SolderSmoke Daily News — Ham Radio Blog
Serving the worldwide community of radio-electronic homebrewers. Providing blog support to the SolderSmoke podcast: http://soldersmoke.com
Check out the blog of homebrew wizard K.P.S. Kang. OM has a nice speech processor based on the LM386. He also has a very simple antenna tuner and SWR bridge. FB OM.
http://smallwonderqrp.blogspot.com/2017/08/two-essential-add-ons-for-bitx-and.html
Back in 1995 I was in the Dominican Republic. I used an old 2 meter rig and a homebrew 5 element quad (see below) to talk to U.S. Astronaut Norm Thagard on the MIR space station. (You may have heard me bragging about this before.) I made a bunch of audio clips from the contacts. They’d been in the now defunct RealAudio format, but I have been able to convert them to mp3. You can listen here:
http://www.gadgeteer.us/CLIPS.HTM
Dennis Klipa N8ERF has been doing great work exploring the technical intricacies of the humble SWR meter (and believe me, there are intricacies). He’s also been looking at the history of this invention.
This summer, Dennis and I came across the April 1964 issue of Popular Electronics. On pages 74 and 75 of that issue we found a clue that seemed to point to the origins of the device: the article referred to Naval Research Lab Report #3538 by O. Norgorden, published on September 15, 1949. This may be the paper that led to the widespread use of SWR meters by radio amateurs.
Surprisingly, this important paper was not to be found on the internet. Exhibiting an admirable dedication to the preservation of an important element of the radio art, Dennis wrote to Naval Research Lab and purchased from them a copy of the report. Unfortunately, the version Dennis got had been copied and recopied so many times that it was hard to read. So he went the extra mile and re-typed it.
With his permission, I am giving this article its internet debut by posting it here:
http://soldersmoke.com/SWR N8ERF.pdf
Three cheers for Dennis Klipa for unearthing this important piece of radio history.
In De Ether (English Subtitles) from Ivo Maes on Vimeo.
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| NAA Towers — Arlington Va. 1913 |
I met W1VLF on 40 meters last week. “VLF” was a hint. And indeed, Paul has been experimenting in the 10 kHz range. His antenna loading coil is seen above.
More info here: http://rescueelectronics.com/9-Kilohertz.html
Very cool that Mike was working with Jay Rusgrove, W1VD, on this project. Jay designed the 6 watt VXO rig that was my first homebrew transmitter.
And additional VLF info here:
http://n3cxv.com/WH2XND_station_1.pdf
Pete originally had a three element Yagi coming out of Teddy Roosevelt’s head, but that just wasn’t right. I asked that it be changed to a 17 meter Moxon. Thanks Pete.
I would like to note for the record that I have no intention of using the Washington Monument, the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore or any other national monuments as supports for any Yagis, Moxons, Cubical Quads, Ray Guns, Lazy H’s, Inverted L’s or any other type of electromagnetic wave launcher.
SolderSmoke Podcast #185 is available
22 Feb 2016
http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke185.mp3
Travelogue: 550 feet above Washington DC
Bench reports
Pete: Simpleceiver update. Adventures in Raspberry Pi SDR.
Bill: A daring but failed attempt at divide by 2 I&Q.
Audio Mods on the Hammarlund HQ-100.
Dual Digital Readout for the AM station.
SPECIAL FEBRUARY ANTENNA DISCUSSION
Why we build antennas in February.
Why hams should concentrate on antennas.
The importance of noodling.
Pete’s beam project.
Pete’s Lazy H.
The pernicious influence of automatic antenna tuners.
Bill’s Ray Gun Antenna.
Bill’s Moxon and his 160 inverted L.
MAILBAG
Tom Gallagher NY2RF (new ARRL Exec VP).
Mike Rainey AA1TJ on the air with a unijunction transistor.
Dale W9DKB sends me 160 meter book.
Alan Wolke W2AEW builds a Mighty Mite.
Daniel HK4DEI builds a DSB rig in Medellin.
Chris KD4PBJ modulates an AD9850.
Charlie ZL2CTM Builds a Teensy Superhet.
Jim W8NSA — a Tek 465 goes toes up.
Thomas KK6AHT has roof, needs antenna!
Grayson TA2ZGE homebrewing crystal filters in Ankara.
Ian G3ROO and I had QRP QSO in 2001!
Steven G7VFy sent me a box of VALVES.
Frank KM4AXA repairs a rig and thus adds SOUL to the machine.
I’d been meaning to build a proper cover for my improvised 160 meter L network. The approach of Winter Storm Jonas pushed me into action yesterday afternoon.
First I mounted the variable cap (from an old Johnson rig) and the roller inductor on a suitably sized piece of wood:
Here it is at the feed point. Pretty cool, don’t you think?
Santa managed to include in his delivery some of the materials that I needed to build my 160 meter inverted L antenna. You see, Steve Silverman, Pete Juliano and I have collectively more than 150 years in ham radio, but none of us have ever operated on Top Band. The three of us have taken A SOLEMN OATH to correct this horrendous deficiency. I am in the vanguard, partly due to a weather pattern that is perfect for antenna building.
Armed with a new elastic band for my Wrist-Rocket sling shot and some perfectly shaped lead sinkers, yesterday — with the obvious cooperation of The Radio Gods — I managed to get two ropes over some 70 foot trees. Soon — with minimal gnashing of teeth — I had 185 feet of wire in the air.
This morning I was messing around with L networks at the base of the antenna. I took a coffee break, leaving the 185 foot wire and the ground system connected to the coax. I had the transmitter off, so I was surprised to see the SWR meter jumping around a bit, up significantly from zero. What could that be? It wasn’t coming from my station, so it had to be coming from some other transmitter. And the slight bit of jumping that I saw on the SWR meter had the familiar pattern of the human voice. Some radio sleuthing ensued.
I flipped the station antenna switch to the “bench” position, and connected my scope to the coax. Wow! I immediately saw a big strong AM signal with modulation, at about 5 or 6 volts peak to peak. The Rigol ‘scope gave the frequency: 1220 kHz.
I tuned the HQ-100 to that frequency. As I listened to Gospel broadcast, I could follow the voice peaks on the ‘scope.
Some Googling ID’s the station: WFAX 1220 AM. 5 kilowatts in the daytime. 1.5 miles from my house. The vertical portion of the inverted L is obviously picking up a LOT of energy from the WFAX tower. And the horizontal portion of my antenna is broadside to the WFAX tower.
Of course this all made me think about throwing together a crystal radio, but then I realized I’d already listened to WFAX with simple diode — the one in my SWR meter. That little SWR meter was acting like a crystal radio with a visual output!
http://w7yrv.blogspot.com/
17 October 2015
— Our audience IGNORES Pete’s guitar intro!
— Pete on QSO Today Podcast.
— Part 97, The Radio Art and International Goodwill.
BENCH REPORTS:
— Pete connects his new beam to the KX3.
— Pete puts the Bell-thorn on 20.
— Simple-ceiver update.
— Pete’s new drum machine: http://makezine.com/2015/10/15/learn-electronics-worlds-oldest-drum-machine/
— Bill fights noise in the DIGI-TIA.
— Bill fights power-line noise (and wins!).
— Drake 2B, skirts, reduction drives, and tuning rates.
— Warming up (with!) the DX-100.
— N2CQR — N6QW First Ever HB2HB QSO.
— On 40 AM with an HT-37
— Listening to Chinese CubeSats.
— SDR Dongle as a bandwidth checker.
— SDR and the Future of Homebrew Radio.
— Bryan’s LBS Receiver.
— Dean’s First Ever QSO with his HB rig.
— 32 Mighty Mites Completed
— The Martian — Did Mark Watney REALLY have the Knack?
— MAILBAG:
Peter Parker’s New Book
Sparks from Ron Sparks
Armand’s 1Watter
Rogier’s pyro machine
BIG boxes from Tim KI6BGE
Mikele’s ZIA and N6QW rig collection
SPRAT 141 and SPRAT 164
17 October 2015
— Our audience IGNORES Pete’s guitar intro!
— Pete on QSO Today Podcast.
— Part 97, The Radio Art and International Goodwill.
BENCH REPORTS:
— Pete connects his new beam to the KX3.
— Pete puts the Bell-thorn on 20.
— Simple-ceiver update.
— Pete’s new drum machine: http://makezine.com/2015/10/15/learn-electronics-worlds-oldest-drum-machine/
— Bill fights noise in the DIGI-TIA.
— Bill fights power-line noise (and wins!).
— Drake 2B, skirts, reduction drives, and tuning rates.
— Warming up (with!) the DX-100.
— N2CQR — N6QW First Ever HB2HB QSO.
— On 40 AM with an HT-37
— Listening to Chinese CubeSats.
— SDR Dongle as a bandwidth checker.
— SDR and the Future of Homebrew Radio.
— Bryan’s LBS Receiver.
— Dean’s First Ever QSO with his HB rig.
— 32 Mighty Mites Completed
— The Martian — Did Mark Watney REALLY have the Knack?
— MAILBAG:
Peter Parker’s New Book
Sparks from Ron Sparks
Armand’s 1Watter
Rogier’s pyro machine
BIG boxes from Tim KI6BGE
Mikele’s ZIA and N6QW rig collection
SPRAT 141 and SPRAT 164
Wow, this project is very appealing. Finally, a 3D printer project that seems truly useful. They are using one of the Dongle receivers we’ve been playing with, and, of course, Arduinos. You could really geek-out with this stuff. Check out the hardware side of this effort here:
https://satnogs.org/documentation/hardware/
SolderSmoke Podcast #180 is available:
http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke180.mp3
19 September 2015
PROJECT REPORT:
Pete’s Antenna Project: The Joy of Rotation!
Simple-ceiver
Bill fixes Digi-Tia (after breaking it)
Shack Configured for Winter (DX-100)
Working (a little) on the Drake 2-B
SolderSmoke words we forgot to mention:
Noodling
The Radio Gods
The Radio Art
The Grand Poobah
Magic Smoke
Lud(d)ite Curmudgeonism
SDR and the Homebrewer
“QSO Today” Interviews
Lady Ada interviews Paul Horowitz of “Art of Electronics”
SHAMELESS COMMERCE: Book still free!
Start your Amazon purchases at our blog page.
Book Review: “The Martian”
Great QSOs with W5NDS and AE5RM
MAILBAG
Eric 4Z1UG is doing some really great interviews on his “QSO Today” podcast. I found the last three to be especially informative and inspirational.
Chuck Adams K7QO dispensed a lot of useful information about Muppet boards and construction techniques, but more importantly he put out a lot of wisdom about the hobby, especially on the importance of teaching and sharing knowledge.
The interview with Glenn Elmore N6GN presented many interesting technical ideas, including using WSPR on VHF and UHF, and using aircraft reflections as a Sporadic-E like propagation mode. He also mentioned “wing vortex” propagation. Glenn talked about how to use a drone and a special light-weight transmission line to get your VHF/UHF (or cell phone) antenna above the trees. (See above).
I found the conversation with Gerald Youngblood K5SDR both fascinating and a bit worrisome. Gerald is obviously a great guy, and he does a wonderful job of describing the technology behind SDR radios, linking it to the phasing techniques that hams have been using since the dawn of single sideband. He makes a strong case for the new SDR rigs, noting the absence of receiver-produced noise, the advantage of band-wide visual waterfall displays (even while noting that they tend to “make every ham an Official Observer”), and “brick wall filters that don’t ring.” But I got and uneasy feeling when he referred to non-SDR rigs as “legacy rigs.” I found myself wondering how long it will be before all our rigs are required to be noise-less and all our filters skirt-less. Will there come a time when our beloved legacy rigs will be deemed unacceptable? (You can already hear this sentiment on the bands.) And how much room is there in this SDR world for the kind of homebrewing we do? ( I know, I know. I admit to feeling the presence of Ned Lud as I type these words.)
Great job Eric! And thanks to all the interviewees. We look forward to the interview with Pete N6QW.
Eric’s QSO Today podcast can be found here: http://www.qsotoday.com/
Our book: “SolderSmoke — Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics” http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
