Better Things

Kinks - Better Things!

I hope everyone finds Better Things!

Happy New Year!

Blizzard Warnings

Courtesy of AccuWeather.

The weather forecast this afternoon into Monday morning is calling for blizzard conditions with heavy snow and high winds. Sounds like a perfect day for some football on the tube and eating the left over treats from yesterday. Will hit the shoveling throughout the afternoon into the evening to keep up with it.

The Sunday radio game plan is to send my call sign out in the storm between the flakes on the HF side, always cool to operate when the snow is falling.

Hope everyone had a nice day yesterday.

Merry Christmas To All!

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!
Have A Wonderful Day!!

Can't Forget This Bud Classic

Fun to watch!

Band Aid Classic

Do they know it's Christmas.
Great song for the holiday's.

Old Technology

A few weeks ago I put a bid on an eBay item and picked up a nice hardcover 1989 ARRL Handbook at a good price.

Yes very old technology on two fronts, the circuits are easy to follow but outdated by today's standard and the way things are going with E readers who knows about the future of a book as we know it.

I also enjoy holding a good book or newspaper in my hand instead reading off the screen. Getting back to my purchase the 1989 handbook is ten times easier to follow than my 2005 edition. Most of the circuits and descriptions seem simple. Hardest part might be crossing some of the older parts but with sites like NTE Electronics that should not be a problem. Sometimes the challenge of the drop in cross and getting to it work is the most fun part of the build.

Check out NTE for older and obsolete part crosses and replacements.
http://nteinc.com/

Have to admit not much building or radio fun with the holiday season and work stuff but will have some down time next week to play.

Today's the first day of winter, enjoy the season.

Mighty Mite

In the process of getting the parts for my next project, the Mighty Mite build.

This circuit is from the pages of W1FB's QRP Notebook, page 111. The Mighty Mite consists of one transistor and a handful of parts, output power is a whopping 30mW, QRPp. Taking a look over the parts list, most are common items I should have except for the miniature RF Choke, Mouser/Xicon# 43LR225 which is obsolete. There should be a drop in replacement available from Xicon.

The plan is to try and keep all parts as close to original parts list, just for history of Doug DeMaw's Mighty Mite. I did an online search and found a few different varieties of this circuit. Also need to pick up a few crystals if anyone has a favorite source please let me know.

Updates on this build will be posted in a week or so depending on time with the busy holiday season fast approaching.