Radio Reinvention

My Homebrew Designs and Home Built Radios are better than an ICOM 7300! Hams are being victimized by the equipment manufacturers. There must be a cabal among the offshore ham radio manufacturers to gouge us for their products.  In the US those who are making antennas seem to have caught on. How can a simple commercial dipole cost over $100. The average ham radio operator, many of whom are too lazy to build things, simply pay the price. Thus, the high prices prevail, and those manufacturers are counting on your laziness. I have designed and built over 50 homebrew SSB transceivers (some even do CW). They range from a simple 7 transistor rig to a very complex implementation of a Solid-State version of the Collins KWM2. Here is a not often seen N6QW design, a CW rig. The designs were good enough to become published articles in well-known journals. A CW XCVR with Analog VFO! The reason my designs are better is that they don't rip you off like what happens with the commercial r...

Who would have thought a 65-year-old radio could do FT-8? This is like Pacino and DeNiro having kids past their 70's! (It has to be in the Italian genes!) FT-8 with a Collins KWM-1 S/N 954 One has to ask if Gene Senti (Father of the KWM-1) was Italian? 73's Pete N6QW

An impact to Ham Radio Mobile Operation! Update 6-27-2023. Good Luck Waltine Nauta in your indictment hearing. Waltine, you can only hope you are not left holding the bag (of crap). Based on some info from a blog reader whose sandbox involves issues like the AM radio removal the following is offered: The AM Radio availability is part of our national defense -- you know Conelrad. Now known as the EMB. (Emergency Broadcast System) The issue is more from the EV to the AM radio. The DC Motors used in the EV's are like having a 1KW Spark Gap transmitter sitting on top of the radio. The fix is so expensive that the manufacturers say just eliminate it .  The MAGA Lawyers argued having the AM radios removed impinges on their 1st Amendment rights to hear the Trump Talk from the conservative AM Talk Shows. ****** As quoted from a conversation heard twice removed from a slightly soused (inebriated) ham on 75 meters with a 4 call. It seems like VW, BMW, Tesla, and Rivian will no long...

What to do when you can't do Ham Radio? 1986 Solid State Design for The Radio Amateur ARRL Transmitters Receivers 9780872590403 | eBay Now bidding on eBay Update June 25th, 2023. Trump's buddy and idol, Putin, has been labeled as "WEAK"! The update says it all and that is a key point! Update June 24th. Putin, Trump's Buddy, has a problem. Who would have thought that someone could really challenge Vladmir Putin? Most who have done so have mysteriously fallen out of 9th story hotel rooms. (A standard remedy for any dissident in Russia.) But today someone has called Putin's bluff and Russia is in turmoil. This is not unlike Jack Smith calling Trump's bluff less the tanks and private army. The Putin/Challenger tussle is not over -- keep looking at all 9 story hotels in Byelorussia for any falling objects resembling bodies. Once we pass through the Trump Circus where there is a good chance of his being found guilty based on the evidence, what will the likes of ...

Our Hobby is Dying! Update 6/21/2023. ARRL Field Day. Field Day is soon upon us and what no better way to celebrate our Hobby than to Boycott the ARRL sponsored event.  Once upon a time Field Day was a critical event in our national defense as it provided a backup communications system in the event of some disaster. Now Elon Musk, Cell Phones and the Internet have filled that role. Think about it, at max only half of the US Hams have HF privileges, and the other half are trying to program their $35 Baofeng's.  But now it is an ARRL event aimed at selling you an appliance box you absolutely don't need just so you can play Field Day! The premise is that you will smoke that new rig on a portable generator which will result in you buying more new gear to replace the gear you don't need. This caper is designed to support the Far East Offshore Radio Manufacturers who represent the advertising base of the ARRL.  Hams need to stand tall and show the Newington Mafia how the cow at...

Boat  Anchor Sale! June 15th, Update. Just in case you forgot about Mary Jo in the back seat of the 57 VW Beetle. While I have built many homebrew transceivers, I also have indulged in purchasing some (many) old boat anchors. But now I find given the health of the XYL, it is time to thin the herd. There just isn't enough time to be a caregiver and be involved with ham radio. The boat anchors which I soon will be offering, will be deeply discounted and therefore sold as "for parts or for restoration" with no guarantee nor can be returned. Because of shipping costs, sales will be limited to the continental US and no foreign sales. Pricing includes SHIPPING ! All sales FINAL . PayPal is the method of payment. The items will include radios from Drake, Swan, Ten Tec, National Radio, SBE, Tempo 1, Hallicrafters, Heathkit, WRL and Collins. Most of these radios have not been powered on for some time thus the deep discount  and no guarantee to work out of the box. Cons...

  Some famous people who were ham operators. The XYL, who is in the hospital, has been watching movies on her portable DVD player. Some of her favorite movies include: the King and I, West Side Story, South Pacific, Pillow Talk, The Sound of Music, Yours, Mine, and Ours, Hello Dolly and Five Pennies. Yes, virtually all of the stars are now SK's.  But what caught my attention were two guys whose names appear in the credits. Those names are Ernie Lehman and Mel Shavelson, and you will see their names as the Director, Producer or Screen Writer. I think Lehman has 6 Academy Award nominations. But aside from their day jobs both were active hams. Lehman's call was K6DXK and Shavelson's was W6VLH. Both are SK's. Shavelson made a movie starring Kirk Douglas and John Wayne called Cast a Giant Shadow, with most of the movie shot in Israel. Shavelson chronicled the movie in a book entitled "How to make a Jewish Movie".  Part of the book describes how he set up his ham...