SolderSmoke Podcast #240 NIMCELS? Hex DX, CBLA RX, PTO? Soild State HT-37? Exotic caps, Benches, SBE-33, TenTec 540, KWM-1 MAILBAG



SolderSmoke #240

Monday September 19, 2022

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke240.mp3

Sorry, I had some technical difficulties so my audio is a bit distorted.

NIMCELS? Niche Internet Micro Celebrities. I dunno.... Can our listeners come up with an acronym that describes our place in the universe?

Sponsors: Parts Candy. Carlos in Chicago. Great leads. Don't scrimp with a crimp! You need some good quality test leads on your workbench. Get yours from Carlos. Click on the picture on the blog page or go to PartsCandy on e-bay.

"Techno Wizardry"? Our lawyers at Dewey Cheatham and Howe will be after them for that!

Bill's Bench:

Hex Beam has made me a DXer. 91 countries. Having fun. Mozambique (Long path), San Andres island, and Saudi Arabia, all on Friday. All homebrew SSB 100 watts.

Put my old 20 meter CW station back on the air: Barebones superhet and the VXO 6 watter. WYKSYCDS. This may be one of very few CBLA Receivers in the world!

Been getting active in the Vienna Wireless Society. Dean KK4DAS is President and a lot is happening in the Club. Makers group. Lunch with the group on Tuesdays. Lots of fun.

We are looking at Farhan’s Daylight Again Analog rig. Using parts from Dean’s 3D printer, we have made PTOs. See blog post for picture. (But are they really PTOs? Or just Variable Inductors?)

VFO madness. Solid stating an HT-37 VFO. Grayson: “You have clearly lost your mind.” Perhaps. 100 MHz FM broadcast RFI. This brought me to capacitors and linear tuning:

SLC, SLW, SLF and Midline/Centerline caps. Do special caps explain why some VFOs have linear tuning while others do not? NO, not really. You can get linear tuning with ordinary caps. See blog post

Working on the bench. Reading Adam Savage’s book on workshops and tools. (link to the book in the right hand column of the blog. Some other workbench links on the blog. Upgrading tools and test gear. I have a proper bench power supply. Better side cutters. Engineering rulers. Digital calipers. Better solder (I was talking to Ron WA6YOU – a real solder authority - about this. Kester 60/40 ).