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Saturday, March 4, 2017

SolderSmoke Podcast 194 - Approaching the Digital-Analog Singularity


SolderSmoke 194 is available (scroll down for link)
March 4, 2017
BIG NEWS:   uBITX from Farhan
BENCH REPORTS
Pete: Recycling Old Boards
Working on Arduinos and advanced displays
Bill: SDR Adventures and Misadventures.
RTL-SDR is fun.  Built HB front end.  
HDSDR under Windows is fun and easy.
Thought about Raspi3, 7 inch touch screen, Linux, software YUCK.  
Followed advice of Ken G4IIB and got a 50 buck tablet with Google Play. 
Who needs tiny OLEDs?  Use a 7 inch tablet as your display!
Building a Ceramic Resonator for the HRO  455 kc filter
The value of doing something different. 
Boxed up my NE602 OLED rig. 
OLED noise and ACTIVE decoupling.
NE602 and MOSFET tips
LEXICON:  
OTD   Obsessive Tinkering Disorder  G6LBQ
"A Thing of Beauty"  
Source of Tombstoning term:  Don ND6T.
Ken G4IIB’s extremely smooth audio.
ON THE AIR:
On AM on 75 and 40.  Fun.  Old Military Radio Net and "The Lonely Guy Net" on 75 Saturday morning.
Good old 17 meters. Open at mid-day
HB2HB on 40 with W0PWE.
Listening on 60
Hambrew magazines disappeared, but are back now.
EMRFD Classic Edition available
New Posts to BITX HACKS
MAILBAG:
Gloves follow-up. Not a good idea.
VK3YE’s QRP by the Bay event  and a new book!
Colin M1BUU achieves Mountaingoat status
Martin A65DC JoO MMM in the UAE
Tom NY2RF Editorial with mention of JoO!
Lots of Al Fresco rigs: W8LM BITX on a board, Brad WA8WDQ DC RX, KA4KXX Al Fresco OZ DSB
ON6UU DSB from Spain via Belguim
Hugh ZL1UEM SMALL Si5351 OLED
Cookie Tin rigs VK2EMU’s Biscuit Tin DC RX,  WA7HRG’s Popcorn rig
VK4FFAB FB LTSPICE intro
Ken G4IIB’s BITX adventure (with VERY smooth audio.  How smooth? We can’t say.)
VU2XE’s BITX with a CAD box
G0ETP’s shockingly beautiful SDR receiver
Alan W2AEW on the mend with broken ankle.  His videos are a treasure trove of tribal knowledge.

9 comments:

  1. What android app. did you use with the RTL-SDR? Also which tablet from Amazon and cable? I have the RTL-SDR and cannot get it to work with my windows pc.

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    Replies
    1. SDRtouch from Google play. And I used a powered USB to USB micro adapter.

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  2. I'm interested in the pre-amp you built for your RTL-SDR. Is it online here somewhere? (I looked, I promise.)

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  3. Here is my pre-amp:
    http://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2017/02/schematic-for-rtl-sdr-dongle-front-end.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Here you go:
    http://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2017/02/schematic-for-rtl-sdr-dongle-front-end.html

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  5. Bill & Pete: Love the podcast, and I've listened for years (off and on as time permits)--thanks for all of it!

    I listened to this episode this morning and something Bill said raised a question I've had for a while, and I'm wondering if you can clear something up for me: Bill mentioned using a 40673 and tying the two gates together so that it was essentially a regular MOSFET. I've been building my radios and stuff since I was licensed in 1991 (and I built lots of audio gear before that), and in the ham radio literature I had access to in those early days, the 40673 and similar devices appeared frequently--and it always frustrated me, because they were seemingly hard to find and expensive--I've since acquired two or three similar devices, and I've been thinking about trying some of those old circuits that I used to avoid because of the 40673's (haven't done it yet). But your comment about tying the gates together made me wonder whether other circuits I've seen that use a dual-gate MOSFET with the gates tied together could work with a regular MOSFET. I know there is a lot I don't understand about this, but if there is a simple answer, or a direction in which you can point me for more education in the matter, I'm all ears.

    Blessings, my friends, and 73--Doug (AA0MS)

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  6. The George Dobbs Ladybird book can be found here:
    http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Bookshelf/Author-Groups/G.C.Dobbs/Making-a-Transistor-Radio-Dobbs.pdf

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  7. Just finished reading SolderSmoke, one of the most well written and interesting books I have ever had the pleasure to read. Thank you (Oh2euu) Pete T

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