Hello Bill,
It has been a while! I don't know if you remember but I emailed you back in September 2010, introducing myself as a fellow amateur listening to your podcasts.
I had just moved from France and received back then my FCC vanity callsign K3DY.
It took me a while to get my ham shack back together but finally I was on the bands again!
Recently, I started re reading your book, very inspirational. Since my very first license (as F8CKH) at 16, my interests have always been into the design / homebrew as well as QRP & CW. Why on earth would a teenager do that? I think I have the knack. My motto is: "Don't turn it on, take it apart!!!".
Anyway, it has been a lot of fun to work on some various projects (the one in progress now is a LC meter using a LCD display and a PIC 16F627). It took longer than expected to get to that point as I had to work on a PIC programmer interface as well as refresh my C language programming skills! I recently discovered that mouser is offering some nice project enclosures. In the past, my finished products were kind of "ugly" (to the average Joe not us of course!) so I am trying to work on that.
Oh also, last time I emailed you, I talked about my grand father EF8ETA, F8ATA then F8KE in the late 20s and how seeing his electronic lab and radios when I was 7 or 8 inevitably changed my life! After all this, I - had - to get my license and get involved!
My father, also a ham, emailed me a picture of F8KE's shack in 1929/1930. My grand father was at the time 19 years old. Also attached to the email are two scans of his QSL cards dated as well 1929 or so. He was using a classic design for the era, based on a Hartley Oscillator. I am trying to imagine how it was to get the knowledge back then on how to build a station (TX, RX, antenna) but also how to get the parts! When people now complain that they can't finish up a homebrew project because they can't find a FT50-3 core, well they should think of how it must have been almost 100 years ago.
Have a great weekend!
73, K3DY
Antoine
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"
http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm
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Sunday, April 14, 2013
Friday, April 12, 2013
Happy World Cosmonautics Day!
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Labels:
Russia,
satellites,
space program
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Arduino and Bugs (real bugs! billions of them!)
http://blog.makezine.com/2013/04/10/swarmageddon-cicadas-helping-crowdsource-citizen-science/
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Labels:
Arduino
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Imaging Across the EM Spectrum
Amazing images here:
http://blog.makezine.com/2013/04/09/somewhere-outside-the-rainbow-imaging-across-the-em-spectrum/
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
http://blog.makezine.com/2013/04/09/somewhere-outside-the-rainbow-imaging-across-the-em-spectrum/
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Labels:
EM Waves,
photography
Monday, April 8, 2013
A Nice Workshop in Germany
Wannabe-Choppers from Thorsten Indra on Vimeo.
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Sputnik Schematic Found!
We were searching for this last year. Oleg, RV3GM, finally found the schematic for the transmitter in the Sputnik satellite.
ftp://ftp.radio.ru/pub/2013/04/55.pdf
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Labels:
Russia,
satellites,
space program
Monday, April 1, 2013
SolderSmoke Podcast #151
SolderSmoke Podcast #151 is available.
http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke151.mp3
April 1, 2013
Topics:
-- Spring not yet sprung
-- Dominican nostalgia wave hits SolderSmoke HQ
-- Rebuild of my first transmitter
-- Dusting off the Barebones Superhet
-- SolderSmoke Book Corner:
Ben Franklin by Walter Issacson
How Arthur C. Clarke handled his Mailbag
"The New Cool" Dean Kamen's house/shack
Transistor Radios by Ronald Quan
-- New SolderSmoke Advertising Campaign
-- QRP vs. QRO:
Put 40 milliwatt "Shark Fin" QRSS rig on the air
Being lured into QRO amp construction projects
-- Reverse Beacon Network
-- Looking for my Elmer (or his son)
-- MAILBAG
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Labels:
SolderSmoke Podcast
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