Month: March 2020

The Homebrew Rigs I Worked During the First Day of Novice Rig Roundup (NRR)

The Thing-of-Beauty above is “The Scrounger” homebrew transmitter of Jon WS1K. Jon writes:

The rig I used this morning was the Scrounger. I built it a couple of weeks ago. It took me about 2 months of trolling a local thrift store for the right pan. I wanted a pan that captured the spirit of a true Novice built rig.
As a side note, the key that I’m using is a JH Bunnell that I bought at one of the MIT flea markets last summer in Cambridge. It’s mounted on a piece of plywood and written on the plywood is the Novice callsign WN1UMD. Cool or what?

More of Jon’s rigs here: https://www.qrz.com/db/WS1K
Above is Greg Latta AA8V’s amazing 6X2 superhet receiver:
More details here:
https://www.frostburg.edu/personal/latta/ee/6x2rcvr/6x2rcvr.html

N2CQR Novice Rig Roundup Station

I actually used that Drake 2-B as a novice back in 1973-1974. The HT-37 came a bit later.

For the Novice Rig Roundup I used the beautiful key that Peter VK2EMU sent me. Thanks again Peter.

Novice Rig Roundup is a lot of fun. I was on 40 CW in the old Novice band today. Worked Greg AA8V who was using a homebrew superhet receiver — that doesn’t happen every day. Another station asked a question that we don’t hear much these days: “What are you running?”

I will make some more contacts during the rest of the NRR period (scroll down to a recent blog post for more details). I have my NRR serial number. Thanks to the organizers for putting together this fun event.


Boat Knack — Rebuilding a 1910 yacht “Tally Ho”

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg-_lYeV8hBnDSay7nmphUA

 I present this as part of our occasional series on people with other kinds of Knack. The young Englishman in this series of videos is definitely in this category. Watch him acquire the 1910 yacht “Tally Ho” for 1 pound sterling, transport it to Washington state, SINGLE HANDEDLY build a boat shed around the huge vessel, and carry out the restoration. Oh yea, all the while shooting videos of his work. Great stuff.

I advise you to watch the series from the beginning. The next video in the series will load automatically.

Be sure to subscribe the channel.

Thanks to Ryan Flowers of https://miscdotgeek.com/ for alerting us to this.

N3FJZ’s Al Fresco. BITX-inspired, TIA. 50 Watt, SSB Rig (Video)

The last blog postings on Rick N3FJZ were in 2015. Rick sent me a very uplifting reception report, then we had a pretty amazing Homebrew-to-Homebrew contact.

Paul Taylor VK3HN yesterday alerted me to a new YouTube video that shows the progress Rick has made with his homebrew SSB rig.

This is a great example of true amateur SSB construction. Rick is making use of a combination of digital and analog technology. He is adapting circuitry developed by others and using it to meet his needs. During the development stage he is keeping the circuit open (Al Fresco) so that he can easily work on it.

FB Rick.

Novice Rig Round-Up — March 7- March 15, 2020

I may go with my Drake 2B and HT-37. But If I get ambitious (and masochistic) I might try to involve the Hallicrafters S-38E that has been torturing me lately. And I do have a DX-40 on the shelf…

Here is the announcement:

http://www.novicerigroundup.org/

VE7SL has a really nice description of the event with great pictures:

http://ve7sl.blogspot.com/2020/02/here-comes-novice-rig-roundup-nrr-2020.html

KG7TR Describes his Homebrew SSB Rigs (Video)

We have posted before on the amazing homebrew creations of Mike Bohn KG7TR.

Today I watched this 54 minute video in which Mike describes his rigs. (Thanks to Pete Eaton, WB9FLW for pointing me to a site that has this video.)

Quote from KG7TR: “I have never destroyed a pristine Command Set.”

Wonderful tribal knowledge throughout, especially on the metal work, parts acquisition, front panel work and toroid placement.

Clear you schedules. This is really worth watching.