If you are a Hallicrafters fan here is a video from WWII promoting their contribution to the war effort. I noted in a previous post that listening to my Uncle’s Hallicrafters S-38 is what got me interested in Amateur Radio. My next project is going to be restoring that old S-38 in his memory.
Thanks to http://www.archive.org. You can view a lot more videos, audio and texts at their website.
The “Widow Maker” step. No I am kidding about that, but their are a lot of components to install in this phase and placement is critical. NØJRJ has a video up on it and he had to remove and reinstall a whole line of capacitors. Luckily I headed his warning and triple checked my placement.
After I completed the first part of this phase, I went to do the testing of IC2B and ran into problems. I ended up wasting half a day on a silly mistake. You see I started this back in January and got busy and set it aside. Well there is a mod that you have to do on the 160m band pass filter on this version of the board. You cut a trace and then solder in a jumper. All well and good, but I cut the trace back in January and didn’t solder on the jumper. This gave some weird voltage readings, but with the help of Bruce KF1Z I as able to find the mode and put the jumper on and all is well.
G59 MK2 Phase 7
Then I went on to solder the inductors and capacitors in. Again make sure to check the BOM for all the components. there are a couple of capacitors not listed on the pictures on the website. I am missing one capacitor for the 80m band pass filter, but I was assured by Bruce that I could continue on until I got the part.
So until Phase 8 here’s to happy soldering!
I have been working on the Genesis G59 build for a little over a week again. One of the new skills I have had to try and master is soldering SMD parts to the circuit board. I have gotten a lot better, but like everything it takes practice, practice and more practice.
Soldering
When started to solder the microscopic capacitors, I found the most of the time I would lay them on the board and hit them with a little solder and they would stand up vertically. So after a little research here is what I am doing.
I will put a small dab of solder on one of the pads and the use a pair of angled needle nose pliers and hold the capacitor to the of the pad. Then I will heat the solder back up and slide the capacitor into the solder. Remove the heat and let the solder cool. Then solder the other side.
It works with surface mount IC’s also. It gives you a chance to position the IC so it is lined up correctly. Then heat the pad and melt the solder and let it flow under the pin of the device.
Sparkfun has a SMD soldering tutorial here that you can watch.
Happy soldering!
KF5JSJ has created a new app for the Android. This is a project for an Android phone that takes pictures and broadcasts the phone GPS coordinates using the amateur radioAPRS infrastructure. 
He is using it as a backup tracker for a high altitude balloon project but it can be used for a couple things such as setting in one place and storing time lapse photos, or keeping track of where the phone is graphically on a map.
Take a look at his project here
In Phase 6 you build the Input-Output HP-LP Filters, antennuator and preamplifier. A new skill to master is making an inductor by putting 5 turns on a 3mm drill bit. I didn’t have a 3mm so I just used a 7/64ths drill bit.
You solder all the relays in at this time and a few more SMD components. I did a better job of doing the SMD work this time, I sometimes get better with practice.
The on thing I struggled with is making the cables. I wasted quite a few crimp on connectors and then made the cable too short. I will have to go back and build a new one later.
The voltage checked out and I was able to see a pretty good spike in reception when I enabled the RF Preamp. So for now I think I am on my way.
Also, take a look at NØJRJ’s blog. He is also building one and has documented it in video.
This is my new favorite new tool I use in the Ham Shack. Good close up vision left me behind a few years ago. So now when I am try to read those small capacitors or check on my poor soldering work I need help.
I have one of those Jeweler monocles and a lighted bench magnifying glass, but I found this works best. I picked it up at Radio Shack, but I am sure you can get them at Walmart or the big box stores.
I like the fact that this one has a light built into it. I need to upgrade the lighting in my office/shack, too many shadows.
This is the receiver build. Nothing too unusual. You finish soldering in a couple of IC’s that are on the board when you get it. Not sure why they are shipped that way when the others aren’t, but so be it.
There is also some more SMD soldering. I am getting a better hang of that. Heat the pads and then let the solder flow under the pins. I used an angled needle nosed pliers to hold the microscopic capacitor down on the board. First I put a little solder on one of the pads on the PC board and then heated it up and slide the capacitor into it. If I didn’t do it that way, I found that they would spring up vertically when you soldered them on one side.
You add the capacitors, resistors, etc. The hardest part is making two wire cable that is required in this step. I have a crimper for these types of cables, but it was still a pain. I crimp them and then solder them for insurance. The kit comes supplied with a 15 wire ribbon cable that you have to split and then cut to length.
I got everything soldered in and started to do the checks. The voltage checks on IC1R came out fine. I went on to IC2R and IC3R and the voltage was 6.8v on some of the pins instead of the suggested 5.05v. I double, triple checked my soldering. Found one capacitor that wasn’t soldered well and rechecked. Still the same. I then rechecked to make sure that I installed the correct components.
Here is where I found out something that will help me as I go along in construction of the kit. Not all the parts are listed in the steps on the web page. When I checked the BOM (Bill of Materials) I found some capacitors that were not installed. I went back and installed them thinking that that may be my problem. Still the voltage was off. At least I know to check off the components in the BOM as I go along.
I then went and searched the Yahoo Group and found someone that had the same problem as I did. In fact he was at the same step at the same time as me. After posting the questions, we were assured that the voltage we were seeing was ok and we could proceed.
The next step was to hook it up and see what we heard. I hooked up my E-MU 0202 and off we went. I spent the better part of two hours today figuring out how to use the GSDR software. I finally think I have a basic grasp of it. I was able to adjust the receiver to reject the unwanted image and was able to listen to a conversation using SSB mode on 20m. I did find out that I have the cable wired backwards for the E-MU0202, so for now I am just having the software reverse the inputs.
All for now till Phase 6
I saw a link somewhere, I don’t remember where for sure that lead me to the Museum of Radio & Technology, Inc. I took a look and it really looks interesting.
They have a whole section on Amateur Radio. You can take an online tour. My family is really big 
into History and Museums. I am not sure I could talk them into a radio museum, but if I am ever in the West Virginia area, I am going to be sure to make a trip.
I think it is important for us to preserve our history. Besides, if you are like me, all of those tubes glowing makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
If you follow this blog (who wouldn’t 🙂 ). You have probably figured out I am working on another kit.
In January, I started on a Genesis G59 MK2 build. I had been looking at them for about a year and finally joined their Yahoo Group. Hank – KR7X had one that he hadn’t started and didn’t have time to work on due to job responsibilities, so I purchased his kit.
I got it in about three days and like a kid at Christmas, I tore into it. The Genesis kits are a little different the the DzKit, mostly on how they come packaged. The DzKit is like the old Heathkit’s. The parts of each build are packaged together in modules that match the chapter of the build.
The Genesis kits are shipped with the parts pretty much in one bag and the instructions are on the website and get updated as changes are made to the build procedure. It’s a little more time consuming, but completely do-able. I got a large cupcake pan from the XYL and sorted the parts by type which helped a lot.
I quickly got through phase one with no problems. Then I went on to phase two and at the end while doing the final testing, I could not get the oscillator to function. I messed with it for a few hours and then had to set it aside to get some business projects down and a few other things in the Shack.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. It started working on it again. I still couldn’t get the oscillator to function. Finally, even though I knew better, I went ahead and completed phase three thinking it my be my test equipment. Well what do you know, I couldn’t get the PC to recognize the USB device when I hooked it up.
I made several puzzling posts to the Yahoo Group and Bruce KF1Z started helping me with it. Long Story short, I had done a bad job of soldering the IC Socket for the micro-controller to the board. Bruce who has a good set of SMD tools (I assume a re-flow oven) replaced the socket for me and tidied up a couple of other things for me. Can’t say enough about his service to the Genesis community.
So now that I have the board back in my hot little hands, I will let you know how the rest of the build goes. I promise to practice better soldering techniques and I will pass on some resources that I found on doing SMD soldering.
If you are like me, your ham shack isn’t the biggest area in the house. I work out of a home office and my office serves as a business office, exercise room and ham shack.
Wall space is at a premium and I haven’t been able to display any QSL Cards or rewards. Not to 
mention any of my club certificates.
I know I am not the first genius to think of this, but I thought I would share it anyway. I was at a local Target this weekend and came upon one of those new fangled digital photo frames that was on clearance. So I thought hey, I can upload all my QSL cards/ham promotional stuff to it and it will take less than a square foot on my wall.
So here it is with about 400 eQsl cards loaded on it.