in article ,
Paul_Morphy at wrote on 4/3/04 06:20:


"Uwe" wrote in message
...

And Paul, lest you get the impression I hate silicon, I just finished a
Rockmite-very cute.

There may be hope for you after all, Uwe. : I went through a
boatanchors-revisited phase about 10 years ago, when I finally got to own
two Drake 2Bs, an Eico 720 with Hallicrafters HA-5 VFO and a Ranger II
(thanks to the Hosstraders flea market in New Hampshire, which you shouldn't
miss), my dream stations when I was 15. I never cared a lot for the voice
modes, either; CW is my mode of choice. After lugging those relatively small
boatanchors around a little, though, I decided to get back to the present.
For inspiration along the silicon lines (and to see some really nice photos
of mountains in the Pacific NW) I recommend Wes Hayward's (W7ZOI) site:
http://users.easystreet.com/w7zoi/w7zoi-page.html

73,

"PM"




Paul, how interesting, I just had Wes Haywards book in hand the other day at
a local hamfest. I own the Solid State Design Book and had considered Radio
Frequency Design but found that one rather technical. But "Experimental
Methods in RF Design" caught my eye but also caught me at the end of the day
without the necessary $50 to take it home.

Experimenting is really what all this is about for me and I do lack some of
the foundations and tools for successful RF tinkering, so I always look for
a good introduction.

And somehow tubes, which seem to deal with electrons on a macroscopic,
nearly mechanical level seem to be a bit more accessible than transistors
which I think deal with all this on an atomic level.

And here you send me a link to Haywards website. Well thanks, and yes, nice
mountains.


I went and added a choke and a capacitor to my crystal and believe it or not
it actually still oscillated. I did some measurements and found that I can
pull the crystal (I used one of the crystals out of the rockmite!) from 7038
to 7040, after being rockbound that feels like now I am "all over the
place". And while I was fiddeling with the radio I heard a station and ran
my first QSO on a frequency I couldn't get to until 3 hours ago, with rigged
up parts and clip leads all over the place!! Radio work at its finest.


But one solution immediately leads to the next problem, how do I know where
I am. What do they call them, frequency counters???

Regards Uwe