The VX-7R is one of my favourite HTs because it is rugged, more or less waterproof in 2026 (I was able to replace the main case seal and top port cover via Yaesu, but the charge port is something I 3d printed in TPU, the STL is HERE). The full keypad means that when a […]
All Portable Discussion Zone build #3
Our third build project is a frequency counter. As I had found in my preliminary research, counting things is not easy. So, Charlie NJ7V was able to borrow part of a design and some parts as a component kit from Rex Harper W1REX at QRPme.com, you can order the parts HERE. Rex also joined Charlie […]
All Portable Discussion Zone build #2
For our second build-along project, we decided to go for a Stockton bridge SWR meter, again a G-QRP project from the 2023 buildathon. The SWR bridge is pretty simple: RF goes in and out through a couple of connectors on a nice bit of wire that passes through a binocular core. This core has a […]
Hamfest finds, 4/4/26
On Saturday I crossed the valley to the Phoenix Spring Hamfest, at it’s new location. I had a list of small components I was after, but came home with some gems for the workshop instead. Solid State Design for the Radio Amateur by Wes Hayward (W1FB) and Doug DeMaw (W7ZOI), of particular fame because of […]
All Portable Discussion Zone group build #1 (Part 2)
A brief update, of sorts. Though the sine wave is not great, it is perfectly good for testing filters and SWR meters, however… As you can see in the picture, I have ~0.8v peak to peak. At about 7.1MHz the VPP jumps up to ~2.5v, which is much more desireable. Because I am seeing this […]
All Portable Discussion Zone group build #1
On our second podcast gathering we launched our first group build project. We are building a signal generator, a sine-wave oscillator that should cover the HF ham bands. We are using the Soldersmoke Podcast Discord server for the group builds, mostly because there are a lot of people on there who are a lot better […]