Skip to main content

New Technology for 2020 ~ A Return To Crystal Sets...

 Crystal Sets, Is That What You Said?

In the 1950's living outside of Pittsburgh I was fortunate to have some very high powered AM radio stations close by namely KDKA. This early pioneering radio station had a 50KW transmitter and was "Clear Channel". Bottom line a simple crystal set with a modest antenna could hear KDKA. I had a crystal set and an exposed bed spring antenna provided many hours of enjoyment. No Crystal set was complete without a pair of Brush headphones. I am a side sleeper and to this day one of my ears (the one one the side facing down)  is slightly bent from an earphone constantly pressing on that  ear.

It was an an amazing time for me as I did not have a kit crystal set but one that I actually homebrewed myself. So it is today that there are many new radios, totally driven by technology, that are like those crystal sets of old. 

Sparse on hardware but driven by software. There is a "hot on fire" new SDR radio that is enjoying viral trending status and that is the uSDX. Costing less than $100 in parts it will change the face of ham radio.

Guido PEINNZ, started with the low cost QCX, CW Transceiver from QRP-Labs which by itself is around $60 and repurposed that hardware into a multi-mode, multi-band 5 watt SDR Transceiver. The rest is history with history being made on a daily basis. The Big Guns of ham radio are more than dipping their toes in these waters.

I predict by Christmas we will be seeing full built radios coming from China (maybe Wuhan) and the price point would be in the $100 to $150 range. I am also suggesting this is the new Bitx type radio with a lot more Bells and Whistles.

Yes simple crystal sets, now simple SDR rigs.

73's
Pete N6QW

Popular posts from this blog

January 26, 2024. A simple CW Transceiver/Transmitter

Cruise through the lower part of the ham bands bands and what do you hear? Well, FT-8 and CW. Often you will not hear any SSB stations yet go to the lower part of the bands, and it is a cacophony (I love that word) of bad sounding signals and some high-speed keying. Fast is not so much of the issue as is bad, run together and jerky keying. But none the less our hobby started there.    So, you could crank down your ICOM 7300 and watch the waterfall on CW or you could homebrew a radio. Actually, to do CW right you need more thought up front than you do with a SSB transceiver. Often, I will state that a CW Transceiver is much more difficult to build than a simple SSB rig. I published two articles in QRP Quarterly on CW transceivers and all I got was a yawn so maybe history will repeat itself.  Yawn!   30M CW Transceiver with RIT!   Of interest is that the LO is a Varactor tuned LC oscillator using a NE602. Look closely at the RIT circuit which is only activated on ...
Read more

March 31, 2024. Happy Easter to those who celebrate this day.

What a great day to Binge on Chocolate and experience the pain of that filling that has been leaking.  I would be in that category with the leaking filling(s) had I not just spent an amount equivalent to one of the fancy new uptown appliance box transceivers on two filling repairs. Well at least I can binge on the Chocolate bunnies without fear of pain. Regrettably everything appears to have jumped in price including the price of parts. Well not so much the parts as the shipping costs.  That notably is seen in the eBay treasures. I spotted a nice heathkit DX-20 for about $50 and the shipping was $65. Likely it is a twofer with part being a way to in effect charge a higher price by inflating the shipping and in part by increased shipping costs. Shipping with insurance across the US was about $150 for this jewel and that was three years ago. 6AM on the Left Coast ~ 20M Easter Sunday! My only hope is the cost of Chocolate Bunnies remains steady although a pound of See's Candies f...
Read more

August 30, 2024. A PNP 20M SSB Transceiver

Shown below is the Block Diagram for the 20M PNP SSB Transceiver steered in the  Transmit Mode . The components shown in the dotted block are relay steered so that the block module is single pass and amplifies in a single direction. The Block diagram show steered in Transmit.  Essentially the steering process works so that the IF Module input follows the Balanced Modulator on Transmit and then the input side follows the Receive Mixer on Receive. All done with some relays and a bit of RG174U coax. For those who count things in detail, this block diagram is not unlike what was used for the PSSST Transceiver which can be found on my website . Yes, a warmed over P3ST only using PNP devices. TYGNYBNT. 73's Pete N6QW
Read more