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“Rig here is homebrew”
The Joys and Sorrows of Building your own Rigs. And some tips for the daring.
“Electrically Inclined”
Grandma’s light timer… Clearly, I had THE KNACK.
Rig here is homebrew The Joys and Sorrows of Building your own Rigs. - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Rig here is homebrew The Joys and Sorrows of Building your own Rigs. - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Rig here is homebrew The Joys and Sorrows of Building your own Rigs. And some tips for the daring. Electrically Inclined Grandmas light timer Clearly, I had THE KNACK. Jean Shepherd WOR, W9QWN, K2ORS Teenage Homebrew
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Jean Shepherd WOR, W9QWN, K2ORS
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Teenage Homebrew Disappointment: The Herring Aid Five -- More on this later….
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Fast Forward to 1993. Dominican Republic. The Michigan Mighty Mite “JOO!”
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Dominican Republic: Homebrew Transmitter “VXO-Controlled 6 Watter”
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Back in Virginia – Barebones Super-Het “Station is homebrew”
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Out to the Azores – DOUBLE Sideband
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17 Meter DSB Fun in the Azores
- “Hey, you are on the wrong sideband OM!
17 meter is UPPER sideband.” I would tell them I was transmitting BOTH sidebands. I would tell them to hit the LSB button on their rigs and they would hear me just the same.
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SINGLE Sideband Transmitter
- Inspired by an article in SPRAT
- Parts from a Dominican Republic Swan 240
- Panel meter from the Crystal Radio Club 1973
- “Hey Bill, something is wrong – you’ve LOST
- ne of your sidebands!”
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Back in the USA – The BITX Transceivers
- Bi-Directional Transceiver
- Designed by Farhan VU2ESE
- No un-obtanium – Nylon Washer Coils
- Homebrew crystal filters
- Cheap. Five Bucks.
- I used “Manhattan” style construction.
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BITX in a Box (a wood box from Michael’s)
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Frequency Readout – Old or New
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Other BITX rigs – BITX20, uBITX, DIGI-TIA
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Back to my teenage failure…. Herring Aid 5
- Tried again in 2014 (38 years later)
- STILL couldn’t do it.
- From afar, ZL2DEX spotted something
- I had wound the oscillator coil wrong. TWICE!
- Shortcomings in the QST article. And errors.
- But in 2014 I had more knowledge, books,
test gear, AND THE INTERNET.
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38 Years Later… I finally got it to work.
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Some Tips On Homebrewing….
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Start small – Don’t jump straight into a big SSB transceiver project
- .
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View rigs as collections of sub-circuits. Focus on these circuits.
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Take Shep’s Approach: Strive to UNDERSTAND the circuits you build.
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Be patient. This is NOT plug and play radio.
This isn’t easy. For every moment of joy, there is a tale of woe. Don’t pull your hair out. Take it easy. Take a break. Take a walk around the block. Shep’s bad date story.
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As you build rigs, also build your library, your workbench and your parts supply (junk box).
- No single book is going to provide all the answers.
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Join forces with like-minded builders – near and far.
Dex ZL2DEX: Pete Juliano, N6QW
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SolderSmoke
“I listened to the magic that only comes from a radio that you built yourself.” In that one sentence Ian Abbot described the feeling that can arise in the midst of a room full of solder smoke, and the reward that awaits those who build their own gear.
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Some links
SolderSmoke blog: http://soldersmoke.blogspot.com SolderSmoke Twitter: @soldersmoke SolderSmoke Podcast archive: http://soldersmoke.com SolderSmoke YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/M0HBR Jean Shepherd on SolderSmoke: http://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/search/label/Jean%20Shepherd Many of my simple rigs: http://www.gadgeteer.us/