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I know there are solderless breadboards made of transparent plastic so that you can see the internal conductors, but has anyone ever seen perfboard or protoboard made from transparent or close to transparent translucent material?
I realize a lot of transparent plastic sheet material would be damaged by soldering temperatures, but fiberglass with no pigment added might be clear enough to see what’s on the other side of the board when doing something to one side, perhaps when working on a non-blindingly-bright light table.
I can’t be the first person who’s wanted to see both sides of the board at once. I suppose a fallback, which might require more hand-eye coordination, would be a video camera pointed at the other side, or a mirror. (Hmm, I should get a mirror anyway to see when someone is sneaking up behind me when I’m on the radio.)
FWIW, I here are a few things that are useful for running buses across perfboard:
(1) Something I’d forgotten about, Vector’s pins that can be inserted into holes in the board. Some pins are meant for wire-wrapping, but others have holes in them through which you can run a bus (or other) wire. This page has some nice pictures of the pins in use: http://lucianifamily.org/getting-it-done/assembly-hints/assembly-hints-index.html#breadboard-hints (I wish they had included side and end views of the board too.)
(2) Narrow metal bus strips with holes every 0.1 inch. I remember using these for wirewrap boards, but they could be used on perfboard too. For example: https://www.newark.com/vector-electronics/t107-10/terminal-bus-strip/dp/90H9856
(3) Vertical dual-conductor “bus” strips with pairs of pins: https://www.electronicsurplus.com/unmarked-4-143-dual-bus-bar-9-l-0-10-x-0-50-spacing (I haven’t seen these in actual use.)
I found some information on the current-carrying capacity of stripboard tracks. This person’s math says 5.4A, and more if you ‘tin’ the tracks (put a layer of solder over them). Of course it is wise to put a lot less current through a track than the maximum. Be careful. I really have seen printed circuit boards from computers where the copper etch acted as a fuse and was blasted off of the circuit board!
Raw data on the copper used on Veroboard:
http://pdfs.findtheneedle.co.uk/12420..pdf
http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/10822.pdf
Raw data on the copper used on a Velleman board:
https://www.vellemanusa.com/products/view/?id=524765
As for using wire, any recent edition of the ARRL Handbook has a table of wire gauges with the current carrying capacities.
I got my first QSL card from an SWL [short-wave listener] through the W1 QSL buro!
Many hams start out listening to the radio for professional or amateur stations before they try 2-way communications (I did) and in some countries documenting your receiving ability is a required step before getting a license to transmit. Some people pursue SWL by itself for fun or the challenge — all the same reasons we do amateur radio — and there are SWL contests. Therefore, if someone hears your QSO with a third station, and sends you an SWL QSO card, it is nice to send them a confirmation card back.
[I know someone who builds very narrow, specialized filters so he can SWL DX weak, unmanned Non-Directional Beacons at airports in VERY remote places, but since they are unmanned, they don’t ever reply to his QSL cards. 😉 ]
First, check your log to make sure you did have a contact on that band, at that time, with the third station that is probably on the SWL card. Then fill out your card as you normally would, with the SWL’s call sign where you would normally put the call of the station you worked. Elsewhere on your card, write “worked” and the call of the third station. Leave RS(T) blank because you didn’t hear the SWL station, cross out “2-way”, and otherwise fill out the card normally with the date & time (UTC), band or frequency, and mode.
If they sent the card through the buro system, you should be able to send your card back the same way. Or maybe you can send it directly back via the post office if the SWL card says that’s okay. Note that you won’t find them listed in QRZ.COM (unless they are also have a ham license and include that call sign on their card.)
Does anyone else have something to add to, or correct in, the above?
Has anyone else gotten interesting cards from SWLs?
Almost any project, homebrew or kit, more complicated than a crystal radio, will probably require soldering. And while you can still do a lot with discrete & through-hole devices, someday you may want to learn to solder surface-mount devices. When you do, be sure to check out our Tech Night video library for information.
In addition, there is a very well illustrated tutorial on surface-mount soldering on pp 35-42 of the July 2010 issue of Everyday Practical Electronics.
The British magazine Practical Electronics (formerly Everyday Practical Electronics; available in PDF [so you can avoid trans-Atlantic shipping] as well as hardcopy) will only sell back issues from the last 5 years. However, their online resources for the projects in the magazine go back further, here and here and here, in case you find a project in it that you want to build.
The magazine’s online resources page mentioned above also has links to PIC tutorials, and as you probably know, PICs are used in a number of ham radio applications, especially keyers.
What tipped me off was this editorial, which recommends a well illustrated book, The Basic Soldering Guide. (Make magazine and other publishers also have introductory books on soldering which may be available at local bookstores and You-Do-It as well as the usual on-line places. And of course there are on-line videos as Miguel mentioned above.)
While these resources aren’t specific to ham radio, they all look worth checking out.
As one could have guessed, Wikipedia (currently) has a list of 7400-Series “families” and some of the characteristics of each family:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7400-series_integrated_circuits
as well as a list of actual parts:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_7400-series_integrated_circuitsI’ve never been there, but if it isn’t obvious, HT & phone chargers, extra batteries if you have them, EchoLink info if you use it, repeater guide (or look them up ahead to program), notebooks, pencils, voice recorder if you have one and like to take notes that way, maybe sun screen & first aid kit & Gator Aid or equivalent like for Field Day, death ray in case of alien invasion. Spare socks and shoes in case they get soaked unexpectedly. (A coworker on a business trip found this out the hard way.) Have fun!
A list of ham (and other radio & electronics) flea markets in New England is maintained by [email protected] at http://web.mit.edu/w1gsl/Public/ne-fleas. Details on the one held at MIT is at http://w1mx.mit.edu/flea-at-mit/.
Remember the usual caveats when buying used equipment: Make sure you know how to contact the buyer if you have a problem; make sure there is a money-back guarantee; try to have a ham you trust who is experienced with the sort of equipment you’re interested in help you evaluate it before purchase; etc.
When I first got my General and then Extra class licenses, I made up these “reference cards” for the voice segments of the bands I had antennas for — two on my HT and one on my HF rig. Eventually I filled it out to include the other bands that I want to work as I expand my antenna farm. It doesn’t have all of the information on the ARRL band plan charts, just what I wanted to have at hand while operating, and with much larger type to make it easier for me to read. Originally the background colors in the rows were to highlight the bands I actually used, but later I got carried away. Anyway, you’re more than welcome to download the files, adapt them to your own operating style, and print them out to keep near your rig. If you find that you forget to stay 3kHz below the upper end of the SSB part of the band for USB bands, and 3kHZ above the lower end of the SSB band for LSB bands, you can bake that in my adjusting the numbers. If you want to make CW or digital or DX sub-band versions, please do! You will probably want to adjust the font and the colors to make it easier to read or more meaningful to you, or remove the colors and maybe try a replacement for them if you use a B&W laser printer. If you’re a Technician, or know a Technician who could use this reminder until they’ve got their bands down pat, you can make up a Technician version. You can add other bands, or even broadcast or emergency service bands if you’d like. I used LibreOffice on Linux to create these but they are .docx files so a relatively recent version of MS-Word should work too. Enjoy!