Perfect CW speaker

This little design is by KD1JV, Steve Weber:

I haven't built this yet-- but I want to. The way it sounds is that this would be the perfect speaker to go in my shack, as I am about a 90% CW only op and my old HW-8 (not to mention my bad hearing) needs all the help it can get.

The design of the speaker is tuned to peak at a 600Hz tone and then attenuates other frequencies to help you in crowded band conditions etc.

I have been drooling over this little design for a few weeks and I intend to build it soon. Steve Weber,KD1JV does a fantastic job as a designer; and I have loved the items of his design I have used.

Check out this awesome speaker at this link.

KE7WAV

Homebrew Norcal Doublet

I normally bring my coax through this window, but the winter months have made it a little more difficult. Now I know I should just break down and drill a hole and bring the coax into the house. I am waiting until we build an addition on the house, when I can build in a little closet to be my shack. Until that time I have opened the window. Some nights it is so cold I have to borrow my wife's hair dryer to thaw the window.

After a little research I decided to spend about $2.00 for a "winter" antenna. I reseached the Norcal Doublet and made one using speaker wire. As you can see from the picture below it goes right through the closed window without any problem. I can use it QRP or QRO. It is not a perfect antenna but allows me to get on the air during those frigid nights when the window won't budge.

Another added bonus is that this is a very stealth antenna. It doesn't perform as well a fullsize dipole, but on its first two QSO's I got MO and MN from Utah on 40 Meters in the middle of a winter day! Not a bad start for a $2 antenna!

Tayloe SWR Indicator

I recently purchased a kits from Doug Hendricks of qrpkits.com which was a great little kit. With good instructions and a great board. It was very easy to build and very professionally kitted.

I installed it into my tuner. The Tayloe Indicator is QRP only, but by switching to the operate position I can still use the tuner for my QRO rig.

It was a fun and inexpensive ---and a very good addition to my shack.

This kit is currently available at qrpkits.com

The Swan 500C

I got a chance to use this wonderful old boat anchor while visiting my son recently.  It is a Swan 500c and what a great old rig.  There is nothing like the glow of tubes in the shack!  If you look closely in the photo you will see my son's idea of a quick cootie key.  It was made from an unused mousetrap, a paperclip, an eyelet, and some other parts he had laying around the house.  After 10 minutes worth of work he had his first portable, and very cheap, sideswipper.  That is half of the fun in ham radio, building something from what you have laying around and getting on the air talking with an operator halfway around the world!

My First Rig

My first rig was one of the classic Heathkit QRP rigs.  The infamous HW-8.  I built it from a kit and it was a great little radio.  My kids still remember sitting around the desk, or kitchen table, or inside my old Datsun on a hill top, listening to the sounds of code while Dad said shhh and copied frantically trying to make contacts.  These days my son, KE7WAV, still operates an old HW-8.  The picture above is his slightly modified QRP.