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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Soul in an Old Telescope


I like this telescope.  The owner built it in 7th grade and is still using it at age 70.  I'm still using the Drake 2-B that I bought with newspaper route money, so understand the sentiments.  

http://makezine.com/2013/07/29/through-a-diy-telescope-brightly/ 

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Sunday, July 28, 2013

Soul in the Old Machine: HW-101 Saved From Workshop Cannabilism


Most of our correspondents did not like the idea of me trying to convert my Heath HW-101 into a BITX-101.  But, thinking that I still might to this,  I decided to take the old rig off the shelf and see what it looked like.  I liked the looks of it -- lots of space, simple circuitry,  nice belts and gears for turning the many variable capacitors, no black box ICs.  I could see traces of my earlier repair adventures -- electrolytic caps that had been replaced, the plastic dial clutch that I'd "fabricated" myself.  Then I decided to try to fire it up. Hey, the receiver sounded very good.  Next thing you know, I was getting the transmitter going.  Then I was working DX on 20.  By the end of the afternoon, I knew there was no way I would be tearing this old rig apart.  There is simply too much soul in this old machine. 

More on this in SolderSmoke 154....




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

Friday, July 26, 2013

EXCELSIOR! Happy Birthday Jean Shepherd

 
 

NPR's "Writer's Almanac" alerted us to this:    Shep was born on this day in 1925.  I realize now that that made him just a week or so older than my dad (who was a big fan).

Here is a really nice site with info about Shep, ham radio, and his call sign: 


EXCELSIOR !!!!!!!!!!!

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

HB-101 ? BITX-101?

 
 
OK, so I've been wanting to build a BITX-20 for a long time.  Then Steve "Snort Rosin" Smith sent me a nice 9 MHz filter, and I started to think about using it to build a BITX 75/20.   But I don't really like 75 meters too much...  And I have this Heathkit HW-101.  I like it very much, but these rigs do not age well:  Too much heat, too many cheap components, tubes on PC boards... yuck.  I got tired of fixing it.  I've occasionally fantasized about scrapping most of the HW-101 circuitry and turning this rig into a 100 watt linear amplifier. But I didn't have the heart to do this.  Then, on the way to work yesterday it hit me:  Why not take the beautiful bi-directional circuitry of Farhan's BITX design and use that to solid state most of the HW-101?    Obviously I'd retain the finals and maybe the driver, and the CW and SSB filters.   The VFO could be transistorized.  Maybe I'd retain the tube AF amp.  I'd like to add 17 meter capability.  Pete Juliano took an HW-101 and added a digital dial (that's his rig in the picture).
 
What do you guys think?  Am I nuts?  Or would this be a worthwhile project? 


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

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

The Nanomembrane Laser Detector Receiver

 

I like it!  Here we find some cutting edge radio technology that does not involve millions of microscopic transistors and thousands of lines of code. And it can be explained in a few paragraphs without resort to exotic math.  It even makes use of our beloved LC resonant circuit.  Quick, where did I put Billy's green laser?  And where can I get some silicon nitride? 
  
http://m.technologyreview.com/view/517336/physicists-detect-radio-waves-with-light/

Thanks to Jim, AB3CV, for sending us this.

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

Monday, July 22, 2013

Earth as seen from Saturn


Look closely.  We're the little dot.  Photo taken July 19 2013 by the Cassini probe.   People were waving!  Really:  http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23914-shiny-happy-earth-photobombs-saturn-snapshot.html?cmpid=RSS|NSNS|2012-GLOBAL|online-news#.Ue2_i2DD-ic


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