“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.
Jean Shepherd WOR, W9QWN, K2ORS
Teenage Homebrew Disappointment: The Herring Aid Five -- More on this later….
Fast Forward to 1993. Dominican Republic. The Michigan Mighty Mite “JOO!”
Dominican Republic: Homebrew Transmitter “VXO-Controlled 6 Watter”
Back in Virginia – Barebones Super-Het “Station is homebrew”
Out to the Azores – DOUBLE Sideband •
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.
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 one of your sidebands!”
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.
BITX in a Box (a wood box from Michael’s)
Frequency Readout – Old or New
Other BITX rigs – BITX20, uBITX, DIGI-TIA
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.
38 Years Later… I finally got it to work.
Some Tips On Homebrewing….
Start small – Don’t jump straight into a big SSB transceiver project • .
View rigs as collections of sub-circuits. Focus on these circuits.
Take Shep’s Approach: Strive to UNDERSTAND the circuits you build.
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.
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.
Join forces with like-minded builders – near and far. Dex ZL2DEX: Pete Juliano, N6QW
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.
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/
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