Pay More and Get Less. Flash the Cash!

[I did get the 64-Bit version of the R Pi5 to work with QUISK. No explanation for the initial difficulty. Great signal reports running 3 watts (35V PTP).] Believe it or not there is power in data and sometimes we ignore that data and the results are not good. Today we will talk about data and why we are misled. I watch my blog data and find it fascinating that some blog posts simply resonate with the readers while others fall flat on their "arse". So, having data is not an end in itself but it is what you do with the data that really counts. My recent posts about homebrew SDR are a good example where the viewing is tepid at best and the one about the new zBitx from VU2ESE was highly viewed. Both are SDR yet the disparity in hits is 5 times for the zBitx versus my homebrew SDR radio. So, time for an analysis as to the why the difference. The 1st may be a trust issue. Yesterday I was looking for a service on the internet and I immediately passed by anything with a less than 4 o...

First things first with a bit of info on the world of other electronic news. Bill, N2CQR and Dean, KK4DAS have hit beyond the mark with their SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver Project as "proof of life" units have been seen around the world. In a biblical sense, they have taught hams how to fish. Bravo guys!  Every venture has a starting place and their DCR is a great vehicle to begin that journey. With a successful project the quest begins for bigger and better and that opens the door to the universe. (Like may be a HB SDR which is nothing more than two DCR's in Quadrature.) Well, I now have a Raspberry Pi5 working on the homebrew, SDR transceiver. It was not plug and play and a few hiccups along the way. Generically the problems were mechanical and software. The RPi5 needs 5.1 VDC at 5 amps which in simple terms means you need a heat sink -- with a fan.  If you follow the 40-pin header at the top of the RPi5 and just behind the top two USB ports you see a small whi...

Stop, as there is nothing of radio interest in today's posting. So just click off to another radio blog. But you should read this as what I am posting is just too coincidental to be something other than what is really is happening. Person of Interest was a five season TV program that aired over 10 years ago. It is currently on Amazon Prime. Thematically a couple of billionaire nerds build a supercomputer that supposedly spies on all things world over and sell it to the US Govt for $1. The premise is KASA (Keep America Safe Again). You can see it now as some departments in the government use it for other purposes. Basically, we are all being surveilled in this show. Essentially it is AI on steroids. With binge watching it will take over 100 hours to watch all five seasons. Fast forward to today and now one person (Mr. Tesla) can do that same action. No longer are your tax returns kept secret. He can look at them. Mr. Health will now tell you what you can and cannot eat. Education w...

If you are still homebrewing using analog form factors and through hole components here is but more evidence, you need to move forward to SDR and surface mount. The really big guns and illuminati are already there! Meet the Tiny 10 from W7PUA, Bob Larkin, a co-author of EMRFD. Out of the depths of the Silicon Forest, W7PUA has created a 10 Band, 10-Watt SDR transceiver which is described here .  I was put on to this amazing project by a blog reader also named Pete. There is more to the Silicon Forest connection with this rig aside from W7PUA and that is the use of the Teensy 4.1 MCU and SGTL5000 codec from PJRC also located in Oregon. With absolute due credit to Charlie Morris ZL2CTM, more than five years ago he developed a SDR SSB transceiver using the Teensy 3.5 and the same Codec. I built two versions, and these two devices will indeed generate and decode SSB and CW signals.  Larkin cites some work in progress, and I did find that on very strong signals you can faintly hea...

I have been dabbling with electronics since the early 1950's, where at age 10, I was struck by the awesome power of a single CK722 germanium transistor. There were those who shouted from the roof tops: these will never replace vacuum tubes. Well, they did. Throughout my 66 years as a licensed ham since 1959, I was witness to the many changes in our rigs all driven by advancing technologies. Now the move is from analog to digital, from conventional topologies to SDR. While it may be fun to build a crystal set or an all-discrete component analog DCR, the advantages of an SDR are astounding, which of course is mostly software based and less hardware dependent. Several years ago, I built a homebrew SDR transceiver that at its core is nothing more than a pair of bi-directional Direct Conversion devices operating in quadrature -- even that is a topology from the 1950's only better as the 90-degree phase shift is very stable and precise owning to digital electronics.  This arrangement...

  I try not to watch or listen to the news as quite frankly it's not good for my blood pressure.  Lost in the translation are some basic human behaviors that govern how employees react or perform in a job. Threatening or intimidating employees is a sure-fire recipe for the informal organization to strike back. You all know the tricks where the hot request is put on the bottom of the pile, or a small piece of information is omitted that delays an action. Many jobs are poorly designed from the outset and the employee is just following a deliberate written process. I had a front row seat in such an event. In the late 1960's I started working for the McDonnell Douglas Corporation on the DC-10 program at Long Beach. I worked in the facilities organization supporting the Engineering Labs. Prior to this job I did the same sort of task at Boeing on the 747 program.  It was an exciting job as my first task was to put together a huge buy package of hardware needed to support the en...

My time is limited these days as I write this at 4AM. I often get emails, and I really try hard to be responsive for requests for information. In one email I received yesterday, the text read " Send me the code and the schematics." Nothing more and no other clues. I sent a blistering response to the effect that while I have successfully built over 55 different SSB Transceivers one thing I have not mastered was mind reading. Often these requests come from offshore with English being a second language. But that is no excuse for not adding just a few more words like P3ST or the MC1496 DCR.  I also suspect this individual is a "wannabe homebrewer" with little skill in building a SSB transceiver. He thinks having the code and full schematic will make up for the deficit of actually knowing how to fabricate an SSB transceiver. In many ways it is rocket science to put a rig together and have it move beyond well it kind of works. BTW I don't do full schematics as everyth...

 The zBitx , a 5-watt QRP all band SSB / CW transceiver can be had for $178 including Shipping and PayPal fees. Since it comes from India, it may have escaped what's his name terrible tariff. The   zBitx is fully built and tested and is battery operated and the bonus is that it uses the same software suite as its big brother, the sBitx. For those who are uncertain about software downloads it comes pre-loaded with FT-8, FlDigi plus a host of other apps and advertised that it shines like a beacon on CW. Being battery operated it is a bonus for the POTA, SOTA gang. Size: 156mm x 80mm x 35mm (including the battery case) Weight: 415 grams including two LiPo batteries Display: 480×320 resistive touch screen display with an independent Raspberry Pico front panel controller. Software: Fully open sourced and available on https://github.com/afarhan Hardware: Hybrid superhet, open source circuit with full description Frequency Coverage: All international ham bands from 80M to 10M P...

  Signs of Cognitive Dissonance Everyone experiences cognitive dissonance to some degree but that doesn't mean that it is always easy to recognize. Some signs that what you are feeling might be related to dissonance include: Feeling uncomfortable before doing something or  making a decision Trying to justify or  rationalize a decision  you've made or action you have taken Feeling embarrassed or ashamed about something you've done and trying to hide your actions from other people Experiencing guilt or  regret  about something you've done in the past Doing things because of social pressure or a  fear of missing out (FOMO) , even if it wasn't something you wanted to do CD is also known as "after buyer blues". You bought that new Chinese appliance box only to find out you have Spurs and RF Feedback in spades, But more folks are suffering from CD these days not because of radios bought, but because of who they voted for in the last election. What, you are c...

https://archive.org/details/SolidStateDesignForTheRadioAmateur1986/page/n3/mode/2up

False Alarm! I am not about to start a Podcast so let that be known. I also will not be a regular contributor on any podcast. On a recent shift at the XYL's Board and Care home, as she was napping, and I was sitting beside her I thought about the substance of a starting a new podcast. Much like a new homebrewer how do you even start such an adventure My formal training in marketing suddenly kicked in by asking what the market segment is. The classic marketing approach considers the 4P's: Product, Price, Promotion and Place. To be successful in marketing a product, each of the 4P's needs some "beef on the bone". A Marketers pitfall is to use his personal likes to answer the 4P's -- but the marketer's personal views don't count. It's the market segment who sets the stage for the 4P's. The first question so you can "beef up" the Product aspect, you must ask what do hams do? According to the IARU hams do operating and contests. (No mentio...

The idiom "beating a dead horse" is a common term across the world but what does it mean? A trip to the internet suggests the following explanation: To waste an effort on something when there is no chance of success. Those who are Democrats should internalize that phrase and rethink the next four years. That guy has you by the cojones and there is no letting go. The chaos and path of destruction is just starting! Don't get mad but get even by playing smart and laying a foundation for the 2026 and 2028 elections. This approach bypasses trying to do a tit for tat on a daily basis. Besides by being silent and in a stealth mode will raise his paranoia level about the hidden state. For those with bravado and large cojones who think simply buying four crystals and a handful of 68pF caps and hoping by simply connecting those parts will result in a superb four pole filter you are beating a dead horse. What exemplifies not beating the dead horse is getting smart and that entails l...

In the last SolderSmoke Podcast I participated in the subject of Homebrew Versus Kits was covered. One aspect discussed in that session was the totally built homebrew everything. Certainly, to be able to say ALL homebrew would be a high-water mark. However, there is a huge chasm between something barely working to something that comes close to a commercial element built on a production line. Homebrew elements like LC VFO's, DBM's and Crystal Filters fall in this chasm.  A seasoned homebrew veteran has no qualms about saying homebrew the LC VFO, the DBM and the Crystal Filter. This veteran says DON'T given that this may be a first venture into homebrewing and the first time building something more than a Michigan Mighty Mite. Now, to defend my position on those elements and along the way I will provide a solution to those new to the art. Creating that huge gap is tribal knowledge.  The Double Balanced Mixer is first up and remember I don't use Single Balanced Mixers. In ...