Tag: homebrew

  • Mid-September omnibus

    Word cloud I think I see the problem: Blue skies Here in Wisconsin on a clear, not-too-humid day with fresh wilderness air the sky can be as blue as the sky in a Miyazaki film. Touch paddles 1.1 Serpent! Kickapoo River Thanks for visiting driftlessqrp!

  • Another antenna project (oh, no!)

    A few weeks ago I found the remains of one of the original telescoping whips that came with my Buddipole set. They were made of brass, and took a lot of damage from blowing down in the wind. The stainless steel 17-foot whip I replaced them with has proved much more durable. Examining it with…

  • Touch paddle project

    Updated! This project got started in October last year and is finally (mostly) finished! After the first failure came a redesign, and some very intermittent work on it. A few days ago I started to work toward wrapping it all up: I salvaged the touch sensors and paddle pieces, gently cutting a saw kerf in…

  • An end-of-July omnibus

    Just stuff that’s been on my mind, but nothing big enough for a whole post. Projects, old and new The design was based on the article “What about the simple receiver?” in the June 1934 issue of QST, and “Rationalizing the autodyne”, January 1933. As something more in line with my current interests I am…

  • Found-materials antenna challenge

    It might have been 2 weeks ago that I stopped in a wayside and saw a tangle of something orange-ish laying on the blacktop as I was leaving; naturally I stopped to pick it up just for the sake of keeping the area clean. It proved to be two lengths of something like 24 gauge…

  • Finishing the (tr)uSDX amplified speaker

    June 24th: To quickly recap, the story begins here, and is continued here. All it took, in the end, was actually sitting down at the bench and (gasp!) actually working on it for maybe 40 minutes; I had the last remaining part, an input jack, right there. Finding one was the last thing I did…

  • A hike around Camel Bluff, and an amplified speaker for the tr(u)SDX

    On Saturday I was en route to the nearest Aldi store and realized I would soon be passing by Mill Bluff State Park, which quickly led to trying to remember the last time I had hiked the Camel Bluff trail, or any of the other hikes at this small-but-fun park … I still have no…

  • Hung a new antenna today!

    It seems like just yesterday I was thinking about getting an antenna up in the trees at home … Now, as the sun sets, I have one! The day started sunny and cold, but after noon sunny was winning and the temperature got up to around 30. I had all the necessary stuff handy (I’ve…

  • A post about many things

    re: Field Day 2023 The December issue of QST arrived a while ago and I invested maybe 15 minutes looking through the fine print for my score: 440 points. I think that my claimed bonus for Public Information Display was rejected; not unfairly mind you, it was a bit skimpy. Eh, surest way to fail…

  • Touch paddle project, with updates

    October 24th: I want to start off with a word of praise for UPS; yesterday evening my package was in Louisville KY; this morning at 5:30 it was in Rockford IL; but I lacked faith, I didn’t believe it would get here today … and there it was on my doorstep at 3! Thanks, UPS!…

  • Another mini-mic (lol)

    As I mentioned in an earlier post, I purchased all of the parts needed to make a few more mini-mics to use with other radios. I had one of each sitting out on the benchtop for a day or so while I noodled about what to use to give it some structure … then a…

  • Adapting the (tr)uSDX mini-mic to the X6100

    I posted a few weeks ago about building K6ARK’s Mini-mic kit for the (tr)uSDX, and my plan to adapt it to the X6100 to save weight and pack space, and I have been moving that project forward a little bit at a time. Today I finally had time to try out the result and write…