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Fun at 10 GHz and a Licensing Restructuring Proposal.

  Intro to 10GHz Operation Our Two idea Title is joined at the hip. Does anyone really know the real reason for establishing the Technician Class license. Well, it all had to do with encouraging experimentation at the higher frequencies, beyond HF. To not encumber these adventurers the original test requirements were the Novice Code test (5 WPM) and the General Class Theory and Regulations. The starting spectrum was 6 Meters. At one time you could hold both the Novice and Technician Class Licenses simultaneously. (I did and was issued KN3IXU and K3IXU simultaneously). Almost exactly 1/2 of the total US Ham population are Technician Class. It is doubtful that any significant percentage of those 375K US hams know anything technical. Sure, they can probably program their Baofeng UV35R but that is not really technical. Their license is the lane of 10 GHz experimentation as was the intent of this class of license. Today on 40M, I was reading the mail on a net where many of those partici...
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The Yaesu FTdx100 the forerunner of the FT-101 SSB/CW Transceiver.

FTdx100 From Yaesu  Yesterday we covered the Yaesu FT-101 and I mentioned owning its predecessor the FTdx100. The you tube video gives you a close-up peek at that earlier radio. About 15 years ago I bought a FTdx100 for $34 on eBay and it was molested and lacked a case. But employing my usual N6QW magic I got it working. You can see that earlier rig HERE . Several hams, worldwide, have contacted me to tell me this link is one of the most detailed pieces of info on the radio. Do not know if that is true but it took some time to prepare that documentation. Sadly that $34 radio was given away when we had to make an emergency move back to CA in 2013. About 4 years ago, I spotted another FTdx100, in Canada, that looked in really good shape. I went for it since I had real experience in repairing the radio and with shipping, I paid 10X what I paid for the 1st one.  I found you could buy a set of NIB matched finals (6JM6) for $25 and have a set, so no home loans needed this round....
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The Best Ever SSB/CW Transceiver of the 1970's

The "Best Ever" SSB/CW Transceiver of the early 1970's was the Yaesu FT-101. It was a shack in the box, and it had the distinction of being the leading radio sold worldwide at that time. It was the ICOM IC7300 of that era. My FT-101EE The FT-101 was a Hybrid design featuring only three tubes and the rest solid state. One thing you don't want to do today is smoke the driver tube, a special version of the 12BY7 and the finals which are 6JS6C's. You will need a home loan to purchase a replacement set. I acquired this radio as a tech special as there was no power output. Five minutes' worth of work and it was fixed. There was an RF choke in the screen circuit to the final amplifier tubes... it was open and thus no screen voltage. The frequency stability and dial linearity are amazing for 1970. This is one of the best Analog VFO's ever. Friends N2CQR and KK4DAS have used the VFO module from the FT series in their homebrew rig projects.  Many of the FT-101 serie...
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JABOM, a design and construction project from N6QW.

Nearly 15 years ago, I experienced a very creative period designing and building unique SSB and CW transceivers. Most of this work was published in QRP Quarterly. About 10 years ago I had a serious disagreement with QRP Quarterly leadership, and I no longer submit any work to them.  One of those very successful projects was the JABOM, which is an acronym for Just A Bunch Of Modules. This radio went through a series of modifications where initially using a 4.9152 MHz homebrew 4 pole Crystal Filter it was set up for two band operation.  To bypass the use of a band switch, I connected circuits such as the Mixers, BPF and LPF to Pin Headers. Three pin headers connected via manual pin jumpers set the two bands, 20 and 17M. The HYCAS IF stage, AGC and S Meter circuitry was hand built and was a lift from W7ZOI. Surely our 45-minute Extra knows all about HYCAS.  I was disappointed in the performance of the homebrew filter and ripped it out and replaced it with an 8 pole 9MHz comm...
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The US Amateur Radio Licensing requirements MUST be changed!

I am bristling over the thought that a person who has no prior license and/or knowledge of amateur radio in the span of 45 minutes can go from no license to an Amateur Extra Class License. That is like giving a baby a loaded gun. Shame on the ARRL for doing that! Imagine a person who takes the State Boards for Medical Doctor and passes without having any practical experience as an intern and he or she is going to service you. The original licensing process recognized that hams need to learn about the hobby through a practicum that awarded privileges based on time in the trenches. The Novice license was only good for one year and then you had to move on. But in that year the Novice had to learn about the hobby and in essence was doing penitential service.  I was a Novice for three months and then took and passed the General Exam taken before an FCC examiner, where I had to demonstrate Morse code proficiency and pass a regulation and technical based exam. Ditto for the Extra Cla...
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More N6QW Radios

Yet another amazing creation as found in the storage boxes. N6QW Operating his homebrew CW rig circa 2026. (I bet our 45-minute Extra Class YL couldn't build this rig) More QRP Radios from N6QW   The small size of this radio was achieved through the use of MMIC SMD devices and a bit of circuit steering. The typical 9 MHz filter and the IRF510 final topology. The Black and White OLED keeps the size of the display to a minimum. The smart phone camera is fast enough to pick up the refresh of the display. To the naked eye the display does not flicker nor show missing information. There was no sign of the dreaded OLED noise in the receiver. BTW the CW transmitter in the N6QW shack photo (dimly lit garage) actually looks like this. This is a 2 tube CW transmitter with a 6AG7 Crystal Oscillator followed by a 6L6GT Final. With about 450VDC on the Plate of the 6L6GT, I see over 20 watts to the antenna on 40M. The output is a Pi Network using an Iron Powered Core (T-68-2) for the tank circui...
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Would you believe...

  A VEC in Idaho, contacted me following yesterday's posting and it seems a YL there passed the Tech, General and Extra, all in the span of 45 minutes. So that sounds like the record. Hopefully today she is the Chief Designer at a US Manufacturer of SDR Ham Gear. Congratulations for the accomplishment. More radios I found stashed away and our feature for today has an interesting pedigree and history. About 10 years ago myself and KK6FUT, now AI6YR, created a multipart project and several articles for QRP Quarterly. The project was called LBS... Let's Build Something. The project started as a 40M DCR and evolved into a complete 40M SSB transceiver. Subsequently I built a stand-alone version for 20M that extensively used SMD components. This last element of the project involved a very complex engineering solution... read on! This design was hailed as a DifX... something different than a Bitx and advanced features like a 10 second 988Hz Pulsed Tone for tune up and small size for p...
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