Left Coast Political Scene

It would be an understatement to not acknowledge the troubling times we are all facing. UNCERTAINTY is a great word, and we can only hope to cope with all of the fall out. For many a solace is found in the world of diversion with the likes of homebrew ham radio.  This leads our path to what to build or in the case of today's topic what to modify. Many commercial radios of old were based on solid designs and at their conception used the then current technology. In 60 years, the technology, like in brain surgery, has shifted from the use of a rusty spoon to a futuristic gamma knife. Now if we could meld the old solid designs with a selective use of today's cheap technology, for a very small investment, this could give us a very modern radio. Heathkit HW-12 Back in the day, both Heathkit and Swan produced single band SSB rigs intended primarily for mobile operation. The Heathkit rigs I think could be had for about $100 as a kit and were "basic starter rigs". The Swan Rad...

  My very 1st Radio Kit which I personally didn't build! If you are a ham of long standing (>30 years), then there seems to be this magnetic force that strangely often draws you into recreating your very 1st ham station. Two receiver kits offered for sale from Allied Radio circa 1958 were the Ocean Hopper (plug in coils) and the Space Spanner, shown above. The Space Spanner was the more expensive version costing $13.95. The Space Spanner was often a 1st rig and employed in very crude ham stations of the late 1950's. My dad who was always supportive of my radio adventures bought me one as a reward for having a great school year. It arrived the same June summer day I broke my thumb playing little league baseball. Undaunted and unable to solder because of the thumb, I supervised my dad in putting together the kit. Under my watchful eye the radio worked the 1st time.  What a thrill to hear shortwave stations and to hear the hams on 40M and was a 1st step in learning CW. Unwilli...

A ham friend (actually another ham fr0m western Penna.) bought some boards from Chine (China) and paid XX dollars for a small lot of boards. He then gets an email that the Tariff will be 200%, thus making the total cost 3*XX. So, the $50 purchase is now $150 to the front door. Thank you to the 52% that voted for you know who. This is just the beginning.  Alternatives are few. Getting a CNC Mill falls into the same boat. A $300 Mill will cost $900 to the front door. https://www.n6qw.com/CNCMILL.html 73's Pete N6QW

Three mentions of this wonderful piece of work by JF3HZB is THE gag level. So, this is the last you will hear about it. Some final comments. This is not a project for an appliance operator with no experience in using the Arduino IDE. It is an advanced piece of work! The entry cost in terms of dollars is low but it is a mountain high in terms of getting it to work -- properly. Some of the challenges included that CLK1 was activated with the same LO frequency as CLK0 only 180 degrees out of phase. I thought I was seeing some signal spill over and so had to figure out how to NEUTER CLK1.  The next two problems were that the BFO was not being generated at the proper frequency. While the data entry was correct for LSB, the correction of the Si5351 clock was a bit more challenging. I resorted to using a frequency counter and a couple of tries got me to the proper LSB value (with sideband inversion). So, now it sounds good on receive and the signal sounds good on transmit. Because of the ...

After reading yesterday's post and watching the video --- likely you want to build one. Here is a link to the Github for the software. Yes, it's addictive to watch the dials spin. Certainly, more fun to watch than the clowns at the circus maximus. Use esp32 Board Manager 2.05. Them that know can make things go! 73's Pete N6QW

This is real homebrew radio, and no kits involved here. You have to know stuff to pull this off! A huge tip of the cap to JF3HZB for a piece of superb engineering. This circular analog dial display has been around since 2019 (maybe earlier), but I am just getting to it! This somewhat adds a bit of soothing ointment to the sting of the MHST. This has got to be as Slick as Grace Slick! Sure, dresses up a homebrew radio. The display is an ILI9341.  In the software nulled out is the "LSB" which I changed and luckily it was written for 40M. I also limited the LO range, so it only tunes from 6.995 to 7.305 MHz, as this prevents out of band operation. I added my call sign to the front panel display.  Caveat Emptor -- not for 1st time Arduino users! Search for the software as it is on a Github and ESP Version 2.05 for the Board Manager Check You Tube for JF3HZB and other implementations of the dial. Them that know can make it go. A rookie mistake is to say, "I made no mistakes!...