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Announcing the W9DYV Radio Society

Ham Radio News 0 Comments 02/11/2020

honoring SSB pioneer Wes Schum W9DYV

https://rantechnology.com/index.cfm?key=browse_news&PostDate=all...

Posted By: Robert Nickels (ranickels)

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!

All Band Inexpensive 40 Watt Transmitter

a great "first homebrew xmtr" project
Category: Vintage Ham Radio

Jay Miller KK5IM recently wrote an article in Electric Radio magazine about fulfilling his dream of building a homebrew "AM Kilowatt" transmitter (375 watts output by today's standards). His crystal-controlled exciter that drive the 813 was based on his Novice transmitter, which was built by his grand-uncle back in the 1960s when Novice class hams were l... READ MORE

- Robert Nickels (ranickels), 07/09/2020

Bias control of Class E amplfiers

Previously undocumented phenomenon
Category: Technical

Micro SDR innovator Guido PE1NNZ has implemented polar modulation using an Arduino MCU and a class E PA. For more informartion on this fascinating project, join the discussion group at https://groups.io/g/ucxInitially, Guido's design implemented the polar or EER modulation scheme using modifications to the QCX CW transceiver hardware in the traditional way as described by Leonard K... READ MORE

- Robert Nickels (ranickels), 06/20/2020

Lysco "Transmaster" Mobile Transmitter

a seldom-seen cutie from the golden age
Category: Vintage Ham Radio

I'm always intrigued by the odd and unusual ham gear that I remember seeing in catalogs as a kid but have seldom seen after hundreds of hamfests and uncountable for sale listings. One such is the Lysco mobile transmitter which was produced by the Lysco Manufacturing Company of 1401 Clinton St. Hoboken NJ between 1949 and 1953. Despite being a very cute and co... READ MORE

- Robert Nickels (ranickels), 06/06/2020

Class E Notes

the result of experiments with high efficiency class E amplifiers
Category: Technical

There is a lot of misunderstanding about how a Class E amplifier works. Including my own ;-) As the result of studying the literature and experimenting, I thought I'd share what I have learned.Below is an example of a test amplifier I used to optimize my 2 watt wspr transmitter boards. It can be visualized as two circuits - the amplifier itself a... READ MORE

- Robert Nickels (ranickels), 06/06/2020

Postcard or Letter Radio

from the Boy's Fun Book
Category: Vintage Radio

Seeing this article on Hackaday about how a guy in China made a crystal set using the diode in a chip credit card for the detector reminded me of the Postcard Radio. It was a project in the WWII-era "Boys Fun Book" that I had as a kid and although I remember it well I had no reason to build one because who would want to mail a radio to someone else? I did ma... READ MORE

- Robert Nickels (ranickels), 06/04/2020

Communications Associates Inc. SSB-125 marine radiotelephone

A nice crystal-controlled SSB oddball radio
Category: Technical

What can I say, I like oddball radios! There was already a different version of this CAI SSB-125 on my shelf but it had the remote control head, and this one was cheap, well under $100 including shipping, and I'm easily amused. VIDEO DEMO HERECommunications Associates Inc. was a supplier of commercial, military, and marine radios based in Huntington Station, ... READ MORE

- Robert Nickels (ranickels), 05/14/2020

My $18.50 homebrew boatanchor receiver

Made of command set parts!
Category: Vintage Ham Radio

The HW-16 had to be pushed aside while waiting for parts, creating an opening just big enough for the homebrew receiver I got recently via eBay for $18.50 - plus 2X that to ship it here. I like saving and restoring old homebrew gear just out of respect for the amount of time and effort our forefathers put into making things from scratch, and this receiver intrigued me, as the IF transf... READ MORE

- Robert Nickels (ranickels), 04/28/2020

Boatanchor Garge Door Opener

Multi Elmac's first products
Category: Historic

The Multi Elmac Company of Hazel Park and later, Oak Park MI is best know amongst hams for it's great mobile transmitters and receivers which were probably the most popular rigs of their type and are still often used on AM today. The Multi Elmac Net pays tribute to these little rigs by and typically a half-dozen or more are heard on the net weekly.But the company's origin... READ MORE

- Robert Nickels (ranickels), 04/22/2020

Wireless on a Train

a lesser-known radio "first"
Category: Historic

WHEN Frederick Wally stepped out of a little cubby-hole in one corner of the forward day coach on the Lackawanna Limited, west-bound, as it neared North Scranton, Pennsylvania, Tuesday, November 25, 1913, and pinned a sheet of paper on the wall, the passengers in the front seats, who had been casually wondering what caused the strange, crackling sounds that had been coming from the cubby-hole, pri... READ MORE

- Robert Nickels (ranickels), 04/14/2020

Ad-Hoc Hybrid transceiver with 3-400Z finals?

Dentron MLX-MINI gets some boots
Category: Vintage Ham Radio

The Dentron MLX-MINII thought it would be cool to use the Dentron MLX-MINI on the Saturday Vintage Sideband Net but it's a little marginal since the rule is "no tubes, go home!". However hybrid rigs are allowed, and Special Dispensation is given for rigs with Red LEDs. So I thought the MLX was double-qualifed - even more so after I realized t... READ MORE

- Robert Nickels (ranickels), 04/04/2020