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
There is so much great homebrewing going on down-under. It makes me jealous. And so much of it is for phone. FB. I really like VK3YE's sand graphic proclaiming to the world (or at least to the beach!) that a BITX40 to BITX40 contact had been made.
Looks like both rigs were using VK3YE's ceramic resonator mod for the VFO.
Of course, I love it. MOSFETS! NE602's! 10.7 Mc IF cans! Cycles, not hertz! And a Tayloe Quadrature Sampling Detector made from junkbox parts from the Reagan administration. FB Keith. And the frequency display is icing on the cake.
Bill: I thought the group might find my new Franken-SDR interesting. It is an SDR with a superhet front end. I wanted to play with an SDR but I didn't want to get a kit or buy parts, so I scrounged through he drawers and found a mux chip cd-4016 circa-1980 some old 7400 logic that is probably per-1980. This could make a QSD but only very low frequencies. Well I thought how about at IF frequencies? The frontend is a MOSFET mixer (1975) , the 10.7 IF is a dual gate MOSFET (1975), the second mixer is a NE602, the IF cans are all stagger tuned to give a bandwidth of 50kcs. The only thing modern is the DDS but I old-time-ifyed it with BCD switches. Keith N6ORS
Jerry W1ZB and I met up on 40 a week or so ago. He was running a Hallicrafters HT-37. This spurred me to clear up the T/R problem that had knocked me out of the competition on Straight Key Night (I'm sure I would have won!). One spray of DeOxit D5 on the HT37 relay contacts was all it took. Jerry and I set up a schedule for this morning on 40 minutes. Above you can see a short video of the first part of our HT-37 to HT-37 contact. Jerry has an amazing collection of beautiful old tube radios. Check out his QRZ.com page: https://www.qrz.com/lookup/w1zb
BTW: Speaking of old rigs talking to identical old rigs: Last night on 40 I worked TI2NF in San Jose, Costa Rica. He was running a Collins KWM-2 to a Collins 30-L1. It was real nice to talk to somebody who was using an unusual rig. Right after we finished, VE3OCZ called TI2NF. VE3OCZ was ALSO running a KWM-2 to a 30-L1. TRGHS.
W5KUB has a really good interview with Farhan. There are several spots where the Skype connection gets quite choppy, but hang in there -- it gets better. Farhan provides a lot of good info on the history of the BITX rigs, his design philosophy, and the importance of the EMRFD book. He also talks about how the BITX 40 Module is produced. And he talks a bit about possible future rigs. Great stuff. I was very pleased to hear that Farhan is trying to eliminate the need for his FT-817 (he currently needs it for its general coverage receiver) so that he can have a completely homebrew hamshack. FB!
This is one of those projects that sort of just happened. First I built an Si5351/Arduino synthesizer with a small OLED I2C display (program by Thomas LA3PNA -- thanks Thomas). Tom Hall AK2B up in New York helped me get the Si5351 VFO and BFO going -- thanks Tom. Then, over the holidays I decided to build a rig of some sort around the Si5351. I started with a superhet receiver using an NE602 as the mixer and another as the product detector. I power the NE602 with an 8 volt regulator from W8NSA -- thanks Jim. I made a 4 crystal 11 MHz Cohn filter using crystals left over from a BITX project. The software from AADE helped me design the matching networks to match the filter to the 1500 ohm impedances of the NE602s. I built the circuits on a milled board sent to me by Pete Juliano N6QW -- thanks Pete! I put a dual tuned circuit at the front end, going into a MOSFET RF amplifier. For audio amp I have an LM386. The whole thing is screwed down to a barbeque grilling plank from Whole Foods -- thanks Whole Foods! (This seems appropriate -- the "O" in OLED is for "Organic"!) It sounds nice. I may eventually try to put some relays in to switch the NE602s and the filter around to make this a transceiver.
Mike Herr WA6ARA was on 40 meters with old gear this Straight Key Night. Mike was receiving with a venerable Heath HR10B. One of his favorite QSOs was with Keith W6SIY; Keith was running Conar twins that had the kind of "swing" that stirs up the kind of memories that SKN is all about. FB. Mike made a bandscan recording of what 40 sounded like, and he made another of W6SIY's beautiful signal. You can listen by clicking on these links: http://soldersmoke.com/SKNBANSCAN.mp3 http://soldersmoke.com/SKNQSO.mp3 My own SKN effort was cut short this year by technical difficulties. The HT-37's relays stopped doing their thing. Probably the relay drive tube going soft. But I did manage to make two great contacts on 40: WA6URY is in Los Angeles. This was a very timely contact -- my wife and I went to see the movie "La La Land" on New Year's eve -- the film features a lot of beautiful LA scenery. Dan was running a kilowatt to a 2 element Yagi on 40. He too owns an HT-37 and a Drake 2B. He was on a straight key "with dirty contacts." FB Dan, thanks. And then I worked W1PID! Wow! Jim is well known for his operations from field locations and for his intrepid participation in many of the radio adventures of Michael Rainey AA1TJ. Jim was on the Maine sea coast expedition when Michael was attempting to cross the pond with his voice-powered radio. On SKN Jim was in New Hampshire running 35 watts to a Windom off-center fed dipole. His Morse key is a Kent.TRGHS.Thanks Jim.
"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
Free e-Book version of The ARRL Antenna Book
-
Many thanks to Alex (KR1ST), on Mastodon, who notes that the e-Book version
of The ARRL Antenna Book 25th Edition is free on the ARRL website. Simply
go t...
International sounds for the umbraphiles
-
Hi I’m FastRadioBurst 23 from the Imaginary Stations crew letting you know
about this week’s shows. The first broadcast is to Europe via Shortwave
Gold on...
March 28, 2024. Just another Day at the Office.
-
FT-8 with a RPi Zero W
Given the FT-8 achievement maybe even QUISK would work on the RPi Zero W
for a really small SDR Transceiver.
But all that g...
The GM3OXX “Oxo” Transmitter
-
As well as the small stash of finished projects that grace my living space,
I also have two small boxes containing various boards. Some of them are
boards ...
Handy breakout board for Raspberry Pi Pico
-
Just picked up a few of these breakout boards. I'm not sure that I like the
screw terminals but it is handy having LEDs on each GPIO pin. I'm really
gettin...
Repairing a dead Kenwood TS-850S
-
Recently, a Kenwood TS-850S - a radio from the mid-early 1990s - crossed my
workbench. While I'm not in the "repair business", I *do* fix my own
radios,...
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...