Pay More and Get Less. Decisions always have consequences.

We are addicted to numbers whether it is the number of cylinders in our gas cars or the number of motors in our EV's.  Our frequent apologies for not having legal limit power are in play when the other station says we are only an S5 are a reality. Lower numbers undeniably suggest an inferiority. A certain guy's lower poll numbers cannot be passed off as Fake News and my recent blog viewings being 1/3 of what they were when I was covering the Hybrid rig build is an effect. That is a significant drop and indicative of a loss of similar interests or any interest in what I do.  But my blog has a purpose if only to follow the Marines template for carrying out an order. The Marine's template has a preparatory command and a command of execution as in "Do Something". Two parts: do and something. At this stage of my life and given my recent loss it is important for me to keep active and perhaps documenting my varied ham activities is just that... doing something. So lower ...

As many of you know, I am a ride along participant in the SolderSmoke Podcast ably chaired, directed and a brainchild of Bill, N2CQR.   Often the podcast participants which now for several years has also included Dean, KK4DAS get a question in the "In Box". Such a question arrived yesterday.  The person submitting the question had to change locations and that involved a new space constrained antenna now fed by coax versus open wire feedline like at his old QTH. Sticker shock arrived with the current cost of high quality 52 Ohm coax. Back on life support, he said that 75 Ohm coax was a lot less expensive.  DX Engineering 75 Ohm Coax Thus, the question: "What if I used 75 Ohm coax as there is an obvious mismatch problem?" Most of our modern gear has a fixed output at 50 Ohms and typically safety circuitry to scale back the power when the SWR exceeds 3:1.  Several blog readers would do an analysis and likely conclude that that the mismatch would fall under the 3:1 ...

When I was just starting out in ham radio there were some rigs that stirred up thoughts of working exotic DX. These had knobs, dials, switches, meters and all sorts of controls. This Harvey Wells radio falls into that category. The Harvey Wells TBS-50A It has that distinct military look and in fact the "TBS" prefix for military hardware is Talk Between Ships. This radio is all band and has an 807 Final and built in AM Modulator. It can be operated crystal controlled or an accessory base unit with a sloping front panel housed a companion VFO for frequency agility. [I could have said QSY but for the majority there would be a lack of understanding.] Couple this with a National HRO or Hallicrafters SX-28 or Hammarlund SP-600 and indeed you could work the world. The knob less black box high end SDR radios are lacking in any sort of emotional appeal. Sexless is a great word! You get no sense of control when looking at a FLEX 6300 enclosure, it's a black box! Yet you get that fe...

  I will be surprised if anyone remembers the PSSST , a 7 Transistor SSB Transceiver I designed and built several years ago. The reason I bring it up is because I just added the JF3HZB dial to this rig. I also hope to repackage the rig into a nice enclosure. Full construction details can be found at n6qw.com . The PSSST was a completely new design and has no vestiges of Bitx or EMRFD circuitry nor designs floating around Facebook groups. It is a truly unique design employing relay steering and was sold as a kit by mostlydiyrf.com  The kit is no longer for sale. However, Todd does sell a complete set of blank PC boards. See his website. The 1st QSO using the new display was with N8OO , Victor in Louisiana . Running about three watts, I got a 5X5 report around 1930 PDST Local time.  Them that know can make things go. 73's Pete N6QW

  Well without my asking Google has added AI to my blog. There is now a button on the task bar where you can enter a subject, and Google creates a search engine algorithm to explore that subject. I do know if this works but it is here. [See Logo Above.] I have spent many hours trying to create informative blog entries . I like where this is headed. Soon there will be a button where you input subject matter and the blog is written for you and another feature was just added... it will create the content so it is like "N6QW Speak". The step down the road is that you wear a special set of headphones and Google taps into your brain waves and instant blog creation which suggests it can be done while you sleep. Bernie Sanders , I think suggested AI will put 100 million out of a job. If he did so, he may be underestimating the impact. But in case you don't embrace the new technology here are schematics of some simple transistor cw transmitters . This may be a way to drag you aw...

I have never owned or operated one of the early Heathkit transmitters such as the AT-1, DX-20, DX-35, DX-40 or DX-60. But now seeing some of these on eBay there is the great temptation to buy one just to fiddle with it. My early rig was a Johnson Adventurer which I thought was a bit more uptown than the Heath gear. I now see some of these early Heathkit rigs on eBay in the $50-to-70-dollar range and so I keep looking. Now I do have a homebrew vintage transmitter which uses a 6AG7 to drive a Glass version of the 6L6 but with the 350 VDC homebrew supply about the most I could coax out of that jewel was 10 watts. I knew the 6L6 could do a lot more damage. Avoid buying what is the counter intuitive metal version of the 6L6 as it has lesser ratings on power output and plate dissipation. I turned to copilot and asked what the max is I could see from a 6L6 driven by a 6AG7. The answer was 20 to 25 watts. But on the critical path for that greater output level was higher plate voltage and a wel...