AmateurRadio.com

Stories you’ll find in the December, 2014 edition:

The Radio Rovers of the 1920s
By John Schneider W9FGH

Americans spent $60 million on radio sets and parts in 1922, and businessmen and hobbyists fed the radio craze by building hundreds of new broadcasting stations. Almost overnight, the radio spectrum was packed with signals from all around the country—the number of licensed stations went from 28 in January to 670 by the end of the year. But there were still many smaller cities and towns that did not yet have their own broadcast stations. To serve these cities a special class of “portable” station license was created.

Mystery Regenerative Radio
By Rich Post KB8TAD

Rich Post spotted a radio at an antique radio swap meet and was immediately drawn to it. From a distance, he thought it looked like a Lafayette Explor-Air KT-135 regenerative receiver. It used the same tubes as the Lafayette, but so did nearly all regenerative sets from the 1950s and 60s, including the Allied Knight-kit Space Spanner and the Heathkit GR-81. But who actually manufactured the set?

Testing Those Capacitors
By Rich Post KB8TAD

If you ask most radio restorers, what part or parts most often need replacement, they will answer “capacitors.” Rich has been repairing radios for over half a century, and, back in the day, often had to replace some of the capacitors. Now, those capacitors are often themselves a half-century or older. What could happen to that circuit if the capacitor was leaky or shorted? How likely is it to short? How can you test it to be sure?

Vint Hill Farms Cold War Museum Traces History of Cutting-edge Communications
By Cory Koral K2WV (Photos courtesy of Gary Morgan, Founding Member, The Cold War Museum)

Current simmering East-West tensions brings to many minds the Cold War era. At the center of electronic technology of that time was a sprawling top-secret complex in the Virginia countryside known as Vint Hill Farms, where the fine art of modern spying via HF and satellite was directed. Now, it’s a museum dedicated to remembering Cold War lessons.

Old-Time Radio Today
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR

What’s the point of having a restored vintage radio if all you can listen to are today’s ear-numbing AM talk shows? Now you can get the most out of your vintage radio by streaming the top shows of yesterday. Even if you don’t have an old-time radio you can get close to the same experience.

AmateurRadio.com Editor’s Note:
If you are a current subscriber to The Spectrum Monitor (or are interested in becoming one), don’t forget to sign up for your 2015 subscription.  It’s well worth $2/month to keep this great little publication “on the air”!

Ken Reitz, KS4ZR, is publisher and managing editor of The Spectrum Monitor. Contact him at [email protected].

See http://www.nevadaradio.co.uk/amateur-radio/transceivers/mobile-transceivers/alinco-dr-135dx-uk .

Nevada is selling Alinco multi-mode 28-29.7MHz radios on special deal at £99.95. For “export only” they can be expanded to also cover CB frequencies. Such expansion is not legal in the UK. At less than £100, this is a very good price for a 10m multi-mode rig.

I admit I “lifted” the original image from the Nevada website. As it was Javascript, I was unable to link, as I had wished, to the original images. If using this image on this blog is a problem, it will be immediately removed, although I hope Nevada see this as free publicity.

Roger Lapthorn, G3XBM, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cambridge, England.

Oleg Boradin who runs the small Russian QRP 72 Club has started his Blog recently to support the club:

http://qrp-club72.blogspot.ru/

Alternative server link:http://qrp-club72.blogspot.co.uk/


Some may know Oleg for his small QRP design the Micro 80 that featured in Sprat 72 (Autumn 92).  This is a very small and simple 80m CW Transceiver http://www.indianapolis.net/QRPp-I/micro-80.htm and is very easy to construct. A UK revised component circuit I found at:http://www.qsl.net/g3pto/micro80.html

Maybe worth thinking about if your starting out in the QRP route of Amateur Radio.
Steve, G1KQH, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from England. Contact him at [email protected].

Ham College is a show for those new to the hobby and those wishing to get into Amateur Radio. But us old guys should find it a good review and probably learn some things we missed (or forgot) the first time around. We’ll help you study for your Amateur license exam and cover topics to get you up to speed and having fun.

If the pilot turns out good and draws enough interest, this show will be coming in 2015.

George Thomas, W5JDX, is co-host of AmateurLogic.TV, an original amateur radio video program hosted by George Thomas (W5JDX), Tommy Martin (N5ZNO), Peter Berrett (VK3PB), and Emile Diodene (KE5QKR). Contact him at [email protected].

Ham College ‘The Pilot’ is now available for download.

Ham College is a show for those new to the hobby and those wishing to get into Amateur Radio. But us old guys should find it a good review and probably learn some things we missed (or forgot) the first time around. We’ll help you study for your Amateur license exam and cover topics to get you up to speed and having fun.
If the pilot turns out good and draws enough interest, this show will be coming in 2015.

1:06:30

Download
YouTube

George Thomas, W5JDX, is co-host of AmateurLogic.TV, an original amateur radio video program hosted by George Thomas (W5JDX), Tommy Martin (N5ZNO), Peter Berrett (VK3PB), and Emile Diodene (KE5QKR). Contact him at [email protected].

See http://www.qrpkits.com/bitx20a.html

If I was looking for a simple, reliable QRP SSB rig for HF use in the coming years then the Hendricks QRP Kits version of Ashlan Farhan’s BitX transceiver for 20m would be in the frame. They also do a version for 17m, but there is more chance of QSOs on 20m.  The rig has a useful 5W pep output and looks straightforward to build for most people. The Ashlan Farhan design is well proven. Going from 100W down to 5W is only just over a couple of S-points. 5W will get you plenty of QSOs on 20m SSB. 5W is fun.

A 10m version would be fun, but sadly is not available, but likely to be less useful in the years to come, apart from summertime Es. A 10m design would need better MOSFET PA devices anyway I think.

Roger Lapthorn, G3XBM, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cambridge, England.