Brewing Up Some Fun

Thought for the day:  Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.  [Mary Lou Cook]

[THEME: Amateur radio]

Today, it's all about HOMEBREW.

Um, not THIS kind.

Well, yeah, I suppose amateur radio operators could brew their own adult beverages, but the kind of homebrew I'm talking about is equipment ... equipment they build with a healthy dollop of ingenuity, odds and ends from their junk boxes, and their own two hands. (Or perhaps with an all-parts-included kit, and a keen ability to follow instructions.)

In the early days of radio, amateurs had little recourse but to build their own stuff. Very little was available commercially, and what was available was too high-dollar for most to afford. So amateur radio enthusiasts started out with a can-do do-it-yourself attitude that remains with many in the hobby today. 

I'm no master builder, but I've even built a few things.

Like this simple crystal set. And I only bloodied my fingers a little bit while unkinking and winding the wire around that piece of PVC pipe, too. (My helpful hubby told me after the fact that I should've fed the wire through a vice.) Anyhow, a crystal set is easy enough for a child to build, and hey! It's "free radio!" (Man, I need to get the "maid" to dust that thing!)

I've also built a 20M CW receiver and matching transmitter. That was a lot of fun, too, because I had to learn how to differentiate the components, and even got to be pretty darned good with a soldering iron. Once they were completed, and we verified that they actually worked (!) I set them aside. Where they are now? Beats me. For me, the fun was in the building. The only other thing I've ever built was a really neat antenna to use for fox hunting. That was fun, too, but I ended up donating it to an auction to raise money for a scholarship. Surprised me. Once the guys learned I was the one who built it, some of them actually WANTED it. How cool is that? A "bidding war" just because their "illustrious" Section Manager built the thing. Still amazes me.

But my husband is the REAL builder in the family. He can build darned near anything, and has an extensive collection of  equipment and parts. (A junk box extraordinaire.) When a visiting South African ham toured our house,  his eyes got bigger and bigger, and he kept saying, "Holy cow!"  Finally he declared, "Radio Shack must send people to YOU!" 

At left is an antenna tuner my hubby built. Cool, huh? That's a shot of it from the front.










                                                  And here's a picture of it from the TOP ...

Yeah, he built it on a wooden toilet seat lid. (He has a wacky sense of humor, too, which is one of the reasons we get along so well.)

This is a less-than-stellar shot of one of the more-than-stellar amplifiers he built. It is B-I-G and with the tubes he put in it, should pretty much last forever.

But amateur radio projects don't have to be B-I-G. Many hams enjoy building tiny CW transmitters inside of Altoids cans, and if you can believe it,  in even smaller containers than that. These little transmitters are for operating QRP, or low power. (around 5 watts) Some transmit on even less power, and that's called  QRPP. (I know. Makes me giggle, too.)

Amateurs love to build and experiment with antennas, too. This picture appeared on our radio club's Facebook page, and the fella who posted it gave me permission to use it. It was taken in the '50s of his wife's uncle, playing with an antenna he'd built and designed.

Today's amateurs have access to all kinds of equipment, both new and used. Some radio clubs even have loaner radios to help new hams get on the air. So, bottom line is, nobody HAS to build his own equipment nowadays. But then again, nobody HAS to make his own wine, either. But for a lot of people, homebrewing is too darned much fun to resist.