Left Coast Political Scene

Friends and colleagues, Bill, N2CQR and Dean, KK4DAS, developed a Direct Conversion Receiver project that was featured in "hackaday" and the subject of a local High School STEM type project. Actress Terry Moore (now 96) Read about her in Wikipedia If you have listened to or watched on You Tube the SolderSmoke Podcasts #254 and #255 then you know this has been the subject of a challenge to another podcast group and to the ham community in general. Dean, KK4DAS in January is sponsoring a 4-week Zoom Buildathon to construct the DCR. W7ZOI Original DCR Circa 1968 The N2CQR/KK4DAS DCR designs builds upon the FOAM concept championed by Farhan, VU2ESE. FOAM is an acronym for the four parts of the DCR: Filter, Oscillator, Amplifier and Mixer. See if you can spot the FOAM pieces in the W7ZOI design? Because Bill and Dean know stuff, if you follow along, you will be able to do stuff. But I opine that just building the DCR while it adds to your knowledge base and provides a deep sense o...

Sandra Bullock is one of my favorite actresses and one of her movies ends with a bit of a wish for "world peace"! Indeed, a great thought that as of today is not in clear focus in the foreseeable future. There is just not the appetite around the world to work cooperatively and if anything, it is every man for himself.  That was clearly demonstrated here in the USA just a month ago. Bad decisions any time, any place, and in any venue are difficult if not impossible to undo. There is no reset button for those who make bad decisions! But a really good decision is to take our hobby back to its core foundation where ham operators would actually build things. There is both the learning aspect and the satisfaction aspect, and the end result is something useful.  It doesn't have to be a self-designed SDR transceiver but something as simple as a dipole antenna or perhaps a Stockton Bridge SWR meter. Avoid kits as there is just about zero learning with a kit other than how to unbox...

With Christmas but 5 days away, my thoughts have turned to homebrewing special dishes traditionally served only at this time of year. Speaking of traditions, we had one at my home when I was growing up.  The tradition was that on my birthday (December 18) the Christmas tree would be decorated followed by a birthday party. For a birthday cake my mom would serve Zuppe Inglese. Literally translated Zuppe Inglese means English Soup -- but it is so much more than that description. So here is my mother's version of Zuppe Inglese. You start with four layers of white cake. Each layer is liberally soaked in rum and between the layers is vanilla cream pudding. The outside is covered in real whipped cream and topped with Maraschino Cherries. The cake must be made 24 hours in advance of consumption so that the rum flavoring fully permeates the cake.  A variant likely developed to solve a problem. One traditional Italian cookie is known as Biscotti (the root of the word biscuit). Believe i...

Yesterday was my birthday and I suspect Brad Pitt had a much better time celebrating than I did on our shared birthday. But I did buy myself a small cake with the requisite one candle and thanked God for still being alive That said I did receive birthday wishes from as far away as Bangalore, India, a couple from the UK, one each from Australia and Italy and a bunch from the USA. It was nice to be remembered. In two weeks, it will be 2025 and three weeks after that, a new administration will be running the United States. There are troubling signs of what the next four years will be like here.  Clearly already there are words of retribution and revenge mixed with individuals in key positions who clearly lack the experience. But you who voted for this option are now stuck with the results. One must ask what have you done? There are now less than five weeks to buy that new rig from the Far East before the price impacts commence from the new tariffs. 73's Pete N6QW

Friend N2CQR posted my KWM-2 Power Switch Fix on an Antique Radio Forum and of course that prompted a posting (possibly from the resident blog police person) that in essence said that is not the way to do it. The blog poster also mentioned something about using relays in the 516F-2 power supply. In truth, the relay in the power supply is a better solution and now I will show you how that is done. But what the blog poster police person forgot is that to enable the relay in the power supply you still need a working switch in the KWM2 or 2A. So, step #1 fixes the switch and step #2 installs the relay. The theory of the relay has as its roots in what is called the Motor Start Circuit . If you want to start a 50HP motor, you do not use a toggle switch in line with the motor. But what you do is to use the toggle switch to control the field coil of a 50HP rated contactor (fancy name for a really big relay) where our field coil draws hundreds of milliamps while the contactor pulls in the curre...

Things show up on my phone especially when I search through You Tube. One of the recent videos to appear on the screen was "Spy Radios" from WWII. Generally speaking, we might see these as pretty crude in comparison to what we have today. Often these radios were simple two tube regenerative receivers (6SK7) and a one tube transmitter (6V6). One of the more famous of these spy radios is the Paraset shown below.  Developed by the British SAS, it is officially known as the Whaddon MK VII. Often the array of items above were packed into what looks like a beat-up leather suitcase so it could be easily concealed and transported. The name "Paraset" came from the fact these were air dropped with the spies behind enemy lines. Power could be supplied from the mains or a 6VDC car battery using a Vibrator power supply.  Surprisingly it is a two-band rig covering the 80 and 40M bands and with a 6V6 transmitting tube (Crystal Controlled) you could get 5 or 6 watts from the Parase...