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Design Decisions ~ The process.

 Raspberry Sundae Our ice cream sundae is a perfect metaphor for today's blog. If you love to homebrew, then you likely have a penchant for ice cream. Afterall, who in their right mind would turn down a taste of a Raspberry Sundae. But to take a bite, does involve a calculated decision. Afterall with the average age of our ham being way above 30 then it is not a simple decision as concerns for health such as lactose intolerance, adding to an already bulging waistline, cholesterol impacts and then there is that leaking filing that rapidly responds to sugar shock on the nerve endings. When you are 16, none of these issues matter for at that age it is YL's and not ice cream that are in the PFC (Pre-Frontal Cortex) and causes sensations in other parts of the anatomy. But those factors are in the process when it comes to a radical decision such as completely removing the analog VFO from the Project X radio and replacing it with some modern digital electronics. Let us ponder some of ...
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Arduino to the rescue!

With a bit of certainty, I am led to believe that the VFO in the Project X rig is inoperative. The Malocchio is in effect! Back at You! Getting the VFO assembly removed from the rig for repair is daunting, but getting the unit back into the rig is an even bigger, almost insurmountable task. The old axiom, when in doubt look to technology for a solution. Enter the Arduino with the Si5351 as the saving heroes. For some this has Italian roots found in the word "scandalous". While it would be cool to keep it original, it is an Analog VFO that has failed! I have upgraded many commercial radios and long ago faced that decision. The change over while not in the original plan does upgrade Project X to a rig with finer gradations on the frequency readout while also providing extreme frequency stability over the original which only held a 100 Hz drift for only 10 minutes.  Since Project X was intended primarily as a SSB rig, the original covered only the phone portions of the bands. We...
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The Evil Eye ~ In Italian, Malocchio!

With origins in what is today modern-day Iraq, the "evil eye" is a paranormal concept where the simple act of looking at something or someone causes a catastrophic event to happen. The look may be driven by greed, envy or simply being a nasty person. There is a long history surrounding the evil eye and it was so feared that merely telling a person that you were calling up the evil eye caused death in that person As a kid I remember my maternal grandmother (from Calabria) often talked about the "malocchio". Warding off the evil eye had remedies such as throwing salt over your shoulder or spitting in the wind without getting spit on you. There was even a hand gesture using the 1st and 4th finger to ward off the spell. (Is that a predecessor to the Middle Finger?)  Project X VFO Transistor Well, the malocchio hit the Project X transceiver project yesterday as it stopped receiving or transmitting. The problem was traced to the Local Oscillator (VFO) as right in the midd...
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ICE Raids on Laguna Rd in Camarillo, CA

Wow! Five miles from my QTH, ICE was busy this past Thursday rounding up some 200 illegal immigrants. The Centroid of this DHS action was Laguna Road in Camarillo, CA. ICE, note the tear gas masks. On Fridays I travel over Laguna Road on the way to visit the XYL at the cemetery in Oxnard.  This past Friday, yesterday, at about 8 AM, there appeared to be some ICE agents still hiding in the bushes or at least somebody in the bushes on Laguna Road (perhaps a CA reincarnation of Mary Jo vintage 2025).  This is close to home and scary. Where are we headed... seized and detained because of how you look or that you speak Spanish. What happened to probable cause and due process. But I do wonder who is feeding DHS, the pinpoint locations of where to use "Roundup". Shades of Russia where it is mandatory that you be a snitch.  There is a fascinating situation at the intersection of two roads quite near CSU Channel Islands, the purported reference in the Eagles song "Hotel Californi...
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The Mysteries Abound ~ Project X

A Partial Schematic  All the time you thought I was talking about Ham Fests, Slide Rules and Parts, you likely didn't suspect I was really working on Project X. Yes, it is receiving and even transmitting (at low levels as the Power Supply is still in work). But that only exposes more mysteries. The Receiver part is in need of a full alignment as some bands work far better than others. The Transmit part will be the head scratcher! Above is a partial schematic of the Carrier Oscillator and Balanced Modulator. As I describe the problem keep in mind this is also the Product Detector on Receive. This is a very common approach in these circuits of this vintage and even in current rigs (The SBE-33 and SBE-34 and the P3ST).  The 1st positive note is that it is a diode ring, as opposed to the two diodes often seen like in Bitx radios. It has two balance controls, the 1st being the carrier amplitude via the 500 Ohm pot which also is the injection point of the carrier signal. The second ...
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Hamfest Time

It has been literally a hundred years since I went to a Hamfest. I miss the pomp, circumstance and sheer adrenaline rush of finding some item that you thought had disappeared from existence. Summer is in full swing and time to find a Hamfest. For our UK friends the radio rallies are a 1st cousin to the US Hamfest. One of the best monthly Hamfests here in California was in the parking lot of TRW near LAX. If you didn't start shopping by 6AM, you would miss out on the good stuff. In the 1970's I went to a TRW event arriving prior to 6AM and at the 1st table I found one of those you will never find this ever deals. Some months earlier, I had purchased a used SBE-33 SSB transceiver which was in good shape but did not have the special and very rare DC to AC inverter that was sold to enable mobile operation. There it was and a $20 bill put my SBE-33 in the car operating 20M Mobile.  Today you could buy a suitable inverter for less than that $2o bill at You know where. What would I l...
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Break Glass in Case of Battery Failure

  16 Slide Rules in a Glass Case The Slide Rule is as old as dirt dating back to 1622 and invented by an English Clergyman and Mathematician named William  Oughtred. Any EE student of 1960's vintage, worth his salt, carried a K&E (In a Green Case) strapped to his belt... always at the ready. In the 1970's we saw the advent of the battery powered electronic calculator whose magic depended on those batteries not giving out at a critical time. The early Apollo astronauts carried slide rules. Three place accuracy on the slide rule could be achieved depending on how good you could squint... no batteries required. Many military weapons pre 1970 were designed using a slide rule.  So, it is with our wonderful hobby where using simple tools it is possible build highly capable equipment without having Claude (Some AI Avatar) lurking over your shoulder. Prior to 2021 AI was just a bulge in some guy's undershorts but today it will put you out of your job.  My sojourn with Pr...
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