal controlled. Crystal control was OK back when receivers were broad and hams tuned around for replies, but those days are gone.  Getting the transmit offset set correctly was another huge improvement. 

From Bill's Apollo 11 Scrapbook

From the Apollo 11 scrapbook I made back in '69. I got the date for the moonwalk wrong. But hey, I was only 10 years old.