SolderSmoke Daily News — Ham Radio Blog
Serving the worldwide community of radio-electronic homebrewers. Providing blog support to the SolderSmoke podcast: http://soldersmoke.com
Thanks Peter!
Obviously a lot of potential here. Thanks to Hack-A-Day for the alert.
https://hackaday.com/2020/02/14/rf-shield-turns-arduino-and-pc-into-shortwave-radio/#more-398447
Obviously a lot of potential here. Thanks to Hack-A-Day for the alert.
https://hackaday.com/2020/02/14/rf-shield-turns-arduino-and-pc-into-shortwave-radio/#more-398447
Don’t be deterred by the lack of English subtitles — radio amateurs around the world will be able to follow what is going on in this very interesting 1955 film. It is only about 14 minutes long.
This video takes us back to a time when hams were hams and rigs were RIGS!
Note the German OM who apparently slept fully dressed (with necktie) in order to be ready to spring into action on the ham bands in the middle of the night. That’s dedication my friends.
Also note the fellow sending out QSL cards that feature the schematic diagram of his rig. Lots of solder melted in 1955. Great stuff.
Thank God for the Heaviside Schicht!
Take a look at that beautiful rig in the bottom of the cover pictures. (A closer shot appears below.) That is an HRO dial, right? Or is it?
No, it is not. In the picture we see the homebrew receiver designed and built during the 1960s by Rudolf Fishcer, DL6WD. It is magnificent in every respect. Because I have been working with the HRO dial and gearbox given to me by Armand WA1UQO, the tuning dial on this receiver caught my attention.
Here is what DL6WD says about this part of his project: “The main tuning gear was built around a BC-221 tuning capacitor and reduction gear. The counter dial and tuning knob are the result of four weeks of labor, The counter dial reads in tens of kHz, where the main tuning knob has a calibration of 200 Hz per division, from an HRO inspiration.” The counter is in the little window to the upper left of the tuning knob. The window to the upper right is a phase-lock indicator. (See below.)
By the way, by the time DL6WD got finished with this all solid state receiver it weighed in at 52 pounds. Rudolf noted that “excessive shielding pays in electrical performance, but not in weight!”
DL6WD earns the title “Homebrew Hero.”
I understand the launch of Farhan’s CubeSat has been delayed a few days. That’s the way it works in the rocket launch biz –patience is required. In the meantime, I’ve been practicing with my receive system. Today at 1000 local the Max Valier satellite flew to my west. It rose 78 degrees above my horizon to the W NW. I left my three element quad pointed in that direction and waited for the satellite (which had been launched from India) to fly through its pattern.
The CW beacon was quite strong, very visible and audible through my RTL-SDR dongle and HD-SDR software. You can see it and hear it in the video above. There is something quite charming about this very personal Morse message coming down from orbit and then passing through all that digital technology.
More info on the satellite:
“Max Valier Sat” is an amateur satellite built in cooperation by:
And who was Max Valier? Quite an interesting fellow:
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| Max Valier in his Rocket Car in 1930 |
This past weekend I dusted off my old scratch-built, all-analog, no-chips BITX20. (THREE CHEERS FOR FARHAN AND HIS BITX DESIGN!) I hooked it up to my trusty CCI .1KW (note decimal point) amplifier and my new 135 foot store-bought doublet. This all happened just as the Worked All Europe DX contest was kicking off, with lots of activity on 20. TRGHS. I was in. My contest operating style was in the category of “relaxed-casual-noncompetitive.” I took a lot of breaks. In fact there were more breaks than non-breaks. You have to pace yourself in the contest world.
My results:
8 SEPT: DF0HQ, SN7D, GM6X, DP6A, S51A, DL0HN, DB0HX, OZ5E, DJ5MW, HG7T, IK4UPB, VY2ZM, G6XX, EF1A, LZ5R, 9A5W, YP0C, F6HQP, DL7ON, HB9DQL, ON6NL, DA0WRTC, 9 SEPT: EI7M, P3X, RU1A, DP7D, SP2KPD, DL0WW.
P3X might not count because, you see, Cyprus is considered to be in ASIA. Really?
Anyway, I ‘m assuming that I am the winner in the homebrew, discrete component , all-analog transceiver category. Woo Hoo!
The contest rig is pictured above. Before you point to the glowing numerals and cry foul, realize that the little Altoids box between the two speakers holds a San Jian frequency counter that was deliberately kept OUTSIDE the BITX box. So it is more of an outboard accessory. I can run the BITX 20 without the digital assist — I have an old fashioned non-digital dial pointer to indicate frequency. The “Low – High” switch you see switches the VFO from the low portion of the 20 meter phone band to the higher part of the band. The box below the BITX 20 holds the uBITX.
Seriously though, I was quite pleased with the performance of the doublet.
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| DL3AO 1950 |
SolderSmoke Podcast #200 — TWO HUNDRED!!!!– Is available
http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke200.mp3
— Old friends on 17 meters.
— Another Knack Nobel in Physics.
— Hans Summers’ QCX transceiver: $50 IS THE NEW 10 GRAND!
— New Bands! 630 and 2200 Meters. BIG ANTENNAS!
— Nuke Powered QRP. No joke!
— The Challenge of UHF. Not for the faint of heart.
— Reginald Fessenden, Father of Phone.
PETE’S BENCH REPORT: The New Simple-ceiver. Soon to be a Transceiver.
BILL’s BENCH REPORT: Discrete, Direct Conversion, Ceramic Receiver in iPhone Box.
THE EDUCATIONAL PORTION OF TODAY’s PROGRAM:
HOW TO TROUBLESHOOT A HOMEBREW RECEIVER.
MAILBAG.
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| DL3AO 1950 |
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| DL3AO 1950 |
SolderSmoke Podcast #200 — TWO HUNDRED!!!!– Is available
http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke200.mp3
— Old friends on 17 meters.
— Another Knack Nobel in Physics.
— Hans Summers’ QCX transceiver: $50 IS THE NEW 10 GRAND!
— New Bands! 630 and 2200 Meters. BIG ANTENNAS!
— Nuke Powered QRP. No joke!
— The Challenge of UHF. Not for the faint of heart.
— Reginald Fessenden, Father of Phone.
PETE’S BENCH REPORT: The New Simple-ceiver. Soon to be a Transceiver.
BILL’s BENCH REPORT: Discrete, Direct Conversion, Ceramic Receiver in iPhone Box.
THE EDUCATIONAL PORTION OF TODAY’s PROGRAM:
HOW TO TROUBLESHOOT A HOMEBREW RECEIVER.
MAILBAG.
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| DL3AO 1950 |
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| DL1YC Moxon |
I had a very nice contact on 17 meters yesterday with Jan DL1YC. It was a rare Moxon-to-Moxon contact, with homebrew 17 meter Moxons on either end. Jan’s is a bit cooler than mine: His is flat, without the “blownout umbrella” support that we see in mine (below) and in the Hex Beams. Jans told me that he achieved this flatness by starting out with very long telescoping fishing poles — he discarded the the thin portions of the pole and used only the more rigid pieces. (I used 16 foot, 5 piece Shakespeare Wonderpoles from Amazon.) I think he also used thin wire for the elements. The crossbar that you see in the picture above is there to support a balun at the feed point — without the cross bar the balun and the feedline would cause the balun to droop.
I couldn’t resist a little front to back testing. Jan’s antenna does not have a rotator — he used the “Armstrong” method of antenna pointing. I didn’t want to make him go outside to spin the thing around by hand, so I just turned mine and asked him to take note of the difference front to back. He saw 3 S units. 18 db. Not bad.
Jan said his antenna weighs about 8 pounds — mine is very similar at 9 pounds. Jan expressed some concern about UV deterioration of the fishing pole fiberglass. Mine has been up there three years without any problems.
Like me, Jan had considered “nesting” an element for another ban (perhaps 20 or 12) but — like me– had concluded that this would be too difficult.
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| N2CQR Moxon |
