Left Coast Political Scene

We just passed an important milestone and was just curious if you have heard anything important? Discount yesterday's ho hum news. May is the month for the Dayton Hamvention and being kind of away from mainstream ham radio stuff -- what's up? It been two weeks since it was held and there seems to be a radio silence. The one and only time I went to Dayton, FLEX Radio had a small booth with a laptop connected to a black box and I could see this was going to be big time stuff. So, any new rigs being showcased? Any new innovative stuff being displayed? How was the flea market? If I were dreaming about a month ago and pondering an expectation list my dream sheet would be like the following. A US made real SDR radio with 15 watts output for less than $300. A test instrument to rival the Nano VNA that really works and is not vapor ware. A 100 MHz DSO for $199.95 A 13.8 VDC, 5 Amp Linear Power Supply for $35. A small form factor Single Board Computer at 2.0 GHz with 8GB RAM for $45. A ...

Another of my Boat Anchors, the FT dx 100.  This is a truly remarkable radio given it is vintage dating to 1967 and likely a test market radio for its sibling the FT-101.  BTW I think somewhere near 250K FT-101's were built. I have one of those as well. This radio has been on You Tube previously but I thought it time to make another video of the FT dx 100. I am impressed with what they could do with Germanium transistors. Also, impressive is the Linear Reading and Highly Stable Analog VFO. I think this same VFO was employed in the FT-101.  The Crystal Filter frequency is not unlike that of the HealthKit's at 3.180Mhz (Heathkit = 3.395MHz). A caution for would be homebrewer's thinking about single conversion transceivers using these filters. The harmonics of the BFO or VFO are very close to the range of the Band Pass Filter. Think Double Conversion. The panel layout with S Meter and VFO Dial Scale is common to many of the Yaesu offerings.  The radio is a bit weak on t...

Yes, today is filler content day and this time it is about buying a radio. Snooze time! So, you were not born in the Pittsburgh area thus failing to receive a heavy dose of the toxic chemicals found in the drinking water and in the air. I attribute those vicious chemicals acting as a catalyst to spark innovation, creativity and pushing the leading edge. Thus, lacking those poison effects instead of homebrewing a rig you buy one. Xiegu G1M There is an allure to going to an outdoor park, setting up a painter pole dipole with a small radio attached and thence shouting POTA CQ POTA, Parks on the Air. The side benefits include actually getting outdoors and the endless possibilities for meeting YL's, after all Ham Radio is indeed a Chick Magnet. So, moving to reality and setting a goal of $200 what would you buy for a rig? It seems like that number ($200) has become the "bar level" of what is hawked on eBay. Lots of junk, old and NIB, at that price point.  But what do you buy? ...

The MMIC (Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit) is an excellent vehicle to represent the overall homebrew process from the Idea to the Design to the Finished result. So, this posting is about a process and not so much about MMIC's specifically. Several Blog postings ago I showcased a Bilateral MMIC Amplifier stage used in a SSB Transceiver and likely there are many blog readers who would like to "know" more before building one. It all started over 15 years ago when I spotted a piece about MMIC Amplifiers. It might have occurred with something unrelated like hunting for packaged Double Balanced Mixers and a trip to the Mini Circuits website. It was an experience much like a kid in the candy store!  While searching for SBL-1's I spotted the MAR line of MMIC devices. That info was tucked away in the grey matter. My brain is warped and several 3 AM Brain  Awakening Realizations ( BAR) said Pete you need to look more at MMIC's.  Also, the craze at that time were bil...

Memorial Day Observance today. Local time 7 AM and I just hoisted my flag and unlike one Supreme Court Justice, it is flying in the proper direction. A solemn time to remember those who gave their lives for our freedom.  One Memorial Day I will never forget and that was in 1965 at Chu Lai in South Vietnam. I had a concern that I would ever celebrate another Memorial Day. Here we are some 60 years later, and I consider myself indeed fortunate. Has my famous saying been hijacked? This captioned photo would lead you to believe that. The crass suggestion here is that it does involve something more than homebrewing Ham Radio projects. I guess someone is claiming Freedom of Speech. [As of Sunday (5/26), Logbook Of The World has been down for 12 days. That can't be good for the ARRL. Wonder when it will once again be  the resource for documenting QSO's. Maybe it is connected to some sort of ransomware. ] I was presented with an observation regarding my published works and what I buil...

In my active marketing of my building skills I often say when you know stuff you can do stuff. This Blog and my several Websites show the after state with some really clever ideas that have been shared. But you have to have the knowing part of the equation from the outset and when everything goes south. Here is an example where the final product basically stinks ! So now the knowing part has to be challenged as to why it is subpar. What do you think? All ideas are good as a starting place but most never satisfy the smell test. Here is one of those that failed. 73's Pete N6QW

Following along with K7TFC's MAR6+SM board announcement, I had almost forgotten that the Peashooter Radio uses the MMIC Amplifier blocks. The Micro-20 also uses a bilateral MMIC Block. [BTW I just checked the LOTW status, and it is still down! That must be one serious hack as this is now heading towards 11 days without that service. Field Day is about a month away and that is the next big hurdle. Hmmm, just thinking those paper QSL cards are in a box somewhere in the storage locker.] Proof they exist!   Does Your MMIC Sound like this?   MMIC IF Stages Relay Steered There was a time when I did have time to play with the electrons, but now, I can only think back to projects of the past.  There is not tomorrow but only today! So, sign up for K7TFC's newsletter and watch for the boards for the MAR6+SM and build yourself a MMIC transceiver. Remember, they are inherently TIA. Happy homebrewing! 73's Pete N6QW

 Bi-Lateral MMIC Module Todd, K7TFC in his recently published Newsletter announced work being done on providing a board that will house the MAR6+SM MMIC device. The beauty of that jewel is the low Noise Figure of 2.3dB, gain to 2GHz, rated at 20dB and 50 Ohms in/out thus termination insensitive! I n 2010, I published my very 1st QRP Quarterly article which involved a 20M SSB Transceiver employing six MMIC devices in a bi-lateral configuration. 20M MMIC Based SSB Transceiver For me having a 1st published article this was huge, but more importantly it proved the viability of the MMIC devices as a building block for homebrew ham rigs. Below is a you tube video. The rig worked great but the Varactor tuned VFO was crap. The published article had a Si-570 PLL and I have never looked back.  The Surface Mount issue some 15 years ago was a pox on more widespread duplication of this project. A bridge too far and how many hams have a CNC machine in their garage? The 20M rig used the AG-3...

  The LOTW has been down for 8 Days. Is the ARRL being held up for Ransom? For those who belong to the ARRL, sounds like your membership fees may soon see a huge spike. This is a follow-on post to yesterday's blog entry about the modules and boards available from Todd, K7TFC . 20M HB SSB Transceiver Of note this is a two VFO, two Filter SSB radio on 20M . The VFO's have memory and it puts out 5 watts. I was thinking of the array of K7TFC's modules and how the modules in this radio could be directly replaced with the stuff available from K7TFC. The ADE-1's for the RxTX Mixer and the PD/BM The J310DGM seen in the video The W3NQN LPF I used the Plessey Amp, but the TIA boards are a drop in I used two filters but easy to convert to one filter from Todd. Mine has an Arduino/Si5351 bit the Xiao RP2040 Board would work FB My audio amp is the 2N3904/LM386, but the new audio amp board is a drop in. K7TFC's op-amp board could become the Mic Amp Lots of possibilities for the...

Todd, K7TFC has dropped a new issue of his newsletter and if you are into homebrewing then this is a must see. newsletter There are many new products that cover the realm from Circuit Modules to Circuit Protection and finally Test/Measurement tools.  A General-Purpose Audio Amp The above audio amp module is for those who must see all the components to consider anything as homebrew and who loathe the idea of using a LM-386 or LM-383 or LM-380. G3URR Test Oscillator. Following along is the G3URR test oscillator for evaluating crystals prior to fabricating a homebrew crystal filter. This oscillator is like the gold standard for crystal evaluations. There are also some boards he showcased that are in development including this one for the W3NQN Low Pass Filters. LPF Boards What K7TFC has done is to select an array of modules and tools that are current technology and made it in a form (Boards) that can be easily integrated into your project. I can shout all day long about the capab...

Many hams frequently forget that their station is a "system" comprised of major elements. These elements include the Rig, the Operator and the Antenna. The hierarchy places the most emphasis on the Rig with the Antenna not given much thought. [Our forgotten element!] Today's posting started with a trip down the old rabbit hole.  I subscribe to just a few reflectors including Ten Tec and SWAN. I have several radios each from these two categories. So, it was a bit of a surprise to see on the Ten Tec reflector that they had a booth at Dayton. I thought they had folded their tent and were just a name from the past. That led to a trip further down the hole to the Ten Tec website. Something caught me completely off guard which was a product evidently introduced in 2023. This photo leaves you in the dark a bit, but the product is a continuously tunable Dipole, where the dipole length is adjusted to the operating frequency. Think of the StepIR, only this is a dipole whose length ...

Today's Blog posting is an admixture of several subjects, but they all have a relevance to our beloved hobby. The ARRL was Cyberattacked and essentially put the Logbook of the World out of business. I also believe the attack impacted their email systems where lots of hams use the ARRL for communications outside of on the air contacts. I heard about this on the air yesterday and sit here astounded, amused and amazed.  This event conjures all sorts of questions like why did it happen? Was it to spite the shift by ARRL to digital delivery of QST? If the ARRL systems were attacked that could impact the digital delivery system. Was it for financial gain i.e. held for ransom? Is there more than meets the eye beyond denial of service in that personal data like your credit card info was stolen? Was the ARRL caught with their antenna exposed? One must also ask what security ARRL had for their Computer System(s). Was it regularly tested for any potential breaches? As advanced technically tha...

I have an extremely limited time budget and when something that appears as a mystery (eating into that time) it creates a sense of terrible frustration. I had such events over the past couple of days. All of us have seen the phenomena where you connect the antenna, and the atmospheric noise is present. Disconnect the antenna and the noise goes away. In fact, that is a simple test once you have homebrewed a rig to see if the receiver is working even when the band appears totally dead. I have also noted that when connecting the coax cable that when the center pin 1st hits the connector lots of signal but upon full engagement you only hear the band signals for that band. At times with the Arduino and no antenna connected you faintly hear the clock noise as the code cycles through the loop. Connect the antenna and magically that faint noise disappears.  Now the tale of woe. Using the Ten Tec 150A described earlier on this blog, with the antenna connected I could hear the Arduino and co...

With a price point of about $250 you would think this is like hitting the lottery. Any blog readers have one of these? This is the Xiegu G106C currently being sold at various places for about $250. Two reviews of this radio are bipolar ranging from very negative to very positive comments. That sure makes it hard to make any informed purchase decision.  Certainly, at a price point of 25% of an ICOM IC-7300 it has to have some compromises like QRP power levels and not all of the whistles and bells. So, while the price is highly attractive are you wasting precious resources. That is where taking your time to fully evaluate the product is job #1. You also need to evaluate the evaluator. Do the reviews cover the functionality of the radio and its attributes including the warts. Or is it just a rant following a bad purchase decision. For $250 my take is it should not be the main station radio. But for something for use in the field where it is occasionally operated then that is a differe...

Any blog readers own one of these jewels? It is the uSDX, an Arduino + Si5351 driven SDR transceiver.  This particular unit was hand built by me about 3 years ago. At that time, buying a bare PC Board and hand stuffing it was the only option. Now kits and finished units abound. Much like the Nano VNA prices are all over the place and many clones are evident. Another critical Nano VNA connection many of the variants simply don't work. Amazon sells various units at varying prices. The original SDX work was done by Hans Summers and piggy backing off of that effort DL2MAN (Manuel) and PE1NNZ (Guido) did a lot of work to provide many features and of course SSB and CW capabilities resulting in the (tr) uSDX. Their offering is about $140 at Amazon who is one of the official sellers of the (tr) uSDX.  These two hams now offer a unit which is a 5-band unit. Many of the clone units being sold are 8 Band units. Missing is 15 -- 10M on the (tr) uSDX There are some amazing innovations in t...

Today's topic is a Conversion of the Hallicrafters FPM-300, a 1970's Hybrid Transceiver into an all solid state QRP Transceiver.   The Original FP M-300 Long story short about 7 years ago (maybe 9 years) I bought a deal on eBay -- a Hallicrafters FPM-300. That deal turned into a nightmare! The Original FPM-300 was marginal -- the unit I bought was beyond fixing. It drifted, it oscillated, and the rubber band switch assembly kept getting out of sync. [There was a rubber band toothed drive belt that when you engaged the band switch controlled several switches.] Think of the crappy dial string mechanism on the S-38E. In desperation I pulled the solid-state main board and S Meter and sold everything else -- net loss was $20. Not willing to let well enough alone, I designed a QRP Rig around the Main Board and S Meter. This is what we are showcasing today. Yes, this is an older project, but I thought in light of the Matchbox Transceiver episode on the recent hackaday this is right in...

  Could a Hackaday Lurker pull this off? I have always had penchant for Ten Tec Radios and when I spotted a Ten Tec Model 150A commercial radio an idea came to mind. Why couldn't this 8 Channel, 2-12 MHz SSB/CW transceiver be modified for the lower ham bands? I found one on eBay and the cost was $99. Heck if it was a bust the parts alone would be worth $99. This is not a project where you can simply heat up the iron and solder a few parts and you are there. It is a project where you need the manual, and you need to understand how the radio was designed and intended to work. The stock 150A covered 2-12MHz with a 12MHz IF and operated USB. The BFO/Carrier Oscillator was at a fixed frequency and to add LSB requires a second filter. Drake (and others) did this in the TR-3/TR-4. I could not find the LSB filter so with a bit of Arduino/Si5351 magic I was able to use a single filter. I ran across a ham who worked at Kachina and he had a set of 16MHz USB/LSB filters which he suggested usin...