My scratch-build of the Wilderness Radio SST20 has been a great success. I’m not a very active operator but have had 18 QSO’s on it so far, running it into a horizontal loaded dipole (a Buddipole) at 25 feet. The furthest was Hawaii at about 2350 miles distant, followed closely by Midland, PA at about […]
When building the SST for 20M, my plan was to kit it out with a paddle, battery, and an easily deployable antenna, and head for the hills. That’s still the plan. I don’t operate portable very often, preferring the comfort of the operating position in my small apartment, where I can make as many drinks […]
Note – all links in this post open in a new browser window. Many thanks to Zach N0ZGO, for providing updated links. I have edited this article to reflect them. Thank you Zach! I’ve been wanting to build an SST for a few years now. It’s a plucky little rig, with a lot of character. […]
Several months ago, Georges F6DFZ sent me pictures of a Manhattan project he had just completed, using Rex’s MeSQUARES, and I have waited far too long to share it with you. It began life as a copy of the Ten Tec 1253 regen, but George said that the results and usability were very poor. One […]
I have been meaning to write a post featuring the inspiring construction work of John N8RVE for almost a year now but sadly, am only able to think about one thing at a time, and The Sproutie MK II took up a lot of space in my head last year. Then, after finishing that, my […]
Note – this blog-post discusses the use of the 13553 – 13567KHz band under FCC Part 15 regulations in the US. Although it is a worldwide allocation, rules vary according to where you are. Off the top of my head, I do know that there are HiFER beacons operating in some countries on the European […]
Someone recently left a comment on one of my older blog-posts asking if I could go into a little more detail about my construction techniques. It’s a question I’ve been asked a few times and although I have never detailed them in one post, if you were to read the posts for my main construction […]
A query I hear from time to time about using copper-plated boards for Manhattan construction is what they look like after a few months or years. “How do they age?” is the question. My first such project, the WBR, was housed in an enclosure made from double-sided PCB material, and I could see that the […]
Since finishing The Sproutie MK II and publishing the blog-post on it a few weeks ago, I have been listening to it, winding an extra coil or two, and also attempting to tweak the active audio filters. Coverage of The Sproutie is now up to 18.3MHz, and while I know from previous experience that it […]
Note – If you have read this article before and are checking back in, it would be a good idea to clear your cache, to ensure that you are viewing the very latest version of this post. I do add material and make corrections from time to time. It’s been about a year since I […]
Dave Richards AA7EE 