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Friday, January 8, 2021
The Amazing Rigs of WA3TFS
Sunday, January 3, 2021
An End to the HDR - SDR Conflict? Kevin AA7YQ Combines the Best of Both Worlds
We've had some pretty amazing contact with Kevin AA7YQ over the years. Kevin and I originally bonded due to our common experience with parachutes (he was smoke-jumper, I jumped while in the army). Kevin once used a parachute to insulate a QRSS beacon. And one day, while thinking about SolderSmoke during a drive through Montana, Kevin turned on his rig only to hear... ME! He caught one of my infrequent CW contacts. TRGHS.
Now we hear that OM Kevin may be poised to end the HDR-SDR civil war that has for so long been dividing our great podcast. Can Kevin's new rig heal our wounds and allow us to enjoy the beauty of SDR waterfalls while not forsaking the joy of hardware defined rigs? Kevin will soon launch a blog describing his effort at rig-building. See below for a preview. Stay tuned.
Kevin wrote:
I am currently working on a new rig design. It is a hybrid HDR(Hardware defined)/SDR radio that incorporates some classic superhet design along with some of the more useful features of SDR. I have found that pure SDR is really not that enjoyable for me. I love using GNU radio to mock up and test design concepts, but SDR basically dilutes the “magic” of radio to nothing more than software and touchscreens, stuff we use every day all day. Its not the Ham Radio I grew up with as a kid and was fascinated by. On the other hand, I have always fought temperature drift, large variable capacitors minimal tuning range, and associated with classic VFO and VXO designs. In fact, in 1997, for my senior capstone design in EE at Montana State University, I designed a 20m superhet that used a DDS LO. At the time DDS was cutting edge technology I used an AD7008JP50. I had to beg and plead with ADI to get a couple samples for my design, since they exceeded my self-funded college student project budget. 😊 But that’s another story. SDR has made me grow extremely fond of the waterfall display. I love having the visual “situational awareness” of what is going on in a moderate bandwidth outside of the spot I am tuned to. I also am a big fan of digital filtering and modification-ability that comes with boot-loadable microcontroller designs. So this design includes most of the real highlights of SDR but does not take the fun out of designing, building, and operating a HDR.
Anyhow, this design is a big goal of mine to complete and build in 2021. I am not retired yet so I still have to balance, work, family, and tinkering time, but I am very excited about this project. I have “noodled” this design to the point of what I have achieved full-on “analysis paralysis”. That is, I keep designing and redesigning, optimizing, and figuring to the point where after months of thought, I have nothing to show for it 😊. So my New Years goal for 2021 is to make “good enough” rather than “perfect” design decisions and move forward. I will keep you posted on the design and possibly start a blog so I can get some peer review input from the greater RF Design/Homebrew community on my project. I’ll keep you informed on my progress.
Friday, January 1, 2021
Glowing Numerals for the Lafayette HA-600A (With Jeweled Movements)
Thursday, December 31, 2020
So Many Wonderful Things on W7ZOI's Site
There he is. Wes Hayward, W7ZOI in 1957. I had never seen this picture before. I found it on Wes's recently updated "shackviews" web page: http://w7zoi.net/shackviews.html .
There are so many treasures on that page, and on all the other portions of Wes's site.
Some highlights for me:
-- Wes's description of the station in the above picture.
-- On his page about Doug DeMaw, Wes mentions that after Doug edited Wes's 1968 article about direct conversion receivers, Doug built some himself, experimenting with different product detector circuits. Having used Doug's mixer circuit in many of my rigs, and having recently experimented with different product detectors for my HA-600A, I kind of felt like Doug was watching over my shoulder, guiding me along as I experimented.
-- Wes's use of a digital Rigol oscilloscope. Makes me feel better about giving up on my Tek 465.
-- The page about Farhan's visit to Wes, and the awesome gathering of homebrew Titans that ensued...
-- Wes's meeting with Chuck Adams.
Thanks Wes. Happy New Year and best of luck in 2021!
Tuesday, December 29, 2020
Ross Hull and Clinton DeSoto -- Ham Radio and R/C Planes
Rogier PA1ZZ sent me a video that linked Ross Hull and Clinton DeSoto to the development of today's killer drones. While it looks like that is quite a stretch (I'm sure Rogier would agree), the involvement of these two radio guys in the early development of radio-controlled planes is very interesting.
An article, “Radio Control of Model Aircraft,” by Ross A. Hull and Roland B. Bourne, was the first to describe in detail a working radio system suitable for model aircraft. They wrote: “Most hams are usually far from being one-hobby men and one discovers, almost invariably, an interest in the other sciences and the crafts. A common interest in ham radio, aeronautics, model building, and photography is almost the rule. We happen to be built that way and our interest in aircraft led us, this summer, to take an active interest in this problem of radio control.” (QST, October, 1937)
More here:
https://jmrc.tripod.com/fa/days/days_2.htm
And here:
Tuesday, December 22, 2020
Listen to this! The Kearsarge Mountain Transmission System -- Winter Test Transmission -- 9670 kHz
This is a bit mysterious, but I think that is part of the allure. Last week reports began to surface on reddit about a shortwave test transmission from a group called the Kearsarge Mountain Transmission System. Kearsarge Mountain is in New Hampshire. Thomas K4SWL over at the SWLing Post Blog posted a link to a SoundCloud recording of the transmission:
https://soundcloud.com/user-25048993/kmts-winter-test-transmission-9670-khz-17122020
I don't really know much about the origins of this recording, but -- like Thomas -- I really like it. It is EXACTLY what you need to have playing in the background as you work on some piece of radio gear. Trust me on this: If you are a radio person, you WILL like this. Have a listen at the link above.
Here are some excerpts from the reddit posts on this:
Notice of a KTMS winter test transmission beaming to Europe/USA on 9670 kHz at 2300 UTC on 17.12.2020. This transmission will consist of interval jingles, engineer test signals, rare re-media mixes of cult radio favorites, strange tones, and vox. Thank you for your continued attention as the KTMS crew continue working to bring the SWL community unique transmissions.
Our aim as the programmers of the KTMS Test Transmission is to entertain, edify and get SWLs excited about the possibilities inherent in radio. The crew of KTMS consists of amateur radio operators, community and college radio aficionados, antique radio restorationists, low budget radio astronomers looking for alien life and in general people who love the hobby of radio in all its many faceted aspects.
People who put their own funds towards creating radio on the shortwaves are helping to keep the shortwaves interesting and alive and bringing programming that is original and idiosyncratic to a medium that is often otherwise overrun by nationalists, spies, and fundamentalist preachers. They also help to keep shortwave stations on the air -something that ain’t so cheap. Rather, our view, is that by injecting some creative energy into a project such as our KTMS Winter Test Transmission we are giving back to the SWLing community by 1) creating a show for any listeners who happen to catch it, 2) giving the listeners a mystery that doesn’t revolve around numbers, 3) to do our part to keep the airwaves a little less stodgy.
We view this Test Transmission as an exercise in conviviality, surreality, and genuine love of all things radio and shortwave. 2020 has been such a serious minded year we aim to lighten that load with a bit of old fashioned fun.
For anyone who wishes to enjoy a nice winter evening around your set or online SDR we welcome you to get warm with us around the glowing tubes.
Thanks to all who tune in, and until then 73s.
Monday, December 21, 2020
Observations from the Mars 2020 Opposition
These are some of the drawings that I made during the Mars 2020 opposition. I would go out to my back porch with my 6 inch Dobsonian Newtonian telescope. I would look closely at Mars, making mental note of what I was seeing. Then I would go to the shack and immediately draw what I'd seen. I would then look for relatively recent images of Mars made by people with more experience and better equipment, and I'd compare my drawings with their images -- this enabled me to understand what I was seeing. Also useful was the Mars Profiler of Sky and Telescope magazine -- you just plug in the date and time and it displays the part of Mars that is facing us.
Sunday, December 20, 2020
The Parkes Radio Telescope Picks Up a Possible "Wow" Signal from Proxima Centauri (maybe)
An article about SETI and our favorite dish. From Scientific American:
Saturday, December 19, 2020
A Very Clever Way to Build a Moxon for 17 and 20 meters
Jim AB9CN sent us Dan Zimmerman N3OX's page in response to my plea for help in SolderSmoke #227. I think this is a very clever and attractive way to cover both bands with a single Moxon.
http://www.n3ox.net/projects/2017moxon/
Of course there are other ways to do this -- other listeners wrote in with confirmation that it is indeed possible to nest a 17 meter element inside a 20 meter Moxon (as is done routinely with Hex beams), but this requires a lot of cut-and-try tuning of both antennas. More in this in future posts. Thanks Jim, and thanks to all who wrote in.
I kind of like the N3OX approach. I think his design makes it more of a workbench electronic project, as opposed to a mere wire and coax antenna project. But hey, that's just me.
Friday, December 18, 2020
Grayson Evans KJ7UM's New Blog -- Lots of Great Technical Info
Tuesday, December 15, 2020
SolderSmoke Podcast #227: Solar System, SDR, Simple SSB, HA-600A, BITX17, Nesting Moxons? Mailbag
Mars is moving away. Jupiter and Saturn close in the sky. And the Sun is back in action – Cycle 25 is underway. Also, the earliest sunset is behind us. Brighter days are ahead.
Book Review: “Conquering the Electron” With a quote from Nikola Tesla.
No real travel for us: Hunkered down. Lots of COVID cases around us. Friends, relatives, neighbors. Be careful. You don’t want to be make it through 10 months of pandemic only to get sick at the very end. SITS: Stay In The Shack.
Pete's Bench and Tech Adventures:
Backpack SDR keithsdr@groups.io
Hermes Lite 2
Coaching SSB builders
G-QRP talk
A new source for 9 MHz crystal filters
Bill's Bench:
Fixing the HA-600A Product Detector. Sherwood article advice. Diode Ring wins the day. Fixing a scratchy variable capacitor. Studying simple two diode singly balanced detectors. Polyakov. Getting San Jian frequency counter for it.
Fixing up the 17 meter BITX. Expanding the VXO coverage. Using it with NA5B's KiwiSDR.
Resurrecting the 17 meter Moxon. But WHY can't I nest the 17 meter Moxon inside a 20 meter Moxon? They do it with Hex beams. Why so hard with Moxons? DK7ZB has a design, but I've often heard that this combo is problematic. Any thoughts? I could just buy a 20/17 Hex-beam but this seems kind of heretical for a HB station.
Suddenly getting RFI on 40 meters. Every 50-60 Hz. Please tell me what you think this is (I played a recording).
MAILBAG:
Dean KK4DAS’s Furlough 40/20
Adam N0ZIB HB DC
TCVR
Tony G4WIF G-QRP
Vids. Video of George Dobbs.
Grayson KJ7UM
Collecting Radioactive OA2s. Why?
Pete found W6BLZ
Articles
Rogier KJ6ETL PA1ZZ
lost his dog. And we lost ours.
Steve Silverman KB3SII
-- a nice old variable capacitor from Chelsea Radio Company.
Dave K8WPE thinks we
already have a cult following.
Dan W4ERF paralleling
amps to improve SNR.
Jim W8NSA -- An old friend.
Pete Eaton
WB9FLW The Arecibo collapse
John WB4GTW old
friend... friend of:
Taylor N4TD
HB2HB
And finally, we got lots of mail about our editorial. No surprise: Half supportive, half opposed. Obviously everyone is entitled to their opinion. And we are free to express ours. It’s a free country, and we want it to stay that way. That is why we spoke out.
Yesterday the Electoral College voted, finalizing the results. All Americans should be proud that the U.S. was able to carry out a free and fair national election with record turn out under difficult circumstances. And all loyal Americans should accept the results. That’s just the way it works in a democracy.
We are glad we said what we said. It would have been easier and more pleasant to just bury our heads in the sand and say nothing. But this was a critically important election and we felt obligated as Americans to speak out. We'd do it again. And in fact we reserve the right to speak out again if a similarly important issue arises.
Thursday, December 10, 2020
Pete Juliano's Presentation to the 2020 G-QRP Club Convention -- Building SSB Transceivers
Saturday, December 5, 2020
Adding 10 kHz of Coverage to My BITX 17
"Radio, Radio" By Elvis Costello and The Attractions
Friday, December 4, 2020
The Terrible Collapse of the Arecibo Dish: Climate Change, Hurricane Maria, and Funding Cuts. Also: China's New Dish
From https://www.thewrap.com/watch-crazy-footage-of-the-arecibo-observatory-collapse-goldeneye-video/ :
"Alas, over the 2010s it was battered by a series of severe, climate change-linked tropical storms and hurricanes, culminating in terrible damage inflicted by Hurricane Maria in 2017. Unfortunately the 2016 election led to a government unwilling to fund repairs. Though new sources of funding were cobbled together late in 2018, in late Nov. 2020 it was determined there was no way to safely repair the telescope and the National Science Foundation announced it would be decommissioned.
The decommissioning was supposed to proceed after NSF determined the safest possible method, but physics had other plans. So it is that on Dec. 4, the whole thing up and collapsed with almost no warning."
More info (from NSF):
https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/arecibo/index.jsp
Here is a good 2017 article that discusses the electronic and mechanical arrangements at Arecibo, and the budget cuts it was facing. The article seems to almost predict the collapse:
Here is a comment from someone who worked there and heard the collapse:
Jonathan Friedman, who worked for 26 years as a senior research associate at the observatory and still lives near it, told the Associated Press news agency of the moment the telescope collapsed on Tuesday.
"It sounded like a rumble. I knew exactly what it was," he said. "I was screaming. Personally, I was out of control... I don't have words to express it. It's a very deep, terrible feeling." https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55147973?fbclid=IwAR3RuwzTfJmqInrOOFB-nctknDzyB_VSr_qdNrjg9LbbxUnAbynKBv9stPQ
Here is an interesting WIKIpedia article on China's FAST dish, with comparisons to Arecibo:
Thursday, December 3, 2020
Receiving Signals from China's Chang'e-5 Lunar Sample-Return Mission
Background info:
A great report from Daniel Estevez EA4GPZ on radio amateurs receiving telemetry from Chang'e-5:
Wednesday, December 2, 2020
Radioactive Regulator Tubes -- OA2s! Who knew?
Monday, November 30, 2020
Adam N0ZIB's Direct Conversion Transceiver
This is obviously very cool, but looking ahead I think Adam should think about adding one more mixer, changing the bias on the TX amps, and adding a mic amp. Boom: A Double Sideband Transceiver.
Pete wrote: When I was in the US Navy and a particular unit did something outstanding – the Command ship would raise the Bravo Zulu Flag for a job well. Don’t know if you can see it there in MO but I have raised the BZ flag to you. Outstanding and congratulations.
Bill and Pete:
Just finished a DC transceiver using Arduino nano, SI5351 (my sincerest apologies, Bill), diode ring mixer and lm386 audio amp. The transmit portion is a two-stage class AB pre-amp (from EMRFD page 2.32), which is driving an IRF510 final (biased at 2.08 volts) from Pete’s design. Output is about 5watts into a CWAZ low pass filter, based on the design from here: https://www.arrl.org/files/file/Technology/tis/info/pdf/9902044.pdf
I’m using a manual TX/RX switch which is doing multiple things. It brings the Nano A1 LOW, offsetting the transmit frequency 600 Hz for CW, grounds the audio input to prevent deafness (learned that one the hard way), and it engages a relay that switches the antenna from the receiver to the transmit, and also turns on the transmitter stages. Keying is through the first stage of the pre-amp.
I still have some tidying up to do, and I’m not sure the LPF works so well using two component inductors instead of all toroids, but I finished it today and made my first QSO into Ontario almost 1000 miles away. It’s been great fun!
73,
Adam
N0ZIB
Missouri
Sunday, November 29, 2020
Rocket Knack
Friday, November 27, 2020
6EQUJ5 -- SNR, the Big Ear Radio Telescope, and the "Wow" Signal
This Hack-A-Day article explains the significance of 6EQUJ5 on the paper readout of the Big Ear radio telescope. It is a signal-to-noise readout.
The article also has interesting information about the radio telescope that was used.
I have on my shelf John Kraus W8JK's wonderful book "Big Ear Two -- Listening for Other Worlds." John Kraus is the guy who built the Big Ear. In a reminder of how new radio technology really is, Kraus got his start in radio as a ten year-old boy in 1920. He ripped the wire out of the ignition coil of a Model T Ford to make a tuning coil for a crystal radio. He took the earpiece out of the family telephone. His father gave him a chunk of Galena. He used the crystal radio to listen to the early broadcasts of WWJ in Detroit.