Podcasting since 2005! Listen to Latest SolderSmoke

Monday, July 31, 2017

Yellow Fever! The Cold War Origins of Juliello


How could you miss them?  That yellow was bright!  Apparently you needed high visibility to cope with the looming danger of nuclear annihilation.  The operator in the ad is obviously calm in the face of Armageddon -- note the cigarette dangling from his lips. In this 1956 Gonset ad we can see the inspiration behind what -- many decades later -- has emerged as the avant-garde ham radio color scheme known as Juliello.  The roots of this aesthetic are clearly not in the psychedelic "Mellow Yellow" hippie era.  No, this color has harder, more flinty origins.

Pete Juliano is not the only one to embrace this look.   Podcast #198 elicited this response from our friend Armand WA1UQO: 

Pete:
Don't let that Meara guy give you a hard time over the yellow Rigs.  The last three of mine have been yellow and I'm happy to see I'm not the only one with good taste.  In the picture they are from top to bottom a 30M One Watter, a 20M One Watter and of course the BITX 40.  The 20M does have a Juliano Blue cover though to give it an extra bit of class!  As always, enjoyed the podcast.
Bill,  see you at Berryville?
73, Armand WA1UQO



Saturday, July 29, 2017

SolderSmoke Podcast #198 - D-104, HW-8, Juliello, DIFX, Dishal, Baofeng, MAILBAG

Bill Breshears WC3K (SK)
SolderSmoke Podcast #198 is available. 


29 July 2017

Sign on a beach store:  SHACK-TACULAR! 

Noticed that EB63 amp was getting hot. Why?  

TT2, Herring Aid5, Farhan's Key:  QRPp and CW!  See?

D-104 lore -- Reading from Bill Breshear's (WC3K) ER article
Astatic  crystal/ceramic element -- disappointingly flimsy
Electret-ing it.  The G-Spot (see picture above)
Walery KB2FIV sent crystal mic element and piezo buzzer (reverse for mic!) FB
HW-8 AF filter Center Frequency Problem.  IT'S TRUE!  Fixed!  Finally. 

Shack re-org at N2CQR
Got Steve Silverman's HP 8640B Sig gen on the bench.  Required reinforcement

Pete's new DIFX
LM373 rigs.  Perhaps with that CA3020 Pete sent me. Chips Ahoy! 
Juliano Yellow? Origins of Blue?  Juliello? Julionyx? 
HB Crystal Filter Capitulation? Don't give up Pete --  just dish the Dishal!
Ceramic VXOs?  K.P.S. Kang
Crystal testers by G7WKE and Dino KL0S.  Impressive. 

Antennas and BITX40 modules.  Antennas are important.

Bill's new Baofeng HT on 440.

Fixing my Sony SW7600GR

MAILBAG
Steve Silverman alerts us to NYC radio row now in the Bronx.
Tony G4WIF on the cover of SPRAT -- Getting the Don Cameron award. FB 
Armand WA1UQO points out that the Berryville hamfest is coming up... 
Thomas KK6AHT F4HDQ writes in. 
On the air with W8NSA

Juliello.  No. 


Thursday, July 27, 2017

Ralph Baer -- Video Game Inventor



Thanks to Stephen G7VFY for alerting us to this very nice video.   Ralph Baer did pioneering work in video games.   It is fun to see him in his workshop. He obviously has a variant of The Knack.  Stephen hinted at a reference to "noodling" but I didn't hear it -- perhaps Stephen meant that the whole thing was about what we'd call noodling.  I found the box on his bench labeled "Wire Wrap Materials" kind of ominous -- remember our April 1 announcement about the launch of the new "Wire Wrap Rap" podcast?

I liked Ralph's summary comment about how these days he just has fun building things.

Monday, July 24, 2017

KC8WBK's Cakepan BITX40


I talked to Paul KC8WBK last night during the regular 7277 kHz Sunday night BITX gathering (7 pm local). I like his BITX enclosure.  Very practical and economical.  It provides ready access to the circuitry.  He also has nice enclosure for the microphone and push-to-talk switch. He has more info on his QRZ.com page. 

Einstein's Knack (for Refrigeration)

https://www.wired.com/story/einsteins-little-known-passion-project-a-refrigerator?google_editors_picks=true

Saturday, July 22, 2017

Intuitive Repair of a Sony Shortwave Portable

A few years ago my wife got me this nice little Sony ICF-SW7600GR receiver.   On the front it proclaims that it is "AM DUAL CONVERSION" and "PLL SYNTHESIZED."   It has a BFO, and a filter of suitable width for SSB.  It also has a synchronous detector -- it generates an internal carrier that matches the frequency and phase of the carrier being transmitted by the SW broadcast (or ham AM) transmitter.  This helps overcome the selective fading that often plagues AM signals.  Sony advises switching to USB or LSB once the synchronous generator locks onto the carrier.  Pretty cool. 

The BFO is the reason I wanted this receiver. And wouldn't you know, when I dropped it,  it landed EXACTLY on the little BFO fine tune control pot.  It was as if the Radio Gods disliked all the fancy digi PLL synchronous IC circuitry.   

I tried without success to find the value of the destroyed pot.  Finally, last week I just decided to have a look in there to see if I could just figure it out. 

On the board I could see that the pot only connected at two places, so I figured it would be a varactor circuit on the BFO with one end of the pot to DC and the wiper to the varactor diode.  I figured I'd try a 10K pot. 

This seems to have been some good radio intuition.  It works.  I went with a small trimmer because it is less obtrusive and because once I set the BFO in the right spot, I think the de facto channelization of the 40 meter ham band will keep most of the SSB sigs in tune. And the Sony only tunes in 1 kHz increments. If necessary I can move the BFO a bit with a small screwdriver.  I just glued the trimmer pot onto the back of the receiver -- two wires covered by heat shrink run back into the circuitry. 

10k might be a bit too small.  Maybe 100k would be better?  As it is, I can move the BFO above and below the "zero beat" point, and I don't need more range. Mouser has a small trimmer pot with a tuning wheel that looks like it might fit, so I may try for a proper repair. 

Friday, July 21, 2017

K.P.S. Kang's Minimalist VXOs (and one for the BITX)


K.P.S. Kang provides us with some great ideas for simple VXOs.  He includes an intriguing reference for a 5 MHz circuit useable in a BITX.  Tell us more OM! 


Designer: Douglas Bowman | Dimodifikasi oleh Abdul Munir Original Posting Rounders 3 Column