N6QW -- Left Coast Radio

If you haven't caught on as yet -- there is a ton of homebrew projects being developed from VK/ZL land. Want proof of that statement, just visit VK3YE's You Tube Channel. A site worth visiting is from ZL2PD . There are many projects on his site which range from test gear to complete radios.   The above is an example from his website. This sure lets you see what is going on between the rig and the antenna. Bravo.  I also suggest getting a membership with the G-QRP Club and  receive the quarterly SPRAT publication which is chock full of useful radios/test gear.   A hallmark of this publication is that what is presented is typically not complex nor requires a home loan to undertake. Issue 200 is soon to be in the mailboxes. The ubiquitous and often cursed LM386 Audio Amp has been put under the microscope by LA3ZA . If you have ever done the homebrew mating dance, then most likely you have touched a LM386! The internet is a vast resource to peek into shacks the world over and have

Yesterday's posting about ZL2CTM sure must have struck more than a few chords given the higher than usual hits to this blog. While still a single data point, this signals the interest in SSB transceivers and perhaps looking at the work of others. Thanks to those of you who read the blog. Again, Charlie is a terrific resource -- like I said bookmark his blog site.  An SMD Bilateral IF Module using the Plessey Circuit   That said, ultimately a phase of your project entails the actual hardware build and that in turn involves the how you do it and finally the size of the build. I once saw a homebrew SSB transceiver built on a plank 10 inches wide by 4 feet long. That is a lot to lug up a summit while engaged in a SOTA weekend. Another consideration is that you may want to eventually build several variants of the project. By using two tools, CNC Milling and SMD hardware it is possible to 1) shrink down our circuits and 2) have PC Board repeatability. Whilst there are those who champion

Mark this call sign down, ZL2CTM! That call belongs to Charlie Morris a homebrewer extraordinaire. You must look at his blog where he designs a Simple SSB Transceiver . Charlie takes you step by step to design a simple SSB transceiver. A modular builder, his designs give you the excruciating detail about the individual modules. Check it out and yes, we have another offshore homebrewer. ZL2CTM's Strip Board Audio Amp: NE5534 + LM380 Charlie favors the use of Single Sided Copper Strip Board which facilitates rapid prototyping and something that is an alternative to the glued down (messy) Manhattan Squares. A 2N3904 IF Amp Stage from ZL2CTM The above IF Amp stage is designed right before your eyes on the blog and so it is more than a building experience -- it is a learning experience! Check it out! I have the pleasure of knowing Charlie and he is indeed an international ham radio homebrew resource. Charlie also has an extensive library of You Tube videos for your dining and dancing pl

  Peter, DK7IH , designed and built this Micro-20 SSB Transceiver. I believe it is about 220 cubic centimeters. One of my original shirt pocket 20M SSB transceivers was 16 cubic inches (2X2X4). But if you do the math that is 250 cubic centimeters so bigger than DK7IH's Gem. When you look at DK7IH's documentation, you quickly get a sense of a Sardine can chock full of Sardines. Bravo Peter! In a tip of the cap to DK7IH, Paul VK3HN, has created a design based in part on Peter's work and can be seen here. Bravo Paul! Thus, another diminutive (pocketsize) SSB & CW Homebrew Transceiver perfect for lugging up a very small hill and yelling CQ SOTA.  Thanks to the Internet we have homebrewers separated by maybe 10,000 miles sharing information and ideas. Their work, as I can attest, was more than a single weekend effort with Manhattan squares and pine boards. Their small size creates a whole plethora of problems ranging from unwanted circuit feedback, to heat effects and findin

Our mandatory "bait photo" ~ $35 for a 7" HDMI Display Those words were barked to a group of US Navy Midshipmen (me included) by Marine Drill Instructors just prior to a barracks inspection during a summer training cruise.  Space on a Navy ship is at premium and so personal items are rolled or folded to fit in very small lockers. As usual, the Navy prescribes what is folded and what is rolled. This is a prime example of getting your underwear tied in a knot.  Two Lockers Stacked The Saturday morning inspection reversal by the Marines had another purpose and that was to teach the art of adapting , improvising and overcoming an unexpected turn in the road. I never forgot that lesson and now it is just a part of my life. Whilst dabbling with the electrons it is just a part of the process. A variant is thinking out of the box.  Often, I will build a prototype and observe the knots and warts which are then addressed in the second build. The lesson, get it working properly 1

Instead of a "Guess Meter" I have been looking at the S Meter Signals coming from my SDR Software. The 1st question out of the Cracker Jack Box is the accuracy of what is being seen.  That also raises issues of any calibration and to what standard is being set for the measurements. I have long felt that an S Meter was a crutch to be able to say to the station on the other end well you are hardly moving the needle. Or the most venerable and cherished response: "you are so strong you're pinning the meter". In reality there is only one measure, and it is binary! You are either being heard, a 1, or I can't hear you, a 0. As with everything YMMV but unless calibrated and tested what you see on a panel meter or on a display is always suspect. That is why my binary approach may have some validity -- you are either a 1 or a 0! TYGNYBNT. 73's Pete N6QW S Meters and 50dB/9 So just what are S Meter readings, and I must quickly add the reading is highly dependent on

Most of the time when an Owner purchases a non-SDR commercial radio, the last thing to be considered is how many conversions are involved.  The quick look criteria for the purchaser is how does it sound, the power output, how many bells and whistles are included and if it is the most popular.  Everyone knows you are judged by the radio you are using. The more expensive the radio the more status you have in the greater ham community. Sadly, when you announce you are using a homebrew radio, the comment that follows: "Well it sounds OK for a homebrew radio". But for the homebrewer the choice of single, dual or multiple conversion suddenly becomes the burning question of the day. Quite obviously a single conversion likely involves less circuitry which translates into less cost. The less circuitry approach also sidesteps the issue of unwanted mixing products and at times can drive some innovative solutions.    At this point proponents of single versus dual conversion are on par wi

Holy Smokers it is now full swing back where every weekend is a stupid contest to gum up 20M. Of note yesterday around 7AM local time the Far East was booming through and lighting up my spectrum display on my HL2 SDR.  One call sign perked up my ears and that was a station looking for contacts from North America and whose call sign began with XV9. In perfect English this DX station was looking for contest contacts. In case you don't know the XV9 was from downtown Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon to us OTs). Wow, 60 years does change things. There were other Far East DX stations on as well like from Maylasia and Indonesia. One problem here at N6QW -- I had to QRT for my shift at the Board and Care facility, so I reluctantly pulled the Big Switch. Now something from Lauren Sanchez's boyfriend. It is a 10.7 MHz Crystal Band Pass Filter  Why this caught my eye was that I designed a similar circuit for use in my KWM-4 and used it as a roofing filter in one of the conversions. Mine used a +/

You certainly can hear it but with an SDR Radio you sure can see it. I was listening to 40M and saw a really wide signal and it was loud too!  This is a group that regularly occupies this frequency, and they are not speaking English so it may be hard to communicate to them to crank it back. Kind of obvious that they ride over any one close by! Their home seems to be 7.133MHz. Have you spot checked your transmitted signal to ensure it does not look like the photo above? Then again if you have a 5 in your call with last two of the suffix letters being AC then you want it like that! Yes, you can check your signal with the Internet SDR sites, for us on the left coast, like Half Moon Bay or up in Utah -- that is worth the exercise even if you are running a homebrew Analog VFO, old school radio. Regardless how we generate a signal it is our responsibility to ensure the bandwidth is way less than 20kHz for SSB and that it is clean. For me I can use my HL2 SDR with a short length of snoop ante

  A Big Grumble this morning! A personal experience from my brief time on the air yesterday. A station on 20M was calling CQ and had a bit of a pileup. I responded with my call, and he said QW go ahead. A station from 5 land with a 20kHz wide over driven signal who's last two letters were AC jumps in and starts yakking. AC is not even close to QW and basically, I was stepped on. I have an inkling as to his political sway but basically not a good operator and totally inconsiderate. He is an affront to the tenets of our beloved hobby. May his coax fail and he blows his final! But in a glass half full a reminder to us all about on the air courtesy and the need for each of us to practice civility. I understand that on hackaday today there is featured a simple SDR circuit. Take a look. With a bit of rearranging, it can be made into a transceiver. Now for the mandatory required photo so readers will look at this blog. An example of a QST project. I hope he didn't build it like shown

A staple of the WWII submarine movies, that command by the Captain or OOD was so that the literally blind submersed submarine could assess the physical situation on the surface. For us hams we should "up periscope" when it comes to our station equipment and antennas. That is where having a SDR radio is a great "up periscope". Even if I will be operating a homebrew rig or old boat anchor, the SDR lets me see the whole band to get a snapshot view of the band activity in literally real time.  Yes, you could take your non-SDR radio and tune up and down the band and that would yield a small snippet in 2.7 kHz chunks. But it would be hard to look at the whole band activity in one view using this approach. Your Nano VNA likely would not help but the Tiny SA would certainly give a larger view of the band activity.  There are those who would posit who cares about total band activity. This is on par with the old blind date axiom, and you get what you get. When I was the OIC o

We will now start a discourse about antenna tuners, a subject that rivals our current nationwide polarization over political candidates and political parties.   In the end it will boil down to just a few thousand votes. So, to those few hams who will decide, I make my case for antenna tuners. Firstly, why antenna tuners? Well to start with, our transmitters like to be matched to the load. You know that 50 Ohm thing. Matching theory says the maximum power will be transferred from the source to the load when there is a match. Along the way hidden in the bushes is harmonic suppression and reduction of possible damage to your final transistors caused by a mismatch. In theory an antenna designed specifically to be at the operating frequency and presenting that magic 50 Ohm load can be directly connected to your transmitter and all is right with the world! Few antennas meet that criteria over a whole band of operation let alone multiple bands. That is where, as hams, we get greedy and want t

It is with great delight and personal experience that I present the ZL Special a two-element beam antenna that traces its roots to New Zealand. A tip of the cap to our friends in ZL land for being ahead of the curve while being frugal. The year was 1982 and I had just moved my family to St Louis to start a new job. The XYL was very pregnant with our 4th child, and we moved into a large home that despite a healthy downpayment still would tax my resources.  I wanted a beam but had to do it on the cheap. The answer was a ZL Special Wire Beam antenna that used aluminum tubing and bamboo for the support elements. The electrical radiating part was 450 Ohm Ladder Line duct taped to the bamboo. Keep in mind the now currently popular Hex Beam antenna is a two-element wire beam. The boom   structure sketched below was made from 2X2's to keep the weight down.    Two element beams have amazing properties but always must be carefully evaluated. The Forward Gain is not 13 dB (like a Rhombic) no

Ahh Labor Day, the last day before back to school, the closing of many summer venues, the transition to snow tires and changing the anti-freeze in your car. Don't forget to PM the snow blower. Last but not least and somewhat sadly, the YL's move from the mostly see through tank tops to bulky warm sweaters that hide everything.  But that also signals two months of political ad nauseum ads and TV essentially a 24/7 blitz of messages that say vote for me. Good thing we have ham radio as a safe harbor.  A blog reader from the UK has been integrating tubes and transistors into a common circuit capable of spurting RF into the ionosphere. Bravo! Undaunted by the naysayers who only think Tubes or Transistors but not in the same circuit, he has pressed on and so a tip of the cap to him. His next project is the Rx side.  It can be done! Take this next two months and challenge yourself to come up with a nifty project like this -- and soon you will be thinking Turkey Day is here. TYGNYBNT!

Reliving the past with a rig of old. Celebrating Labor Day 2024 with a rig not unlike the full figured Mary Jo in the back seat of the 57 VW Beetle. The KWM-1 and the 57 Beetle were manufactured in the same year. I noted in the video a high-pitched whine and a lot of noise. I could not find the DSP or Noise Reduction buttons or menus (there are none)  and this gives a view of what it was like 67 years ago to operate SSB straight out of the bottle. Evidently, I was heard OK at the other end.  Did anyone notice the drift correction? The rig was just turned on and things we expect and take for granted today were not available in the late 50's. Keep in mind in one small box was a 100-watt globe spanning transmitter and receiver which was a seismic shift forward along the technology continuum. One of the 1250 KWM-1's ended up in a U2 Spy plane shot down over Russia. TYGNYBNT 73's Pete N6QW