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Thursday, January 16, 2014

Farhan's New Design: A General Coverage Transceiver: The Minima!


The homebrew phone QRP community has been waiting anxiously for the unveiling of Farhan's new design:  The Minima.  It is a general coverage transceiver with many innovative circuit features.  It has an Arduino in it and an Si570. Farhan's write up of the design process and the construction of the prototypes is really interesting.

http://www.phonestack.com/farhan/minima.html

I've built FOUR JBOTs and TWO BITXs.  I even built Farhan's Subway Sandwich Straw signal generator.   So even though I've been trying to keep my rigs all discrete,  I know I will build this one too. 

Three cheers for Ashhar Farhan!  Viva La Minima!

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Sunday, January 12, 2014

Words to Live By...





Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Bert's Blog and BITX


Our friend Bert is once again melting solder.  And he has launched a blog.  (SolderSmoke listeners will remember Bert as the advisor to the University of Virginia radio club.   That was the club that had its HQ in some sort of nuclear reactor building.  They put up a huge wire antenna, but then took it down when they realized bike riders could possibly, uh, run into it.)    Bert has some interesting stuff on his blog, including an article on conductive paint and one on the use of mail boxes as antenna tuner enclosures.  And he reports that he has dusted off a BITX 20 kit.  Welcome back Bert! 

Check out his blog:
http://wf7ihomebrew.wordpress.com/ 

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

First Light


Preston:  Your use of the term "First Light" is especially appropriate.  I got the concept from a wonderful book of that title by the author Richard PRESTON.  I pulled it off the shelf this morning, and, as my coffee was brewing, read this on the dust cover:

"First Light won the American Institute of Physics award in science writing. An asteroid has been named "Preston" in honor of First Light. It is likely someday to collide with Mars or the earth."

The book's glossary defines first light as: "A technical term from astronomy signifying the moment when starlight is allowed to fall on a new mirror for the first time."  The first light experience must, I think, be similar to the feelings we get when we first allow RF to fall on the front end of a new homebrew receiver.

Congrats on the S-107 OM.

73  Bill N2CQR
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From Preston Douglas WJ2V:

I am happy to report that my little novice rig (well it's not so little if you weigh it) consisting of my restored circa 1960 Hallicrafters S-107 and circa 1959 KnightKit T-50 (with V-44) made our first QSO with a guy 20 miles away on Staten Island.  This was Saturday afternoon, in full daylight, on 40 meters.  He was also running vintage equipment (Heath) but running an SB-200 Heath linear.  I have no idea why he needed a linear on 40 meter CW, but he seemed happy with it.  I could easily hear his signal via leakage through my Daiwa cavity switch, so it was a pretty powerful signal.  The T-50 puts out maybe 20-25 watts full bore, but it certainly works fine, and got a 569 signal report.  The 9 part was obviously the important one.
 
I had just turned on the equipment, so the S-107 needed to be adjusted a bit during the QSO to allow for a bit of warm up drift.  It stabilizes ten or fifteen minutes after warmup.  I had to use a straight key as I have not yet built the little kit that interfaces solid state keyers with old rigs.  I'll get to it on a slow afternoon this winter perhaps.  But for now, a straight key is about the right speed for this setup.  T/R requires switching the antenna, the VFO to transmit, and the receiver to standby for transmitting.  Not exactly QSK. Since there are so many switches, it may not pay to add an antenna relay switch to this setup.  Besides, switching is part of the fun.  

I did not get set up in time for New Years, so missed the chance to operate SKN.

I learned about first light from Bill Meara's podcasts.  It refers to the first time a telescope is used, but, as he says, it applies just as well to a new (old) rig.

All of this was caused by a local ham offering a Hallicrafters S-107 for ten bucks. Even with the few bucks needed to put it right, I sure got my money's worth.  

Regards guys and Happy New Year,

Preston WJ2V
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Earlier from Preston:
 
I am pleased to report my S-107 is restored to full function.  Based on the build up of filth on it before cleaning, it is also cleaner than it has been for many years.  The greasy dirt (I shudder to think what it was made of) in between the flutes of the control knobs has succumbed to a toothbrush and detergent.  Who'd have thought what a difference clean controls would make in the overall appeal of a radio?

The S-107 was purchased without negotiation from a local and fellow member of the Long Island Mobile Radio Club for ten bucks.  I cheerfully handed over a ten spot and drove home with this rig.  

On the bench, the tubes lit, and I could hear a couple of AM stations, but it made an awful racket with 60/120 cycle hum.  New electrolytic caps cured that.  The chassis felt "hot" to the touch.  Resistance checks on the HV-to-AC sides of the transformer confirmed that, thankfully, there were no shorts.  On advice of some pros on this list and elsewhere, I removed a cap and resistor from the AC line to the chassis that Hallicrafters thought was a good idea.  With a new three wire grounded plug, the chassis was now cold.  

Alignment was done with an old Conar signal generator (my $1 victory from an old hamfest) and trusty Tek 465 with frequency counter connected to its rear connector.  The double IF transformers peaked up, and so did the front end compression caps on all bands.  And now, the radio really receives CW and SSB!  With a simple dipole (my beam seems to have gotten sick from Irene and Sandy) I get good signals on 80, 40, and 20.  Maybe next weekend I will have time to try the upper bands during daylight hours.  But, the signal generator suggests they should be fine.

The ten buck receiver needed ten bucks worth of electrolytics.  And I needed to buy a little 20 buck kit of Bristol Splined wrenches.  (Nobody I thought to ask had a set to lend.)  They were needed because: Another Hallicrafters bit of wonderment is that the setscrews in the control knobs need to be turned with these unusual wrenches that look like, but aren't, hex keys.  Well, I suppose I can say I have the wrenches if I decide to restore another Hallicrafters.  I hear Collins has them too.

I think I mentioned that I had to restring both the band spread and main tuning with real dial cord.  Another three bucks, perhaps.  So, my ten buck receiver is still a bargain at around 40 bucks in all.  And, I had a lot more than 40 bucks worth of fun.  I spent part of the afternoon just listening to the receiver, it sounded so good.  You know how it is when you first listen to a new receiver.

Now, next thing will be to see how it does making contacts with a Knight T-50.  I know the T-50 is not quite QRP.  I probably puts out about 25 or 30 watts.  

This will be about as close to my novice station as I am willing to fall.  The original station had the T-50, but no VFO (which came with the T-50 I have now); but the receiver was an S-38E, which was, (collectors notwithstanding) a piece of crap.  And it's dangerous since it is really one of those transformerless AM radios in shortwave clothing.  No wonder I only made a handful of contacts with it as a novice.  I have no nostalgia for my old Hallicrafters S-38E.  I hear folks recommend operating it with an isolation transformer.  I have a better idea.  Don't plug it in.

I had so much fun with the S-107, though, I am starting to think about restoring an S-108 or an SX-110.

Preston Douglas WJ2V

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Sunday, January 5, 2014

BITX 20/40 BUILD UPDATE #4: 11MHz SSB Ladder Filter


As reported yesterday I have the 20 meter receiver portion of my BITX 20/40 rig up and running.  I decided to take a closer look at the crystal filter I built.  

Here is my method:  

1) Using an Arduino/DDS sig generator, I put 11 Mhz energy into the base of Q2 (the stage immediately prior to the crystal filter).   

2) Using my Rigol 1052E oscilloscope, I measured RMS voltage at the output of Q3/Q3A (the stage immediately following the filter).   

3) I looked at Vrms as I MANUALLY varied the input frequency in 100 Hz increments.

4) I took the results and plugged them into a spreadsheet.  I then used the spreadsheet to calculate the db drop from the peak Vrms value (So I wasn't looking at insertion loss, just the filter shape).  
I used 20*LOG(Vrms/276)

5)  I ended up with the chart displayed above. 

I have a few questions: 
1) What do you folks think about my methodology for evaluating the filter? 
2)  Where would you guys put the BFO frequency? 
3)  I know the ripple looks ugly, but the receiver sounds great.  Should I attempt to get rid of the ripple? 

Here is the filter I used (as prescribed by the AADE software):  I estimated Q at 10000 and used LM and CM values derived by the G3UUR method, and made no effort to match impedances going into the filter:   



Here is what GPLA predicted.  I estimated Rin and Rout values.  That probably accounts for the difference between the GPLA prediction and what I measured. 
  




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Saturday, January 4, 2014

BITX 2040 Build Update #3 Receiver Sounds Great!


There it is,  my second BITX transceiver, this one for 20 and 40.   Once I got the VFO sorted out, this one went together very quickly.  Obviously experienced gained on the first project was a big help.

I followed Farhan's advice and characterized the 11 MHz crystals in the filter.  Then I used the AADE filter design software to build a 3 KHz filter.  Using my Arduino DDS signal generator and the new Rigol 'scope, I was able to do a manual sweep across the passband -- it looked very close to what was predicted by the software. 

This morning I built the bandpass filter for 20. As soon as that was done, I fired up the receiver.  This was an amazing experience for me: a homebrew receiver that worked right away!  That never happened before.   I'm listening to 20 meters now.  It sounds great.  I even managed to demodulate and display some SSTV.  The VFO seems very stable.

I still have to build the RF amplifier stages, the bandpass filter for 40 and low pass filters for 20 and 40 (I know Steve Smith is watching!).  Then it will be time for cabinetry.   I guess I should put some paint or varnish on that walnut box.   Any recommendations?   I'll line it (on the inside) with copper flashing material.     

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Happy New Year! Straight Key Night

 
For the first time in years I got on the air on New Year's eve.  I fired up the HT-37 and Drake 2-B on 20 meters last night right at 0001 UTC  (well, with these rigs I should say GMT!).  There was a moment of stress when, as I was trying to adjust the key, the whole thing fell apart and the little ball bearings spilled out.  Yikes!  It was as if the radio gods were trying to tell me something.  It took me a few minutes to re-assemble my straight key, then I called CQ.  The HT-37 puts out a lot more power than I normally emit,  and it caused the Carbon Monoxide detector to go off, sparking a minor panic among family members.  (See, this never happens with QRP!)  With that resolved I had nice QSOs with K5KFK in Texas, W6VNR in California, and N1WPU in Maine.  This morning I worked WA0ZDE in Missouri.  The old HT-37 was drifting a bit, but Rick said he kind of liked that.  (I put a muffin fan on top of the transmitter -- that should settle it down a bit).   By the way, my key is a bit unusual: it is just a cheapo key, but I have it mounted on the base from a Vibroplex bug.  I never mastered the Vibroplex, and ended up giving the bug parts to HI8G in Santo Domingo -- Gustavo planned on using them to fix another bug that had been given to him years before by Fred Laun (K3ZO). 
 
Rick, WA0ZDE ( who I talked to on 20 this morning) sent me a VERY SKN photo collage (see below).  I see that Rick also tends to hold onto his gear for a long time. 
 
HNY to all!   GL in 14.  73! 
 



Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Designer: Douglas Bowman | Dimodifikasi oleh Abdul Munir Original Posting Rounders 3 Column