N6QW -- Left Coast Radio

Check the GQRP Club You Tube Channel as all of the videos from the September 4th and 5th Virtual Convention are now open. BUT start here with the N6QW Presentation on Valves and Tubes. So, OK a Shameless Plug for Pete N6QW!

You have less than 30 Days before it is 2022. So, what is headed down your bench for a New Year Project? Now here is a ham station likely 1950's (as noted by the thin pin stripe tie). No FUT (Fat Ugly Tie) parties for this guy. BUT he is a WIMP --who drinks a cold 807 from a glass? But that also is a sign of another time -- he is being served by his XYL. When was the last time your XYL brought you a "brewski"? Makes you also think why a major beer supplier would pick ham radio as a link to their product. If you think back to that time likely the US Population was around 180 million with maybe 1 million hams. That is a target market of 0.55% which is small. But that may also signify --hams drink a lot of beer, especially those using 75 Meters. So maybe while the percentage of the population is small, that group may be large in terms of consumption. My thoughts about 2022 projects include a tube transceiver with a Si5351 so we can be on frequency and NOT drift! The Vester R

  It was suggested I write a book about ham radio and the impact on my family. This Post is brought to you to recognize the person who keeps asking for circuit boards for my projects and is proud of this bit of homebrew that he accomplished. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=5OVJApHEONU Well as to my writing a book, that sure as hell would never happen as it would likely be pretty boring. But since I did get that suggestion what I will do is share two stories that may tickle a funny bone or two. From 1963 to 1967 I was in the US Navy Civil Engineer Corps. That happened because the US Navy was building LF radios stations to talk with the Nukes. There were some choice locations such as Jim Creek, Washington, Bar Harbor, Maine and of course NW Cape in Australia. So having an amateur radio license and BSEE was a plus. I never got one of those choice assignments. (In comparison to Chu Lai and Da Nang) In 1966 I met my wife and after a tour on Midway (no women) and NMCB 10 in S

  A Time Long Ago, Things Were Different. As a homebrewer (starting back in the early 1950's with a CK722 transistor) I find that today we have lost an important insight into what we do. I didn't; but many have. Gone is the quest to learn new things and to strike out on our own. Frequent emails to me ask where is the circuit board or send me the Gerber Files. That gives rise to several questions. So why do you need a circuit board and  Why can't you design one yourself? The same applies to Arduino Sketches and Code. Typically, most rigs are not totally dependent on just one set of software to run the radio. The problem maybe is that to write code, one would really have to know something beyond asking for the circuit board. I really don't have any special radio skills. But what I do have is some processes to attack problems and processes to approach a new radio project.  I call it noodling and there is a lot of research that I do up front. The last thing I do is to turn

  Have you heard of Donut Dollies? What are you thinking? This is not a device or tool to carry donuts! But for those who served in Vietnam it is like saying to a modern ham -- I used my Nano VNA and there would be instant communication. So, OK Donut Dollies were YL's who were part of the American Red Cross and served 'in country" and their role was to boost morale by serving donuts to the service personnel stationed there.  At Chu Lai I did indeed see some Donut Dollies in mid-1965. That said, the YL's must have been sampling the product for it was soon obvious a few pounds had been gained. But nonetheless they were pleasant and made living in a foxhole and eating C Rations a bit more tolerable. BTW guys, C Rations were predecessors to MRE's. After about 4 months we shifted to B Rations. This is where a whole chicken comes inside a can and no matter how you cooked the chicken it tasted like the can! I learned of a real delicacy at that time. It is a sandwich that

 Something New May Be Something Old! In case you haven't noticed we have moved past The French Mistress. This brings us to the realization of the meaning of the heading. I have been on a quest to find an article authored by Ben Vester, W3TLN (SK) in June 1959 which featured a homebrew 15M Mobile SSB Transceiver. My main interest in finding this article was the use of 6AK5 tubes in several sockets. This article also appeared in one of the ARRL SSB Manuals. I have the manual but where it may be located in my home is only known to God. [It was in June 1959 when my two licenses arrived from the FCC KN3IXU, Novice and K3IXU, Technician.] I posted the article want on my Equipment Exchange and sure enough a ham in Germany sent me the link and in exchange I sent him the code for the PSSST_20. Such a deal! When I looked at the article --Boom something hit me smack dab right in the middle of the forehead. See if you can spot it? So, OK you missed it -- Vester used a Single Pass IF System whe