{"id":2754,"date":"2014-10-28T09:56:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T22:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2014\/10\/28\/mailbag-coils-wound-backwards-last-qso-1981-visions-of-transistors-keeping-him-awake-paul-has-the-knack\/"},"modified":"2014-10-28T09:56:00","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T22:56:00","slug":"mailbag-coils-wound-backwards-last-qso-1981-visions-of-transistors-keeping-him-awake-paul-has-the-knack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2014\/10\/28\/mailbag-coils-wound-backwards-last-qso-1981-visions-of-transistors-keeping-him-awake-paul-has-the-knack\/","title":{"rendered":"Mailbag: Coils Wound Backwards, Last QSO 1981, Visions of Transistors Keeping Him Awake. Paul has THE KNACK"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
http:\/\/www.pan-tex.net\/usr\/r\/receivers\/ra01000a.htm<\/a><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
\n
Hi Bill<\/b>

<\/b> I’m just getting back into ham radio after 33 years (last QSO: 1981), <\/b>
want to do it all through homebrew, seem to have the same mindset as <\/b>
guys like you and Frank K0IYE, bought your book [love it and Frank’s], <\/b>
and just “discovered” the Soldersmoke podcasts. I’ve been listening to <\/b>
them with one ear as I bike to and from work (about 40 minutes each way, so it’s almost perfect). I’m employed as a digital geek, but yearn for the days of DeMaw’s prime (worked him once when he was W1CER), when the 40673 ruled. I’m very glad that, 40 years later, people like Farhan can weave discrete analog wonders, even if they later choose to use digital *control* (NOT DSP! No!).<\/b>

<\/b> I had to start somewhere with your podcasts archive, so I started with <\/b>
2014 and really enjoyed your struggles with the Herring-Aid 5. My 1st <\/b>
receiver was the “DC 80-10” by DeMaw from somewhere around 1970 in QST or the Handbook — used a CA3028 as the product detector — and I had similar struggles. While listening to it, I immediately thought “you <\/b>wound the feedback coil backwards, you idiot!”<\/b>

<\/b> I got my license back in March 2014 and want very badly to get back on <\/b>
the air with a homebrewed, or at least minimally-kitted, station. I’ve <\/b>
built the receiver: David White’s (WN5Y) Beginner’s and Experimenters <\/b>
receiver[1] heavily modified, have a long wire antenna up, a decent RF <\/b>
ground, and all the parts I need for QRP z-match tuner, swr meter, T\/R <\/b>
switch, sidetone, and IRF510-based transmitter. Target: 40m CW by the middle of December, 30m in the couple of months after that with a <\/b>
fully-Manhattan-style Barebones Superhet and another IRF510 <\/b>
transmitter. Then one of these BitX things. It’s been a couple of <\/b>
decades since I felt that there weren’t enough hours in the day. Some <\/b>
nights I can’t sleep, what with all these transistors and simple analog <\/b>
ICs whirling around…<\/b>

<\/b> Anyway, keep it up, I’ll be listening.<\/b>

<\/b> — Paul Lender, AD0HQ<\/b>

<\/b> [1] I built an Arduino\/AD9850 DDS — a la AD7C — and used it to tune a <\/b>
4-crystal filter (10-cent crystals from Tayda!) for the receiver with <\/b>
the same Rigol scope that you use. I tried, really tried, to do it with <\/b>
an analog RF signal generator. Change is good. Change is good.<\/o:p><\/b><\/div>\n

<\/b><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Our book: “SolderSmoke — Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics” http:\/\/soldersmoke.com\/book.htm<\/a> Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http:\/\/www.cafepress.com\/SolderSmoke<\/a> Our Book Store: http:\/\/astore.amazon.com\/contracross-20<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.pan-tex.net\/usr\/r\/receivers\/ra01000a.htm Hi Bill I’m just getting back into ham radio after 33 years (last QSO: 1981), want to do it all through homebrew, seem to have the same mindset as guys like you and Frank K0IYE, bought your book [love it and Frank’s], and just “discovered” the Soldersmoke podcasts. I’ve been listening to them with … Continue reading “Mailbag: Coils Wound Backwards, Last QSO 1981, Visions of Transistors Keeping Him Awake. Paul has THE KNACK”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,66,103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-demaw-doug","category-farhan","category-knack-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2754\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}