Month: November 2015

Nightmare Turns Real: “Rig Here is a Raspberry Pi OM, and I’m listening to you with my Dongle…”

As with many other nightmarish things, this one was launched at the world on Halloween. It all seems a bit flaky, but we knew this was coming. Don’t complain to me about the lack of low-pass filters, SSB testing on 7.000 MHz, or the rather nebulous identity of the creator…. I’m just the messenger here. And remember that I am a HARDWARE Defined Radio, Discrete Component, “Menus are for Restaurants” and (now) “Pi’s are for eating” kind of ham.
Here it is:
http://www.rtl-sdr.com/transmitting-fm-am-ssb-sstv-and-fsq-with-just-a-raspberry-pi/


CB to 10 Conversion? The Radio Gods Seem Ambivilent

A lot of trouble can begin with a 5 dollar purchase, as I found out after I bought a nickel bag of CB at a hamfest.

The embarrassing little Good Buddy appliance has been hidden away in my junkbox for a while. I pulled it out after watching Pete’s videos about the conversion of his Ten-Tec Model 150A commercial rig. I thought perhaps I could use a little DDS or PLL board to bring that CB rig onto 10 or maybe even 12 meters.

The first thing I noticed when I opened it up was the smell — there was a very strong chemical electronic smell. It was as if components and wires and adhesives and PC boards had been venting inside that case for several decades. This wasn’t that pleasant electronics smell that you get from a Drake 2B or a DX-100. No, this was different. It gave me a bit of headache. That’s a bad sign. I began to wonder if the Radio Gods might be sending me a message.

But then I found this very cool conversion site:
http://www.jcoffman.net/WB5RUA/10_meter_AM_conversion_w_Photos.html

Wow, a few snips, a few jumper wires on the PLL board, and a few coil tweaks and that thing would be on 10 meter AM. I also learned that the “Cybernet” board that was stinking up my shack was VERY common in CB rigs, so there is a lot of info about it on the internet. This thing seemed to be crying out for a quick and easy conversion to ham-dom.

So I don’t know which way to go with this one. I’m getting contradictory signals from the Radio Gods. What do you guys think? Garbage can or workbench?


Rocket Knack in the Congo

Ground control for Mr. Keka’s space program is a shed with a tin roof. Inside are old computers and televisions.

This guy clearly has a rocketry version of The Knack. Busted by the police for a match-stick rocket at age 17, Jean Patrice stuck with his dreams of a Congolese space program. Years later, when the rat flying in one of his rockets crashed and burned, he declared that the varmint had “died for science.” Indeed he did. That is what I said about the lizards and mice killed in the payload chamber of my Astron X-Ray Estes rocket during the late 1960’s. A moment of silence please…

Imagine how difficult it would be to make any progress on something like this in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Godspeed Jean-Patrice!

http://www.wsj.com/articles/one-africans-personal-space-race-turns-vermin-into-astronauts-1446239060

Rocket Knack in the Congo

Ground control for Mr. Keka’s space program is a shed with a tin roof. Inside are old computers and televisions.

This guy clearly has a rocketry version of The Knack. Busted by the police for a match-stick rocket at age 17, Jean Patrice stuck with his dreams of a Congolese space program. Years later, when the rat flying in one of his rockets crashed and burned, he declared that the varmint had “died for science.” Indeed he did. That is what I said about the lizards and mice killed in the payload chamber of my Astron X-Ray Estes rocket during the late 1960’s. A moment of silence please…

Imagine how difficult it would be to make any progress on something like this in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Godspeed Jean-Patrice!

http://www.wsj.com/articles/one-africans-personal-space-race-turns-vermin-into-astronauts-1446239060

De-mystifying a chip — Looking inside the 741 Op-Amp

Inside a 741 op amp, showing the die. This is a TO-99 metal can package, with the top sawed off
Inside a 741 op amp, showing the die. This is a TO-99 metal can package, with the top sawed off


This is really cool and potentially life-changing for radical fundamentalist ludite homebrewers. As our readers will know, my big objection to the use of integrated circuit chips is the fact that these little black boxes are in fact often, well, little black boxes. We don’t know what is going on in there. It seems to me pointless to shy away from the use of large black boxes (the extremely complex “radios” that dominate the amateur airwaves today) only to fill our homebrew rigs with smaller black boxes.

But when we crack one of these boxes open and take a look at the transistors, resistors, and capacitors formed on the substrate, then diagram it all out, I think the fog of mystery is blown away by a refreshing wind of insight and understanding. We saw this happen on a much smaller scale when someone cut open an SBL1 mixer, but that wasn’t an IC. Ken Shirriff has now done this with the venerable 741 Op Amp. And he did it with a hack saw. Bravo Ken. I can now in good conscience uses 741 op amps in my rigs.

http://www.righto.com/2015/10/inside-ubiquitous-741-op-amp-circuits.html

Listen to my BITX17 Signal as Heard in France

I was talking to Alan F5LIW on 17 meters yesterday and he was kind enough to record a bit of my transmission and then e-mail it to me. So here is what my BITX 17 sounded like in Dijon, France. I had the BITX17 going into the CCI EB63A amplifier running at about 100 watts into my Moxon antenna. Thanks Alan! 


http://soldersmoke.com/N2CQRF5LIW.mp3