AmateurRadio.com

March 1926 QST. Courtesy: ARRL

The year's premier operating event for '29-style transmitters (well pretty much the only one) is fast approaching. The Bruce Kelley QSO Party runs during the first two weekends of December and hopefully catches some good early winter conditions. In a preemptive attempt at eliminating my normal (and usually justified) pre-contest wind-angst, I have begun work on a small '29-style amplifier for my Hull Hartley oscillator.

Every year as contest time approaches, I anxiously follow our local weather patterns in hope that the winds remain quiet for the event. For the past few years, the wind has been non-existent...right until zero-hour, when, almost as if a switch were thrown, the wind ramps up to gale-like conditions. Now if you've never heard a self-excited oscillator directly connected to a wind-blown antenna, then be sure to take a listen to this year's BK. These '29 rigs are often not very pretty-sounding, even into a dummy load, but couple them to the wind and things get very 'nostalgic-sounding' quickly. Frequency shifts in the order of several hundred Hertz between letters are not uncommon, making copying a weak signal difficult and almost impossible if listening with a narrow filter. The amplifier will effectively isolate the effects of a shifting antenna impedance from the oscillator stage, making life very much less stressful, come BK time.

My plan is to follow the wisdom of the '29ers themselves, carefully explained in "More Power With Better Frequency Stability" by George Grammer and published in the February 1931 edition of QST. I'm always impressed at how quickly those folks back in the 20's figured out so many of the important "basics of radio" that have withstood the test of time. It must have been an exciting time to be a ham! A glance through any of the numerous  radio magazines from the late 20's and early 30's reveals a vibrant market for the homebrewer, with every type of component available. Whether the average ham could afford to buy them in the hungry-thirties is another question.

I've chosen to use another type '10' power triode as my amplifier, as shown below.

Courtesy: ARRL

I see the main challenges being coupling conveniently from the oscillator as well as neutralizing the triode amplifier...I wonder, will neutralizing it on 40m (for example) also make it stable on 80m?

As well, since the type '10' uses a directly-heated cathode, if I wish to let the oscillator run while I key the amplifier, a separate filament supply will be required for each tube. With this in mind, I've got the ball rolling this week with the construction of a dedicated '29 rig filament supply. The supply uses two center-tapped 5V transformers with their secondaries in series and brought out to the back panel. This will allow me to use tubes with 2.5V, 5V, 7.5V and 10V filaments...up to 3A.

New filament supply

The amplifier will be breadboarded, likely with mainly newer parts, to shake-out the circuit and see how it performs during this year's BK event. If things go well, I plan to rebuild the amplifier using '29-style components and physical layout...maybe a vertical panel that the Hartley can slide into.  Hopefully I'll get the breadboard version done in time for the Party.

Are you building or planning anything for this year's BK Party?
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Nice to see that SatNOGS won the hackaday prize this evening. A little sad that PortableSDR didn’t win as well. They both prove that Ham Radio is alive and kicking and has a very well rooted place in the 21st century……As if it was ever in doubt

 

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

The new Radio Communication Handbook 12th Edition arrived from the RSGB:

http://www.rsgbshop.org/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Technical_6.html#a1426

Certainly this has come a long way since I started in the hobby with the 5th Ed back in 1982. 

I  have always seemed to have received it for a present everytime it has been revised over the years. This year was a rare exception, I was able to use my £5 members discount voucher towards the cost of purchasing it myself, for an early Winter read.

The fundamental wheels of electronics is always covered very well, and seems much improved. With Chapters on the Principles, Passive Components, Semiconductors & Valves, The Building Blocks Oscillators, Mixers and Amps etc. Good information for those starting out on the radio road, and the novice who is underway, this is very much a must! Even the experienced like myself who would like to refer back to the basics over time if not sure, will find it contains all the invaluable stuff one is likely to ever need!

Like always, it covers HF Receivers, Transmitters, Propagation, Transmission lines, Antenna basics along with Practical HF, VHF/UHF Antennas, and Microwave RX & TX, enough information to get you clued up for any Amateur test. 

New content I have noticed in this edition is the Eamon Skelton EI9GQ Transceiver project, which featured in Radcom sometime ago. Here it is condensed into one chapter in abridged format, and is well worth the buy of the book alone! If you are interested in building a QRP transceiver, or something decent and uncomplicated that will work, by understanding the way he lays it all out in a simple format from stage to stage, this is certainly the section that one needs to read.

Also an excellent VLF chapter that also covers the new 472KHz allocation, along with a good Data & Computers in the shack section, including a small mention of the Raspberry PI & Arduino. Along with EMC & Power supplies, Morse Code, Test equipment, Construction & Workshop practice. 

There is so much packed into its 864 pages and I have only touched on a small part. But it is a great reference and addition to the Shack.   
  
This is the book that sets the benchmark and may be the only one you ever require!
Steve, G1KQH, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from England. Contact him at [email protected].

The following came from Mike Lisenco NY2BB, our ARRL Hudson Division Director:

Gordon "Gordo" West, WB6NOA, author, lecturer and creator of many Ham Radio study guides and related products will be in town this weekend and next week. 

He will be at KJI Electronics this weekend, where he will be holding Technician and General Class license review classes followed by an exam session.  Advanced registration is required as space is limited.  Go to www.kjielectronics.com for more information.

He is the scheduled guest speaker at the Suffolk County Radio Club Meeting on Tuesday, November 18 at 7:00 PM (Time change! From 8:00 PM to 7:00 PM!).  Guests are always welcome so feel free to attend:

Grace Lutheran Church
240 Mastic Road
Mastic Beach, NY

For more information, the club website is: http://suffolkcountyradioclub.net/

He will also be at the Great South Bay Amateur Radio Club on Thursday November 20th at 8:00 PM:

Babylon Town Hall
220 East Sunrise Highway
Lindenhurst, NY. 

Talk-in on the W2GSB repeater 146.685 MHz 110.9 HZ PL For more info go to the club website: http://www.gsbarc.org/

This information appears too good not to share - so I re-posted.

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].

It's time to dust-off that precious old Vibroplex, or any other type of bug, and give it a work out! The W6FSM Bug Roundup will take place on Saturday, November 15th at 1800Z through 0600Z on the 16th (10:00 AM to 10:00 PM Pacific Time)...a full 12 hours of old-time CW delight.

Sponsoring the event is the Samuel F. Morse Amateur Radio Club (W6SFM) of Sacramento, CA. Detailed information may be found at their website, located here.

The club page describes the event as :

"a special time to bring bug operators together on the air. In the same spirit as ARRL's Straight Key Night, participants are encouraged to make simple, conversational, “chewing-the-fat” QSOs using their bug type key. This is an opportunity to exercise, share and exhibit your personalized fist. This is NOT a contest. Call "CQ BR" so folks know you are a Bug Roundup Participant."

You may have guessed by now that I love CW and always have, since learning the 'code' as an eleven-year old in Scouts! Our Scoutmaster had procured several sets of beautiful boxed Aldis signalling lamps, the same as shown below:

Image Courtesy: http://www.museumoftechnology.org.uk

As it turned out, I was the only one in the group that stuck it out long enough to learn any code and was thusly appointed the 'chief operator' of the lamp. Unfortunately, learning the code visually with flashcards, made it even harder to later learn CW by sound as, for many months, I had to convert the sound of the CW back to the picture of it in my head, before identifying the letter...thankfully my brain was still empty enough at the time, that I was able to overcome the unintended curve-ball.

Our leader worked in the Marine Building, the tallest building at the time, in downtown Vancouver.

Marine Building circa 1947. Courtesy: http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/

The extra sets were distrubuted to several of the other local troops and numerous evenings were spent, at the very top of the building, working all of the other stations. It was usually cold and windy and most of the guys just wanted to go home but I loved it and could have stayed all night....it seems that there was little hope for me, even at that age! When it came to CW I was hooked and even today, almost 100% of my operating is on CW.

It nice to see events like this and the ARRL's "Straight Key Night" along with clubs like the, "SKCC" , "FISTS", "FOC" and "The CW Operators' Club", all doing their best to keep CW alive. Hopefully you will have some time to play in the 'BR' this weekend.
 

Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

I continue to be surprised by how few affordable QRP radios are on the market. The FT817ND continues to be the favourite, but recent exchange rate changes have not been matched by decent falls in the UK retail prices. I think we are still being ripped off by dealers in the UK. The IC703 is no longer made and the KX3 from Elecraft is very expensive over here. There are a few lower cost Chinese HF radios appearing. Overall, there remains little choice in QRP transceivers at sensible prices. I am sure the KX3 is a very good radio but for the same price I can buy 2 FT817 transceivers, and these are all mode and to 70cms.

A multi-band, all mode, 5-10W radio would be a killer in this age where people take lots of holidays and are on the move frequently. I still fail to understand why the big Japanese manufacturerers have not got a raft of low cost units on the market. It seems a gold mine opportunity is being wasted. Maybe I have misread the market?

I know if there was a new, attractively featured, QRP transceiver on the market now at a sensible price I’d be in the line to buy. I am sure very many others would be too.

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