Twinplex Regenerative Receiver Build

I started today on the Twinplex Regenerative Receiver. The parts have piling up since my friend James told me he found a good receiver design to build. He has gleaned great results with his and says it is a hot little receiver. (good enough for me)

Here is the box  O' Parts. Those Big knobs are vintage NOS I picked up very cheap. I did buy some more of the cloth covered wire from  http://enginebarn.myshopify.com/   
No affiliation. I just like the product.

After some tedious measuring and layout, I finally found a layout I liked. Let the drilling begin....

 The front panel holes are in place, now for the chassis front hole placement. My drill press is just big enough to be able to mark (with the drill bit) the chassis with the front panel still attached. This means all the holes will match up perfectly.

 Here is a view of the parts for the front panel dry fitted to the chassis. Everything lines up perfectly so the front panel is now ready to be painted. The paint of choice is going to be hammer-tone green. Green you say? Yep green...(Is it starting to look like a radio yet?)
 More to come...

Old US Army Morse Code training film.

Old training video.

Thunderstorm, Rain and Morse Code from Bug (MP3)

Thunderstorm Rain And Morse Code

In the MP3 link above I really like the mix.Here is the story that goes with it:

In the middle 1980s, former United States Coast Guard Radioman and well known radio amateur, Edward A. McCarthy was tuning the 7.0 MHz amateur radio bands at his amateur radio station in Florida when he came upon a conversation between two amateurs using continuous wave (CW) Morse radiotelegraphy. Since a tape recorder was nearby, he decided to record the conversation between David J. Ring, Jr., N1EA/MM (Maritime Mobile) who was sailing as Radio Officer in the Merchant Marine on the coast wise tanker "SS KING" run by American Heavy Lift Shipping, Inc. of Houston, TX. The SS KING was in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico having sailed from Corpus Christi, Texas two days prior and another local radio amateur who was getting on the air after a long absence.

Mr. McCarthy, W1YT sent this recording directly to the "SS KING" where Mr. Ring was so overjoyed at the quality, he decided to improve on it by making a recording of storm and rain sounds and mixing the Morse code together with it.

I received my Last man standing "QSL" card

I watch Last Man Standing on TV with Tim Allen. Tim's character is KA0XTT. They have a small station set up that actually works since the director is an extra class HAM. Anyhow if you send them your QSL card Tim Allen will autograph "his card" and send it to you. (NO SASE NEEDED!) It is not a real call, they made it up but it does shows up on QRZ. The call is supposed to be a Colorado call and the XTT part is an inside joke that means X  T im T aylor from the old Home Improvement TV show. Just a "for fun" autographed card. Who knows your card may end up on his shack wall... 

Cad welding a tower ground system

I was asked by email to put this video back online. I made a short video showing how I connected a 2 inch wide copper strap to 16 - 8 foot ground rods forming my tower ground system. I still have all the step by step photos if anyone is interested in seeing those. (note you should wear a mask and not rely on the run for cover system)

New cubby holes for the boats

Picked up these used shelf units used at a great price. There are dividers in each one that are removable. A prefect place for these radios. The place is to hook them all up to run off the inverted "V". All I need is a switch, and make up a few jumpers.

6L6 Transmitter Part 4 Finished

Finished up the 6L6 Transmitter project this week end. What a fun ride that was. A project like this IS a learning experience. This view shows the completed wired components looking toward the back.

This view is wired  components looking toward the key jack. The Key jack ended up being faulty, so I had to swap it out with a new one. I could not figure out why I was not getting any out put from it. Elmer James found it. (good eye James) The jack had an extra part on it no doubt from someone Else's home brew project. I'll take that part off and use it for some thing else.

Finished 6L6 front side.

The back side showing the meter.

The finished pair on the bench. Power supply and Transmitter. I made a new set of Dials with bigger numbers, I think they look better.

Not too bad for an Amateur eh? A short video demo of the 6L6 Tune up.