I recently decided that with the amount of camping I’d like to do, I couldn’t handle sleeping in the back of my Suburban. As much as I like the rig, getting in and out is difficult at best, and there’s no room to sit up, let alone stand up. So, I bought The Tent To …
Category: Geeky Stuff
Mar 08
BITX40 Rebuild Part 2: It Has Begun!
As I wrote in Part 1 of the BITX40 Rebuild Part 1, my own love affair with the BITX40 goes back to December 2016 when a gift from my wife arrived from India in the form of a BITX40v3 from HF Signals, Ashhar Farhan’s company that at the time produced just the BITX40v3. Also mentioned …
Jan 23
A Personal Milestone: Published on Paper
As far back as I can remember, I have had a fondness for words and language. Even in the second grade, learning the roots of words, their suffixes and prefixes, and so many things surrounding grammar- it was all just fascinating to me. Beginnings Through Middle School and High School, English class was what I …
Dec 01
Farewell, Arecibo Observatory Radio Telescope
It’s fairly unusual to have a common news item discussed in This Space, but this isn’t exactly common news. You’ve certainly heard that the platform on the Arecibo Observatory Radio Telescope collapsed today. Of course, it’s relevant here because what radio amateur hasn’t looked at the huge array at Arecibo and simply said to themselves: …
Nov 21
Receiver Build Gone Wrong Part II: The Fix
The QRP Labs Receiver build was not destroyed! It is on the air now, and listening patiently for JS8 signals to filter in. It works great, and I’m a very happy ham because of it. What happened? Check the video below: Have you had experiences like this? Please, tell us about it in the comments …
Nov 18
Receiver Build Gone Wrong: Proper Troubleshooting and Accepting Failure
Last night I wrapped up the build of my QRP Labs Receiver project and fired it up. I’ll give more detail about the project itself when it’s done, but as the title says, it didn’t go right. In fact, I destroyed the receiver with the flip of a switch! Rather than expound on it here, …
Nov 15
Backpack SDR: A modular QRP SDR Transceiver
Edited 12/13/20 to reflect the move to Groups.io from Facebook Today I wanted to post about a new SDR project called “Backpack SDR” that’s taking shape. Since August, Keith Myles, VE3IFT has been sharing pictures of his Backpack SDR transceiver project on the Amateur QRP Radio group on Facebook: What is the Backpack SDR? The …
Nov 13
Cheap Soldering Iron: Which one?
This article was originally published in January 2017. It has been updated. Hint: If you’re looking for my most recent recommendation, Just Click Here for a cheap 80W powerhouse with all the accessories you’ll need, or this fantastic 60W combo that I use all the time! In this entry we’ll talk about my search for …
Oct 13
JS8Call: Another “Zombie” mode?
Before anybody accuses me of a clickbait title, please examine the following comments taken from the JS8Call Facebook group: Over and over again Hams are disappointed with JS8Call because they have the impression that it is a “Zombie” mode, where the majority of stations are automatic, and that human to human QSO’s aren’t as common. …
Oct 09
BITX40 Rebuild Part 1: Mistakes, Planning and Teardown
Things have been pretty busy around MiscDotGeek, and we’ve barely had time for Radio Related things. As I mentioned in the July 2020 update, my BITX40 quit transmitting while sitting stationary on my desk, dutifully doing its job as a JS8 radio, it quit transmitting. I put the uSDX in its place, only to have …