Hallicrafters – Page 3 – SolderSmoke Daily News

Great Homebrew Interview on “QSO Today”

This week Eric 4Z1UG has a really nice interview with Jim Veatch WA2EUJ. Jim is the three time winner of the ARRL Homebrew Challenge. There is a very interesting discussion of Arduinos, SDR, the technology behind automatic antenna tuners, and even some Raspberry Pi. Jim’s first receiver was a Halli S38 and his first rig was a Heath HW-7.

Listen here:

http://www.qsotoday.com/podcasts/WA2EUJ

Thanks Jim. Thanks Eric.

SolderSmoke Podcast #191 RIGS! REAL RIGS!, BITX40 Module, EMRFD, MAILBAG

SolderSmoke Podcast #191 is available:

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke191.mp3

TRAVELOGUE AND FAMILY DOINGS: Pete son’s wedding, Billy’s Birthday, Gonzalo safely home in the Dominican Republic, MORE BEARS IN THE SHENANDOAH WOODS

BIG NEWS: EMRFD LIVES ON! Three cheers for Wes and for Tom Gallagher of the ARRL.

BENCH REPORTS:

PETE: FPM Rig. Some Halli history. A TRUE RIG! Working Japan.

WITH 600 WATT LINEAR AMPLIFIER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New FEELTECH Sig Gen.

BILL: Farhan’s BITX Module

Built to Mod, built to get you started in homebrew

Very impressive. BITX in miniature. But completely recognizable.

REMARKABLY stable.

Farhan personally checking each one.

Ladies collective doing toroids. DONATION money bought them some Diwali candies!

VFO Drift: Will NP0 SMD caps and lower current help enough?

My Analog VFO — BANDSWEEP

QRPppppppppppp with REX’s Hamfest Buddy. Thanks Rex and Bob Crane.

HB2HB with KW4KD

MAILBAG

Jan’s Netherland Mate Mighty Midget

Charlie’s Kiwi DSB

Steve, Donald Fagan, and Jean Shepherd

Rob VK5RC repairs Tek Tube ‘scopes

Colin M1BUU Si5351 superhet

Denis Klipa and NRL 3538

Jonathan M0JGH Wizard of Wimbledon Matchbox rig

JH8SST Simpleceiver

Peter Parker Vk3YE Reviews Book

Peter GW4ZUA Welsh LBS

Michael Rainey helping hobbyist in Germany with tuning forks.

It’s Ugly, But It Gets You There: Pete’s Latest Rig

That, my friends is an extreme example of what we mean when we use the word “rig.” This magnificent machine sent Pete’s melodious voice across the mighty Pacific several times during the recent CQ WW contest.

Pete wrote to Jun:

Hi Jun,

This weekend is the CQ World Wide SSB contest and I just worked three JA stations on 40 Meters. The time 1400 UTC. I must confess that I was using 600 watts to my droopy dipole but they came back on the first call. So there are paths open and perhaps 600 watts was overkill but the timing seems like it works for a good path to the west coast. Along the way I also worked a station in Hawaii (KH6).

See if you can find some 813 tubes as they make a great grounded grid linear amplifier tube and a pair will give you 600 watts. see http://www.ohio.edu/people/postr/bapix/813amp.htm

http://ham.homelinux.org/schemi-pdf/59hb199.pdf

The rig I was using is shown below. The mainboard came from a Hallicrafters FPM 300 (late 1960) to which I added the Rx Tx Mixer (SBL-1), my stock 2N3904 bi-directional amp board, the 2N2222 + BD139 driver stage using the EMRFD circuit and a 2SC2075 final which gives about 3 watts. This in turn drives an intermediate SS amp to 100 watts and then the SB200 to 600 watts. The FPM 300 used a 9.0 MHz IF frequency.

Of course no rig today from N6QW would be complete without a Si5351 and the color TFT display. Rounding this out is an LM386 audio amp stage. Cosmetically the rig doesn’t look pretty but sure works well.

73’s

Pete N6QW

(The comments about the 813s are kind of SHOCKING, coming from a member of the QRP Hall of Fame!)

The Last Hallicrafters Transceiver…REBORN! TWICE!

Pete Juliano and his colleague Giovanni Manzoni led me this morning to the happy land of Hallicrafters hybrid nostalgia.

It all started with Pete’s latest blog post:
http://n6qw.blogspot.com/2016/10/more-junk-box-rigs.html

I admit that I had never even heard of the Hallicrafters FPM rigs. Pete’s (uh, I mean Giovanni’s) video show’s Pete’s junk-box rebuild of the old rig. Very nice. Note the presence of the Si5351…

I needed more background info, so I turned to YouTube. This led me to more old friends: Dale Parfitt W4OP has a really nice video of his rebuild of the Halli FPM rig (see above). From his video we learn why Dr. Juliano prescribed a dose of Si5351 for the patient: Dale tells us that VFO instability was a major problem with this rig. Dale fixed his with the addition of an X-Lock board from yet another friend of SolderSmoke: Ron G4GXO of Cumbria Designs.

Dale really out-did himself by building an add-on accessory box for the FPM. Very nice. I especially liked the addition of the W3NQN passive audio filter for CW. I always have misgivings about adding audio filters to Direct Conversion receivers — this will reduce QRM, but you are still listening to both sides of zero beat. But when you add a sharp CW audio filter to an SSB superhet you will end up with true “single signal reception.” FB Dale.

Please send Pete Juliano and Giovanni Manzoni some positive feedback and words of encouragement. Please urge them to keep up the good work on the blog and the videos. Theirs is sometimes a lonely task — without feedback it can sometimes seem like putting messages in a bottle and throwing them into the digital sea. Please let them know that their work is being seen! Leave some positive comments on Pete’s blog. (No snark please — The Radio Gods will retaliate if you harsh N6QW’s mellow.)

SolderSmoke Podcast 187: 2nd Anniversary N6QW. Dayton. Bench Reports. Mailbag

SolderSmoke Podcast #187 is available:

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke187.mp3

Second Anniversary of Pete Juliano’s arrival on the SolderSmoke Podcast.

Dayton and FDIM underway

Bench Reports:
Pete:
— Repurposing old Circuitry
— Pete’s small Display
— New Transmitter
— LBS in Japan and at Dayton

Bill:
— S38-E The lipstick has worn off.
— Reduction drive for the Mighty Midget’s Mate
— Back to the Barbados Barebones Receiver:
Which LO to use for 40 Meters with a 5 MHz IF?
Sideband Inversion and “Lower Sideband” filters.
Eradicating WWV with parts from AA1TJ
Improving VFO stability
A bandspread/bandset arrangement with fixed caps
Soul in the Old Machine

“The Amateur is FRIENDLY…”

MAILBAG

Un-modifying an S-38 in 1966, and the Urge to Build

Michael mentioned this article in the Comments section under yesterday’s post. March 1966 issue of 73 magazine. Page 26. Just click on the images for easier reading. Or you can find the article here:

http://archive.org/stream/73-magazine-1966-03/03_March_1966#page/n27/mode/1up

More S38 wisdom from 73 here:

http://archive.org/stream/73-magazine-1976-11/11_November_1976#page/n89/mode/1up

That’s the November 1976 issue, page 88.

I miss “73”.

Hallicrafters S38-E Saved! it is not a “Pig with Lipstick.” It Sounds Good! (Video) (And Radio Moscow recordings)

You guys know how it is: You get tired of struggling with an old piece of gear. You put it aside, thinking that you might never work on it again. But it sits there in the corner, sort of looking at you. A few days or weeks or years pass and you think, hey, I’ll take one more quick look at this thing to see if I can get it going.

That’s what happened to me this weekend with the Hallicrafters S38-E. I hooked up the isolation transformer and put a fuse in the primary. I checked the wiring of my rewound antenna coil primary and found that I had connected it wrong. Duh. I then found that the antenna tuned circuit tracks fairly well with the tuned circuits in the local oscillator.

I hooked it up to my 40 meter dipole and fired it up. As evening rolled around the shortwave bands started to perk up. The Chinese Broadcast stations were there, as was that fire and brimstone preacher Brother so-and-so. But then I tuned into Radio Havana Cuba and the guy was talking about homebrew shortwave antennas. Could it be? Yes indeed. It was Arnie Coro CO2KK. The Radio Gods had spoken! They clearly had wanted me to get this old rig going.

I still have a few things to do: I need to fix the front panel light. I want to put in a three-wire (with ground) AC cord. Perhaps a real BFO (the original circuit seems to run out of steam with strong SSB signals). And I need to spruce up the alignment on the 1.7-5 Mc and 13-30 Mc bands.

I think Pete and I may have been too harsh on this old receiver (calling it a pig with lipstick and all that). It is clearly not a great communications receiver, but it is nice for casual shortwave listening.

And here is a bonus treat for you guys: Remember Radio Moscow in the bad old days? Yesterday I found a site with good recordings of some of their 1965 broadcasts. This is just what you would have heard coming out of an S38-E in 1965:

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radio-moscow/listen/

Always Listen to Pete! Second Thoughts on the S38-E

After working a bit on the Hallicrafters S38-E receiver, I am forced to admit that Pete was probably right about this receiver when he warned me that I’d be putting lipstick on a pig. For those of you who have a sentimental attachment to this receiver, please don’t take offense — I understand. But while I had one of these as a kid, I never really BONDED with it. That Drake 2B was stiff competition for my radio affection. So I can be more objective about this thing. And I now think Pete was right.

Problems:

— It is mechanically rickety. It jiggles around mechanically and, as a result, electrically.

— The front end is no match for Northern Virginia RFI. All it has between the antenna and the converter tube is one puny LC circuit. Not enough.

— The LO mixer and the LO are stuffed into one 12BE6 tube. The IF amp and the BFO cohabitate in another tube. In each case there just seems to be too much going on between one plate and one cathode.

— The whole AC/DC transformer-less thing is kind of nuts. You have to get used to TWO ground symbols on the schematic: one symbolizes B- (and is not attached to the chassis). The other is to chassis ground. Turns out that my E model is not really a “widow maker” — they have a 470K resistor and a cap between B- and chassis ground, so the damage you could do to yourself was quite limited. Still, it is all kind of goofy. I have an isolation transformer on the chassis, ready to move this receiver into the 1960s if the spirit ever moves me. KB2WIG commented: “At closing time, I don’t care if the S38 has lipstick.”

As I worked on this thing, I began to realize that the little homebrew 6U8 receiver I have next to it on the bench is a much better receiver. So I began to lose enthusiasm for putting lipstick on the S38-E. At least for the moment. I do like the cool 1950s place names on the S38-E’s front panel:

Java
USSR
Vatican
Singapore
Edmonton (!)
Congo
Milan
Iceland
Angola
And of course, the CD (Civil Defense) frequencies. (For when you wanted to do some shortwave listening while ducking and covering. )

But for now, me and the S38 are on a break.

Pigs, Lipstick, and my old Hallicrafters S38 “Widow Maker”

I blame Grayson for this. After getting my old 6U8 superhet running nicely on 80 and 40, my attention turned to an old Hallicrafters S38-E that had been relegated to the car port (Armand saw it out there, looking abandoned.) I didn’t like it because of its “transformer-less” “widow-maker” power supply. I was afraid to even GIVE it away for fear that someone would electrocute themselves. But Antique Electronics Supply had an isolation transformer, so the order went in.

I have to rewind or replace one of the primaries on the input antenna coil. This was a victim of the original cheapo power supply. Apparently the antenna terminal got grounded when the chassis was “hot.” POOF — smoke was released.

The bands do seem to sound better through thermatrons… And there is an undeniable 3-D aspect to working on these old rigs.

So yes, in a certain sense REAL RADIOS GLOW IN THE DARK.

………….

Bill, I think that as long as you don’t work on it in the car port in your bare feet you’ll be fine! Good luck with it and don’t blame Grayson too much. I think it was destined to come back in the house eventually. The radio gods have been whispering in your ear!
Ciao! & 73, Armand

…………

Bill:

I’ll take the blame, no problem!

S38 is nice to work on, plenty of room, no magnifying glass required. But I have to admit I am not a big fan of working on low cost AC line powered “raft-anchors” (too little for a boat). Definitely give it a isolation xformer and replace the filter cap(s). If it doesn’t weight 50+lbs, a bit lightweight for me.

If you need a good thermatron homebrew project (and who doesn’t really), I’ll send you plans for a nice 4-thermatron (including compactron) AM/CW 20/40M 5 watt transmitter I am finishing up (90% of the work is “finishing up”). Designed from scratch. Actually works. Uses a new construction technique I’ve been working on.

Grayson

……….

Hi Bill,

As I read about your next project – kept thinking –you can put lipstick on a pig BUT it is still a pig. I had one and put an isolation transformer on the front end –but found I was showing signs of carpal tunnel syndrome on my left hand as I kept retuning the radio because it drifted so much. Have fun.

Pete

Pete:

I don’t know. Simplicity is a virtue, and this thing is pretty simple: RF amp, mixer, LC oscillator, detector, audio amps. Broad as a barn door with just two 455 kc IF transformers for the filter. Lots of room on the chassis.

As for drift, my little 6u8 RX with LC oscillators in both LO and BFO settles down very nicely.

Bill

……………

Hi Bill,

I surely didn’t mean to denigrate your next homebrew project and perhaps it was that the one I had was a dud in the lot.

But I then moved up to the SX-99 and was in tall clover. Besides today we have some things we can do to enable “tamer” oscillators. So why not? You need to team that up with the M^3 and make some contacts.

Pete

………….

Pete: I KNEW you would try to get a synthesizer of some sort inside the S38-E. But I say NO! I had a lot of fun getting the LC oscillators in my 6U8 rig to tune exactly where I wanted them to tune. You know, play around with the cap in series with the main tuning cap to change the tuning rate (better than removing plates — they are hard to put back on!). Then changing the values of the L and C elements to get the thing to oscillate in the desired range. Then wrap it all up with some Dymo tape on the 1/2 CD “tuning dial.” Sure, I know, that would have been a few keystrokes on the Arduino, but somehow this old way puts you closer to the physics, closer to the electrons. Take a look at the e-mail about Wooden Boats, VFOs and PTOs on yesterday’s SS blog.

The “widow maker” potential of the S38-E was apparently on the minds of the guys who designed the cabinet. The whole box and the front panel are all very carefully insulated from the chassis. Plastic nuts!

Nice looking pig, by the way. She may appear on the blog soon.

73 Bill

SolderSmoke Podcast #181 Of Dongles and DX-100s — SDR vs. HDR, Music & Art, 2B, HB2HB, Noise, The Martian, VK3YE’s New Book

Two RTL SDR Dongles in front of a DX-100 Transmitter

SolderSmoke Podcast #181 is available:

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke181.mp3

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

SolderSmoke Podcast #181 Of Dongles and DX-100s — SDR vs. HDR, Music & Art, 2B, HB2HB, Noise, The Martian, VK3YE’s New Book

Two RTL SDR Dongles in front of a DX-100 Transmitter

SolderSmoke Podcast #181 is available:

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke181.mp3

Kiwi Lunchbox Sideband: The Tucker Tin Two

Pete Eaton sent us links to an old article from the New Zealand magazine “Break-In.” So many good, simple rigs come to us from New Zealand! Who can forget ZL2BMI’s DSB rig? This one is the work of Fred Johnson ZL2AMJ. It is especially interesting and is in some ways similar to Peter Parker’s “Knobless Wonder.”

It uses the phasing method of sideband generation. No crystal filters in this one. You need TWO balanced modulators. You have a 90 degree phase shift network for the RF (from the carrier oscillator) and a second 90 degree phase shift network for the AF from the mic amplifier. When you combine the signals from the two balanced modulators — viola! — one of the sidebands disappears. The balanced modulators take care of the carrier, and an SSB signal is launched. That is how my old HT-37 works, and similar ideas seem to be at work in modern SDR rigs.

G3TXQ has the complete set of Break-In articles (it includes a VFO):
http://www.karinya.net/g3txq/temp/tucker_tin/

Here is a Canadian article on the rig. A “Tucker Tin” is apparently what the Kiwis call a lunch boxes (shades of Benton Harbor…).

Thanks Pete!

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

Harv’s DDS Function Generator

Nice looking DDS function generator Harv! Glad to see the HT-37 in the background. (And it appears well protected — is that some sort of digital shielding to protect it from the bits and bytes?) The eraser buttons are a nice touch. Good luck with the Minima!

Hi Bill,

Well I have nearly completed my DDS Function Generator as I prepare to construct the Minima.

The Function Generator was a necessity for the bench so I can tackle Tweaking and Troubleshooting my work.

It is housed an aluminum box and completely self-contained.

My objective was to have the choice, to either lay the unit flat on the work surface or stand it on a shelf for easy reading while seated.

The Generator has both a DDS and HF-ECG output.

The buttons are fashioned from White Pencil Erasers since finding proper buttons for the membrane keypad beneath was difficult.

I have obtained a set of Farhan’s Boards for the Minima but will begin my effort with a Manhattan Style Construction so I can perfect my choice of parts.

The soldering iron is heating and I’m ready for a new and exciting challenge.

Happy Solder Melting Everyone!

Harv -=WA3EIB=-

Albq., NM.

38 Year HB Mystery Solved? Was it the phasing dots?

During the summer of 1976, at the age of 18, I made an audacious attempt to join the ranks of the true homebrewers. I tried to build a receiver. It was the Herring Aid 5 from the July 1976 issue of QST, a 40 meter Direct Conversion receiver intended for use with the famed Tuna Tin 2. As I have recounted (perhaps ad nauseum), I never got it to work. My recent encounter with the ORIGINAL Tuna Tin 2 (Mojo was transferred to my BITX17, and it definitely works better now) got me thinking about this painful experience. I decided to try again.

There is an updated NORCAL schematic for this rig. I found it (and some good articles) on the NJQRP club page. In the original, designer Jay Rusgrove, WA1LNQ, used only parts that could be found at Radio Shack stores. In the days before the internet and Mouser, this was a good idea. Instead of toroidal ferrite and iron powder coils, Jay built his coils around Radio Shack solonoidal 10 uH chokes.

The NORCAL version dispensed with the Radio Shack chokes, and used toroids. But I wanted to try to find out what went wrong 38 years ago. So I dug up some 10uH chokes.

I know that my problem was that I never got the oscillator working. I remember being able to hear signals with my “almost” receiver when I put my HT-37 in “CAL” mode and tuned through 40. I was so close! The Herring Aid was picking up RF from the HT-37 and using that in lieu of the LO energy that obviously wasn’t coming from my Herring Aid VFO. But WHY didn’t that oscillator work?

Today I started with the VFO. Again, it didn’t work! But now I have decades of troubleshooting experience under my belt. So I poked around a bit. Then I decided to look closely at the phasing.

Take a look at the schematic(above) and the picture (below). L7 is the 10uH choke. L6 is 4 turns wound over it (or adjacent to it). Now, here is the key question: Look at the phasing dots. How would you guys connect those coils? For me, the schematic indicates that the TOP of L6 should go to the Zener and the BOTTOM of L6 should go to the drain of the JFET. The TOP of the choke should go over to C5, and BOTTOM of L6 should go to ground. Right? Or am I reading the phasing dots wrong?

Well, the oscillator was not oscillating in this configuration. Then I did something that I might not have known to try back in 1976: I reversed the phase of L6: I put the top of the coil to the Drain of the JFET and the bottom of the coil to the Zener. Bingo. The joy of oscillation. Now it works. (The picture below shows it as it is when the oscillator is working well.)

So, is there an error in that diagram? Was this not all my fault?

Aha! I just looked at the schematic of the NORCAL version. Check out the dots! I think that was the problem!

First Light

Preston: Your use of the term “First Light” is especially appropriate. I got the concept from a wonderful book of that title by the author Richard PRESTON. I pulled it off the shelf this morning, and, as my coffee was brewing, read this on the dust cover:

 “First Light won the American Institute of Physics award in science writing. An asteroid has been named “Preston” in honor of First Light. It is likely someday to collide with Mars or the earth.”

 The book’s glossary defines first light as: “A technical term from astronomy signifying the moment when starlight is allowed to fall on a new mirror for the first time.” The first light experience must, I think, be similar to the feelings we get when we first allow RF to fall on the front end of a new homebrew receiver. 

 Congrats on the S-107 OM. 

 73 Bill N2CQR

——————————————

From Preston Douglas WJ2V:

I am happy to report that my little novice rig (well it’s not so little if you weigh it) consisting of my restored circa 1960 Hallicrafters S-107 and circa 1959 KnightKit T-50 (with V-44) made our first QSO with a guy 20 miles away on Staten Island. This was Saturday afternoon, in full daylight, on 40 meters. He was also running vintage equipment (Heath) but running an SB-200 Heath linear. I have no idea why he needed a linear on 40 meter CW, but he seemed happy with it. I could easily hear his signal via leakage through my Daiwa cavity switch, so it was a pretty powerful signal. The T-50 puts out maybe 20-25 watts full bore, but it certainly works fine, and got a 569 signal report. The 9 part was obviously the important one.

I had just turned on the equipment, so the S-107 needed to be adjusted a bit during the QSO to allow for a bit of warm up drift. It stabilizes ten or fifteen minutes after warmup. I had to use a straight key as I have not yet built the little kit that interfaces solid state keyers with old rigs. I’ll get to it on a slow afternoon this winter perhaps. But for now, a straight key is about the right speed for this setup. T/R requires switching the antenna, the VFO to transmit, and the receiver to standby for transmitting. Not exactly QSK. Since there are so many switches, it may not pay to add an antenna relay switch to this setup. Besides, switching is part of the fun.

I did not get set up in time for New Years, so missed the chance to operate SKN.

I learned about first light from Bill Meara’s podcasts. It refers to the first time a telescope is used, but, as he says, it applies just as well to a new (old) rig.

All of this was caused by a local ham offering a Hallicrafters S-107 for ten bucks. Even with the few bucks needed to put it right, I sure got my money’s worth.

Regards guys and Happy New Year,

Preston WJ2V

—————————————-

Earlier from Preston:

I am pleased to report my S-107 is restored to full function. Based on the build up of filth on it before cleaning, it is also cleaner than it has been for many years. The greasy dirt (I shudder to think what it was made of) in between the flutes of the control knobs has succumbed to a toothbrush and detergent. Who’d have thought what a difference clean controls would make in the overall appeal of a radio?

The S-107 was purchased without negotiation from a local and fellow member of the Long Island Mobile Radio Club for ten bucks. I cheerfully handed over a ten spot and drove home with this rig.

On the bench, the tubes lit, and I could hear a couple of AM stations, but it made an awful racket with 60/120 cycle hum. New electrolytic caps cured that. The chassis felt “hot” to the touch. Resistance checks on the HV-to-AC sides of the transformer confirmed that, thankfully, there were no shorts. On advice of some pros on this list and elsewhere, I removed a cap and resistor from the AC line to the chassis that Hallicrafters thought was a good idea. With a new three wire grounded plug, the chassis was now cold.

Alignment was done with an old Conar signal generator (my $1 victory from an old hamfest) and trusty Tek 465 with frequency counter connected to its rear connector. The double IF transformers peaked up, and so did the front end compression caps on all bands. And now, the radio really receives CW and SSB! With a simple dipole (my beam seems to have gotten sick from Irene and Sandy) I get good signals on 80, 40, and 20. Maybe next weekend I will have time to try the upper bands during daylight hours. But, the signal generator suggests they should be fine.

The ten buck receiver needed ten bucks worth of electrolytics. And I needed to buy a little 20 buck kit of Bristol Splined wrenches. (Nobody I thought to ask had a set to lend.) They were needed because: Another Hallicrafters bit of wonderment is that the setscrews in the control knobs need to be turned with these unusual wrenches that look like, but aren’t, hex keys. Well, I suppose I can say I have the wrenches if I decide to restore another Hallicrafters. I hear Collins has them too.

I think I mentioned that I had to restring both the band spread and main tuning with real dial cord. Another three bucks, perhaps. So, my ten buck receiver is still a bargain at around 40 bucks in all. And, I had a lot more than 40 bucks worth of fun. I spent part of the afternoon just listening to the receiver, it sounded so good. You know how it is when you first listen to a new receiver.

Now, next thing will be to see how it does making contacts with a Knight T-50. I know the T-50 is not quite QRP. I probably puts out about 25 or 30 watts.

This will be about as close to my novice station as I am willing to fall. The original station had the T-50, but no VFO (which came with the T-50 I have now); but the receiver was an S-38E, which was, (collectors notwithstanding) a piece of crap. And it’s dangerous since it is really one of those transformerless AM radios in shortwave clothing. No wonder I only made a handful of contacts with it as a novice. I have no nostalgia for my old Hallicrafters S-38E. I hear folks recommend operating it with an isolation transformer. I have a better idea. Don’t plug it in.

I had so much fun with the S-107, though, I am starting to think about restoring an S-108 or an SX-110.

Preston Douglas WJ2V

Happy New Year! Straight Key Night

For the first time in years I got on the air on New Year’s eve. I fired up the HT-37 and Drake 2-B on 20 meters last night right at 0001 UTC (well, with these rigs I should say GMT!). There was a moment of stress when, as I was trying to adjust the key, the whole thing fell apart and the little ball bearings spilled out. Yikes! It was as if the radio gods were trying to tell me something. It took me a few minutes to re-assemble my straight key, then I called CQ. The HT-37 puts out a lot more power than I normally emit, and it caused the Carbon Monoxide detector to go off, sparking a minor panic among family members. (See, this never happens with QRP!) With that resolved I had nice QSOs with K5KFK in Texas, W6VNR in California, and N1WPU in Maine. This morning I worked WA0ZDE in Missouri. The old HT-37 was drifting a bit, but Rick said he kind of liked that. (I put a muffin fan on top of the transmitter — that should settle it down a bit). By the way, my key is a bit unusual: it is just a cheapo key, but I have it mounted on the base from a Vibroplex bug. I never mastered the Vibroplex, and ended up giving the bug parts to HI8G in Santo Domingo — Gustavo planned on using them to fix another bug that had been given to him years before by Fred Laun (K3ZO).

Rick, WA0ZDE ( who I talked to on 20 this morning) sent me a VERY SKN photo collage (see below). I see that Rick also tends to hold onto his gear for a long time.

HNY to all! GL in 14. 73!

SolderSmoke Podcast #157: Peter Parker on Phasing Rigs

SolderSmoke Podcast #157 is available for download.
http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke157.mp3

December 27, 2013

— Santa Report: Rigol Scope at SolderSmoke HQ. Kites at VK3YE.
— Project updates: Bill’s BITX 40/20 build.
— Peter finishing up BITX40 (in a big box)
— BITX 17 (5 watts SSB) works JA, ZD7, ZS!
— The mystery, elegance, and gentleness of phasing SSB
— Phasing explained in 1970 ARRL SSB book
— Phasing SSB: From Hallicrafters HT-37 to SDR
— The SP5AHT Phasing Rig
— I & Q for you: The Binaural Experience
— Direct Conversion receivers and Software Defined Radios
— Simple DC receivers plugging into sound cards
— The joy of receiver building
— 144 MHz aircraft bounce (Melbourne to Sydney)
— VHF Across The Great Australian Bight

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

SolderSmoke Podcast #157: Peter Parker on Phasing Rigs

On 15 with HT-37 and Drake 2B

W7FE’s Shack and Hex Beam

After I replaced the 6U8 first mixer tube on the trusty Drake 2-B I tuned around a bit on 15 meters. IZ4NIC was loud, all the way from Bologna. I gave him a call and we had a nice QSO in Italian. then I talked to F4GBU. I was using my 40 meter dipole, but I thought I might do better with my 17 meter dipole (it is higher up in the trees). I called CQ 15 and got into a very nice QSO with Jim, W0JLG in Wichita. Jim has a very impressive collection of Boatanchors. We were soon joined by Stu, W7FE. Stu was using a Central Electronics 100v from the early 1960s. Wow, the three of us had a nice long contact.

The QSO was a real trip down memory lane for me: My sister Trish is visiting us. We had been talking about how when we were kids she would come into the shack to watch me try to talk to people… with the very same HT-37 and Drake 2B. I was 15 and she was 10. That was 39 years ago! Here we were again, sitting in front of the same old rig. It was a lot of fun.

Stu has some great info on his very impressive radio shack. You guys will really enjoy a visit to his QRZ.com site: http://www.qrz.com/db/W7FE

And check out his switching system for all those rigs: http://www.qsl.net/w7fe/

Wow, his site makes me want o move out to the shed and put up a hex beam!

A Nice Hallicrafters S38-E Knack Story

Bill –

It was Christmas of 1958 (5th Grade)that my parents bought me the Hallicrafters S38-E that I still have. I was recovering from multiple surgeries the previous summer to correct for the effects of Polio when I was 3. I came down with Polio in the last year before the vaccine was released to the public.

A bit of bio – because of my physical limitations as a child, I spent a lot of time indoors reading and listening to the radio. Broadcast AM here at that time was still playing dramas like “The Lone Ranger” and “Big John and Little Sparky”. I really enjoyed them. Then, on that fateful day I asked my mother why, since our radio plugged into the wall electric outlet and we could hear people talking, weren’t other people able to hear us talking on their radio if we spoke into the loudspeaker. She said, ‘I don’t know, but the library ( 2 blocks away) will have books about radio that you can read.” The Knack bit early and it bit hard.

By the time I was in 5th grade I had discovered short wave radio. I dearly wanted a short wave radio and I wanted a Hallicrafters. Somewhere I had found a catalog and wow! nothing else would do. What I didn’t realize until I was in my teens was just how hard times were for my folks. Most families then did not have medical and hospitalization insurance. My dad was paying off the hospital and the doctors every month almost until I graduated from high school.

But, anyway, I did get the S38-E for Christmas. At $69.95, it was the least expensive Hallicrafters available. In reality, it is just an All-American – 5 with extended tuning range. Tuning was as broad as a barn door, and above 15 MHz it is as deaf as a post. But it was mine and I loved it. The short wave bands were still hot in those days as we were just peaking through one of the most celebrated Solar Maxima of the last century. Many the hours I listened to HCJB – Quito, and Radio Moscow, and Voice of America…. I also found people talking to each other – Wow! Ham Radio. And just look at me now…. And those strange beeping sounds – that was actually people talking? And what was that strange Donald-Duck sounding talk all about?

Yes – I still have that same S38-E. It went to college with me, and has been with me for over half a Century, now. Yes, it still works. (Needs a replacement IF transformer), Yes, it will shock the bejeebers out of you if you plug it in wrong. {I use two filament transformers back-to-back to prevent that.) Yes, the Knack still has me, but that’s another chapter.

72’s
Bruce KK0S