Jim Wades, WB8SIW, International President of the Morse Telegraph Club, posted a link to this video on the slowspeedwire Yahoo Group. He writes:
This video is just too good. Both land line and radiotelegraphers will enjoy this immensely. Sounders in resonators, early teleprinters, NZ HRO receiver copies, mercury vapor rectifier tubes, shortwave transmitters, a great view of the Queen Mary’s shipboard radio room. It’s all here. Enjoy!
Here’s another edition of Ham Radio in the News:
Gloucester County 4-H club leader encourages ham radio hobby. I liked this article because it didn’t talk only about emergency communications. It quotes Corey Sickles, WA3UUV, president of the Gloucester County 4-H Amateur Radio Club, as saying, “It ties into that whole engineering, how do things work, mindset.”
Museum welcomes “spook” donation. No, this does not have anything to do with Halloween. Instead, it describes the donation to a Coventry (England) Herbert Art Gallery and Museum of a radio “used during the Second World War by one of Coventry’s “secret listeners” to help defend the country…The national treasure was used by the city’s very own secret ‘spook’ – Frederick Arthur Noakes (Arthur) – between 1940 and 1945. He was one of at least four secret listeners in Coventry who were recruited by MI5 for their ability to read Morse code under difficult conditions, use and maintain a shortwave radio and their steadfast ability to keep a secret.”
On July 23rd, 1954, “Mr. Heathkit,” Howard E. Anthony was killed in a plane crash. To honor “Mr. Heathkit,” The Great Outdoor Radio Club, or GORC, is proud to sponsor the First Heathkit Nostalgia Event. This event is open to any licensed amateur radio operator. The main objective of the event is to communicate with classic Heathkit Radios. This is not a sprint nor is it a contest. This is a friendly gathering of amateur radio operators who own and operate Heathkit radios. If you don’t own a Heathkit radio, you still may join the fun!
Sponsor: The Great Outdoor Radio Club – GORC
Date: October 1st, 2011
Time: 0000 UTC – 2300 UTC
Bands: 160m, 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, 10m, 6m
Modes: SSB, CW
A certificate will be issued to any amateur radio operator who makes contact with a minimum of ten Heathkit radio stations. A special certificate will be issued to any amateur radio operator who operates his or her Heathkit radio station outdoors and makes a minimum of ten contacts. This certificate will have a graphic your Heathkit radio model on it.
Exchange: Call, RST, Heathkit Model (or Power Level if no Heathkit radio used)
Please email all logs to: [email protected]
Or
Mail to:
Heathkit Nostalgia Event
775 Moonflower Ave.
Reading, PA 19606-3447
Here are some gear and gadget notes:
I wanted to say how impressed that I am with George Heron’s (and OH2NLT) SDR Cube kit. I have an SDR Cube Development setup sent by George, as I am considering how to interface it to the Charleston SDR & Digilent FPGA boards. I have since ordered and received a complete SDR Cube kit, less the Softrock 6.3, which I already have. I anticipate cutting some traces, and soldering additional wires directly onto the dsPIC chip for the Charleston interfacing, so I needed my own boardset.
The kit has excellent instructions, see the sdr-cube.com website. Each board comes prepackaged with its own parts, with SMT resistors and capacitors taped to a paper sheet, and ICs in a small anti-static bag. I have put together almost two boards so far, and everything went together very nicely. Almost Heathkit quality instructions and construction techniques.
I normally don’t like to push a vendor, but this kit is very well done.
Some operating notes covering the past couple of weeks:
On the AMRAD mailing list, Andre, N4ICK, posted a link to the YouTube video, “12AU7 regenerative radio on a tin bake plate” (see photo at right) It’s a very cool regenerative radio made with a single 12AU7 vacuum tube. The only problem is that there are no links to the schematic for the radio.
So, I Googled a bit, and came up with this circuit. The cool thing about this circuit is that it uses a 12V power supply, not the high voltage power supply normally required for a tube circuit.
Over the weekend, I went to a big rummage sale sponsored by the local Kiwanis club. They had quite a few aluminum baking pans there for very little money. I should have picked up a couple of them. :)
Simliar Radios
VK3YE has also posted a YouTube video of his experiments with a similar circuit. Unfortunately, he also doesn’t include a link to a schematic.
Another related YouTube video is for a one-transistor radio. This is actually a very well-done video. It shows you step-by-step how to build the radio. This is something that we may actually be able to do down at the museum with some kids.
At the very least, watching the videos is amusing. At best, maybe they’ll inspire you to do a little experimenting.
This from VE7SL via the qrp-l mailing list:
If any of you were thinking about putting something together for the Antique Wireless Association’s 1929-style QSO party, there is still time to throw together a little Hartley or TNT!
The 1929 QSO party runs Dec 05/06 and Dec 10/11 (2300z-2300z). This is the contest where entrants are required to use a tube and tx circuit design that was only available in 1929 or earlier (210, 245, 27….there’s a bunch of them, mostly triodes). No xtals are allowed …..self-excited oscillators only! Your transmitter doesn’t have to look pretty either! Most of the activity is on 80m (3550-3580) but there are always a handfull of brave soles venturing way up to 40m (7040-7060) as well.
There has been a significant rule change this year that allows the ’29 member stations to work non-’29ers for points (previously these QSO’s could not be scored) so even if you don’t put a transmitter together, please join in the fun and listen to the chirps and buzzes of what the bands once sounded like….and then call them!
For inspiration, I have posted a gallery of eligible transmitters. The AWA has a ‘quick-build’ plan on their website, and a page on replica vintage transmitters.
Hope to hear you in the contest.
73 / Steve
Recently, someone donated an entire TS-820 station to our Ham Radio at the Hands-On Museum project. The equipment included a fully decked-out TS-820, plus a lot of other stuff from that era (the late 1970s), including a Heathkit code practice oscillator, a Handbook, and other assorted books and materials.
I’d looked through this stuff before, but somehow I’d overlooked the Heathkit Amateur Radio Log. Here are a couple of scans I made:
Kinda cool, isn’t it? I’d never seen one of these before.
Make sure to check out the slide show at the end of the article.
While his family went to the beach, WD8DAS visited the sites of the old and new Heathkit plants in St. Joseph, Michigan.
