NEW NET CONTROL: Rex WA6GYC from Troy MI picked up the Elmac Net on Febr. 27 and did a Fine Business job! Hopefully he will be willing to continue in this role, as the lack of a primary net control and difficult propagation at this point in the solar cycle have made it challenging in past weeks. Please turn your radio on - Wednesday is Elmac Night! (Execept for the first Wed. of the month when it's CCA AM Net night). And as usual, the Elmac net will go on vacation during the summer months of QRN and outdoor activities
Thanks Rex for stepping up!
Tonight (12/12/18) was the first Wednesday night after the untimely passing of N8ECR, the originator and net control of the Mighty Elmac Net and many have wondered what will happen to the net.
The Net will go on, most likely with a net control in Michigan, which would mean that most participants would come from the upper midwest - at least in normal times. But the propagation we've had on 75 meters has been anything but normal, and tonight's net was run by long-time participant KA2J from near Rochester NY, who heard my barefoot AF-68 from northwest IL just fine - a 600 mile path.
It may take a few week sto work out the new net procedure, but the net was important to Mike, that's why he was always diligent about finding a substitute if he couldn't be there. He would want the net to go on, and so it shall.
With the changing propagation the pre-net activities have been starting around 5PM central time on 3880 kHz with the official net at 6pm, or 0000Z. While the net commemorates the "Mighty" Elmac rigs, any kind of gear is welcome, as long as it can put out an AM signal. The Net has been a motivator for many to find, restore, and use Multi Elmac equipment, and a dozen or more Elmacs are typically heard when the band cooperates.
Wednesday is Elmac Night! (except the first Wed. of each month when the Collins AM net occurs instead). If you're anywhere in the eastern half of the country, give a listen on 3880 Wed. afternoon/early evenings and join us if possible.
There's a Multi Elmac group on Yahoo Groups: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/multi_elmac/conversations/messages
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Posted: 01/29/2025
Comments: 0 |
Pico Rx performance - Excellent performance on 630m WSPR
The Simple Pico Rx is my minimalist implementation of Jonathan Dawson's "Pico Rx" at 101things: https://github.com/dawsonjon/PicoRX In this basic form the receiver consists of a Quadrature Sampling Detector (QSD aka Tayloe) and the Pico2 MCU which handles all DSP functions. There are NO front-end filters, the only bandwidth limitation comes from the tracking filter... READ MORE |
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Making SMT "no lead" parts easier to use
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How good can a crummy receiver be?
Hundreds of different simple SDR receivers have been designed around Dan Tayloe's Quadrature Sampling Detector or QSD. Mine add nothing to the state of the art, and in fact subtract things, as I like minimalist solutions and the QSD is right in that sweet spot. Following the evolution of Tayloe's design I delete the resistors in series with the sample lines for inst... READ MORE |
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Posted: 02/37/2024
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What's in a number (3253)?
The FST3253 dual four-to-one mux/demux IC has long been used as a "Tayloe Detector" or QSD (and QSE) in low-cost SDRs. They provide incredible performance for such a simple circuit, converting RF to baseband IQ with low loss and the ultimate in simplicity. Unfortunately the original FST3253 part has become obsolete and while substitutes are available, this is where the... READ MORE |
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Posted: 02/32/2024
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The Stancor 10P Transmitter
There weren't really many commercial transmitters in the 1930s as most hams built their own. But many of the ones that were offered came from the transformer companies who had two chances to profit. First, from those who would buy the kit, and two, from those would would see it in the (free) booklets the companies provided to their distributors who would then sell the iron to ham... READ MORE |
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Posted: 12/355/2023
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The Care and Feeding of the EF Johnson Courier amplifier
The EF Johnson "Courier" is a grid-driven amplifier using two 811A tubes. Switching is provided for operating in either class C for CW or as a class B linear amplifier for AM or SSB. Rated power is 500 watts input for CW, 500 watts PEP input for SSB, and 200 watts input for double-sideband AM with carrier. Since all amateur power levels were meas... READ MORE |
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Posted: 11/329/2023
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TV Duplexer
Some things are interesting, even if totally useless nowadays. Such is the case with the Philco 426-3034 Crossover Kit for UHF TV. What the heck is that? Well, back in the late 50s, UHF television stations operating on channels 14-83 started to appear in many areas of the US where viewers had a VHF-only TV antenna, and in many cases an externa UHF converter was... READ MORE |
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Replacing failed crystals
For decades, quartz crystals were used everywhere a stable frequency source was needed, even in some applications that depended on overtone (harmonic) behavior into the VHF range. These crystals were less stable and more dependent on circuit parameters that fundamental types and thus more problematic. Such was the case with the 94 MHz crystal in the 2 meter converter ... READ MORE |
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Posted: 11/315/2023
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My Own Ham Radio Story by W9RAN
Everyone has a story of how they got involved in ham radio - this is mine. It started much earlier, including receiving a Knight Kit Span Master shortwave radio for Christmas in about 1963, at age 12. I'll never forget the night my dad and I finished building it and I wanted to try it out. It came with a 50 ft. antenna which was still coiled up - but ... READ MORE |
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Posted: 09/267/2023
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Hot to simulate vacuum tubes in LTSpice
LTSice is a powerful simulation tool that is provided free by Linear Technology Corp. It comes with a complete library of passive and common analog solid-state components but if you want to use it to simulate vacuum tubes, it doesen't work as-is. Even though triode and pentode symbols can be found in the "Misc" folder, they are just schematic symbols and... READ MORE |
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How To Get Tech Help From Strangers On The Internet
Paul Stoffregen is the creator of the Teensy microcomputer and related products and has authored a vast amount of exceptionally good and useful public domain software to go with it. As the old saying goes "no good deed goes unpunished" and in the course of answering customer and would-be customer questions, Paul has written over 18,000 replies. From that he's ... READ MORE |
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Posted: 11/11/2018
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VERSA-TR purchasing
The VERSA-TR kit designed by RAN Technology Inc. is available from our friends at Hayseed Hamfest. Please direct all order-related questions to them at https://hayseedhamfest.com/pages/contact-us ... READ MORE |