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Blog
Make It Tea
9 Post(s) for July 2026
| Arduino Project | 10/07/26 23:15 BST | John Pumford-Green | radio, arduino, qrss, homebrew |
| Soldersmoke | 10/07/26 22:40 BST | John Pumford-Green | radio, soldersmoke, podcast |
| Shack To Makerspace | 09/07/26 22:40 BST | John Pumford-Green | radio, shack |
| Some QRSS Grabs | 09/07/26 13:08 BST | John Pumford-Green | radio, qrss, qmx, grabber |
| QRSS | 08/07/26 11:33 BST | John Pumford-Green | radio, qrss, qrp, qmx, knightsqrss |
| QMX Two Way QSO | 06/07/26 11:17 BST | John Pumford-Green | radio, qmx, qrp, cw |
| Radio Clubs | 05/07/26 17:08 BST | John Pumford-Green | radio, radio club, q-qrp-c, fists, cw |
| Antenna Changes | 05/07/26 08:52 BST | John Pumford-Green | radio, antenna, qrp |
| Radio Update - QRP etc | 02/07/26 10:05 BST | John Pumford-Green | radio, cw, qrp, qmx |
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Arduino Project
I dabbled with Arduino to build some small projects back in 2021, mostly using the SI5351 PLL chip.
Soldersmoke
I've recently been revisiting the Soldersmoke Podcast. I remember listening to it in its early days, and on and off in the intervening years. I didn't realize that it's been running no for over 20 years!
Before I started to listen to the more recent episodes I thought I'd go back and find the early ones,
Shack To Makerspace
I used to have a radio-shack in the house, with component drawers on the walls, a filing cabinet to keep tools, parts, hardware etc.
I built things and operated radios.
Some QRSS Grabs
I ran the QMX in QRSS FSKCW at 1W on 30m this morning for an hour or so.
I saw my signal on 3 grabbers:
- LA5GOA : JO29oi, Visnes on Karmoy, Norway https://la5goa.manglet.net/grabber/
- SA6BSS : JO68sc, Sweden https://www.qsl.net/sa6bss/
- SO5CW : KO01mw, nr Warsaw, Poland https://fkurz.net/ham/qrss/
QRSS
I've been running my QMX on WSPR, using its DigiMode and the USB interface to a laptop running WSJT-X, when I'm not using for real QSOs.
But I got to thinking “is that all there is?”
QMX Two Way QSO
I was tuning around last night, after adding the 40m trap to turn my EFHW Inverted-L into a dual band 40n/30m antenna, on 40m.
On 7030kHz I heard a CQ from G4NNJ and I replied. It took a couple of tries but then we got into a QSO.
Allan told me he was using a QMX and EFWH…
Radio Clubs
I've been a member of the G-QRP Club on and off since the early 1980s. I let my membership lapse for several years, after starting work, getting married etc…., while I wasn't active in the hobby. I rejoined after I came back into the hobby in the early 2000s. It took some digging to find my original membership number.
Antenna Changes
Now that I'm turning my attention back to QRP I decided that the antenna I've used for many years - an Inverted-L held up by (over the years) different supports, and currently a 10m SOTA-pole with the top few sections removed - tuned against a mess of radials and ground rods by a CG-3000 Auto-ATU - was due for a change.
Radio Update - QRP etc
After setting up a basic station in the small “office” - just one rig and my keys - I decided to make a “real” hamshack with more radios, some tools, test equipment etc.
I added two shelves above the desk to hold radios, PSUs, 'scope, tools etc. I've now got a “one-desk shack” that can be used for operating on air and building & repairing equipment (on a small scale)
The Fediverse
I restarted my amateur radio hobby recently, on a small scale, just HF CW.
I had a QSO with Julian G4VHJ on 30m CW and he reminded me of the You Tube videos I'd made a few years ago when I was fairly active on CW and making You Tube videos of CW QSOs seemed a nice niche thing to do.
