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I like to build small electronics projects and like many others I have found the small Altoids tins to be excellent enclosures. 

These tins are inexpensive, well shielded, easy to work with, and least but not least they enable you to make experimental circuits that are sturdy enough that they can be reused later.

Pictured here is a collection of projects I have built over the years with the hope that  they may inspire others.

To the left:

• AVR Butterfly morse keyer (KD1JV)
• AVR Butterfly Digital SWR / Power Meter for low power transmitters (KD1JV). Actually this project was built in the slightly larger Whitman’s tin.

In the middle:

• 50 MHz to 14 MHz receive converter (WA3ENK) with a low-noise  preamplifier
• Pixie II QRPP transceiver for 30 m

To the right:

• 2 m/70 cm antenna diplexer (OH3MCK)
• Computer-powered VLF receiver

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Sverre Holm, LA3ZA, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Norway. Contact him at [email protected].

Here we are at Episode #090, just 10 away from the century mark. Things have been rolling along fairly smoothly, and except for Russ being deathly ill for the last eight days, there’s not even a lot to complain about. In this episode, we have yet another interview. This time it’s with John Hays, K7VE, of Northwest Digital Radio. These guys are producing an entirely new purpose-built radio platform called the UDR56K. This technology promises to be a great advance in the amateur radio arena as well as in the computing arena. It’s a bit of kit that’s going to find a use in almost every radio amateur’s shack. If you want to find out why, please sit down and take a listen to this episode of LHS. We promise you will not be disappointed.

73 de The LHS Guys

Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].

Here’s the finished digital SWR and power meter kit from Radio Kits that is being used by the Workington Amateur Radio Club as a bit of soldering and coil winding practice. Not the poor lining up of the LCD screen. Shame really as the soldering was one of my better bits and that’s going to be covered up. All in all a nice kit to put together, I’m no soldering super star and I took my time so instead of it bring an ‘evening’ kit it I’d more like a ‘weekender’.

Alex Hill, G7KSE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, UK. Contact him at [email protected].

Conditions have been good recently on 15m. On that band I have a choice of two antennas – the multiband dipole or the magnetic loop. The multiband dipole doesn’t actually have elements for 15m so on that band I think the 40m element must do the work. The K3 ATU is needed to produce a good match.

There is quite a big difference in performance between the two antennas on 15m. The magnetic loop, surprisingly, has a higher noise level but it also produces stronger signals on some stations. On other stations the dipole seems best. It’s a pity I don’t have a sub-receiver in the K3. It would be interesting to try diversity reception one day.

Amman, Jordan

Whenever a band is open you can usually find some PSK31 activity even if you can’t hear any phone. That was the case yesterday on 15 metres when I worked Nart, JY5IB from Amman, Jordan. That’s an all-time new country for me so I was very pleased to get him into the log. On this occasion it was the magnetic loop that did the job.

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].

I put together this somewhat short presentation on how I use the Elecraft P3 along with my K3 to help me snag contacts. As a matter of fact I believe most pan-adapters will accomplish what I am doing with the P3. Have a look see what you think and I hope it helps out with your hobby endeavors.



Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Listening to some QSOs on 30 and 40 Meters tonight, I have noticed an increasingly less usage of “DE”.

VERY often, I seem to be hearing (for instance) “W2WK W2LJ” instead of “W2WK DE W2LJ”.

Was “DE” tossed out the window?  Did I not receive the memo?  I know it’s gone by the wayside in contests. Lord knows, the hour and a half it takes to send two letters will really cut down on the ol’ QSO per Hour rate.  But in casual rag chews?

Call me a curmudgeon, call me old fashioned, but I’ll stop using “DE” when I stop using my rotary phone, my 5.5″ floppy disks, my Smith Corona typewriter and stop wearing my spats.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Dr. Bob Heil, K9EID, is the founder of Heil Sound and host of TWiT.tv's Ham Nation which streams live each Tuesday at 6:00pm PT (9:00pm ET) at http://live.twit.tv. Contact him at [email protected].