Just go to http://soldersmoke.com. On that archive page, just click on the blue hyperlinks and your audio player should play that episode.
http://soldersmoke.com
The other day I was complaining to Pete N6QW that 17 meters still seems to be in very poor shape. I can hear 6Y6Y around mid day, but I don't often hear Europeans. I did year my friend Mike EI0CL yesterday on 17, but conditions were not good. Pete asked, "Where is Cycle 25?" Good question. The Space Weather Center has the answer.
Their Solar Cycle Progression page is up-to-date. With the slider below each chart you can go back as far as 1750. Check out Cycle 19. I was born near the peak (TRGHS). Pete was on the air during that cycle. Cycle 23 also looked pretty good. I was out in the Azores then (2000-2003) -- no wonder I could work VK and ZL with a 5 watt DSB rig.
I like the little solar conditions widget that has appeared in the left hand column of this page, and I am grateful to the provider, but the widget just doesn't update regularly. So I think I'm going to switch to a link from the Space Weather Prediction Center that shows the numbers we really need: Solar Flux Index (SFI), Sunspot Number (SN), A index, K index. (Please let me know what you think about this change.)
Here is the link to the Solar Cycle Progression Charts (be sure to use the sliders):
It has taken me a while to put hands on keyboard to send you this message, but having seen or heard a few more of your references to Jean Shepherd, I felt I must. Being a fan of vintage radio equipment and the American scene of the late 1930s, sometime back I acquired a very nice circa 1938 Zenith 5-S-119 AM/Shortwave radio.
Though it had been recently re-capped, it took some effort to get the thing working (needed a new power transformer), and still needs to be aligned, but it made a nice addition to my 1930s NYC Art Deco-inspired office. One reason I bought it was to add a Bluetooth receiver to it so I could listen to podcasts, etc, from my phone. I like the big electromagnetic speaker that those radios have and thought it would be cool to bring this one back to life. I picked up a small Bluetooth receiver board and a power supply for a few dollars online and got it working in the Zenith with no difficulty, except for some AC hum and oscillator noise that I will work on when I have time. So, success!
But here is the Jean Shepherd part. I recall one of his broadcasts in which he offered his theory that every radio transmission ever made is still out there, traveling further and further into intergalactic space and getting weaker and weaker, but still there. What an idea that was. I would say he is right. I have pondered the idea ever since. So being also a Winston Churchill fan, what would be the first recording I would play through the Bluetooth? What else but his 1940 blood, toil, tears, and sweat speech! So there was the scene — the Churchill speech playing the same audio waveform through a radio that might very well have played it live (or close to live) back in 1940! Almost (though not quite) like detecting the original still-traveling radio signal out there past the star Phi2 Ceti or wherever it is now!
Well that was a quick adventure this past summer that I thought you might appreciate.
"Gilbert believes that childhood hardships—including at age three losing his father in World War II, leaving his mother and three other children penniless—force one to be resourceful. Before and during his teenage years, he had access to a plethora of inexpensive military surplus gear which greatly helped to make him inventive. Gilbert laments that today's aspiring engineers are lacking the visceral experience of handling and hefting large coils and tuning capacitors, transformers and vacuum tubes, and such. Today’s surplus circuit boards are all but useless as a source of inspiration, or even “spare parts” to tinker with."
More on this project in due course. Lots of soul in this machine.
I'd forgotten about this article -- thanks to Pete Eaton for reminding me. Click on the images for a better look at the article. For an even clearer view, download the images and then open them on your computer.
Thanks to Thomas K4SWL of the SWLing Post for alerting us to this gem. Listen to Sarah Johnston's program describing the origins and early years of broadcast radio in New Zealand.
This wonderful recording and article reminded me of a bit of ham radio history involving New Zealand, and someone who was involved who had a surname similar to mine. The ARRL book "200 Meters and Down" by Clinton DeSoto reports on page 91 that on May 22, 1924, radio amateurs for the first time made a contact between New Zealand and South America. Carlos Braggio operated rCB8 in Buenos Aires. In New Zealand, J.H. O'Meara was at the key in Gisborne.
Writing of the early amateurs, DeSoto wrote (on page 92):
"Why did they do it? None but one of them can know, and only he would know the feeling of driving ambition, the relentless call of work to be done, the gnawing discontent that hungers for accomplishment; it would be hard to put into words. The strange thing is that there were folk, everywhere on earth it seemed, who had that urge."
"The gnawing discontent..." That is what Jean Shepherd had when he couldn't get his Heising Modulator to work properly. We've all been there.
The last line in the quote from DeSoto's book speaks to one of the major themes of this blog and of the SolderSmoke podcast: the way in which people all around the world got interested in radio in much the same way. So many of us, all around the world, often at age 13 or 14, suddenly got interested in radio. We all had (and have!) "The Knack." This is really very nice -- it is something that we have in common, something that pulls us together.
Our friend Jack NG2E is a homebrewer. He is also a Summits-On-The-Air guy. He does much of his SOTA operations along Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park. Jack's Story Map method of documenting this SOTA trip is very cool.
Elisa and I are frequent visitors to this amazing park. Both my kids went to college in the Shenandoah valley, and the park starts just one hour by car west of us. It is a beautiful place. The Appalachian Trail runs through the park; we have crossed paths with "through hikers" who are walking from Maine to Georgia. We have also met up with more than one Black Bear in the park (see below). My son Billy and I launched our Green Hornet rocket from a farm in the Shenandoah valley: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2017/05/still-photos-and-slow-motion-video-from.html
I really like Jack's use of both HF and 2 meter FM. This makes me think that I should blow the dust off my Baofeng HT and bring it out to the Shenandoah next time we visit. Jack's 20 meter CW contact with Christian F4WBN in the Pyrenees added a nice element of transatlantic mountain symmetry.
I know that Jack wants to include a homebrew rig in his SOTA operations. That would significantly add to the already very high level of operational coolness. Perhaps Colin M1BUU or Paul VK3HN could provide some suggestions or encouragement in this area.
It is especially appropriate for us to use that Irish phrase because the design of the rig's new final amplifier is out of Ireland. Our friend Dean KK4DAS added a 16 watt RF amplifier based on a design by EI9GQ to his homebrew N6QW Simple SSB rig. Note the IBEW label on the top.
Here is Dean's blog post on this wonderful project (with video and more pictures).
I usually try to listen in on the Old Military Radio Net on Saturday mornings (3885 kc). Lately I listen with my Mate for the Mighty Midget receiver.
This morning's session was especially good. For me the highlight was when Masa AB9MQ called in from Normal, Illinois using his Central Electronics 20A (see below). That was one of the earliest SSB rigs. A phasing rig, it also ran AM (which was what Masa was using this morning). He had it paired up with a Central Electronics 458 VFO. You folks really need to check out Masa's QRZ.com page:
Three cheers for Alan Wolke W2AEW, truly one of the great guys of homebrew ham radio. Alan's wonderful YouTube videos have enlightened hams all around the world. He is always there to answer questions and help hams (like me) who are at times struggling to understand technical concepts.
Photo from the November 13, 2021 ARRL Hudson Division Awards Luncheon. That’s Alan with the ARRL CEO David Minster NA2AA, the Nobel Prize winning Dr. Joe Taylor K1JT, and 2021 Technical Achievement winner David DeCoons WO2X. Alan was presented with the division’s 2020 Technical Achievement award.
Wow, I was really pleased to learn that Peter Parker VK3YE was a 2021 inductee into the QRP Hall of Fame.
This is a richly deserved honor. Peter Parker has been making extraordinary contributions to QRP and homebrewing for many years. I remember reaching out to him when I was just getting started with homebrew phone gear. I considered him a guru of DSB. He helped me a lot. Peter Parker was interviewed on the SolderSmoke podcast in 2013:
Peter has published many books and has produced many YouTube videos. He hosts an annual QRP gathering in his beloved home-town of Melbourne Australia that gets attention from solder-melters around the world.
Jerry KI4IO is such an amazing homebrewer that he has been dubbed "The Wizard of Warrenton." The picture above shows Jerry during the early 1980s in the shack of Father Moran 9N1MM in Nepal. Jerry was also in India. (I previously posted the info on Jerry's time in India and Nepal, but I didn't have this picture. The picture makes it worthwhile to post the story again.) From Jerry's QRZ.com page:
-------------------------------
While in India I was licensed at VU2LHO and worked a lot of US hams with a 135' flat-top and open-wire feed. I had the antenna strung between two bamboo towers atop the embassy housing 2nd-story roof-top. I also put up a 3/8 wave vertical on the roof for 10 meters. That little antenna had 110 radials stapled into the roof screen and worked very well! The rig was a HW-101. I was in Kathmandu, Nepal from early 1980 to late 1982. I could not obtain a license there, but became good friends with Father Moran, 9N1MM, and would often spend time up at his place putting his Drake station on CW. Pretty cool being real DX! Back in the states in late 1982.
Here I am at one of my many visits to Father Moran's shack.
I got in touch with Jerry because Pete Eaton reminded me that Jerry had homebrewed a discrete transistor version of the NE602 Gilbert Cell Mixer, a device that I am very interested in. Nick G8INE also built one.
Armed now with a NanoVNA, I took a look at the passband of the 5 MHz filter in my Barebones Superhet (BBRX) W4OP built it on a Circuit Board Specialist Board. He put a 5 MHz CW filter in there; I broadened the passband for phone by changing the values of the capacitors. Here is what the passband now looks like in the NanoVNA:
This is what DeMaw would call an "LSB filter." You would get much better opposite sideband rejection by using it with an LSB signal, placing the BFO/Carrier Oscillator slightly above the passband, in this case near 5.002 MHz.
When I first built the down converter to get the 18.150 MHz signal down to the 7 MHz range (where I had the receiver running) I used an 11 MHz crystal for the NE602's local oscillator. But this created a big problem: 18.150 - 11 = 7.150 MHz. That is in the 40 meter band, but note: NO SIDEBAND INVERSION. Then in the BBRX 7.150 MHz - 2.150 MHz = 5 MHz (the filter frequency) but again: NO SIDEBAND INVERSION. The signal started as a USB signal and remained a USB signal.
I briefly tried shifting the BFO frequency to the other side of the filter passband. If I could get it to around 4.985 MHz, it might work, but because the filter passband was so large, and because the crystal frequency was so low, I was unable to shift the crystal frequency that far. In any case the results would have been less than ideal because of the "LSB" shape of the filter. Back to the drawing board.
I decided to cause one sideband inversion.
At first I put a 25.175 MHz crystal module in my down converter. This shifted the 17 meter phone band down to the 40 meter CW band. It worked, but I cold hear strong 40 meter CW signals being picked up by the wiring of the receiver (the box is plastic!). I went back to the module jar in search of frequency that would move 17 meter phone to the 40 meter area (so I would not have to re-build the BBRX front end) but outside the actual 40 meter band.
I ended up using a 25 MHz crystal in the down converter. 25 MHz - 18.150 MHz = 6.85 MHz WITH SIDEBAND INVERSION. After checking on the NA5B Web SDR to see that there are no strong signals in the 6.835 to 6.89 MHz range, I retuned the output circuit on the converter and tweaked the input capacitor on the Barebones. I shifted the VFO frequency down to 1.835 to 1.89 MHz and put the BFO at 5.002 MHz. The receiver was inhaling on 17 meter SSB.
One more change to the BBRX: in his June 1982 QST article, DeMaw warned that trying to get speaker level audio out of the 741 op amp that he used would result in audio distortion. And it did. So I put one of those little LM386 boards I have been using into the BBRX box. I just ran audio in from the wiper of the AF gain pot. It sounds good.
In effect this is my first double-conversion receiver. I usually prefer single conversion, but this project has highlighted for me one of the advantages of double conversion for someone like me who eschews digital VFOs: Starting with a crystal filter at 5 MHz, with double conversion I could keep the frequency of the LC VFO low enough to ensure frequency stability. That would have been impossible with a 5 MHz IF in a single conversion 17 meter rig. But if I were starting from scratch for a 17 meter rig, I could stick with single conversion by building the filter at 20 MHz, keeping the VFO in the manageable 2 MHz range.
Now, on to the SSB transmitter. The Swan 240 dual crystal lattice filter from the early 1960s needs some impedance matching.
"SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" is now available as an e-book for Amazon's Kindle.
Here's the site:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004V9FIVW
Testing Unun losses
-
In his recent feedback, Richard, VK3TXD, suggested I measure the loss in
the Unun built with Jaycar LO128 core by making a second one and wiring
them back ...
An Inline RF Step Attenuator for QRPp Work
-
I don’t need to explain the attraction of low power operation; if you’re
reading this, the chances are that you are already a convert. I’ve been
operating ...
A 51S-1 Restoration Story
-
I came across my Collins 51S-1 in a big junkyard in Ankara, Turkey around
2012. It was in a pile with a lot of other electronic scrap, probably from
one o...
New QRP Cluster Online From OM0ET and OM6APN
-
By DX EXPLORER
DX EXPLORER
Paul OM0ET and Peter OM6APN recently launched a new cluster dedicated to
QRP operations. Have a look and I hope you will enjoy...
3D Printing The Hadley 114mm Newtonian Telescope
-
Yes, we’re building a 3D Printed Newtonian Telescope called Hadley. It’s
being printed in PETG and in the video below, I give a quick tour. My build
isn’...
3D printed project boxes
-
I have been busy with some other things that have kept me away from
electronics projects for quite a while. Now I can get back to them, but
realize I n...
Daylight Again – An all Analog Radio
-
What’s all this? In 10 seconds, A high performance, 7MHz, 5 watt SSB rig
Draws just 24 mA of current 90 dB dynamic range, 80 dB close-in dynamic
range 3D ...
Adding Enclosure to your sBitx Boards Order
-
The early buyers of the sBitx board set who bought it for $270 USD might
want to also add the enclosure (box) for in the kit. What you will now get
is a f...
Digi-chirp! Digital synthesis of ‘nostalgic’ CW
-
The bottom ends of 80, 40 and 20m are not what they used to be. For
starters, the busiest part is the digital segment where computers talk to
computers – l...
-
A Simple Speech Processor
(For QRP/SSB Homebrew Transceivers )
Over the last few weeks I had been thinking to build a small AF speech
processor to add to...
A New Look for your uBitx!
-
Adding a "Cool Blue" Display to your uBitx!
The standard "green background" with black lettering frequently reminds me
that I suffer from Chronic seasickn...