{"id":3000,"date":"2025-03-01T11:04:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-01T00:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2025\/03\/01\/ken-w4kacs-wonderful-soldersmoke-direct-conversion-receiver-with-a-leaf-blower-tuning-dial\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T18:00:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T08:00:58","slug":"ken-w4kacs-wonderful-soldersmoke-direct-conversion-receiver-with-a-leaf-blower-tuning-dial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2025\/03\/01\/ken-w4kacs-wonderful-soldersmoke-direct-conversion-receiver-with-a-leaf-blower-tuning-dial\/","title":{"rendered":"Ken W4KAC&#8217;s Wonderful SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver &#8212; with a Leaf Blower Tuning Dial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"247\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0iVaQve1gOY?si=BaR_AmlP2Ly7IhB-?rel=0\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"440\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><b>Ken W4KAC tells me that the tuning knob that he used to minimize hand-capacitance effects on his PTO started out as a gear in a leaf blower. I commented that the engineers who designed that gear surely never thought that it would someday be used in a homebrew direct conversion receiver. <\/b><\/div>\n<div><b><br \/><\/b><\/div>\n<div><b>Ken lamented the polemical nature of the SSB discussion captured in the above video, but the clip does give a good demo of the SSB capabilities of Ken&#8217;s receiver. And the video gives some nice close-ups of the receiver itself. <\/b><\/div>\n<div><b><br \/><\/b><\/div>\n<div><b>Ken is a CW guy, and he has already homebrewed a QRP CW transmitter that he hope to pair-up with the receiver. Here it is: <\/b><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/W4KAC20transmitter.jpg\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"569\" data-original-width=\"1024\" height=\"223\" src=\"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/W4KAC20transmitter.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: left;\"><b>Ken reports 160 mW output with a 377 mile reception report on the Reverse Beacon Network. I made a contact with something similar: <a href=\"https:\/\/soldersmoke.blogspot.com\/2023\/02\/first-qso-with-high-school-receiver-100.html\">https:\/\/soldersmoke.blogspot.com\/2023\/02\/first-qso-with-high-school-receiver-100.html<\/a><\/b><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: left;\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: left;\"><b>Ken wrote about the importance of persistence: <\/b><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: left;\"><b><br \/><\/b><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: left;\"><span face=\"\"gg sans\", \"Noto Sans\", \"Helvetica Neue\", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif\" style=\"background-color: white; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: break-spaces;\"><b><i>Good morning. Just wanted to say, don&#8217;t give up if your receiver is not quite right. Mine was working, I even posted a video here. When building the AF amp from the transformer end back, the Q4 stage was fine. I added Q3 and had a &#8220;motor-boating&#8221; oscillation when I applied a signal. I tore it all off the board and started over. I still had the problem, so being stubborn I continued on and kept adding more filter caps to quiet it down all I could. The receiver worked and sounded pretty good during the day when I copied WA4FAT and others. That evening was a different story when the band was working well and very full of signals. Very strong stations were ok, but I was getting lots of &#8220;hash&#8221; and noise other than normal band noise. FT8 was breaking through weakly all over the band along with other unidentified stuff. Yesterday morning I grabbed a new piece of copper clad and built and entirely new AF amp. It tested properly all through the build. Instead of installing that board I decided to find the problem with the original. I &#8220;thought&#8221; I had used new transistors when I rebuilt it the first time. Turns out I had probably put the original Q3 back, because replacing it cured the problem. I had an entirely differen<\/i>t receiver last night. A pleasure to listen to. Don&#8217;t give up like I did at first!!<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: left;\"><b><br \/><\/b><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: left;\"><b>Ken went the extra mile by building a SECOND Direct Conversion receiver. So he may soon get TWO Hall of Fame credits. <\/b><b>Here is the second one that Ken built: <\/b><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: left;\"><b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=HUSWKJZdc8E&#038;t=39s\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=HUSWKJZdc8E&#038;t=39s<\/a><\/b><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: left;\"><b><br \/><\/b><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: left;\"><b>Thanks Ken! <\/b><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: left;\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: left;\">&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-<\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: left;\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: left;\">\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>For more information on how you too can build the receiver: <\/b><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b><br \/><\/b><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0px;\"><b><span face=\"Arial, sans-serif\" style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Join the discussion &#8211; SolderSmoke Discord Server:<\/span><span face=\"Arial, sans-serif\" style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><u><\/u><u><\/u><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0px;\"><b><span face=\"Arial, sans-serif\" style=\"color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt;\"><a data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/discord.gg\/Fu6B7yGxx2&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1739470652838000&#038;usg=AOvVaw1ZoxkyzfQb8pwED_KtyCKW\" href=\"https:\/\/discord.gg\/Fu6B7yGxx2\" style=\"color: #1155cc; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">https:\/\/discord.gg\/Fu6B7yGxx2<\/span><\/a><\/span><span face=\"Arial, sans-serif\" style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><u><\/u><u><\/u><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0px;\"><b><span face=\"Arial, sans-serif\" style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"> <\/span><span face=\"Arial, sans-serif\" style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><u><\/u><u><\/u><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0px;\"><b><span face=\"Arial, sans-serif\" style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Documentation on Hackaday:<\/span><span face=\"Arial, sans-serif\" style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><u><\/u><u><\/u><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0px;\"><b><span face=\"Arial, sans-serif\" style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><a data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/hackaday.io\/project\/190327-high-schoolers-build-a-radio-receiver&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1739470652838000&#038;usg=AOvVaw026vJuHIWdv6aJ9NJ9QDHJ\" href=\"https:\/\/hackaday.io\/project\/190327-high-schoolers-build-a-radio-receiver\" style=\"color: #1155cc; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/hackaday.io\/project\/<wbr><\/wbr>190327-high-schoolers-build-a-<wbr><\/wbr>radio-receiver<\/a><\/span><span face=\"Arial, sans-serif\" style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><u><\/u><u><\/u><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0px;\"><b><span face=\"Arial, sans-serif\" style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"> <\/span><span face=\"Arial, sans-serif\" style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><u><\/u><u><\/u><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0px;\"><b><span face=\"Arial, sans-serif\" style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">SolderSmoke YouTube channel:<\/span><span face=\"Arial, sans-serif\" style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><u><\/u><u><\/u><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; font-family: \"Trebuchet MS\", Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.61px;\"><b style=\"color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><span face=\"Arial, sans-serif\" style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><a data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@soldersmoke&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1739470652838000&#038;usg=AOvVaw3FnV3eIUU7IiaVG8c_Qd3v\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@soldersmoke\" style=\"color: #1155cc; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@<wbr><\/wbr>soldersmoke<\/a><\/span><\/b><b> <\/b><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ken W4KAC tells me that the tuning knob that he used to minimize hand-capacitance effects on his PTO started out as a gear in a leaf blower. I commented that the engineers who designed that gear surely never thought that it would someday be used in a homebrew direct conversion receiver. Ken lamented the polemical &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2025\/03\/01\/ken-w4kacs-wonderful-soldersmoke-direct-conversion-receiver-with-a-leaf-blower-tuning-dial\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Ken W4KAC&#8217;s Wonderful SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver &#8212; with a Leaf Blower Tuning Dial&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,9,11,35,87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cw","category-dc-receiver-build","category-dc-rx-hall-of-fame","category-direct-conversion","category-qrp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3000","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3002,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3000\/revisions\/3002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}