SolderSmoke Podcast #261 dated August 7, 2025 discussed rich topic areas for hams worldwide. Coexisting in that podcast were the terms Numbskull and NIMCEL.
A Numbskull is a derisive term literally meaning a person whose brain has gone into hibernation whereas a NIMCEL is an acronym coined by the New York Times which means Niche Internet Micro Celebrity. A NIMCEL often is a Tik Tok or You Tube star with a following whose claim to fame is Cat Videos or demonstrations of how to unclog your toilet.
The mere fact that I participate in the podcasts and soon will celebrate close to 100 podcasts puts me in the NIMCEL target bullseye and my daily forays into smoked parts and release of magic smoke certainly suggests Numbskull.
Yesterday was a partial Numbskull Day as I finished wiring up the 20M Digital LO / BFO. I counted the wrong number of pins on the underside of the prototype board and a wire wrap connection was put on a wrong pin. It didn't smoke but it didn't work! The circuit would boot up but kept resetting. Yes, I did do a wiring check initially but made the same mistake in the counting error.
Now in my defense the ESP32 VROOM does not sequentially number the pins like on the Arduino. The sequential numbering could be like 18, 2, 5, 21, 17. You get the drift.
Proof of Life!
About two more times through the wire list and I found the error and the unit is now working. But still an issue remains.
On one pin (Pin 25) I designate this as the Sideband Select pin and previously, I simply had the display change to USB or LSB. That worked on the display but did not actually change the BFO frequency.
Then I hit upon an idea to show the actual value to be loaded into the sketch and those two numbers exist in only one place in the sketch. Bottom Line engage the switch and load this number into the sketch, and upon disengagement load this number. Once loaded, show the number on the display. In my numbskull this was full proof it worked!
Well that partially worked as you see the BFO actual value change on the display but not in real life. I know how to do this with the Arduino, but the ESP32 proves I am a numbskull.
In a prior blog posting I identified what I thought were two critical areas in a SSB transceiver those being the Balanced Modulator and the Product Detector. I have to homebrew the Balanced Modulator transformer and am starting with a 455KHz IF transformer that has two windings.
There are two issues with this mod, one is moving the frequency up to 3.395 MHz (about 1/8 the windings) and two how to mount the transformer on a 1/16-inch aluminum plate. The chassis plate is 12X12 inches.
My plan is to CNC mill out a 1.125 inch by 1.125 inch copper PCB as a mounting plate for the transformer and then mount this adapter plate to the aluminum chassis plate.
Turn off Alexa and reduce your digital footprint as you know who is watching you.
Them that know can make things go.
73's
Pete N6QW