Latest Videos
Quantum Spectrum - a DSP option for SDRs
and maybe ALL radios (someday)
At the Connections Museum in Seattle
the insane telephone technology that led to today's computers
The Story of Heil Sound
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame presentationLatest Blogs
Latest Audio
The Birth, Life, and Death of the Cosmophone
As told by the inventor, Butch Mason W6KAG. Recorded by K6VOI in 1970
Sea Rad MM-50 marine radio
audio from the DX-60 Net Nov. 14, 2021
Jean Shepard K2ORS, "Ham Radio" (aka "Heising Modulation")
originally broadcast Jan. 29, 1965
NE1S - Larry from Gray, Maine, operating a 1929 Hartley transmitter
Recorded 11/9/19 on 40 meters
Final Call for N8ECR (SK) - Midwest Classic Radio Net 12/8/18
Harry N9CQX and Bill K8DBNLatest Links
Latest News
Posted: 06/08/2020
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Hamfests Return!
A quick look at the Wauseon OH swap on June 6, 2020 Thanks to Rex WA6GYC for this short video of the Wauseon OH swapfest - one of the first to be held in what is otherwise "the summer without hamfests". Bryan KB8ELG, club president and promoter, put an AN/GRC-9 field radio on the air, hand-crank power and all! Full information can be found at the club's website http://k8bxq.org/hamfestAccording to Rex,&nb... READ MORE
Posted: 02/24/2020
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Soviet Spy Radio found in forest
(oh yeah, I put that there...I'll take it now thanks!) COLOGNE, GERMANY—According to a Live Science report, archaeologist Erich Classen of the Rhineland Regional Association and his colleagues were looking for a Roman villa in western Germany when they unearthed a Soviet spy radio that had been sealed in a metal box and hidden along a path through what was the Hambach Forest, just a few miles away from a nuclear research center and military air ... READ MORE
Posted: 02/11/2020
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Announcing the W9DYV Radio Society
honoring SSB pioneer Wes Schum W9DYV Nick Tusa, K5EF, longtime friend of Wes Schum and organizer of the W9DYV-Central Electronics Technical Symposium for a number of years, has announced that the W9DYV callsign will again be active, as the club callsign of the W9DYV Radio Societ NFP. Congratulations to Nick and friends for memorializing Wes Schum's contributions to amateur radio in this way!... READ MORE
Posted: 08/26/2019
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WBBM-AM tower moves to Bloomington IL
watch the old tower fall (video link below) The WBBM-AM radio tower has moved out of Itasca and found a new home in Bloomingdale.After 77 years, the over 680-foot WBBM-AM radio tower came down Thursday in Itasca. The property sold for development and WBBM Newsradio's new tower will now be located in Bloomingdale, at the same site as its sister station,WSCR (670 The Score), and will be diplexing off of their tow... READ MORE
Posted: 07/21/2019
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Apollo 11 and Collins Radio
“Every American voice transmitted from space was via Collins Radio Co. equipment” Those who may be interested in the technical details and the history of the space program leading up to Apollo should find plenty of interesting reading at this site:https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4204/contents.htmlUsed with permission.The Manned Space Flight Network antennas operated in the S-Band, on frequencies around 2.2 GHz. The system employed was known as the "Unified S-... READ MORE
Posted: 06/17/2019
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Google gets stung for swiping content thanks to embedded morse code
Dah-dit hits crash dot-dash cash-bash From The Inquirer:GOOGLE HAS FALLEN for a sting which is said to have proved the firm is 'stealing' data from a rival website.Genius.com, a site specialising in providing song lyrics, had suspected that Google had been scraping its site and using the lyrics to populate the 'information panels' often seen in the side of search results.This isn't that uncommon, but... READ MORE
Posted: 05/28/2019
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Hara Arena badly damaged in Dayton Tornado
Drone footage shows extensive damage The City of Trotwood OH is under an emergency declaration and the Hara Arena suffered extensive damage when tornadoes and severe storms moved through Monday night. Drone footage shows the roof and side of the structure blown off in several places.WATCH... READ MORE
Posted: 04/05/2019
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Masa - AB9MQ - has the Coolest Rig in the World (this week)
Check out his newly restored Kenwood TS-511DN It doesn't belong to me, even! Masa AB9MQ has recently acquired one of his "dream rigs" from Japan, a Kenwood TS-511DN, one of the predecessors to the famous TS-520. Check out his nice work and (way too neat!) "Maximum Quality Laboratory" in the Gallery.... READ MORE
Posted: 03/26/2019
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MICROPHONIA! is here
Cool mics from my collection and ones I wish were I like microphones. I have lots of them, and lust after more! I'll be featuring cool microphonia in the Gallery from time to time, so check back often!... READ MORE
Posted: 03/23/2019
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The Coolest Rig in the World!
(this week...or until I say otherwise!) Borrowing from Little Steven's Underground Garage on SiriusXM, I will be featuring "The Coolest Rig in the World" on this very website!By what criteria? MINE! But rest assured, each featured rig WILL be cool...Check out the Gallery section for The Coolest Rig in the World (this week)!... READ MORELatest Articles
Technical
Posted: 12/343/2025
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Overhauling the R-390A Zero Adjust Clutch
Despite the R-390A receiver having been extensively documented over the past 40-50 years, I couldn't find a procedure for overhauling the Zero Adj. clutch assembly. Based on my sample of 4 units, the clutch failure rate is 100% and without a working clutch, it's impossible to calibrate the receiver so the PTO and Veeder Root counter display coincide. Th... READ MORE |
Technical
Posted: 01/29/2025
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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 |
Crystal Replacement
Posted: 08/226/2024
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Making SMT "no lead" parts easier to use
SMT is the future - but how can we actually use parts without leads? ... READ MORE |
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Crystal Replacement
Posted: 02/38/2024
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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 |
Technical
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 |
Vintage Ham Radio
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 |
Vintage Ham Radio
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 |
Historic
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 |
Crystal Replacement
Posted: 11/327/2023
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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 |
Historic
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 |