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This website attempts to place a lot of information where other hams can find it and I have no affiliation with any commercial company – I’m just an old-time HF ham, licensed in 1957. I also assist Peter Thornton, G6NGR, by distributing and co-writing the quarterly “Hot Iron“ newsletter for those who like to construct equipment and keep up with happenings published by other ham newsletters.
I can be reached by email at fbw4npn@gmail.com and am located in Chapel Hill (FM05lv), a town in central North Carolina, home to the great University of North Carolina, founded in 1789 and which is the nation’s oldest land-grant university.
11/7/2024: I found a nearly museum cosmetic condition Heathkit SB-1000 Linear Amplifier (uses a 3-500Z) at the local dump and brought it home. Jump to this page for a needed repair, and some upgrades to be implemented before putting it in service.
A project on my workbench is to build a single-813 500 watt linear from junkbox parts. I have everything I need except for the time to do it. It was originally a 2 x 813 project but my new pacemaker doesn’t want to be exposed to quite so much RF. A 500 watt unit is OK, however.
The Heath SB-1000 will take precedence over the 813 project but I’ll eventually finish both (I hope). Perhaps then I’ll put the SB-1000 up for sale at a modest price – how many linear amps does one need?
10/27/2024 An update to the Field Strength Meter page has been added. Look for the FSM page, found under the “Antennas” main menu selection.
8/3/2024 A link to YO3DAC’s huge collection of RF circuit designs has been added to the “Resources” menu choice. A link to WD8DAS’ “Shop Manual” has been added to the “Construction” menu selection. A page about RF exposure and Cardiac Pacemakers has been added under “Resources.”
I retired at age 70, am now nearly 84, with more time for radio projects even though retirement is vastly more busy than I expected, with charity work, home maintenance and family activities.
My first license was a Dutch one, in 1957, when I was 16, on the Dutch island of Aruba where I was born and lived for my first seventeen years (my father was a refinery manager there for the old ESSO oil company (now EXXON)).
I had a very lucky beginning to my radio hobby. We Aruba residents listened to short wave broadcasts each night (WRUL, Back Bay Boston!) and often to other stations during the day, as there was no TV in the 1940’s and early 1950’s and no significant newspaper. I was hooked on short wave as a child.
Once my interest in short wave was known, a local resident gave me a dead ten year old Hallicrafters SX-24. A new audio tube and some work on the bandswitch brought it back to life and I was so proud of that radio!
Another resident gave me the chassis of another SW radio from which I pulled enough parts for a power supply, oscillator and a 6V6 final amplifier which I used on 20 meters with no concern (or knowledge) of what an SWR was or for the keying tone or the oscillator’s stability. The output fed into a flat Vee antenna aimed at Europe and laid right on a flat coral plain. But it worked. My best calculation was that it put out about 2 watts but I worked a lot of stations with that in the evening. The sunspot gods were with me in those days.
My first U.S. license was obtained in 1958. I do not have a technical education, so I’ve learned my bad electronics habits and misinformation on my own.
Although sometimes inactive while at university and during part of a 26 year U.S. Navy career, I always kept a short wave receiver with me. During 1971 – 1972, I operated as KM6DY (Midway Island) and later as WA3TNJ, including some Mediterranean maritime mobile operating. I was not permitted to operate while stationed in Saudi Arabia and Greece and the Greeks confiscated my Hammarlund SP-600 receiver that I had rescued from a U.S. Navy junkyard. After retiring from the Navy I had a 20 year career at a major healthcare system and resumed operating as W4NPN on a limited basis.
While on Midway, I built a 4-1000A linear amp from parts salvaged from an old 10KW AM beacon transmitter the navy was getting ready to dump into the ocean. The Navy let me use their sheet metal shop to build cabinets and other metal objects from aluminum I salvaged from this old xmtr. I used that linear amp for over 30 years until the overworked power transformer shorted, then I disassembled it and gave away most parts.
On Midway I used an early-model Yaesu FT-101 feeding a roof-mounted home-made 3-band vertical and a 270′ long wire antenna. These worked very well in that quiet RF environment.
So no QRO for me now; just 100 watts input from a little Yaesu 840 or 14 watts from my 6AG7-6AG7-6L6 homebrew xmtr. But I have a couple of 813 tubes and they are beckoning me.
I also have a bunch of 807’s and am thinking of rebuilding the 6L6 xmtr as a 6AG7-6AG7-2×807 xmtr, with variable drive so it can run from near zero watts to about 150 watts input. A single small xmtr like this will be enough. I expect to Cathode Modulate it (yes, I know that’s not efficient, but it sure is easy).
I don’t operate much – I like to listen to 20 and 40m CW on home brew tube and solid-state regenerative receivers or on my Drake 2A receiver, fiddle with parts and build stuff, a mixture of tube and analog solid state equipment.
I’m not very good at CW but I try…quite slow. I need to install CW read/write software on my shop PC.
I have a walk-out basement shop about 19′ x 10′ which is a comfortable size for all my junk important electronic stuff. I share it with the water heater and some plumbing. But it is marginally air-conditioned and heated, quiet and private so it’s OK; sort of a junky man-cave. Emphasis on “junky,” according to some.
This is a simple website that attempts to provide a lot of information to the ham radio community and which also hosts the Hot Iron quarterly newsletters.