Author: William Meara

One (of several) SolderSmoke Blog Backups: This one in .pdf form

The SolderSmoke Daily News blog now has more than 4,000 posts, and some 10,000 comments.  This is both good news and bad news.  The good news is that there is on this blog site a vast repository of useful information.  The bad news is that I sometimes fear that all this info might be lost if Google someday decides that its blog service should disappear.  It could happen, and that is kind of scary, so I have been looking for backups, for ways to safeguard this information. 

Several members of the SolderSmoke community have been helping me create WordPress sites that backup the blog. More info will be coming soon.  The Internet Archive and the WayBack machine have also been of great help. 

While here in the Dominican Republic, I have been working on a kind-of compilation of blog articles, with a bit of an intro.  I think readers of the blog and listeners of the podcast might find this entertaining. 

So here it is.  Please download it to your computer.  That will increase the survivability of the blog.  I will probably do a few updates to the .pdf file: 

http://soldersmoke.com/SolderSmoke Blog Book Compilation.pdf

A USB-powered Homebrew X-ray machine. And who is Project 326?

This is an interesting project. The use of dental X-ray packs was really innovative. The approporately snarky presentation about nanny-state nervous nellies was great. It all reminded me the X-ray chapter of C.L. Stong’s great book “The Amateur Scientist.” Here is a .pdf of the book: http://www.ke5fx.com/stong.pdf
The X-Ray machine in Stong’s book appears on page 500 (520 in the .pdf) Here is the opening paragraphs:

Indeed, it was lonely up there in the 10^-8 cm band!


But who is behind Project 326? Who is the robot narrator’s human assistant? At first I thought they were joking when they said they were in Southern China. But YouTube does show them in Hong Kong. He has British accent, but oddly he calls valves “tubes.” He also seems to use quite a bit of SolderSmoke terminology and practice: He uses copper tape as a ground plane. He talks about relaeasing “Magic Smoke” and of passing or failing “the smoke test.” Could it be that Project 326 had been listening to the SolderSmoke podcast? We hope so! Please let us know if y ou have any background info on this mad amateur scientist.

Here is the Project 326 YouTube channel:

How many of you guys have changed the clutch on a Heathkit HW-101 (or similar rig)?

That circular thing on the right is the “Plastic Clutch” on the Heathkit HW-101. Mine dried out and shattered when I pushed the “Zero Set” button on the from ot the HW-101. I heard it crack. I cut out a piece of plastic of the right size. That replacement clutch has been in there for about 30 years now.

I know of one other guy who has replaced the clutch on a HW-101 (Will, N5OLA). Let us know if you have done this too. Put a comment down below.

Oscillation! Negative Resistance! Barkhausen Explained Very Well!

It is not every day that we find a web site or a YouTube video that discusses negative resistance and the Barkhausen criteria. But that day has arrived my friends!

This All Electronics fellow appears to be Italian. I really like his enthusiasm. The universe! Differential equations! The passion seems to jump out of the video when he talks about how the negative resistance “enhances the oscillation!” It is really great.

He even talks about how thermal noise gets the oscillation going. This is something that I struggled with as a kid. It took me a while to find a good source that explained this. He explains it very well.

Thanks to master homebrewer Pete Juliano (another Italian!) for alerting us many years ago to the Barkhausen criteria. And thanks to Al Williams at Hack-A-Day for alerting us to this great video.

Here is the All Electronics channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AllElectronicsChannel

Dan KF5DAN’s FB SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

It is a happy occassion whenever we get to announce a new member of the SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver Hall of Fame. And Dan KF5DAN has entered the hallowed halls. Congratulations Dan. We are really glad you are doing the happy dance. Above you can see Dan’s receiver inhaling SSB, in the video below you see it receiving CW.

Dan writes:

I would like to present proof of life! I found the motorboating issue in my amplifier. R18, 1K resistor was connected from the power rail to the base of Q5, instead of the collector. I moved it, and had already added a 470uF cap from earlier troubleshooting. There is a lot of noise, probably due to some stormy weather in Arkansas this evening. I’m doing the happy dance over here.
Thank you very much! I am very appreciative of all the guidance and suggestions everyone has provided. I am very happy to be in this group of hams and homebrewers.

Homebrewing a Quantum Computer

Ok, now for something completely different, and something that might help us shake off that Ludite moniker.

I’ve seen lots of videos that promise to explain what quantum computing is all about. Most of them disappoint. These videos have promise.

This young lady built a very simple quantum computer at home using lasers and some calcite. The homebrew angle is very interesting. At one point in the second video she talks about the benefits of taking theory and using it to actually build something at home. Indeed.

I need to spend more time with both of these videos, but like say, they show promise, and they definitely show the spirit of homebrew.

The first (above) describes the build. In the second video (below) she uses the build to do a calculation.

AI Apocalypse: How Google is Changing the Internet– Implications for SolderSmoke

Here’s what happened in a nutshell: During the spring of this year Google rolled out an automatic AI search feature. So now, when you have a question, Google’s AI looks at websites across the web and writes up a nice, specific answer to your question. Good for you, but disastrous for those who built blogs and websites on the assumption that Google searches would be sending a lot of people to our sites. Why go to the sites if the nice AI has already given you the answer? Many of us have seen precipitous drops in the numbers of visitors. I have noticed an especially large drop in the number of comments on my blog posts. And I have noticed that many of the other blogs listed on my blog site are no longer posting regularly.

This is not imaginary.

Here is a BBC article on what has happened: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250611-ai-mode-is-google-about-to-change-the-internet-forever

Here is TWiT TV talking about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDdLw1ubLaY&t=86s

Andreas Speiss (White gloves, Swiss accent, motorcycle hat) talks about the YouTube trends that are causing him to stop regular video production: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTerwIniB24

Leo Sampson talks about the pressure to get high hit numbers on YouTube (scroll forward to the 3 minute 20 second mark): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4tSOQO3kxY

Fraser Cain of Universe Today talks about the Google “”AI apocalypse” (scroll ahead to the 18 minute mark): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/universe-today-podcast/id794058155?i=1000714736434

This is unfortunate, and it does seem unfair. The AI is essentially taking our content, repackaging it, and serving it up for readers. The AI site gets to monetize the visits — the blog owners that the AI gets the information from do not.

But what should we do in response?

Well, we will resist the forces that seem to be pushing us into oblivion. We know we are a very niche operation. At best we are NIMCELS: “Niche Internet Micro-Celebrities.” We are content with our NIMCEL status. We know that our posts and podcasts about homebrew rigs will never go viral nor rival the hit counts of Taylor Swift or Arianna Grande. And we are not in this for the money (!). Some additional comments would be encouraging — these comments let us know that we are not blogging/podcasting into the abyss.

So, just keep reading the blog, listening to the podcast, perhaps become a Patreon sponsor and — perhaps above all — put comments on the blog site and the YouTube channel. Help spread the word about our efforts.

An old fashioned RSS reader may help. Feedly works well: Here are some recent recommendations:
https://zapier.com/blog/best-rss-feed-reader-apps/

Here is the RSS feed for the SolderSmoke Blog: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SoldersmokeDailyNews

And here is the RSS feed for the podcast: http://www.soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke.rss
Here is the ID for the SolderSmoke YouTube channel. Please subscribe and comment! https://youtube.com/@soldersmoke?si=mYMzMNtsPyKot7q4
Become a Patreon sponsor for SolderSmoke: https://www.patreon.com/c/SolderSmoke
We thank you for your support.

Will Everett N5OLA — the Heathkit Guru from South Texas

Will N5OLA

Will’s innovative approach to old, dirty Heathkit transceivers caught my eye: he gives them a bath. Like with soap and water. Then he put the rig in the oven (not all of us can do this and live to tell about it). Finally he leaves the rig under the South Texas sun for a few days to complete the drying process. FB Will.

Will has (I hope!) inspired Pete N6QW to change his landfill plans for the HW-32A. I have not given my HW-101 a bath yet, but I have recapped the HP-23B power supply and I have the HW-101 on the air. Just yesterday a guy on 40 told me I was 40 Hz off frequency. I felt like I had come home.
The N5OLA Workshop

There is another line on Will’s QRZ page that caught my eye:

“When not on the air, I write novels and own two indie coffee shops here on South Padre Island.”

Indeed Will is a well known author who has done some great stuff:

From http://www.willeverett.net/about.html

As a journalist, Will Everett has reported from the Middle East, South Asia and West Africa for National Public Radio, the BBC, Voice of America and other outlets. With Walter Cronkite he wrote and produced the 2006 documentary World War One Living History Project, the only media project to honor the last surviving veterans of WWI. He also collaborated with CNN’s Soledad O’Brien on a program for the National Campaign to Stop Violence.


For ten years he was the creator and host of the syndicated NPR program Theme and Variations. His work has been recognized by the Society for Professional Journalists, the New York Festivals, the National Headliner Awards and the Poynter Institute.


His novel We’ll Live Tomorrow was published in October 2015. He also provided lyrics for a choral collaboration with Joseph Martin, “The Message,” published by Hal Leonard.


Will holds a master’s degree from the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.


Will’s QRZ page: https://www.qrz.com/db/N5OLA
Will’s Site: http://www.willeverett.net/home.html
Will’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@N5OLA

Alan W2AEW Measures the Minimum Discernible Signal (MDS) of the SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

So cool that Alan did this. Here we see a rigrourous measurement of the MDS of our receiver, with a correction for the bandwidth. Very nice.

It can discern signals down to -125 dbm. I think that is pretty good for simple receiver like this.

Alan agrees that another way to do the sensitivity test is to just listen for the band noise when you connect and disconnect the antenna. Especially on the low HF bands, if you can hear it, you have sort of maxed out on receiver sensitivity.

Thanks Alan!

Hack-A-Day on the Tao of Bespoke Electronics

https://hackaday.com/2025/06/25/the-tao-of-bespoke-electronics/#comment-8142333

My comment: Good post with good points about the under-appreciated differences between true homebrew and kit building. I have a lot of Heathkits around me, but I never considered them to be homebrew. There is a big difference. We have been promoting and supporting the HOMEBREW construction of 40 meter direct-conversion receivers. No one would confuse these receivers with commercial, or even kit-built gear. But they work very well, and the builder earns the satisfaction that comes with building something from scratch. There are no factory made PC boards to “populate.” All four of our boards are made using Manhattan construction techniques (super glue, isolation pads, copper-clad substrate). Almost 90 receivers have been completed, in more than 15 countries. Check out the receivers. Build one if you dare:

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/search/label/DC%20RX%20Hall%20of%20Fame

BTW — I own a Dymo machine, and my SSB transceivers are in wooden boxes made from junked packing material. 73 Bill N2CQR

F6GUH: True Homebrew

Philippe put it this way: “Radio is my religion, my shack is my church.”

20 Meter transceiver
40 Meter Transceiver
80 meter transceiver
Today I was on 17 meter SSB, talking to Yannick HB9TWY. He looked at my QRZ page and said that he had a friend with rigs that look like mine. “Who is that?” I asked. Philippe F6GUH is the intrepid homebrewer. I like the looks of his rigs. And they are truly “rigs.”

Thanks Yannick. And thank you Philippe.

WD4CFN Makes Contact Using the SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver and a Michigan Mighty Mite

Hall of Fame member Steve WD4CFN in Tennessee fired up his 40 meter Mchigan Mighty Mite (above) and made contact with ND4K in Georgia. FB Steve. Congratulations OM!

First Images from the Vera Rubin Observatory (in Chile) Were Posted Today

Click above for a MUCH better image
From the IEEE Spectrum article:

Every night, the telescope will take a thousand images, one every 34 seconds. After three or four nights, it’ll have the entire southern sky covered, and then it’ll start all over again. After a decade, Rubin will have taken more than 2 million images, generated 500 petabytes of data, and visited every object it can see at least 825 times. In addition to identifying an estimated 6 million bodies in our solar system, 17 billion stars in our galaxy, and 20 billion galaxies in our universe, Rubin’s rapid cadence means that it will be able to delve into the time domain, tracking how the entire southern sky changes on an almost daily basis.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/vera-rubin-observatory-first-images

So cool. Thanks to all those who reminded me that today was the day!

My Eleven Contacts using the SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver — It is NOT a toy!

I have made 11 contacts using the SolderSmoke Direct Conversion receiver. Ten of the 11 were after June 3, 2025. This was in very casual operation, operating with less than 1 watt with a dipole antenna.

Alan W4AMV

1. The first of course was back in February 2023 with W4AMV. On this one I was using a simple “10 Minute Transmitter” that I threw together thinking that I would use it to demonstrate the receiver to our high school students. “Wait a minute,” I thought. I called CQ and W4AMV answered. I was running about 100 mW. He too was using homebrew gear. https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2023/02/first-qso-with-high-school-receiver-100.html

2, 3, 4. On June 4, 2025 I again fired up the 10 minute transmitter. My T/R scheme was VERY simple: I have an MFJ coax switch that I use to select the rigs that will connect to my various antennas. On the antenna switch I selected my 40 meter dipole. I ran two pieces of coax from two different positions on the MFJ switch. One I marked RX, the other TX. The transmitter and the receiver were working off 9 volt batteries. I quickly worked N2WJW. Gil in New Jersey. But I noticed that the 10 Minute rig was drifting. So I pulled out my trusty old Tuna Tin 2 transmitter and used it to heartlessly replace the 10 Minute Transmitter. Now with SEVERAL HUNDRED milliwatts, I worked W2XS, John in New York on June 5, 2025. Later that same day I worked N9FGC in Indiana.

K1OA’s Rig

5. My most amazing contact came on June 7, 2025. Here is my log entry: 40CW K1OA First 2 way contact with station also using a SolderSmoke DC Receiver!At around 0630 EDT on June 7, 2025 I heard K1OA calling CQ on 7030 kHz CW. This was exactly where I had a crystal. I called him, but he didn’t hear me. I sent him an e-mail. We tried again — he heard me calling him and I heard him responding by calling me, but I don’t think we succeeded in exchanging signal reports. It was close, but no cigar. I had to walk the dog. Scott and I agreed to meet on 7030 kHz at 0730 EDT. Arggh. There was a QSO there. I thought we might have to try to change frequency, but this would have been tough because both of us were crystal controlled on transmit. Fortunately, the contact on 7030 kHz wrapped up. Scott called me, I responded, and we were able to exchange signal reports. I was so excited that I almost forgot to hit the record button on my phone. But I caught the last minute or so.This was really something. This really goes to prove what Dean and I have been saying all along: this receiver is not a toy! It can be used for real ham radio contacts. And now we have had these receivers on both ends of a contact. For transmit, Scott was using a KA4KXX transmitter with about 3 watts output. I was on my Tuna Tin 2 at about half a watt output.

Jim W1PID


6, 7, 8. Later on June 7, 2025 I worked an old friend, Jim W1PID. Jim is a friend of Homebrew Hero Mike AA1TJ, and was involved in Mike’s effort to cross the Atlantic with a voice-powered rig. Jim also was one of my contacts with the ET-2 QRPppp rig. I also worked WZ2J Vin in NJ. I also worked John W2XS again.

Mike WB8VGE

9. June 11, 2025 (Really evening of 10 June 2025) Famous homebrewer, Anchorologist, Heatkit authority and fellow member of the QRP Hall of Fame Mike Bryce called me! 40CW 0034 WB8VGE Mike Bryce came back to my CQ! Mike wrote: Nothing like quartz locked frequency control!You know it sounded pretty damn good at 500mW. You were holding your own until QSB would take you out in a deep fade. But all in all, one hell of great QRP QSO.I was running my Ten Tec Scout that I had just put back together a couple of days ago. Got around to putting the case back on it tonight, and had it cooking in the back ground just listening to the stations come and go. I had worked a few POTA stations near by and found a quite spot. I was working on a project when I heard your CQ through the din of the 40M band. Glad I took a break and worked your QRPp signalbest 73 QRP # 4816 You get a QSL for that QSO!

Here’s my post about Mike, WB8VGE: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2018/09/wb8vge-on-qso-today-qrp-hb-boatanchors.html

10. Around June 11, 2025 I worked W4MY in a contest.

11. On June 12, 2925 I worked some DX with the rig. It was VA3ICC, Ian in Ontario.

Ian VA3ICC
All of this reinforces something that Dean KK4DAS and I have been saying all through this build process: this little DC receiver is not a toy. It can be used as a serious ham radio receiver and it can — even when paired up with a very low-power crystal-controlled transmitter and a simple antenna — make some great ham radio contacts.

Mike KM5Z’s SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

Congratulations to Mike KM5Z on the completion of his SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver.
Welcome to the Hall of Fame.

Mike writes:

First time with ‘Manhattan’ style construction, although it worked perfectly and was very easy. In this video I just did a scan from about 7.100 to 7.210 MHz. As you can see, I took advantage of another ham’s 3D prints.
After all, if an idea is worth doing, then… it’s worth overdoing.I used a Milwaukee 1/4″ Diamond Max hole saw to cut circles for the solder-points. Everything else is ground. Later, I found that I missed a point, so I used a single “MePAD” glued in that spot.I found the default audio amp to be a bit quiet. I plan to replace it with the ‘push-pull’ version. I’m definitely keeping this to hang up on the wall.

More on Agent Sonya


I had completely forgotten that my blog had at least two posts on Agent Sonya way back in 2009. I know there is a lot of interest in her alleged radio derring-do.

Here are the two blog posts from 2009:

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2009/08/sonya-had-knack.html

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2009/09/sonyas-rig.html

And here is my 2025 post on Sonya:

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2025/04/agent-sonya-did-soviet-spies-really.html

One friend recently mentioned that we have not seen any museum evidence of these kinds of homebrew spy rigs. If this really was a widespread practice, you would expect to find at least ONE of these rigs in a museum somewhere. Has anyone seen this kind of thing?

Here is something more recent about Sonya from the National WWII Museum in New Orleans:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU9-APiIUaQ

The Macintyre interview is really interesting. A friend told me that he is a very serious writer on the topic of espionage, whose assertions have to be taken seriously. For our purproses, here are some highllights:

22:18 Sonya goes through Soviet Spy School and is trained on how to build radios.

24:50 In China under Japanese occupation, had bamboo poles supporting antenna over her house!

25:40 Transferred to Switzerland, “built another radio.”

34:18 Transferred to UK, built a “powerful radio transmitter in her loo.”

51:41 Macintyre refers to Sonya as “the only Soviet radio operator in Switzerland.”

So, I still don’t know about the claim that Sonya was homebrewing radios. It does appear that Sonya was building them. But it also seems like she was more of a radio operator than she was a spy… Perhaps the Soviets didn’t see the same distinction that we do. Still, it would be nice to find in a museum somewhere at least one example of Sonya-style homebrew radio.

Macintyre says that “all biography is burglary.” What would autobiography be?


Hall of Fame Update: 82 Completed SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receivers, with 7 Honorable Mentions. More receivers are being built. As of July 9, 2025 0914Z

Please let us know if you spot any errors, or if we have inadvertently missed anyone. Don’t worry about being late to the game — the challenge continues. All of the info is still available (see below).

As of July 9, 2025 0914Z:


So far 82 completed receivers, with 7 honorable mentions. Receivers built in 15 countries.


NE3U (KY4EOD) Matt
KQ4AOP First ham signals ever heard!
N9TD Derek
AC3NG Ryan
VK3TPM Peter Marks
W4KAC Ken
W4KAC Ken built a second one!
N2EPE Erik
VA3NCA Wayde
KI5SRY Mark — Gears on PTO screw
KA1MUQ Frying pan receiver
AA1N Adam
ZL1AUN Aaron — Using SSB transmitter
W8UC Never before homebrewed.
VK4PG Phil — Nice case, “really pleased”
G7LQX Working well, video of CW and SSB.
KE2AMP John Spring on PTO screw — great
N9SZ Steve nice receiver
KD9NHZ Piotr Nice one
KE8ICE Calvin, Very cool receiver.
WV3V Jayson! Got it done!
GM5JDG Martin.
KF8BOG Jim: A long struggle, but success.
Chris Wales Fantastic video.
YD9BAX Wayan! Homebrew transformer!
N0NQD Jeff
WN3F Roy — Made new stickers!

AB5XQ Bill
KB7ZUT Andy
AA1OF Jer

VictorKees Holland
KC9OJV John — Manhattan-style convert
WZ5M 1, 2 or maybe even 3 receivers!
K1KJW Jim in Vermont
KC5DI Dallas — friend of WZ5M
Gary Australian — Wooden PTO form
LU2VJM Juan in Argentina
K1OA Scott “Most fun in 50 years”
KC9DLM Ben — Had EFHW problems
PH2LB Lex Yellow, Glue Stick
AI6WR David
G6GEV Dave (It was a blast!)
KC1ONM Wayne MakerLabs NH
KB1OIQ Andy MakerLabs NH
KA1PQK Jay MakerLabs NH
W1TKO Mike MakerLabs NH
K5KHK Karl
SM0TPW Mikael
KI7LKB Brian (coat hanger tube)
M6CRD Chris
W2DAB Dave in NYC
W4JYK Wes of VWS
KA4CDN Mike of VWS
M7EFO Adrian
VK5RC Rob
KD8KHP Dave
VK1CHW Chris
KA0PHJ Brian
W0IT Louis
W1PJE Phil
W2AEW Alan
KN6FVK John (Barkhausen-Be-Gone Spray)
VU2JXN Ramakrishnan
AA0MS Doug
9V1/KM7ABZ Paul in Singapore
VK2BLQ Stephen
N3FJZ Rick
Daniel VE5DLD
Student 1 Student of VE5DLD
Student 2 Student of VE5DLD

Student 3 Student of VE5DLD
K7WXW Bill
NK3H Mitch
KN4ZXG Ted
WA1MAC Paul
N4AVC Chuck
K3IY Kevin
N6ASD Ashish in Bangalore
W1DSP Rick
WD4CFN Steve
KM5Z Mike
KF5DAN Dan

————————-
Honorable Mentions:


*AA7U Steve No PTO
*VK7IAN Ian — No Manhattan boards
*KC1FSZ Bruce’s build on a PC board
*CT7AXD Graham — different AF amp
* DL1AJG Andreas
* Matthew Student of DL1AJG
* Arash Student of DL1AJG
—————————————–

Candidates for the Hall of Fame:
SA5RJS Rasmus
KA9TII James
AA7FO Chuck
VA3ZOT Tony Surface Mount — Honorable Mention?
AB2XT John (Done, just need the video)
KO7M Jeff (Piper Cub)
KD4PBJ Chris
VU2TUM Puneit Singh

For more information on how you too can build the receiver:


Join the discussion – SolderSmoke Discord Server:

https://discord.gg/Fu6B7yGxx2

Documentation on Hackaday:

https://hackaday.io/project/190327-high-schoolers-build-a-radio-receiver

SolderSmoke YouTube channel:

Steve WD4CFN’s FB Mid-Tennessee SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver

Steve WD4CFN has built a FB SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver. CW reception video appears above.

From his QRZ page: “I also enjoy QRP. A group of us have started a local QRP club this year, MidTN QRP Group. (https://groups.io/g/MidTNQRP). “

Steve writes:

I finished my SS DCR tonight and connected an antenna. Lots of summer QRN, but also lots of signals. Thank you and Dean for all the work you guys put into this project. It is so well done and documented. The whole project has been a great learning experience, especially the mixer part. I haven’t built a diode ring mixer before, just used the SA602/SA612 type mixer. Testing the mixer pushed me to better understand how to use the FFT function of my scope to make sure the mixer was working correctly. This was a great project! Thanks to all.

Here is Steve’s receiver inhaling SSB:

Congratulations Steve. Welcome to the Hall of Fame.