Riassunto dell'episodio
Charlie Morris ZL2CTM is a New Zealand homebrewer and retired Air Force avionics technician who builds radios and electronics projects one module at a time on stripboard over a copper ground plane, housed in plastic food containers from the supermarket. His message is clear: you don’t need expensive PCBs, exotic components, or fancy enclosures to build something that works and gets you on the air.In this episode we talk through his modular construction approach, why understanding the circuit before you build it makes troubleshooting almost trivial, crystal filter design using cheap AliExpress crystals, what test equipment you actually need to get started, and his thoughts on using AI as a learning tool rather than a shortcut.Join us as we explore how you can get involved in portable radio, QRP, and more in this episode of the All Portable Discussion Zone (AP/DZ). Every aspect of portable operations is covered in this biweekly podcast, from news and gear to achievements, the workbench, contests, awards, and…
Charlie Morris ZL2CTM is a New Zealand homebrewer and retired Air Force avionics technician who builds radios and electronics projects one module at a time on stripboard over a copper ground plane, housed in plastic food containers from the supermarket. His message is clear: you don’t need expensive PCBs, exotic components, or fancy enclosures to build something that works and gets you on the air.In this episode we talk through his modular construction approach, why understanding the circuit before you build it makes troubleshooting almost trivial, crystal filter design using cheap AliExpress crystals, what test equipment you actually need to get started, and his thoughts on using AI as a learning tool rather than a shortcut.Join us as we explore how you can get involved in portable radio, QRP, and more in this episode of the All Portable Discussion Zone (AP/DZ). Every aspect of portable operations is covered in this biweekly podcast, from news and gear to achievements, the workbench, contests, awards, and…
Episodi
Build Your Own Radio Without Spending Big — Charlie ZL2CTM
AscoltatiCharlie Morris ZL2CTM is a New Zealand homebrewer and retired Air Force avionics technician who builds radios and electronics projects one module at a time on stripboard over a copper ground plane, housed in plastic food containers from the supermarket. His message is clear: you don’t need expensive PCBs, exotic components, or fancy enclosures to build something that works and gets you on the air.In this episode we talk through his modular construction approach, why understanding the circuit before you build it makes troubleshooting almost trivial, crystal filter design using cheap AliExpress crystals, what test equipment you actually need to get started, and his thoughts on using AI as a learning tool rather than a shortcut.Join us as we explore how you can get involved in portable radio, QRP, and more in this episode of the All Portable Discussion Zone (AP/DZ). Every aspect of portable operations is covered in this biweekly podcast, from news and gear to achievements, the workbench, contests, awards, and…
LC Meter from Scratch: Modernized with an Arduino
AscoltatiIn this Homebrew Workbench Roundtable, Tobias KK7BCO and I are joined by first-time guest Rishav, from Nepal, who recently completed his master's degree with research focused on relative navigation between two spacecraft and is soon to continue his work as a researcher in spacecraft guidance, navigation, and control (GNC).HECKT-DUINO is a homebrew Arduino-based LC meter that Tobias and Rishav have been collaborating on. The design traces its roots to Neil Heckt's article, "Build this self-calibrating LC meter to measure capacitance and inductance," published in the June 1996 issue of "Electronics Now".For this build, the software has been rewritten for the Arduino Pro Mini using the ATmega328P, with the aim of keeping the code open source, readable, and hackable. Rather than treating the instrument as a black box, the project makes both the hardware and software accessible to anyone who wants to understand how the meter actually works. Rishav walks through the analog circuitry in detail, breaking the design…
Inside the G QRP Club — Graham G3MFJ on George Dobbs & the Sudden Kits
AscoltatiGraham G3MFJ has been building electronics since neighbors started dropping off broken valve radios for him to fix as a child. Licensed since 1957, he eventually found his way to the G QRP Club through a friend (Tony G4WIF) who paid his first year's membership without asking, and ended up spending years as the club's treasurer and parts buyer — sourcing SA602s by the thousand and 2N3866 transistors by the hundreds to keep the Sudden kit line alive.In this episode we talk about his friendship with George Dobbs G3RJV, the founder of the G QRP Club, how the Sudden Receiver, Transmitter, and ATU kits came together, the homebrew test equipment book he wrote with Tony Fishpool, and a lifetime of building.Join us as we explore how you can get involved in portable radio, QRP, and more in this episode of the All Portable Discussion Zone (AP/DZ). Every aspect of portable operations is covered in this biweekly podcast, from news and gear to achievements, the workbench, contests, awards, and beyond.**SolderSmoke DISCORD…
Take the Homebrew Design. Make It Yours - Mike G3TSO
AscoltatiMike G3TSO has been licensed since 1964 and building since well before that. His philosophy is simple: find a design that does most of what you want, take it, modify it, and make it your own. It's how he went from crystal sets and valve receivers built from a library book called Fun With Radio, to miniature transceivers the size of a pencil box — and it's an approach he's been refining for over 60 years.In this episode Mike walks through his homebrew journey from a spark transmitter built at age 12 with no idea of the consequences, through decades of valve receiver builds, chassis fabrication, and his pencil box transceiver project. Along the way he shares why learning from disasters beats learning from successes, and why the best thing a builder can do is just start.Join us as we explore how you can get involved in portable radio, QRP, and more in this episode of the All Portable Discussion Zone (AP/DZ). Every aspect of portable operations is covered in this biweekly podcast, from news and gear to…
Homebrew ATUs & Matching Units for QRP — Peter HB9EBE
AscoltatiPeter HB9EBE has been building his own antenna matching units since getting back into ham radio about 10 years ago, and his approach is about as minimal as it gets. His go-to field tuner is a homebrew L-match built around a single toroid and polyvaricon, small enough to fit in a dental floss case and simple enough to build in 30 minutes. Combined with a QMX in a custom carbon fiber enclosure and a random wire on a 3D-printed spool, the whole station comes in under 400 grams.In this episode we dig into his homebrew matching unit designs, his antenna evolution from resonant end-feds to random wire, why he chose an L-match over other topologies for field use, and how he handles the tradeoffs of ultralight QRP construction when every gram counts.Join us as we explore how you can get involved in portable radio, QRP, and more in this episode of the All Portable Discussion Zone (AP/DZ). Every aspect of portable operations is covered in this biweekly podcast, from news and gear to achievements, the workbench,…