Just go to http://soldersmoke.com. On that archive page, just click on the blue hyperlinks and your audio player should play that episode.
http://soldersmoke.com
I was just testing it, working (as usual at this stage) on final amplifier stability. Then I heard ON5WO calling CQ. I could not resist. I worked him, but had to use a test lead to manually key the .1 kW amplifier. Minutes later I worked OH6RM. He very diplomatically said that I had "highly unusual audio." This was probably due to earlier efforts to shift the carrier oscillator to improve carrier suppression. (I will fix this.)
I will continue to work on the rig; It should look a bit better when I am done. But hey, it works! It has already crossed the Atlantic. Twice!
Before I built Martein's filter, my bandpass had been inadequate. Looking at the signals coming out of the diode ring mixer in my 15-10 rig, I realized that when I was on 15, there would also be an output on 10. And vice-versa. These outputs would have to be knocked down by the bandpass filters. I had been using simple dual tuned circuit filters. But when I looked at the filter shapes of these filters in NanoVNA, I could see that On 15 the 10 meter signal was only down about 20 db. And on 10 the 15 MHz output was also down only by about 20 db. That's not enough. Take a look:
Before, with the dual tuned circuit filter
After with Martein's Filter 21.5 Mhz
AFTER with Martien's filter 21.1 MHz
While the earlier filter had provided only about 20 db of attenuation at 28 MHz, Martein's filter provided at least 68 db of attenuation. That is really nice. And the passband is nearly flat at 1 db attenuation.
I built mine using some of the guidance provided on Martiens site. I did use T80-10 toroids (I got them from kitsandparts.com). And I did not use copper clad boards.
One of the charming features if Martein's filters is the total lack of trimmer caps: Martein recommends tuning the filters by simple squeezing the coils (to increase inductance and decrease frequency) or by spreading out the turns a bit (to decease inductance and increase frequency). I did the later when NanoVNA showed that I didn't quite have all of the 15 meter phone band on the flat portion of the curve.
I also like the way Martein provides the values for BP filters for all of the HF ham bands. Very useful.
Next I will build one for 10 meters. And I will probably go back to my Mythbuster and 17-12 rigs and build Martein's filters for these rigs.
Lex PH2LB sends this really interesting Vice story about stickers and sticker culture. Who knew? The original article is in Dutch, but just hit the Google Translate button and Bob will be your uncle.
I shared with our Solder-Sticker Community these thoughts:
Really cool Lex. This reminds me that we need more stickers. And maybe a new design. The IBEW thing confuses Americans -- here it looks like a labor union thing.
The Color Burst Liberation Army logo (below) is one possible element that we might want to include. I think our new stickers should exhort people to DO something:
Thanks to Rogier PA1ZZ for alerting me to this video and to the PA3CRX YouTube channel.
I like what Chrix did with the old CB transceiver case -- this gives me ideas about the old transceiver that I picked up at a hamfest a while back. I also like Chrix's practice of running coax and power leads UNDER the main BITX boards.
Chrix has been building some great stuff and making some very nice videos -- I have put his channel on the SolderSmoke links in the right-side column of this page.
Sometimes we get a comment that is so good that we elevate it to the main blog page. That was the case with Lex PH2LB's comment on the blog post of Owen Duffy (yesterday).
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When I started the hobby, it arose out of technological curiosity, the interest in understanding things and the will to make things myself (designing myself was not my main goal). It doesn't matter to me whether it is 100% DIY or a kit (such as Heathkit, Elecraft, QRP-Labs etc) which is modified or not after construction. Just having fun with the hobby and pushing boundaries. And yes I also have some off-the-shelf transceivers (I'm super happy with my FT817ND) and my QO-100 uplink is also a kit (which is then already soldered a little more than average). As far as new tools are concerned: here at home are 2 types of 3D printers, various tools for SMT assembly, and I have a nice workshop equipped with tools and equipment for metal / plastic / wood processing. And every day I try to learn something new, because I stand by the IBEW moto : If you know stuff, you can do stuff.
Am I a maker then? I wouldn't call myself that. Just like I don't call myself a hacker because I'm quite handy with computers, technology and have certain skills. I'm just a hobbyist who wants to do and make things after work.
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Lex is a true member of the International Brotherhood. He is the one who took our beloved stickers onto the European continent and into a Netherlands pub. He is the one who -- unforgettably -- saw the parallels between ham shacks and the "pleasure room" of "50 Shades of Gray" (See below -- apropos of his current message, we labeled his meme "50 Shades of Homebrew") For more on Lex see: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/search?q=PH2LB
This is almost too much. This makes me want to go out and buy some more test gear, maybe another scope, or a spectrum analyzer, or at least another DMM. I mean Tony has at least three of everything.
This is really amazing. Tony is obviously a test gear guy, but he also has a ham call PE1ONS. He says he is not too active, but we should encourage him to get more involved with ham gear. We need guys like him working on ham gear. And he seems like such a happy person.
I am awarding the coveted Brass Figlagee with Bronze Oak Leaf Palm to Dave W2DAB, to Lex PH2LB, to Jesse N5JHH, and of course to Pete Juliano, N6QW. More awards are possible. http://www.flicklives.com/index.php?pg=215&recno=2590
Lex PH2LB in the Netherlands has gone the extra kilometer for the IBEW. When he saw the stickers that had been placed in New York City, he asked for the design. I sent him the files that Jesse N5JHH (designer of the stickers) had sent to me. Very quickly, Lex had 500 of these stickers printed up and ready to go (see above). His shack now serves as a veritable beachhead in Europe for the IBEW and the CBLA. Thank you Les!
Les has even set up an on-line order form for those who seek to assist in the noble campaign to spread the word about our cause:
I first saw the link to Onno's site on Peter VK2TPM's blog. And at first I confused it with the site of another great homebrewer Miguel PY2OHH. This is all very IBEW: On the website of an Australian ham, I spot the web site of a Dutch ham living in Spain and briefly confuse him with a Brazilian homebrewer with a very similar callsign. TRGHS.
Onno PA2OHH has an inspirational approach to the hobby that he presents in a really wonderful website. Here is his intro to Barefoot Radio:
Barefoot technology and Barefoot power!
Barefoot technology or simple, non-professional radio technology and real Barefoot power or harmless QRP power, that is what you will find here. There are some complex designs but many designs are simple radio amateur circuits. They will never be used professionally! These simple circuits and rigs can give you much fun: home brewing, portable activities during holidays, etc. Batteries and inverted V dipole antenna's with a fishing rod as the center support are all you need to make many QSO's.
Much fun! Barefoot technology and Barefoot power can give you much fun, but is not perfect... There are disadvantages like VXO control instead of a VFO, direct conversion receivers that receive both sidebands and simple frequency displays that are not so easy to read. But working with such simple equipment is often more exciting than working with a much better commercial transceiver. Perhaps that you cannot believe that you can make many QSO's with QRP power of only 1 watt. Indeed, some practice is needed in the beginning so do not give up too soon. Every boring standard QSO becomes an exciting experience with QRP power!
It is good every once in a while to step back from our electronic work benches and take a look at what other kinds of builders are making. Hack-A-Day led me to this wonderful video from Holland. There is great background information on telescopes, but the really great part is the interview with the Dutch fellow who is actually making -- in his home workshop -- these tiny telescopes. Icing on the cake: One of them will be used in a student Cube-Sat project in Oregon.
Be sure to stay to the end for an intriguing presentation by Dr. Liam Fullersheit.
Recent talk of the Mate for the Mighty Midget receiver and Pete's PIMP SSB transmitter brought me back in contact with the work of Jan, PA3GSV. I took a look at his QRZ.com page and found that he has some projects that rival even his seemingly unbeatable MMM RX project.
That would have been a very different movie. And I don't think the box office results would have been favorable. That's PH2LB's "pleasure room" (shack). He has a good blog focused on homebrew:
I was looking for information on my FeelTech FY3200s Signal Generator. I came across a very informative blog; it covers a variety of other Chinese gear and parts. Here is the Feeltech FY3200S article:
I really like the way Lex PH2LB measures and demonstrates the effectiveness of the Hi-Per-Mite CW filter designed by David Cripes NM0S. Watch the short video above. The blue trace is the audio input to the filter, the orange trace is the output. Watch the output change as Lex sweeps the audio frequency range. He wrote: After studying the schematic I shifting through my spare parts stock to collected the components and build one according there design on a breadboard (I changed the center frequency from 700 to 600Hz). I hooked up my signal generator with a amplitude of 2v max and sweeped it from 250Hz to 2KHz looking at the output on my rigol osciloscoop. On 2khz VMAX=0.04V, 885Hz=0.2V, 700Hz=1.5V, 662-585Hz=2V, 400Hz=0.2V, 500Hz=0.9V, 250Hz=0.04V. So a nice flat top between 585Hz to 662Hz. A full description of Lex's project (with more videos) is here: https://www.ph2lb.nl/blog/index.php?page=ubitx-mods3#ubitx-mod14 Lex's Knack Story and the intro to his blog is here: https://www.ph2lb.nl/blog/index.php?page=history
N6QW's Simple-ceiver design is being replicated far and wide. Above you can see PA3GUP's beautiful rig in its "Al Fresco" stage of development. For much more of this -- including a cool video of Pete's rig in action -- go to Pete's blog: http://n6qw.blogspot.com/
Anton PA0AST alerted me to this important piece of radio history: The first phone radio between Indonesia , the city of Bandung ( Dayeuh Kolot, Jalan Radio 1 ), and Holland , Radio Kootwijk were made in SSB already in 1927... Before that time they had only a CW 1 Mega Watt spark transmitter in Malabar. One of the receivers still exists in a museum in Amsterdam (cdvandt ). It is 3 meters in length and 2 meter in height.... All made with plug-able units with 1 tube inside . The transmitter was 10 kW. Ua was 6kV was made by dynamotors. Transmitting Tubes locally made by craftsman in a workshop. Both buildings as well in Bandung and in Kootwijk still exists . Anton The old images come from: http://www.cdvandt.org/bandung-lab-kwk.htm
At the other end was Radio Kootwijk in Holland. Before you jump to the English version of the page, be sure to check out the Drone video of the site, and the audio file of the Morse transmissions: http://radiokootwijk.nu/ Thanks to PA0JWU for the wonderful site.
Quite an impressive shack! My favorite part is the note indicating that local residents cleaned out the cooling pool and used it for swimming each summer.
I think it is time that we get back to our QRP roots. Perhaps under the influence of the wizard of Newbury Park (N6QW), we've all been drifting into the world of high power. It starts innocently: you hook up a second gel cell to the IRF-510 and suddenly you are at 20 watts out from the BITX. Before you know it, you have an uncontrollable urge for 3-500Z's. Here is a story that will get us back on the QRP track: It was September 1958. On the 14th of that month I began my first orbit of the Sun. Band conditions were VERY good. OM Don Stoner was on 10 meters with a homebrew solid-state milliwatt rig calling CQ TR, CQ TR (CQ Transistor). Jarno PA3DMI in Amsterdam sent me the link to a Radio News article by Don Stoner. The article (and the entire magazine) is a lot of fun. Check it out. The QRP fun begins on page 51. Thanks Jarno! http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-News/50s/Radio-News-1958-09-R.pdf
Finally the Mate for the Mighty Midget is finished, just in time for the G-QRP Valve Day 12-13th of November.
Got the LO fixed for 40m by lowering the parallel capacitor from 150 pF to 100 pF.
Also the 68 pF series capacitor was lowered to 33 pF for some more band spread on 40m.
It now receives from about 7.0 to 7.4 MHz and from 3.45 to 4.0 MHz
Had to exchange C1 in the end, the one used initially quit every now and then.
I only had a large 3 section variable in the junk box covering 10-550 pF, which works fine now. For the lower end of 80m I had to add additional 47 pF next to the 47 pF trimmer caps, so there it is about 600-650 pF max!
At the high end of 40, it is also just not too much.
The meter was used as a position indicator for C1.
Tried several ideas, but with no separate tube for AGC, I couldn’t get it to work as a S- meter
Read something about audio derived AGC, maybe this is worth a try.
The BFO can be switched off for AM reception.
Simultaneously the input on the mixer side of the crystals is disconnected but still coupled by some capacitance of the switch wires.
AM reception is possible, but not very good.
Need to find a better solution which doesn’t degrade the crystal filter properties to much.
(By the way, the detector regen. control ads about 4 dB to the AM sensitivity)
The receiver will mainly be used for CW/SSB reception, so maybe it stays this way for a while J
I hooked it up to the W1TS transmitter, which was very loud.
Didn’t foresee a T/R relay (learned a lot from this project ;-) ), so added this one between the front plates next to the RF and audio gain control.
The quit down everything a little, the RF gain pot is lifted of ground as suggested by James, N2EY at QRZ.com.
It helped a lot, but was still too loud if tuned exactly in the bandpass of the crystals.
The T/R relay now also switches an adjustable potentiometer at the input of the audio pre-amplifier.
The dial cord has no lag, and works very well for fine tuning.
Unfortunately the reduction drive went from 1:19 to 1:9…, the tuning capacitor only has a 180 deg. span.
Something to remember for the next receiver.
It’s a nice little receiver and quite stable after warm-up.
The only extra luxury a next receiver will have, is AGC.
But with no AGC it’s easier to tune the antenna tuner by ear J
There’s now a complete homebrew station here, antenna, feeder, tuner, receiver, transmitter, power supply, al home made J
About the Mystery Hole….
If you haven’t guessed it by now, or Pete hasn’t told you, it is revealed in one of the pictures below.
"SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" is now available as an e-book for Amazon's Kindle.
Here's the site:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004V9FIVW
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