SolderSmoke Podcast #188: Blue Rig, 6U8 RX, Dial strings, Hamfest, VFO Builds, MAILBAG

SolderSmoke Podcast #188 is available.

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke188.mp3

 Audio “sparkle”

Bench Reports:
Pete: Blue Rig, Amplifier Project, LBS and Simpleceivers around the world
Si5351s in the new Elecraft KX2

 Bill:
Mighty Midget Mate 6U8 RX Refinement
Using a Millen 61455 IF can
Broad, but beautiful. But not as nice as PA3GSV’s
Tweaking a VFO the old fashioned way
Reduction Drive Re-works.
A Confession: Using Amplified Computer Speakers

 Back to the lipsticked pig. Pete convinces Bill to fix the S38-E
dial cord.

Manassas Hamfest Report.

Field Day.

Mysteries:

Who is WV2YAU

Who sold Bill the hombrew SWR meter at Manassas?

MAILBAG

Hardcore Homebrew SWR Measurement

No store-bought, appliance, CB-ish Radio Shack SWR meters for the OM who built the SWR sensor on the right. No! He rolled his own center conductor and pick-up loops. Dennis Klipa and I have been exploring the theory behind SWR meters, so when I saw this thing, I immediately went for it. I picked it up at the Manassas Hamfest. I kick myself for not asking the seller for the story behind this project. If anyone has any ideas on how/why/who built this thing, please let me know. The seller was tailgating close to the stables at Manassas on June 19, 2016.

Useful Boards From Whole Foods

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that this chain of stores is sometimes referred to as “America’s Temple of Pseudo-Science” but I just don’t seem to find a lot of radio-useful stuff in Whole Foods. However, at the check-out stand this week something caught my eye: Grilling Planks! Who knew? Apparently you soak these boards (“Sustainably Produced in the Pacific Northwest – USA”) in water, then you grill your food on them. They are available in various wood types — above you can see Cedar and Hickory. I put the Altoids can in there for a size reference. These grilling planks seem well suited to serve as breadboard-style chassis, front panels or even cabinets for homebrew rigs.

Free Book!

I decided to make my book “Us and Them — An American Family Spends Ten Years with FOREIGNERS” available to a wider audience. The suits at Amazon Kindle allow me to make it available in e-book Kindle form FOR FREE for a five day period starting today. So this would be a good time to put a copy in your Kindle. I think it would be a good book for the beach.

Please spread the word — let friends know of the free book offer.

Here’s the link: https://www.amazon.com/Us-Them-American-Family…/…/B00L8DR4RK

SolderSmoke HQ Station WINS Field Day! Again!

First, I need to make clear that that is NOT me in the picture above. This year I chose to compete as an “E” station: “At home, with the air conditioner on, but using a battery instead of the normal AC poser supply.” This is, of course, only one step from the bottom on the laziness scale — I did hook up the 12 volt gel-cell.

But I made up for it with an unusually large dose Knack-ness. I used my BITX Digi-Zia scratch-built homebrew SSB transceiver. So, with my whopping 11 contacts I feel confident that I won the “1E Homebrew SSB Transceiver, Northern Virginia” category.

NASA’S New Mars Recruiting Posters

Artist's concept of an astronaut pointing to the viewer with Earth, the Moon, and Mars in the sky. It is a more peaceful version of the World War I and World War II posters of Uncle Sam pointing to recruits with the slogan 'I want you.'


 More like this one here:
http://marsmobile.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/resources/mars-posters-explorers-wanted/
Bill,

Doesn’t this fabulous artwork remind you of the 1950-60’s era and the intense interest we all had in space and spacemen?
http://marsmobile.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/resources/mars-posters-explorers-wanted/

I recall there was so much inspiring artwork showing men in spacesuits, even though at the time it was before we had put men in obit around the earth never mind set foot on our moon. Packets of breakfast cereal came with plastic model spacemen and rockets.

It struck me that amateur radio will play a huge part for those who venture to Mars and Phobos, as they will need the type of people who have the practical abilities to improvise and repair equipment while severely restricted in the availability of spare parts.

NASA should do a poster showing an intrepid Mars Soldersmoker with his workbench with some piece of electronic equipment in pieces.
73
David GM4JJJ
——————-

 Jeff K1NSS?
http://www.dashtoons.com/

Some Sympathy from the New York Times Crossword Puzzle


 Hi Bill,
Pete “The Crossword Guy” K4PHS here again.
In the New York Times Crossword for Tuesday June 21, 2016 the clue for 52 across is:
“Enough, Enrico!”
And the answer is:
“Basta!”
72, Pete, K4PHS

 And from October 5, 2015

 Hi Bill,

The clue for #7 across in todays New York Times Monday Mini Crossword puzzle is:
“special talent”
And, of course, the answer is KNACK!
72, de K4PHS Pete
“Keep Calm and Melt Solder”



An Excellent Morning at the Manassas, Virginia Hamfest

I was quite pleased with the valuable items obtained at the Manassas Virginia Hamfest this morning. Armand WA1UQO and I once again combined forces, offering each other advice and counsel (NO! Forget it!) as we went through the flea market.

Above you can see what I got:
TOP ROW: 1) A bunch of boxes. Nice aluminum boxes and two really good chassis. I may now have to build something with thermatrons. Armand gave me a really nice Ten-Tec box. Thanks Armand!
MIDDLE ROW 2) Ten much needed coax patch cords. I promise to check the connections before using them. Really. I mean it this time.
3) A nice circular coax switch.
4) Two large hemostats. I told the woman I needed them for some surgery that I’d be performing later in the day. She was not amused.
5) A homebrew SWR Monimatch box. Amazing. Dennis Klipa and I have been talking about these, so I bought this homebrew version.
6) Nice Jackson Brothers reduction drive with tuning indicator.
7) Really nice variable cap.
8) Three crystals: two for 3.579 MHz CBLA work, the other for 40 meter phone.
9) Forehead “coalminer” lamp
10) Some PC boards.
BOTTOM ROW 11) LARGE box of 455 kc IF transformers

As we were making the rounds we ran into Charles AI4OT. On the tailgate of his truck Charles had a BITX20 in operation! You can see it in the picture. Great to see you Charles and FB on the BITX.

Jan PA3GSV’s Amazing Mate for the Mighty Midget

We have featured the amazing homebrew work of PA3GSV before:

Jan is at it again, this time building a Dutch version of Lew McCoy’s Mate for the Mighty Midget. Look at front panel! But wait, there is more!
Here is a side view of the chassis. Wow. What, you may ask, is that round thing?
Holy cow! Homebrew Vernier reduction drive made from the cap of a sewer pipe. And a homebrew dial cord arrangement. Jan is clearly breaking new ground in ham radio homebrew re-purposing.
Jan writes:

Bill:
Here a little update on the MMrx.
Got almost all the parts, except for the Miller 4411 300 uH coils, for which I am attempting to make my own.

While I was looking for some pictures of this coil, if it was shielded or not (found a vintage online Miller catalogue J ),
I stumbled across this article, the W2MQ “Hamster”
There is no mention of the MMrx, but the text is very in line with the latter. Nice read.
Also while looking for parts, I saw this supplier of FT-241 xtals who sell for reasonable prices ($10) .
Maybe you already know this company:

Vernier drive 1:19
The drum is made from a sewerage end cap got from the hardware store.
Still under construction J

Added a front control to switch the BFO on/off, together with another crystal or some arrangement to make AM (broadcast) reception possible.
I want to try a regen detector instead of the 2 germanium diodes, followed by a pentode for some more audio output.
Regen and AF gain control are also at the front.
In your video it looked like there was a screwdriver sticking out of the BFO oscillator coil, a trigger to put this control on the front as well J
As there is no AGC, the (S) meter will measure the plate current of the RF amplifier tube.
So, a lot of experimenting to do, and still busy with some of the mechanics.
73 Jan

Inside a Millen 61455 IF Transformer

I found this in my junk box. I’ve put it in my old Mate for the Mighty Midget receiver, in the place of the Toyo CM455 crystal-mechanical filter (which I found to have excessive insertion loss). I think its very cool how they squeezed two variable caps into that little can. Designed in 1956. Works great. Note the promised passband: 4.7 kc at 6 db down. Not bad for an LC device.
Here is the spec sheet:

Bob Crane Interviews Eric Schwartz of Elecraft About the New KX2 (with Si5351!)

Our ace correspondent Bob Crane W8SX caught up with Eric Schwartz WA6HHQ of Elecraft at the FDIM event n Dayton last month. Here is Bob’s interview with Eric:

http://soldersmoke.com/WA6HHQFDIM.mp3

Pete and I were very pleased to see that Elecraft made use of our beloved Si5351 chip in their amazing new KX2 rig. Check it out:

You can click on the diagram or see it directly on page 62 of the manual at this site:
http://www.elecraft.com/manual/KX2%20owner’s%20man%20A4.pdf

Here’s the KX2:


Three cheers for Elecraft! Three cheers for Bob Crane!




Excitatation! The Inspiring Knack Story of N3IC

Steve Silverman sent me this link. This web site has been getting a lot of attention from the solder melting community. And justifiably so. Behold (above) the first transmitter built by Robert Glaser, now N3IC, circa May 1969. The chassis and front panel were made from flimsy printing press sheet metal. Note the key (as in lock and key) switch that the OM put on the front panel — he took his responsibilities under FCC regs quite seriously. My favorite part of this rig’s story is that when he got it done, he didn’t have the two 6146s for the final. So he just took a capacitor and used it to connect the driver tube to the output network. Brilliant! With that arrangement he made his first contact. No wonder he labeled it “Excitatation!” It was clearly more exciting than your standard excitation.
Those TV power transformers look very familiar. I was using similar devices to build a power supply for an HW-32A a few years after Dr. Glaser built this rig. It’s a wonder we survived.
FB. Check out his site. It is a wonderful catalog of all the stuff this very prolific builder has made over the years:

Ham project here:
http://www.icengineering.com/n3ic/projects/ham/
A broader range of projects here:
http://www.icengineering.com/n3ic/projects/

Spectacular Solar Weather

This amazing picture was taken last night at the Bharati Indian Base Station in the Larsemann Hills of Antarctica. The researchers there report that the aurora was so bright that it cast shadows.
Yesterday I was having a nice 40 meter SSB contact with N3TDE. Rich is 179 miles away, in Pennsylvania. At 1650 UTC, his signal very suddenly dropped into the noise.

The purple lines along the bottom of the chart below probably explains both the aurora and the abrupt end of my 40 meter contact.


GOES X-Ray flux plot

Re-purposed Computer Power Supply Box Provides a Home for a BITX Transceiver

Jaydip VU3JOJ came up with a really inventive way to box up his new BITX transceiver. Nicely done. I especially like the way he put the speaker in the space intended for the fan. Very nice.

This appears to be one of the new BITX 40 meter “modules” described in yesterday’s blog post. FB! How fortunate the new board fits in the power supply boxes. That’s very lucky.

You know, I had an old computer power supply in my hand just yesterday. I almost threw it out. Obviously that would have been a mistake.

Today was a BITX day. Using my BITX DIGI-TIA on 40 I had a long QSO with Rich N3TDE. Rich has a BIT20 built from a Hendricks kit acquired at Dayton. He takes it with him on the Appalachian Trail.

A Really Nice Project: Farhan’s BITX40 Module

Wow, that board is a thing of beauty. And the story behind it is even more beautiful. Our friend Farhan took his famous BITX circuit, shifted it to 40 meters, and put the whole thing on one small board. It is now a module, but a module that makes up an entire SSB transceiver. The idea is that this module can provide a base for expansion and experimentation. You can add a digital display. Or a (gasp!) digital VFO. Or an RF amplifier. Or more bands. Or all of the above. It is a very cool idea.

Here is the most beautiful part: In an effort to help people who need help, Farhan has arranged for a collective of women to assemble the boards in their homes. They needed work, and Farhan gave it to them on good terms. Bravo Farhan!

In keeping with the earliest purpose of the BITX rigs (simple transceiver for Indian radio amateurs) this board is currently only available in India.

Check out the site:
http://www.hfsigs.com/buy.html

The circuit description is especially good:
http://www.hfsigs.com/circuit.html