{"id":7939,"date":"2023-01-15T20:07:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-15T09:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2023\/01\/15\/working-walter-ka4kxx-from-hispaniola\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T18:02:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T08:02:54","slug":"working-walter-ka4kxx-from-hispaniola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2023\/01\/15\/working-walter-ka4kxx-from-hispaniola\/","title":{"rendered":"Working Walter KA4KXX from Hispaniola"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"247\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0sxPPzB1NtM?rel=0\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"440\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p> <b>Walter KA4KXX in Orlando has been a prolific builder of rigs for many years, and has been a great friend of SolderSmoke: Here are some of the SolderSmoke podcasts and blog posts in which Walter&#8217;s solder melting was mentioned: <a href=\"https:\/\/soldersmoke.blogspot.com\/search?q=KA4KXX\">https:\/\/soldersmoke.blogspot.com\/search?q=KA4KXX<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>As we approach the end of our current stay in the Dominican Republic, I could not miss out on the chance to work Walter with his homebrew rigs. Even though the space weather was stormy, and my dipole was droopy, we arranged to meet up on the high end of the 20 meter CW band this morning. See the results in the video above. A solid QSO with Walter. He says it is HB2HB, but truth be told I was on a uBITX that was built more by Farhan than by me. But this was a great contact. Walter started with a 50W rig, then switched to his 3 watt rig with a DC receiver. FB<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Here is the e-mail I received from Walter after the QSO: <\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>Dear Bill:<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>Many thanks for the great video, and when<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>you return to Virginia look for your mailman<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>to bring a postcard from me!<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>Just after your phone call this morning I scanned<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>the band from 14.025 to 14.300 and heard only one<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>SSB QSO at 14.347, and even now I only hear<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>a half dozen SSB signals, so that makes what<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>we did even more amazing. <\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>The first photo below is my 3.5 watt NE602 direct conversion <\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>rig which is about 2 years old. The transmit signal is created<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>by putting a 3 MHz VFO signal into an NE602 mixer with an <\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>11 MHz crystal, so the rig can receive CW and SSB from <\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>14.025 to 14.300 and can transmit CW anywhere in that range<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>with good frequency stability. <\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\">\n<div><b>The bottom photo is my new full break-in CW 50W rig which <\/b><\/div>\n<div><b>I just put on the air about a week ago and is still in the finalization stage. <\/b><\/div>\n<div><b>I am not yet happy with it, but then again I am more particular<\/b><\/div>\n<div><b>now than I used to be. It is really a trans-receiver with a single <\/b><\/div>\n<div><b>conversion superhet receiver at the bottom of the board using <\/b><\/div>\n<div><b>an NE602 pair with a 3-crystal 4 MHz 900 Hz bandwidth filter, <\/b><\/div>\n<div><b>and a single 10.080 crystal VFO which is tuned with a polyvaricon<\/b><\/div>\n<div><b>for operating between 14.061 and 14.068 MHz. <\/b><\/div>\n<div><b>At the top is the VXO transmit section using a pair of 14.070 <\/b><\/div>\n<div><b>crystals pulled down into the operating range. This signal<\/b><\/div>\n<div><b>is buffered and amplified to about 500 mW which is all that <\/b><\/div>\n<div><b>the MRF101 RF Power Amplifier needs. Visible behind the<\/b><\/div>\n<div><b>board is an AC-powered 24 VDC switching power supply which <\/b><\/div>\n<div><b>is connected in series with the 12 VDC battery to <\/b><\/div>\n<div><b>power the final stage with about 36 VDC. The main 12 VDC is <\/b><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>provided by a bench power supply which is not in the photo.<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>In both rigs the morse code key is the microswitch <\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>at the lower right corner. (Way more handy and elegant <\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>than your key, I might say?)<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>This morning each of these rigs was connected to its own<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>end fed half wave antenna, one in my backyard <\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>and the other on the side of my house. My antenna analyzer<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>shows them to be essentially equal, but my 50W rig does<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>not like one of them at all.<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>Making our international homebrew-to-homebrew contact <\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>today was a terrific ham radio experience, so thanks for all <\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>you do!<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>73,<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>Walter <\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>KA4KXX<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><b>Orlando, FL<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"image.png\" class=\"CToWUd a6T\" data-bit=\"iit\" data-image-whitelisted=\"\" height=\"274\" src=\"https:\/\/mail.google.com\/mail\/u\/0?ui=2&#038;ik=baa1e2b8a3&#038;attid=0.1&#038;permmsgid=msg-f:1755104191015409235&#038;th=185b61f67945d653&#038;view=fimg&#038;fur=ip&#038;sz=s0-l75-ft&#038;attbid=ANGjdJ9TMwi1nRlAMbM-j5xrdU8CN5t5LEHhEbpKsrsQgYM50bESshrc7lEtSA8ZI_i3JHq5wMuY8Qa1jns2icEcXFv4l6ANBOPNkiaZvwFanBZ5o-m7VWPYkeuyQKw&#038;disp=emb&#038;realattid=ii_lcxhihma0\" style=\"cursor: pointer; outline: 0px;\" tabindex=\"0\" width=\"412\" \/><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"image.png\" class=\"CToWUd a6T\" data-bit=\"iit\" data-image-whitelisted=\"\" height=\"297\" src=\"https:\/\/mail.google.com\/mail\/u\/0?ui=2&#038;ik=baa1e2b8a3&#038;attid=0.2&#038;permmsgid=msg-f:1755104191015409235&#038;th=185b61f67945d653&#038;view=fimg&#038;fur=ip&#038;sz=s0-l75-ft&#038;attbid=ANGjdJ-KBsldecDaQ42dpSYc4du21EQ-lzvR_EsCfYZiHHzIXhS9F3PY2KE2VU2ZotN1Bab4CmfRWsR-siKv6MEqOPJOcHAhMg4T-S4WnvIEgBoMEZhTAk89bE1Zn5o&#038;disp=emb&#038;realattid=ii_lcxhjtmy1\" style=\"cursor: pointer; outline: 0px;\" tabindex=\"0\" width=\"412\" \/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Walter KA4KXX in Orlando has been a prolific builder of rigs for many years, and has been a great friend of SolderSmoke: Here are some of the SolderSmoke podcasts and blog posts in which Walter&#8217;s solder melting was mentioned: https:\/\/soldersmoke.blogspot.com\/search?q=KA4KXX As we approach the end of our current stay in the Dominican Republic, I could &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2023\/01\/15\/working-walter-ka4kxx-from-hispaniola\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Working Walter KA4KXX from Hispaniola&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,35,19,87,117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cw","category-direct-conversion","category-dominican-republic","category-qrp","category-ubitx"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7939","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=7939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11328,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7939\/revisions\/11328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}