Category: SolderSmoke Podcast

Crystal Radio Sleuthing

As part of my effort to stamp out broadcast interference to the SolderSmoke podcast, this weekend I reassembled the crystal radio that Billy and I had built in London. It is REAL simple: Just a parallel LC circuit with a germanium diode detector and some high impedance phones. (I also put a chunk of galena and a cat’s whisker on the board — that’s for when I get the urge to form my own PN junctions.) As expected, I immediately heard two AM broadcast stations: WFAX 5 kw 1220 kHz (religious) and WUST 20 kw 1120 kHz AM (mostly foreign language). I found out the hard way that these stations reduce power at night: I was bragging to my wife about the EXCELLENT reception I’d been getting on the crystal set, but when, after dinner, I brought her into the shack for a demonstration, she could barely hear anything. Oh well…

But here’s a surprise: These are NOT the stations that are getting into the podcast! With the crystal radio in operation, I did some audacity recording and then quickly checked to see if the breakthrough sounded like what they were playing on WFAX and WUST. NO! The breakthrough was ZZ Top! I’m guessing that the breakthrough was from an FM broadcaster. I note that the length of the cord to the microphone would seems like it would be a nice antenna for the FM broadcast band… What do you guys think?

Whatever the source, I think I have taken care of the problem. I got big ferrite toroid core and wrapped about ten turns of the mic cable through it. No more broadcast breakthrough.

SolderSmoke Podcast #131

SolderSmoke Podcast #131
http://www.soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke131.mp3
28 February 2011

–Winterfest!
–UK nostalgia: “King’s Speech” saves British Regen
–Dark Cloud, Silver Lining: ice storm gets us back on the air
–40 meter phone (AM and SSB)
–K2ZA interview: John Zaruba’s DX-100
–OUR NEW SPONSOR: SIERRA RADIO SYSTEMS
–SolderSmoke audio woes: interference! Lollipop ditched.
–Buzz Aldrin’s lunar seismograph
–Watching the space station fly over Virginia
–Twain, Tesla, Edison and Halley’s Comet
–Capuccio on Drugs
–MAILBAG

Our New Microphone!

Just kidding… That’s actually a mic from an old Heathkit Benton Harbor Lunchbox.

I continue to get good advice from listeners on the mic issue. I hope to put this to rest soon — then we’ll shift away from AF back to RF. Several listeners advised me to stick to SolderSmoke’s “homebrew or roadkill” ethos, and to avoid the temptation to solve problems with credit cards. Good advice! People REALLY like the audio with the old decrepit computer mic and the Linux Ubuntu Laptop. So here is what I’m going to do: I’ll go back to that combo, but I will attempt to fix up some of the mechanical problems (the old mic is falling apart and it has all kinds of weird things taped on to it) and the electrical problems (it seems to pick up more AC hum than then D-104). It won’t be pretty, but it will be a nice homebrew/roadkill device.

A question for those who expressed support for this mic and for the audio in #129: Didn’t you hear the AC hum?

Audio Blues

OK, so the SolderSmoke community wasn’t exactly Astatic about my use of the D-104. I was really kind of disappointed. After all, I’d risked my dental health (duct tape on my teeth!) in an effort to improve the audio quality. I found it especially galling that a new demon was added to my audio woes: AM broadcast band interference. QRM on the internet! I suppose it is somewhat fitting, especially for a podcast that occasionally dabbles in crystal radios.

Thanks for all the comments. Even for the bruising ones. They gave me some additional insights. Most of the problem is clearly at my end of the fiber optic cable. But I think part of this problem has to do with the fact that people are listening to the show with a wide variety of equipment: some are using car sound systems, some are at home using computer speakers (fed by all kinds of different sound cards). A very wide variety of headphones and earbuds are in use. Also, there are big differences in our ears! I, like many listeners, have some serious high frequency hearing loss.

But never fear, SolderFans! The quest for the perfect podcast audio continues. I have turned one corner of the radio shack into a roadkill sound studio. I have worked on several new (and several old) microphones. I have visited (and have actually read) several websites about podcast audio quality.

There may be a “name that mic” contest in our future…

SolderSmoke Podcast #130

SolderSmoke Podcast #130 is available at
http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke130.mp3

Some important trivia questions (answers will be given in the podcast):

— What is the connection between radio amateur (and pioneer radio astronomer) Grote Reber and world famous astronomer Edwin Hubble?

— In the world of radio-controlled helicopters, what is “TBE”?

— In Britain they have radio “rallies,” but at one time they had hamfests.” When did this happen?

— Only one terrain feature on Venus is named for a man. He is man of radio. Who is he?

— What music did Neil Armstrong listen to on his way to the moon?

Plus:
— The Air and Space Museums
— Our music
— The SolderSmoke D-104
— NASA asks for our help
— Telescope repairs
— A BFO for the Trans-O
— Back on Echolink
MAILBAG!

Please send reports on the D-104 audio!

Tech Details on SolderSmoke’s Theme Music

This will be discussed in the next podcast, so I thought I’d share some tech details on our theme music. From the artist, Maestro Moj:

Geeky details about the music:
In the homebrew spirit, I tried to make all the sounds with instruments which I had soldered together myself. These were a Formant music synthesizer designed by C. Chapman from the Dutch/British “Elektor” magazine, circa 1977, and a FatMan synthesizer kit from PAiA Electronics. I play them through an ancient Kustom 200 guitar amplifier, which I’ve caused to smoke at least twice. The beginning is my K2 being powered on and tuned across 80 meters. I cheated and used a real gong at the end which a good friend went to the trouble of finding and buying in China, but I fed the sound through a PIC Polywhatsit designed by John Becker and described in Britain’s “Everyday Practical Electronics,” December 2001.
If anyone wants to sing along, it seems to me that the words are: ” – Sol-Der Smo-Oke, – Sol-Der Smoke (repeat over and over) “
Music, like all home-brew, is never truly done. Next time I’ll try to get a theremin working again – there’s a radio-circuitried musical instrument!
If my grandson has kept the site up, there may be garage band music of his and mine on MySpace under Mikeandtheceiling.
Enjoy!
Mark “moj” Johnson
W8MOJ

Rouges Gallery: Three Possible SolderSmoke mics

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to finally, seriously pay some attention to the audio quality of the SolderSmoke podcast. With its roots in the scratchy Echolink connections between Juneau and London, audio quality has long been neglected on our show. With some funds donated by kind listeners (thanks guys!) I was this weekend shopping the internet for a suitable SolderMic. I ran into a lot of audio-fool snake oil. Wait a second, I thought, let’s do some checks on the many mics I have around me here in the shack. I made comparison tests using three different mics (pictured above): my venerable D-104 chrome lollipop (with a transistor amplifier in the base), the dilapidated computer mic with improvised pop shield that I’ve been using for the last several years, and a Turner +2 mic that I gutted a while back (the original element was replaced by a cheap Radio Shack electret element, and the on-board amplifier was disconnected). (NOTE: It is a MYTH — an ugly myth — that the D-104 is CB gear. We debunked this hideous lie a while back. The D-104 is definitely ham gear! The Turner +2? Well, I don’t know about that one. It does look a bit good-buddyish.)

At first, I thought the re-done Turner would win out. Then I thought the computer mic would keep its job. But then — surprisingly — the D-104 started to sound REAL good. The D-104 was especially good at keeping AC hum out of the signal — that was a problem with the other two.

I found that I could get a very nice-sounding audio by running the D-104 audio through some EQ to knock down the little bit of hum that it did pick up, and to put about 30 db of attenuation on my now infamous SSSS whistles. I also used Audacity’s noise remover.

So, the next SolderSmoke may come to you via an Astatic D-104. Kind of appropriate, don’t you think? What do you guys think? Maybe I should post an audio sample to get some expert opinion before I chrome lollipop #130…

SolderSmoke Podcast #129

January 8, 2010
SolderSmoke Podcast #129

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke129.mp3

Introducing Cappuccio (pictured above)
“On the Cover of the Hot Iron”
Old tech, new tech:
Hammarlund HQ-100
Lafayette HA-600 (A)
WSPR: VK6 on the grey line, also Wake Island, and Alaska
How I fixed a broken GPU chip using a light bulb!
EMRFD’s cool mod of the SBL-1 Diode Ring device (from W6JFR)
MAILBAG

Please send me reports on the audio quality. I made some changes…

SolderSmoke 128 is out!

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke128.mp3

3 December 2010
Visit to Wright Brother’s Kitty Hawk site
Antenna work on Veterans’ Day
W4HBK’s Pensacola Snapper
“Knackers of the World Unite” (even in the UK!)
Sky and Telescope Jupiter moons program
Listen to a meteor ping!
DSB DC WSPR transceiver
Other ham books on Lulu
Ubuntu Karmic Koala’s Skyrockets
Movie Review: “Social Network”
LTSpice under Wine (in Ubuntu)
Forrest Mims
Broken laptop — need advice
MAILBAG
New puppy en route

I’ll update the rss feed tomorrow.

SolderSmoke Podcast #127

SolderSmoke #127 has been released! Get it here:

http://www.soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke127.mp3

Topics covered:
Linux Ubuntu and Audio Quality.
Karmic Koala makes you EVEN YOUNGER
Reverse Culture shock, Woodpeckers, and the Washington METRO system
The smell of an old HT-37
75 meter AM
DaVinci Code QRSS rig on the air
Cul-de-sac astronomy with TWO telescopes
READING: SPRATS, Hot Iron, Sky Buddies, Wired
Jeri Ellsworth’s homebrew transistors
Tatjana Van Vark’s homebrew Enigma-like machine
MAILBAG
Antenna work and hamfests on the horizon

Linux makes you younger! “Aha! moments”

Listeners seem to like the audio quality of SolderSmoke episode #126. I was surprised by this because I didn’t do any of the post-recording processing that I’d done in earlier episodes. I didn’t even have the foam “Popping P Protector” on the mic. And the equalizer that Brent sent hasn’t been put in service yet. The improved audio may simply be the result of broader bandwidth — I didn’t use the Audacity equalizer to drop off the lows and highs. Perhaps that explains why the file was over 40 MB instead of the normal 20 MB. Several listeners said that I sounded 10 years younger in 126 — it must be a Linux thing.

Chris KJ4GUU posted a nice comment about my book “SolderSmoke — Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics” (which he calls SSGAWE):

“I have started reading I have started reading SSGAWE again. Whenever I have a question about a project I can usually find help in your book, its becoming more of a cherished reference guide that has produced more Ah-ha! moments than any other book I own. Thanks again!”

Thanks Chris — those “Ah-ha! moments” were what I was hoping to produce.

For more info on the book, go here:
http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm

RSS, Time Signal, Miners…

I was very pleased to send SolderSmoke 126 out yesterday. There are some bugs to be worked out. The audio — as always — could use some improvement. (Any comments on how the audio in 126 compares with the 120-125?)

I tried to update the RSS feed this morning — please let me know if it works properly.

Several listeners have already identified the time Spanish language time signal I’ve been hearing on 75 meters: HD2IOA in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Great to see the Chilean miners coming up out of the mine this morning!

SolderSmoke IS BACK: #126

October 11, 2010
SolderSmoke returns!
Shack #7: The New Shack
Drake 2-B inhaling RF
Listening to 75 AM and SSB: WA1HLR, KM1A
Time signal on 3820 +/-?
Repairing DaVinci Code QRSS rig
UK test gear works fine on this side of pond!
Computer woes: First Linux SolderSmoke
Astronomy from inside the Beltway
Winter SPRAT: Great info, philosophy, inspiration
Charging up solar cells
Inbound Boatanchors: DX-40, DX-60, HQ-100, HA-600(A), HT-37
MAILBAG
-

SolderSmokeStatus

I’ve been getting some increasingly desperate messages about SolderSmoke withdrawal symptoms so I thought I’d better send out a status report. Also, one listener wrote in addressing me as “The Grand Poobah of the SolderSmoke Brotherhood.” Wow, with a title like that, I better get going with the podcasts!

Most of the stuff is in the shack. The workbench is assembled. I’m trying to set up for both 220 and 110 (lots of Euro gear accumulated over the last ten years!) Surprisingly, Home Depot doesn’t sell 110 to 220 transformers. And I live in an area where LOTS of people move back and forth across the pond. I may have to press my old autotransformer into service.

Most of my really old gear — the stuff that went into storage over the last decade — should show up in a week or so. This means my HT-37, DX-40, DX-60, Lafayette HA-600 etc. will be reappearing on the scene.

I hope to get some beacons (uh, I mean MEPTs!) on the air soon.

Unfortunately my ancient computer gave up the ghost during the trip. Hard drive is making scary noises. This will slow down the podcast as I have trouble putting it together with Linux only (which is what I’m operating with now — thanks Jorge! Without your help I’d be completely off the net) Anyone have any version of Windows I could legally use?

But the Drake 2-B is doing fine. I’m listening to 75 SSB as I type.

Hang in there loyal listeners. Perhaps some of that nicotine gum would help. Or, better, some REAL solder smoke.

73 from the GP

Bill

Getting Settled — Slowly. Yogi Berra on Theory and Practice

I’ve been getting some “Are you alive?” inquiries from SolderSmoke fans. I’m happy to report that, yes, I am still around, and doing fairly well. This move back to the states has been a bit more difficult and complicated than previous transfers, but slowly the shack is starting to come
together. Moat important: The Drake 2-B survived the journey!

It may take me a few weeks to start emitting whistling S sounds and Gong noises (“Wow, that’s awesome!’) but hang in there, new SolderSmoke episodes are on the way.

Meanwhile, I wanted to share with you a Yogi Berra quote sent to me by Brent, KD0GLS. I think this is especially appropriate because my grandfather actually played for the New York Yankees:

“As I make my way through the back episodes of SolderSmoke at a stately pace and hear you speak of Bletchley Park, I’m also reading “Secrets & Lies” by Bruce Schneier, renowned cryptographer and internet security expert. In his book, I read this timeless quote that immediately made me think of our hobby:

“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.”
Yogi Berra”

Thanks Brent! Thanks Yogi!

A confession

Well, I didn’t actually do it, but I thought about it. As the date of our departure from Italy approached, I was — as readers and listeners will remember — getting deeper and deeper into minimalist QRSS beacons. During the final weeks I was running my 15 mW Hans Summers-inspired varactor-modulated FSK transmitter from our country location up in the Sabine Hills. I had it running off one of my Volkswagen solar panels. I knew that the owner of the olive grove wouldn’t mind if I left my nearly-invisible doublet antenna in the trees… You guys see where I was going with this. I came close to leaving that thing on the air. Sometimes I kind of wish I had. It would have been fun. But the QRSS beacons already seemed to be pushing the regulatory envelope a bit, so the solar panel and the beacon board went into the shipping container. I hope they will soon be radiating from Northern Virginia…

All OK here. We are getting settled. Our stuff should be arriving in the USA next week. We may have a new podcast out by early September.

We are still in a temporary apartment. This week Billy and I visited the local hardware store and got some very thin magnet wire. I have about 50 feet of it going from the balcony to a tree. As I type I’m listening to SSB net activity on 40 meters with my little Sony portable receiver. Man, that recent Coronal Mass Ejection really seems to have messed up propagation. But hopefully it is an indication that Ole’ Sol is coming back to life.

The Future of SolderSmoke

We’re now in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, visiting my wife’s family.

I’ve had some time to think about the future of the podcast. There will have to be a summer pause — my shack is now in a bunch of boxes, out in the Atlantic ocean somewhere (hopefully above the surface!).

I want to use the move to improve the podcast and the associated blog and websites. Here are some initial ideas:

— Reaching out to a broader community of Knack victims. It would be good thing could use the podcast to pull in guys who are solder melters, but who are not (yet) hardcore QRP homebrewers.

— Better audio. I need a real microphone. Maybe a simple equalizer. I need to REALLY get rid of the SSSSSS problem.

— Easier-to-use software. I’m still using the collection of software that Mike, KL7R, and I threw together five years ago. It all starts with Audacity (which works very well). But then for updating the website I’m using an OLD version of Mozilla composer. Updating the .rss feed is even more rickety — I manually go in and change the text using Microsoft’s notepad. There has to be an easier way of doing all this.

— Self-hosted blog. I’m currently using Google’s Blogspot to host the blog. But I see some advantages in moving to a self-hosted blog. I’d like to have a better comment/dialog feature, something more like the discussion board on the “AM Window” and other similar blogs.

— More video. Don’t worry. I’ll stick with the audio podcast. But video is fun and useful, so I want to try to do more videos.

— More guests on the show. I often say this, but in practice doing this makes it a lot harder to do a podcast. But maybe this will get easier now that I’m in the East Coast time zone.

Let me know what you think. 73 from Santo Domingo

SolderSmoke is Moving the Markets!

Hi Bill,

I was at the East Suffolk Wireless Revival yesterday (Sunday) morning – hardly FDIM, but still a nice little flea market / boot sale, maybe 20 / 25 people selling odds and ends from SMD components to rigs and other bits of kit. Finished up in a bit of a good natured scrum fighting over variable capacitors made all the more desirable for having proper shafts and being made of something other than plastic.

Your name came up as being the inspiration for a resurgence in home building and the subsequent rise in prices of desirable bits as they became scarce as more people wised up to the fun of building and the ease of just melting solder straight on to the PCB rather than trying to etch something. Rather suspect that your podcasts and that book are actually being more influential than you realise. Read my copy lying on the beach in Antigua, but still keep going back to it, and as you have said in the past, the rest of the library – it’s making a very pleasant change from the Masters that I’m buried in at the moment.

Bought the UK equivalent of a Harbor Freight punch over a few days back, so can now make my own little round pads out of old PCB – magical !!

Good luck with the move – I was brought up on a prison farm in Tanzania amongst other places, so recall all too well that strange sense of loss when you leave a country for pastures anew. Lovely to hear Maria sounding so Italian – picking up another language at that age is a wonderful thing to have done and will no doubt stand both her and Billy in good stead over the years. I still manage a little Swahili after 50 years, including teaching my last 2 dogs a few commands which is always funny.

Looking forward to the next podcast – they have become an important little interlude in my life and keep my interest in amateur radio invigorated

All the best

Nick

SolderSmoke Podcast #125 — SPECIAL FDIM EDITION

http://soldersmoke.com

Special Four Days In May Edition! 
Opening music: FDIM Bluegrass
Our last (sniff) Italy Travel Report
Snakes and Fireflies in Lazio
G3ROO's Antenna Book
Davinci beacon crosses the pond
WSPR rig repaired
New transceiver built for 30 meter digi
Manhattan-izing an SMT board
Paul Harden's wonderful book
BOB CRANE'S FDIM INTERVIEWS!
"Muntzing" with Michael, G3RJV's "Socketry"
Meeting Andrea IW0HK in Piazza San Cosimato!
MAILBAG: Including mail from Farhan, Roger Hayward and Ade Weiss