tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75901766491681854282021-12-04T17:03:34.254-05:00SolderSmoke Daily NewsServing the worldwide community of radio-electronic homebrewers.
Providing blog support to the SolderSmoke podcast:
http://soldersmoke.comBill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.comBlogger3028125SoldersmokeDailyNewshttps://feedburner.google.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-27013881443515617122021-12-04T09:49:00.001-05:002021-12-04T09:49:54.502-05:00Dean's Supercharged, 16-Watt, Furlough 2040, Simple SSB Rig 'Tis a thing of beauty. 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). https://Bill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-29213917263075300492021-12-04T07:21:00.000-05:002021-12-04T07:21:14.602-05:00A Great Morning on the Old Military Radio Net: AB9MQ's Central Electronics 20A, W3EMD's Dynamotor, WU2D Just a portion of Masa's shackI 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 Bill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-77486507464692466022021-12-03T07:24:00.005-05:002021-12-03T07:44:17.680-05:00Alan Wolke W2AEW: YouTube Silver Play Button Award, and ARRL Hudson Division 2020 Technical Achievement Award 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 Bill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-39400078973853922432021-12-02T07:23:00.001-05:002021-12-02T07:36:35.813-05:00Peter Parker VK3YE Inducted Into QRP Hall of FameWow, 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 Bill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-65888241414166541602021-12-01T07:04:00.000-05:002021-12-01T07:04:03.932-05:00KI4IO in India and Nepal, and Discrete Homebrew Gilbert CellsJerry 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 Bill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-20090312046809154572021-11-30T05:42:00.007-05:002021-11-30T05:43:39.767-05:00Putting a Barebones Superhet on 17 Meters with an NE602 Converter (Video)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 Bill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-12642132219496074922021-11-28T16:17:00.002-05:002021-11-28T16:20:15.882-05:00How To Understand the NE-602 and the Gilbert Cell Mixer I think the key to understanding the Gilbert Cell Double Balanced mixer is to separate out the three tasks that this device completes, and consider them one at a time, using different diagrams: 1) It mixes two signals to produce sum and difference outputs. 2) It balances out the RF input. 3) It balances out the LO input. Task 1 --Bill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-46656334347990123862021-11-27T07:06:00.003-05:002021-11-27T08:05:05.596-05:00The Galway Radio Experimenters Club My old friend Mike EI0CL used to remind me that hams in Ireland are granted not just an amateur radio license, but an amateur radio experimenter's license, with an emphasis on experimentation. I think we can see that emphasis in the newsletter of the club. It has a remarkably high level of technical content. Check it out, and look at more information on the club: https://www.galwayradio.com/ Bill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-35670251910390824142021-11-24T07:11:00.005-05:002021-11-24T07:11:49.523-05:00Gloria -- A Netflix Series about a Shortwave Broadcast Station in PortugalRarely if ever will we come across a high quality NETFLIX series built around a shortwave broadcast transmitter. But that is what we have in Gloria. It is really good. We were especially interested in it because we lived in Portugal for three years. In addition to all the intrigue and drama you will catch glimpses of broadcast antennas, big transmitting tubes, and one out-of-focus shot of Bill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-38617652939005266592021-11-23T06:14:00.004-05:002021-11-25T13:46:52.307-05:00Jagadish Chandra BoseJagadish Chandra Bose (30 November 1858 – 23 November 1937)Acharya Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, was a Bengali polymath, physicist, biologist, botanist, archaeologist, as well as an early writer of science fiction. He pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave optics, made very significant contributions to plant science, and laid the foundations of experimental science in the Indian Bill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-37782952352998323372021-11-21T06:55:00.000-05:002021-11-21T06:55:01.891-05:00KG7TR's Magnificent 75S-2B Receiver -- Tubes, an Si5351, an Arduino, a Bit of Collins, and a Bit of a Drake 2-B Oh man, I share this with much trepidation because the last time I posted something about the work of Mike KG7TR, Pete N6QW said he felt like putting all of his own work in the dumpster, so much better was the artistry of KG7TR. This receiver is so cool and so well-done that we now might have to post a guard outside the N6QW shack -- heck Mike even has an Arduino Uno and an Si5351 in there! Bill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-47780811591313647342021-11-20T07:46:00.000-05:002021-11-20T07:46:18.681-05:00The Double Crystal Lattice Filter in the Swan 240 -- Smoothing it out with a NanoVNA In SolderSmoke Podcast #234, I said that I was scrutinizing the filter from the Swan 240 that I had picked up around 1994 in the Dominican Republic. I cannibalized it out in the Azores in the early 2000s and used the parts to build -- among other things -- my first SSB transmitter. I never really focused much attention on the filter that I pulled out of that old rig -- I was just happy that it Bill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-16780782112615734422021-11-20T06:49:00.000-05:002021-11-20T06:49:38.946-05:00Video of SolderSmoke Podcast #234See also: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2021/11/soldersmoke-podcast-234-pssst-kwm-1-vhf.htmlBill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-13804930642549981092021-11-17T11:34:00.001-05:002021-11-17T11:44:07.013-05:00SolderSmoke Podcast #234: PSSST, KWM-1, VHF Woes, Mighty Midget, TinySA, 17-12 Dual-Bander Advice Needed. MAILBAGhttp://www.gadgeteer.us/17SSB.HTMSolderSmoke Podcast #234 is available: http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke234.mp3Roots of SolderSmoke: The "Click and Clack" of ham radio? Influences: Jean Shepherd, CarTalk, Shortwave stations.Steve "Snort Rosin" Smith WB6TNL? No. Steve "Aching Sinus" Smith WA6SOC Pete's Bench: PSSST Super Simple SSB -- 7 Transistors. Switching IF Module: PSST Details: https:Bill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-23962843655280986122021-11-15T06:36:00.000-05:002021-11-15T06:36:42.579-05:00SSB History: Selling SSB in 1954 K9YA Telegraph ran (on Facebook) this ad from 1954. It provides an interesting view of where phone operations were in that year. Note that Dale was so intent on selling SSB gear that they were willing to make on-the-air schedules to demonstrate SSB superiority. Dale claims that with SSB you could have TWO roundtable QSOs on the same frequency, with one group on USB and the other on LSB. I Bill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-37182709169233756882021-11-13T06:24:00.002-05:002021-11-13T11:15:19.206-05:00"First Wireless" 1922 book by Allen Chapman with Foreword by Jack Binns (free download) The cover caught my eye. Thanks to the K9YA Telegraph for posting it. I think it captures the allure of radio that most of us felt when we were kids of this age. Fortunately this 1922 book is available for free download: https://www.fulltextarchive.com/pdfs/The-Radio-Boys-First-Wireless.pdfIt is all about radiotelephone. They are phone guys. Just like us. And they were homebrewers. They Bill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-90801261351000833362021-11-12T06:25:00.002-05:002021-11-12T09:34:05.153-05:00Mate for the Mighty Midget with 6 kHz Ceramic FilterI built this receiver back in 1998, but I continue to have fun tinkering with it. I wrote an article about it for "Electric Radio" magazine (Number 115). One of the major shortcomings was the crystal filter that Lew McCoy prescribed. It was very difficult to get 455 kHz crystals to work well as filters. At various times I've had all kinds of replacements in there in place of Lew's filter: a Bill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-34494523969139164782021-11-11T05:52:00.002-05:002021-11-11T06:02:31.826-05:00Scott WA9WFA's Beautiful HBR-13 Receiver (3 videos)This is Scott WA9WFA's first homebrew construction project. He did an amazing job on a very complex project: a 13 tube superhet receiver. It features plug-in coils for multi-band coverage, dual conversion with IFs at 1600 kHz and 100 kHz, and several regenerative stages. Scott's construction is top notch. He tells us that he had been working on this receiver for several years, so long in factBill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-9266602987730446882021-11-10T06:58:00.002-05:002021-11-10T06:58:44.113-05:00Right to Repair UpdateAllan WA9IRS sent me this article. Thanks Allan. https://www.digitalengineering247.com/article/right-to-repair-movement-attracting-attention?oly_enc_id=4802E9408878H3Y The French "repairability index" is an interesting concept. I wonder how modern ham radio "radios" would score. I think our homebrew rigs would max out the index. Pete has commented on manufacturing processes that do (or don't) Bill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-89128398377675345552021-11-09T08:57:00.001-05:002021-11-09T08:57:41.882-05:00Zigbee Radios on the Ingenuity Mars HelicopterIn his recent interview with Eric Guth, Courtney Duncan N5BF told us that the communication between the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars and the Perseverance rover is being handled by off-the-shelf Zigbee 900 MHz transceivers. I did some Googling and found some more details on this: ----------------------------"Once separated from the host spacecraft (lander or rover), the Mars Helicopter can only Bill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-77378344481659603132021-11-08T13:06:00.004-05:002021-11-08T13:09:09.661-05:00Did You Contact My Novice Station WN2QHL in 1973-1974? Please Check My List and Let Me KnowYesterday I went through my novice logs from 1973-1974. I was in Congers, NY and my call was WN2QHL. Please take a look at the callsigns from my log and let me know if we had a contact. I will then let you have more details from my log. Novice Contacts
1973-1974 from WN2QHL
WN2NEC
WN2RTH
WA4DCL
WN4CBB
WN9LLX
WN1RWX
WN4ETR
WB2CSO
WN8QHM
WN8ONA
WN4KID
WN8PMF
WN2INN
WN2ECU
WN4DSO
Bill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-6186816603794224302021-11-08T05:57:00.006-05:002021-11-08T05:59:14.066-05:00Save $2970! Build this $30 DIY Microphone!There are a number of good ideas in this video. We've known for a long time that many expensive mics are really simple, cheap mic capsules in fancy packaging. This video takes a $12 mic capsule (which looks a bit like the ones we are using for the podcast), adds come amplification, a USB interface, and some really cool looking bronze packaging to come up with a very nice microphone. I liked hisBill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-45431233693001447112021-11-07T10:16:00.002-05:002021-11-07T10:26:27.568-05:00JPL, Mars Helicopter, Cube Sats, Ham Radio and more: N5BF talks to Eric Guth 4Z1UG This morning Eric Guth has a really interesting interview on his QSO Today podcast. Courtney Duncan N5BF had a full career at JPL and is the current president of the San Bernardino Microwave Society. There is a lot of interesting stuff in this interview, much of it about space exploration. Courtney tells us about how experience with re-purposing radio gear came in handy at JPL. For example, Bill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-61344755351045595572021-11-06T18:11:00.001-04:002021-11-06T18:11:16.800-04:00M0NTV's "Crystal Filters for the Fearful" (video)I really liked Nick M0NTV's approach to making a crystal filter (see video above). He really simplifies a process that desperately needs simplification. I remember when I was building my first superhet receiver, I came across Doug DeMaw's schematic for a crystal tester that would allow me to properly build the filter. But the piece of test gear was far more complicated than the receiver I was Bill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7590176649168185428.post-45421214717474978772021-11-05T06:11:00.000-04:002021-11-05T06:11:15.412-04:00The Importance of Keeping the Noise FLAT A few days ago I put up a blog post about using a noise generator (in my case my cheap FeelTech sig generator) and my TinySA spectrum analyzer to look at the passband of a crystal filter. I was using the 9 MHz filter used by Dean KK4DAS and the Vienna Wireless Makers Group. The idea is simple: insert broadband noise into the input. The filter should pass more of the noise that falls within itsBill Mearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07662500663603350847noreply@blogger.com9