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Friday, October 8, 2021
Bill's 52 year-old Apollo 11 Time Capsule -- What Should I Do?
Thursday, October 7, 2021
Another M^3: The Michigan Micro Mote
Move over Michigan Mighty Mite and Mate for the Mighty Midget. There's a new M^3 in town. And it is SMALL.
Hack-A-Day had an article on this today, and while it seems only tenuously connected to ham radio, I found it intriguing.
Tuesday, October 5, 2021
Dean KK4DAS Builds an EI9GQ 16 Watt RF Amplifier (and Noodles in the Process)
Monday, October 4, 2021
Scott WA9WFA's Mate for the Mighty Midget Receiver is WORKING! (Video)
Saturday, October 2, 2021
Selenium RECTIFIED
Selenium rectifiers. The name kind of sounds like Dilithium crystals, possibly related to flux capacitors.
Anyway, there were two of them in the Globe Electronics V-10 VFO Deluxe that I recently bought. Obviously they had to go, so I took them out yesterday, replacing them with a 1N5408 silicon rectifier.
The new diode had a significantly lower voltage drop than the selenium rectifiers -- this pushed the output voltage from the power supply up to around 200V. It is supposed to be around 185 V. So I put a 470 ohm, 5 watt resistor (found in the junkbox) in series. This brought the output voltage to 167 V. Close enough. VFO seems to be working fine.
I'm glad I did the extraction before these aging components released their nasty toxic smoke.
W3HWJ has a good article on replacing these nasty old parts, with some interesting info on their history: http://www.w3hwj.com/index_files/RBSelenium2.pdf
Backgound on the element Selenium: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selenium
Friday, October 1, 2021
Chuck Penson's Amazing New Book about Heathkit Amateur Products
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
N2CQR (WN2QHL) Novice Station Re-Created
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
The World Friendship Society of Radio Amateurs
Rod's son David Newkirk is radio wizard himself and has produced many great articles for QST and other publications. His dad is a Silent Key and David has taken his call.
This morning I was looking at an article on David's web site in which he looks at some of his dad's old QSL cards. Most of the affiliations on the cards (ARRL etc.) are easily recognizable, but there was one that was unclear: WFSRA.
David figured out what it was:
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A W9BRD Affiliation Mystery Solved
My father's pre-World-War-Two QSL cards include the usual list of affiliations: ORS (Official Relay Station), RCC (Rag Chewer's Club), WAC (Worked All Continents), A-1 Op (A-1 Operator's Club). One affiliation, WFSRA, remained mysterious. A clue in the correspondence column in March 1938 QST pointed me to an "I. A. R. U. News" item on page 74 of July 1935 QST, and I had my answer:
W.F.S.R.A.:
The World Friendship Society of Radio Amateurs has requested publication of the following pledge, which is the sole obligation for membership in the Society:
"I hereby promise that I will, to the best of my ability, make such use of my amateur radio station as will be conducive to international friendships; that I will never voluntarily permit by station to be used as the tool of selfish nationalistic interests; and that I will do what I can, as a radio amateur and as an individual, to promote world peace and understanding. (To be followed by the signature, address and station call.)"
Membership in the Society is open to all amateurs in all countries. All that is necessary to become a member is to copy and sign the pledge, and send it to the secretary, Duane Magill, W9DQD, 730 N. 6th St, Grand Junction, Colorado, U.S.A. Copies are preferably to be made in English or French, but may be made in the language of the member."
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The WFSRA was apparently one of the many, many peace organizations that were born in the interwar period in response to the carnage of WWI. In addition to the QST correspondence mentioned by David, Google shows WFSRA in many articles in UK ham and SWL publications, and there is one mention of it in the May 1954 edition of Boy's Life magazine.
Much as the CBLA seems to have been presaged by the FMLA, the IBEW seems to have much in common with the WFSRA.
Monday, September 27, 2021
Lighthouse Larry's GE Sideband Handbook
Saturday, September 25, 2021
VE7SL's Beautiful Single Tube Transmitter and Single Tube Regen Receiver
RECEIVER: https://qsl.net/ve7sl/neophyte.html
TRANSMITTER: https://qsl.net/ve7sl/neotx.html?fbclid=IwAR3cM6tSRjyTsNouHWVz_buuzz4C9O-IwQbdZM5dekkle69ZW7-JBQcHTVI
Three cheers for Steve VE7SL! I've been linking to his blog for several years, but somehow I missed this magnificent red rig.
Steve's online notebook: https://www.qsl.net/ve7sl/
Steve's blog: http://ve7sl.blogspot.com/