This little contact is a reminder of the fun that can come from using simple, homebrew, QRP gear. It is really amazing that the very first contact with this receiver was with another homebrew station. This all reminds Dean and me of something we have been telling the students: the little DC receiver they are building is not a toy -- it is capable of being used in real, long-distance contacts.
Podcasting since 2005! Listen to Latest SolderSmoke
Sunday, February 26, 2023
First QSO with the High-School Receiver -- 100 mW to Dipole. (with videos) -- Homebrew to Homebrew!
This little contact is a reminder of the fun that can come from using simple, homebrew, QRP gear. It is really amazing that the very first contact with this receiver was with another homebrew station. This all reminds Dean and me of something we have been telling the students: the little DC receiver they are building is not a toy -- it is capable of being used in real, long-distance contacts.
Friday, January 27, 2023
N3FJZ Builds PTO for High School DC Receiver
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Hammarlund and Homebrew Heroine: Janis AB2RA, HQ-100 Filter Cap Question
Dean KK4DAS is getting ready to work on his dad's HQ-170A. He too will find lots of wisdom and tribal knowledge on Janis's wonderful web site.
Her main page: http://www.wireless-girl.com/ (with a vast amount of technical info available through the links on the upper left side of this page)
About Janis: http://www.wireless-girl.com/AboutMe.html
Thanks Janis!
Tuesday, December 15, 2020
SolderSmoke Podcast #227: Solar System, SDR, Simple SSB, HA-600A, BITX17, Nesting Moxons? Mailbag
Mars is moving away. Jupiter and Saturn close in the sky. And the Sun is back in action – Cycle 25 is underway. Also, the earliest sunset is behind us. Brighter days are ahead.
Book Review: “Conquering the Electron” With a quote from Nikola Tesla.
No real travel for us: Hunkered down. Lots of COVID cases around us. Friends, relatives, neighbors. Be careful. You don’t want to be make it through 10 months of pandemic only to get sick at the very end. SITS: Stay In The Shack.
Pete's Bench and Tech Adventures:
Backpack SDR keithsdr@groups.io
Hermes Lite 2
Coaching SSB builders
G-QRP talk
A new source for 9 MHz crystal filters
Bill's Bench:
Fixing the HA-600A Product Detector. Sherwood article advice. Diode Ring wins the day. Fixing a scratchy variable capacitor. Studying simple two diode singly balanced detectors. Polyakov. Getting San Jian frequency counter for it.
Fixing up the 17 meter BITX. Expanding the VXO coverage. Using it with NA5B's KiwiSDR.
Resurrecting the 17 meter Moxon. But WHY can't I nest the 17 meter Moxon inside a 20 meter Moxon? They do it with Hex beams. Why so hard with Moxons? DK7ZB has a design, but I've often heard that this combo is problematic. Any thoughts? I could just buy a 20/17 Hex-beam but this seems kind of heretical for a HB station.
Suddenly getting RFI on 40 meters. Every 50-60 Hz. Please tell me what you think this is (I played a recording).
MAILBAG:
Dean KK4DAS’s Furlough 40/20
Adam N0ZIB HB DC
TCVR
Tony G4WIF G-QRP
Vids. Video of George Dobbs.
Grayson KJ7UM
Collecting Radioactive OA2s. Why?
Pete found W6BLZ
Articles
Rogier KJ6ETL PA1ZZ
lost his dog. And we lost ours.
Steve Silverman KB3SII
-- a nice old variable capacitor from Chelsea Radio Company.
Dave K8WPE thinks we
already have a cult following.
Dan W4ERF paralleling
amps to improve SNR.
Jim W8NSA -- An old friend.
Pete Eaton
WB9FLW The Arecibo collapse
John WB4GTW old
friend... friend of:
Taylor N4TD
HB2HB
And finally, we got lots of mail about our editorial. No surprise: Half supportive, half opposed. Obviously everyone is entitled to their opinion. And we are free to express ours. It’s a free country, and we want it to stay that way. That is why we spoke out.
Yesterday the Electoral College voted, finalizing the results. All Americans should be proud that the U.S. was able to carry out a free and fair national election with record turn out under difficult circumstances. And all loyal Americans should accept the results. That’s just the way it works in a democracy.
We are glad we said what we said. It would have been easier and more pleasant to just bury our heads in the sand and say nothing. But this was a critically important election and we felt obligated as Americans to speak out. We'd do it again. And in fact we reserve the right to speak out again if a similarly important issue arises.
Sunday, November 15, 2020
HB-2-HB Contact! N4TD's Amazing Homebrew 20 and 40 meter SSB Transceiver
Hi Bill,
It was great to work you homebrew to homebrew. As you said, that doesn’t happen very often. I used a modular architecture for this radio. The module size is the ExpressPCB miniboard size, so they are less expensive and all the same size so they can be moved around. All the boards are homebrew except for the final amplifier module. The PA module I got from 60dbm in Ukraine through eBay. I had tested this module before and found it to be solid, and it was more economical than building the PA from scratch. It delivers 50W+ and has been reliable through all my sometimes abusive testing.
73 Taylor N4TD
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Arduino, Si5351, GPS linked atomic clock, GPS disciplined frequency counter and more...
I've made great progress on my Arduino Mega 2560 based rig controller I call the ZX-Front-Panel. I just finished a feature I always wanted which is a built-in *GPS disciplined frequency counter*. It uses the 1-pulse-per-second timing output from the GPS module to create a frequency counter with atomic-clock accuracy. It's on the solderless breadboard with the rest of the ZX-Front-Panel right now, and even so, it can count up to 30MHz with no trouble! and it should be able to count up to 100MHz or more if built on a ground plane with a little shielding. The best part about it is that it only required one additional chip (a 74LV8154 32-bit counter $1 from Mouser) in addition to the existing parts already on the ZX-Front-Panel; i.e. the Arduino Mega 2560 ($10), the Ublox NEO-6N GPS module ($15), the display ($25), and the Si5351 PLL RF Oscillator ($8).
Check out my video series covering the ZX-Front-Panel development progress. The first link below will bring up the video page on my website with the latest video at the top, so you'll have to scroll down a bit to get to the earlier development stages. Check out the rest of the website too for the schematics of my Bitx / TIA inspired rig design (which I call the ZX-SSB-II) that I used an early version of to make my first HF HB2HB contact with Bill (N2CQR) back in 2014 or so (Bill and Pete, via the Soldersmoke podcast, were my inspiration to build my first SSB homebrew rig).
YouTube videos: http://www.remmepark.com/circuit6040/ZX-SSB-II-Front-Panel/ZX-SSB-II-Front-Panel.html#video
Homepage: http://www.remmepark.com/circuit6040/index.html
Dean AC9JQ and I have been communicating via emailing about his progress in building his own copy of the ZX-Front-Panel, and I'm very excited to learn that he might be thinking about producing a future homebrew rig featuring the ZX-Front-Panel as its controller/VFO. The best thing about the ZX_Front-Panel is that ounce you install the sketch into the Arduino Mega, you don't need to modify the Arduino sketch itself when you build your rig; i.e. the SSB crystal filter's center frequency (the I.F. frequency), the Si5351's clock output drive level, the display brightness and contrast, and the Si5351 crystal correction factor (crystal trim) are all configurable, real-time, right from the ZX-Front-Panel's user interface, and once set, can be saved to the Arduino's non-volatile EEPROM to be automatically loaded on the next power-up. Also, since it has a GPS module, it features a UTC/Local real-time clock with atomic clock accuracy too.
Anyway that's all for now, take care Leif.
73 Rick.
Monday, April 27, 2020
Listen to Homebrew-to-Homebrew Quarantine Contact with Glenn KU4NO on his 37 year-old Homebrew SSB Transceiver
This was really amazing. I had been feeling guilty about not getting on the air much during quarantine. I mean, we have these airwaves and we have the gear, right? Shouldn't we be more social, more friendly and get on the air more? I tried yesterday with marginal results (conditions were poor). I called CQ on 40 SSB this morning -- nil, except for one grumpy guy who said I was splattering on his morning coffee clatch. Then I heard KU4NO calling CQ. I did not recognize the call. But when I told him I was on a homebrew transceiver, he matter-of-factly sad that he too was on a homebrew rig. When he started to describe it (see below), it all came back me. His is one of the most soulful of homebrew SSB rigs. And I realized that it may also be THE OLDEST HOMEBREW SSB RIG STILL IN USE IN THE WORLD. (If anyone knows of a homebrew SSB transceiver older than 37 years and still on the air, please let me know.) This was exactly the kind of contact that I needed. TRGHS.
Glenn put out a lot of homebrew wisdom. He said a lot of inspiring things. (He did also at one point talked about wanting to shoot his plasma TV, but that's understandable.) So I recorded most of our contact. (I have his permission to put it on the web).
You can listen to our contact via the YouTube video above.
For my report on an earlier contact with Glenn click here:
https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2018/07/a-rig-with-maximum-soul-5-band.html
So, it is worth it to get on the air. They are rare, but people like Glenn are out there, running very interesting rigs. And when you find them, you feel like you've hit the jackpot.
Thanks Glenn!
Wednesday, March 4, 2020
N3FJZ's Al Fresco. BITX-inspired, TIA. 50 Watt, SSB Rig (Video)
The last blog postings on Rick N3FJZ were in 2015. Rick sent me a very uplifting reception report, then we had a pretty amazing Homebrew-to-Homebrew contact.
Paul Taylor VK3HN yesterday alerted me to a new YouTube video that shows the progress Rick has made with his homebrew SSB rig.
This is a great example of true amateur SSB construction. Rick is making use of a combination of digital and analog technology. He is adapting circuitry developed by others and using it to meet his needs. During the development stage he is keeping the circuit open (Al Fresco) so that he can easily work on it.
FB Rick.
Friday, July 20, 2018
A Rig with Maximum Soul: The 5 Band Transceiver of Glenn KU4NO
Thursday, July 19, 2018
Homebrew Juju -- HB2HB
Oh man, last night the Radio Gods were on my side. I only had about a half hour on 40 SSB, but I had some really nice QSOs. WB2HJK George in NYC was very interested in the BITX revolution. W3BT in Philadelphia is a kind-hearted OT who ran an ENORMOUS Yagi atop a row-house in the city -- the antenna extended over the street and TWO of his neighbors houses. Never had a TVI problems. FB. SS listener WA3O Mike called in -- Mike is the fellow who gave me my HW-7. Mike has been running his uBITX into a homebrew 500 watt LDMOS amp. FB Mike.
Then the real miracle happened. Just as I was about to throw the switch, Glenn KU4NO called. I decided to give him a report. But then he said something I rarely hear: "My rig is homebrew too!" I checked the log -- I had spoken to Glenn before, but our last QSO was in December 2001. I was in the Azores. Glenn was on the same homebrew rig. We had a nice talk about his rig. FB.
Glenn told me that in all his years on the air, he has only had a few contacts with other homebrew stations. He had a list of them: 1) W4ZCB, 2) N6ORS (FB! SS Listener!), N2CQR ("No wait -- I just heard you but we didn't talk.") and W2JUQ. I will tell Glenn that he needs to add CU2JL to the list -- that was me in 2001 and I was indeed homebrew DSB.)
To top it all off, Dino KL0S was listening and recorded the final part of the QSO. See below. (The video might take a few minutes to load.)
In honor of that FB night on 40 I am re-posting the animated GIF of my BITX-17 build. I hope it doesn't make you seasick!
Also, I think we need to add a term to the SolderSmoke lexicon: Juju. As in Homebrew Juju. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juju Right? What do you think Steve Silverman?
Sunday, February 18, 2018
HB2HB QSO with KC1FSZ and his Al Fresco Scratch-built BITX
Here's a follow-up message from Bruce:
Hi Bill:
Saturday, November 11, 2017
Amazing Homebrew/Boatanchors QSOs on 40 --Six solder melters in a row!
Al W8VR |
W4IJ Boatanchors |
Monday, September 18, 2017
Six Stations Worked on BITX Night
I had a a good session with the BITX gang on 7277 kHz starting at 7pm local last night. Keith N6ORS was on with his MIN-X rig (picture above). Michael KN4EAR's signal is much improved (Michael had worked Barcelona with his BITX40 Module earlier in the day). Randy WB5YYM's rig (featured last week on this blog) was booming in from Arkanas.
LOG: WI1B Ken on BITX, AA4PG Pat, KN4EAR Mike in Falls Church, N6ORS Keith on MIN-X, W1LY Willy, WB5YYM Randy in Arkansas
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
HB2HB! BITX40-BITX40 with KC1FSZ
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
HB2HB: Contact on 40 meters with W0PWE
Sunday, January 22, 2017
HB2HB: N6ORS, W0PWE (and me!)
projects I should finish but boy was it ever fun to start a new one. This morning I soldered the
last part in my newly hatched Bitx, drug it over to the operating position and had two great QSOs
with it. See attached photo shows the rig as it was during those QSOs.
When I finished my first QSO with W9SX, Keith in WI N6ORS called me. He was running a multi-band Bitx he had built and we had a great HB2HB qso. Awesome!
My rig is scratch built, mostly SMT and generally follows the 40M schematic that Farhan has on
his HFsignals page. I am using the Kopski/Hayward TIAs though and I designed a 6 pole crystal
filter for it since 6 of the 10 crystals I bought were very similar when I characterized them
with my PHSNA setup. It uses the Adafruit SI5351 board and I modified a sketch that LA3PNA wrote for the Arduino.
I designed and fabricated the boards for it using the software and process described by K7QO and
W5DOR. Toner transfer with the Hammerhill Gloss paper is working great. The heatsink on my IRF510 is a little light. I could smell the MOSFET warming up during a few of my lengthy transmissions with Keith.
Now the SWL report. While listening on the receiver portion of my Bitx last week I heard you on
7260 at about 0030Z. I think that was Tuesday or Wednesday. I wished I could give you a call but
at that point my PA was merely a few traces on the computer screen. Hope to hear you again on
40M.
73/72,
Jerry - W0PWE
Saturday, January 14, 2017
BITX40 to BITX40 In Australia -- Both Rigs on the Beach, Video at Both Ends
There is so much great homebrewing going on down-under. It makes me jealous. And so much of it is for phone. FB.
I really like VK3YE's sand graphic proclaiming to the world (or at least to the beach!) that a BITX40 to BITX40 contact had been made.
Looks like both rigs were using VK3YE's ceramic resonator mod for the VFO.
Be sure to check out the BITX 40 Mods blog:
http://bitxhacks.blogspot.com
Saturday, December 3, 2016
TRGHS! HB2HB! Homebrew Extravaganza on 40 Meters!
AC7M HB Amp and HB Power Supply
|
I called CQ with my BITX DIGI-TIA rig and was immediately answered by Doc AC7M in far-off Twin Peaks, Idaho. Doc was running a K3 to a homebrew solid state full gallon amp. And get this -- Doc had also homebrewed the 3 kw switching power supply. I looked at my store-bought supply and felt like an appliance operator. I hang my head in shame.
As we discussed solid state amplifiers, we were joined by another builder of silicon after-burners: Don K9AQ, who called in from a beautiful cabin in rural Wisconsin. Don's amp is based on the venerable EB-104 design.
Both Don and Doc talked about the work of W6PQL. He has a really amazing site devoted to homebrew solid stat amps, and he is selling lots of great boards and parts for this kind of project:
http://www.w6pql.com/
As I finishing up with Don and Doc, I got a very welcome call from an old friend from the SolderSmoke community: Dino KL0S. He as booming in from Williamsburg, Va. Dino has an amazing workshop. He is building a serious vertical antenna for 160 meters. Dino is going for the DX.
Dino's Bench |
At this point Mike WA3O in Pittsburgh called in. And get this: Mike heard me on his new BITX 40 Module. The Radio Gods Have Spoken! (TRGHS!). We switched up to 7.285 MHz where I fired up my BITX 40 Module for a BITX40-BITX40 QSO (albeit not at QRP levels).
We should definitely make more use of 7.285 for BITX40 and other HB QRP SSB QSOs. 1930 EST (0030 Z) seems like a good time.
Finally, just when I was thinking that things couldn't get any better, they did: Armand WA1UQO called in from Richmond. Armand and I collaborate on parts acquisition at Virginia hamfests. We specialize in the contents of the musty cardboard boxes found under the tables. We discussed the DISRUPTIVE influence of Farhan's BITX 40: All around the world, other homebrew projects are being literally pushed aside on workbenches to make room for that fantastic little module from Hyderabad.
I was very pleased to hear that Armand is building an analog VFO for his module, using a coil in the 4 uH range, wound on a piece of cardboard tube from a coathanger. The inspiration for this kind of coil (which I now have in THREE rigs) came from Farhan, who used sipping straws from fast-food restaurants as coil forms in a sig generator that he built years ago. This week, seeing a Facebook picture of my daughter and me in a restaurant with drinking glasses in front of us, Farhan asked if I had brought home the straws.
Thursday, November 24, 2016
HB2HB: Butch K0BS with a KWM2 and a Hombrew 4-1000 Amp
Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating the holiday.
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
HB2HB! Pete Talks to Famed SSDRA Project Builder Jeff Damm WA7MLH
Jeff "Roadkill" Damm |