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Ham Radio Workbench: Stuffing Digital Stuff Into Poor Old Boatanchors

✇SolderSmoke Daily News
By: Bill Meara
10 July 2024 at 14:20

Let me start by saying that I LIKE Ham Radio Workbench.  But I found a lot in the current edition that I disagreed with.  The whole panel seems to be chuckling at the older gear.  And the guest is from... Flex radio.   So what do you expect?  The title was "Radio Rejuvenation" -- I expected something different.  I thought we'd hear more about how to get old tube radios going.  Instead, the  focus seems to have been on how to take an old radio and stuff an RTL dongle, or a Raspberry Pi, or a Flex radio in there.  Yuck.  

At one point they are laughing at old magic eye tubes!  They wonder if there is a digital way of recreating this tube in digital form.  Sorry fellows, that has already been done: 

https://hackaday.com/2023/04/12/the-eyes-have-it-with-this-solid-state-magic-eye/

Even an analog guy like me spotted that one. 

Here is the show:  

https://workbench.libsyn.com/hrwb-213-radio-rejuvenation-with-dan-quigley-n7hq

But hey, like I always say:  To each his own.  I'm sure many people like this approach.  It is just not for me. 

Ragnar LA1UH's Wonderful Museums in Norway

✇SolderSmoke Daily News
By: Bill Meara
13 May 2024 at 11:54


Here are two more great museum visits by Helge LA6NCA.  In these two he visits Ragnar LA1UH.  

Ragnar has a lot of maritime experience, so we see a lot of older ships' radios.  But his interest in the radio art is much broader and we also see a lot of other kinds of gear: 

-- Wow,  a "travel radio" in a suitcase from 1927.  Was this the idea that later lead to the Parasets of WWII? 

-- Lots of "Stay Behind" gear from the Cold War. That "Africa" receiver (that never made it to Africa!) is very interesting. 

-- We see an ART-13 with autotune, ANGRC-9s, several ARC-5 command sets.  I was hoping Raganar would fire up a Dynamotor, but no. 

-- I spotted a Galaxy V transceiver.  I have the VFO reduction drive from one of these in my homebrew 15/10 rig.   

-- We see several variometers in the emergency (500kc?) maritime transmitter.  I used a variometer in my super-simple ET-2 transceiver (with an N0WVA receiver). 

-- Lots and lots of tubes. 

Ragnar says he himself is of 1944 vintage. I hope some "stay behind" provisions have been made for these amazing museums. 

Thanks to Helge LA6NCA and to Ragnar LA1UH.  

Jens OZ1GEO's AMAZING Radio Museum

✇SolderSmoke Daily News
By: Bill Meara
11 May 2024 at 17:09


Brace yourselves.  This is just too much, too much radio history, too much cool stuff.  We are into ham radio sensory overload territory here. The rigs, the radios, the radioactive stuff (including tubes!).  Lots of Whermact stuff.  A Chinese receiver.  Tesla coils and Faraday shields.  Much more. 

Thanks to Helge LA6NCA for alerting us to this and for shooting these videos.  And thanks to Jens OZ1GEO for putting this magnificent collection together.  I hope they find sometplace to keep this all together so that future generations can benefit from it. 

George WB5OYP points out there is more from Jens here: 

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