SCE was at it again yesterday with the PSPS BS. My power was off from 9 AM yesterday until about 2 AM today. This is getting really stale. It is nice to sit here with my oatmeal and hot coffee.
I did find out something interesting, well lots of interesting things with the power shutdown. All of the power feeds are given names and some of the names leave you wondering about who did the naming. One feed is named Hooligan (mine) and a really uptown neighborhood close by is named HotStuff.
This is not unlike when I had my computer business and would install the Microsoft operating system which required an activation code. After a few system installations I swear a ham was picking the codes as I could see call signs embedded within the activation code. Microsoft must have employed a random number generator using the ham call signs as a database. It was too consistent to be a random event.
I failed to mention in yesterday's posting on how to build things the genesis of the N6QW Konstruction Korner. This has a direct tie-in with the SolderSmoke Podcast #256 (On YouTube) and with several other recent postings like the MMIC based Bilateral Circuit.
About 16 years ago I saw a trend in some really new technology that could be lifted for use on homebrew ham gear. My 1st QRP Quarterly article was a result. The "new technology" stuff was an extensive use of MMIC amplifiers, 4 pairs of two and CNC Milled circuit boards. Initially the rig had a VTO (drifted like hell) and that later was replaced with a Si571 kit from K5BCQ.
20M MMIC SSB Transceiver
Several other articles followed in short order which then came round to can I buy circuit boards from you and hey how about a BOM with Digi-key and/or Mouser so I can just order all of the parts. How about making a kit of parts. Thus, a problem surfaced 16 years ago and now even worse. Many would be wannabe be homebrewers simply wanted to go from 0 to 100 mph in ZERO time.
The shift to kits with Circuit Boards made in China is driven by hey I just want to say I homebrewed a rig. No, you didn't homebrew anything -- you built a kit! The thrust of this post is to highlight that homebrewing involves a hell of a lot more that stuffing some Chinese made circuit board.
Up until the time I published the 20M MMIC transceiver project, I do not believe I had seen such an extensive use of MMIC amplifiers in a project. I also learned a vital lesson -- analog VFO's suck! The final version of the MMIC that was on the Cover of QQ had a Digital LO and I have never looked back.
The how to stuff a junk box was actually an article in QQ by me. I came up with that list based upon two factors, the first of which is to see that over and over again the same parts show up in circuits like the 2N3904 and 2N2222 and of course the IRF510. Lest I forget the LM386 the NE602 and 40673. The second factor was to purpose design circuits with common value parts. For instance, a Bias resistor of 750 Ohms, a value that is a standard value but not seen as much as an 820 Ohm. So, we used 820 Ohms which is within 10% of the 750 Ohm.
The Let's Build Something series of QQ articles was based upon standard values that appeared throughout the design and were minimized so that by using a small range of values/components you could build the whole transceiver. That carried over to the P3ST design that uses five 2N2222A's, one 2N2219A and one IRF510.
Many new homebrewers have a toolbox that contains a flashlight, a screwdriver and a pair of Harbor Freight lineman's pliers. That won't get you very far. So, two handy pieces of test gear were shown on the link. One is a crystal test oscillator, and another is an RF probe. The RF probe is designed not so much for accuracy but to show the presence of RF and to give a relative magnitude of signals. Like the signal going into an amp is X and the output is 5X so the gain is 20*log (5) = 14dB gain. If you have a homebrew crystal filter one of the outlier crystals can be a signal source to check the filter and even the product detector. It can even serve as a temporary BFO signal source.
If you simply skipped over the link, go back to yesterday's post and take a look. Check out this tool that appears in the link for holding down SMD parts while you weld away. This is not my design but looks like it is made from plumbing parts.
Them that know can make it go!
73's
Pete N6QW