I’m not an ICU doctor, and I’m retired, but watching some of the
presentations recently have brought out some rather fascinating insights


People tend to die when they’re put on the ventilators. One possible
reason is that oxygen is really bad in many ways for this disease. It
allows continued destruction of lung tissue and decreases systems in the
body that tend to control an out of control immune response

It was observed that people may do better if you use the most modest
amount of oxygen possible.

They called them happy hypoxic’s. Blue as all get out but still doing OK

So in retrospect some of the things we have done will eventually turn
out to be counterproductive

This is a really bad disease for overweight people, a situation that I
resemble.

Another interesting factor seems to be that Africa is doing
astonishingly well. Why ??? There’s something important there. Does
it have something to do with anti-malarial‘s?

There has been an awful lot of political interference with just giving
medical care in the United States. I am astonished at how some people
behave.

Such is life. I’m also studying the impact of Stalin. never knew much
about the guy. Learning a lot now.

On Apr 27, 2021, at 18:09, Arv Evans <arvid.evans@...> wrote:

?
Thanks Gordon. That clarifies a lot. Next question: Are cheap
ventilators
still needed...in the US, in India, or elsewhere?

What is the next step...if any?

Arv
_._


On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 3:50 PM Gordon Gibby <docvacuumtubes@...
<mailto:docvacuumtubes@...>> wrote:

Well let me see if I can straighten a few things out.

I’m not completely sure about the website not being updated but I
think we had to freeze the design and there was some concern about
some thing about you can’t release stuff outside of your release
to the FDA?

We had a outside group advising us on how to present material to
the FDA. In retrospect, I think we made some wrong turns there.

I wasn’t really in charge of that aspect but I would have urged
for much earlier telephone calls to and from the FDA
representative to straighten out exactly what they wanted. There
was a lot of concern expressed by others that any conversations
with the FDA would just lead to mountains of additional
documentation required.

I don’t think the actual events support the conclusion at all. I
may be wrong, but I think dad and I and others developed features
that the FDA simply didn’t want and eventually had to be stripped
out to get it down to the simple thing that the FDA did want, and
that cost us precious time.


Acting on a guess as to the FDA’s desires there was a choice to
try to find a manufacturer which I think hurt us badly. Again
here I think if we could do it over again we would have spent more
time just talking to the FDA and less time guessing their requests.


The major problem with the submission was that we had to jump a
lot of hurdles merely to find all of the standards that they
wanted us to certify compliance with. I screamed loud and hard
that we couldn’t do anything without those standards document— A
lot of the standards organizations charge a ton of money in order
to make money for themselves but one of our group was able to
discover ways to get us just about every standard we needed.

Oh my heavens above, I spent hours and hours reading these
standards and answering really simple and stupid questions about
our certification to those.

My background included both medicine and engineering, so I was
able to answer things lickety-split. others in the team were much
more cautious, overly so I believe, and moved much more slowly to
answer the reams of questions that we had to answer in the
certification questions.


Again, my observation of the FDA was that they actually were
bending over backwards, but the delays that our team sometimes
caused themselves due to overcautiousness, pushed us past the
initial Histeria and the final submission did not occur until
people were much less interested.


It’s just my opinion but had we known that we could talk much more
freely with the FDA people, I think we would not have done much of
the exotic development that I personally did and we would have
submitted a much simpler design six weeks earlier and gotten it
approved. We were just operating in the dark. None of us had
ever dealt with the FDA before and people were terrified.


There was a huge problem that I tried to tackle that we had zero
legal protection for our volunteer developers and since most of us
no longer worked for the University of Florida, we were going to
be left hanging in the wind. I put a several day stop to the
work until the lawyers gave us some legal protection! Never
again will I begin a project for a university without demanding
legal protection from the get-go. The lawyers at UF actually did
Hercules an effort to get us protection, but they actually had to
run background checks on the list of people that I submit it,
because they were concerned for legal liability if they offer
protection to a known felons!

They did all of that in the background and got that back to us
within I think two or three days. I was very impressed and I think
in the end those lawyers deserve a lot of appreciation. It was
our stupidity to begin without having these legal items taken care of.


We had a wide range of skills working on this project. Some people
had vast experience covering lots of different areas, and others
were much more narrow in their expertise. The incredible hysteria
over the virus caused huge problems for us, with University of
Florida refusing access and refusing some persons even to be on
campus to work on this project. Some fairly surreptitiously
activities took place to try to get this project moved forward.
The number of people who stood up to help us is just
extraordinary. I was on the campus, and even much more so over
the Internet.

In the end, I think the FDA created a rather difficult system, but
had we more experience dealing with them I think we could’ve
gotten through it six weeks earlier and had a big success.

On Apr 27, 2021, at 15:59, Jack, W8TEE via groups.io
<> <jjpurdum@...
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:

?
Arv:

Off topic, but one of my grad school buddies took a job in DC at
a small agency. A few months into the job, the director of the
agency came around and told everyone to let the "In Box" stack up
for the next few days. A few days later they had a "surprise
audit" by the GOA. The director took the opportunity to plead for
more workers because, as they could see by the In Boxes, they
were swamped. He got more workers.

When I asked why (remember we were econ students), he said:
First, there is zero reward to being efficient. Second, your
position on the DC Social Ladder was a function of how many
people you managed. The unimportance of efficiency is not unique
to Capitalism. My Comparative Systems prof spent two years in
Russia and became close friends with a Soviet bureaucrat who ran
a major rail line. When he was coming close to the end of the
current Five Year Plan, he was extremely short of his metric
ton/miles quota. No problem. He loaded up 400 gondola cars with
rocks and ran them back and forth between Moscow and Vladivostok
until he surpassed his quota. He was rewarded for exceeding his
quota.

I think there is a lot of similar crap going on in DC.

Jack, W8TEE

On Tuesday, April 27, 2021, 3:46:39 PM EDT, Arv Evans
<arvid.evans@... <mailto:arvid.evans@...>> wrote:


Jack

Maybe Pogo was right "*We have found the enemy, and he are us!*".
After all the FDA as a government entity is just the government
employees that we hired to do things in our name! 8-) 8-)

Arv
_._


On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 1:35 PM Jack, W8TEE via groups.io
<> <jjpurdum@...
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:

Arv:

I really don't know. All I know is that things were
progressing rapidly and I know Gordon had one working on his
coffee table! Then everything was turned over to the U of F
team so they could take care of all of the paperwork. After
that, the web site literally died. The last post that I have
saved was back in September. It probably didn't help that the
UF team's leader got frustrated with the rest of us and quit
"to write game code". His absence may have hurt the effort in
FL. Perhaps Gordon knows more...

Jack, W8TEE

On Tuesday, April 27, 2021, 3:20:43 PM EDT, Arv Evans
<arvid.evans@... <mailto:arvid.evans@...>> wrote:


Jack

Seemed that things died just after being submitted to the
University
of Florida. Was this killed by the FDA, or by the University
of Florida?
While it doesn't matter much now, it could be that politics
and funding
in academia contributed to the project's demise.

Might there be interest in India in taking over the project
(and willingness
at the University of Florida to release the information) so
that they (India)
could build their own ventilators?

To comment on an earlier comment...It only seems like the US
is the first
to be ask for help, but that is because our view from the US
makes it
seem that way. When anyone needs help the US politicians
automatically
give press conferences that make it seem like they are going
to do
something. But it rarely happens, is too little, too late,
or nothing happens.
If you observe this from a different country the view is
quite different.
Been there, done that.

Arv
_._


On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 11:36 AM Jack, W8TEE via groups.io
<> <jjpurdum@...
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:

Bob:

I've read back through the posts and did not find anyone
who said the FDA prevented other countries from using the
ventilator developed here. I am the owner of the
Ventilator group site you mentioned and worked with
Farhan and Gordon on the ventilator. Things moved along
quickly until the design was sent to the U of F medical
team who were preparing the documents for FDA. Somewhere
in that process, everything just died. I still think
glaciers move faster than the FDA on almost everything
except budget requests. If other countries want to use
the ventilator, seeing a "waiting for FDA approval"
whether they need it or not, is still an impediment. With
tens of thousands of people dying worldwide at the time,
I do not understand why FDA couldn't kick itself in the
ass and get things done.
--
Jack, W8TEE


--
Jack, W8TEE


--
Jack, W8TEE

On Apr 27, 2021, at 19:27, Jerry Gaffke via groups.io <jgaffke@...> wrote:

?Perhaps a warm climate, life lived outdoors or in extremely well ventilated buildings?
Studies first started showing up about a year ago showing that Covid19 transmission
was primarily airborne, and seldom transmitted out-of-doors with no physical contact..
Hence the somewhat delayed "no masks needed outdoors" mandate from the CDC.

On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 03:38 PM, Gordon Gibby wrote:

Another interesting factor seems to be that Africa is doing astonishingly well. ?Why ???

On Apr 27, 2021, at 6:18 PM, Bill Cromwell <wrcromwell@...> wrote:

?Hi,

Clorox and other brands of chlorine bleach are hydrochloric acid. I am going try that. I have also etched metal in apple cider vinegar to remove rust.

73,

Bill KU8H

bark less - wag more

On 4/27/21 4:22 PM, Mark - N7EKU wrote:
Hi,

I switched a long time ago to the hydrogen peroxide method. I use hydrogen peroxide from the drug store combined with HCl, hydrochloric acid. The acid is available at hardware stores, sold as concrete etchant/cleaner.

This method is really nice for a lot of reasons. It doesn't stain things like ferric chloride does. It's a light green colored clear solution, so it's very easy to inspect your etching as it goes. I use a clear glass plastic box and put a strong light underneath so you can see the traces perfectly.

Also, I've never tossed any of the solution yet. You can just keep using it over and over again. If it get's real slow, I just add a pinch more peroxide.

I also use the magazine paper for toner transfer. The paper needs to be what is called "clay coated", which is what gives magazine paper the glossy smooth look. You can buy blank paper like that, but using magazine paper is one of the three R's (re-use!)

73,


Mark

Another interesting factor seems to be that Africa is doing astonishingly well. ?Why ???

Hi,

I switched a long time ago to the hydrogen peroxide method.? I use hydrogen peroxide from the drug store combined with HCl, hydrochloric acid.? The acid is available at hardware stores, sold as concrete etchant/cleaner.

This method is really nice for a lot of reasons.? It doesn't stain things like ferric chloride does.? It's a light green colored clear solution, so it's very easy to inspect your etching as it goes.? I use a clear glass plastic box and put a strong light underneath so you can see the traces perfectly.

Also, I've never tossed any of the solution yet.? You can just keep using it over and over again.? If it get's real slow, I just add a pinch more peroxide.

I also use the magazine paper for toner transfer.? The paper needs to be what is called "clay coated", which is what gives magazine paper the glossy smooth look.? You can buy blank paper like that, but using magazine paper is one of the three R's (re-use!)

73,


Mark

On Apr 27, 2021, at 18:09, Arv Evans <arvid.evans@...> wrote:

?

Thanks Gordon.? That clarifies a lot.? Next question: Are cheap ventilators

still needed...in the US, in India, or elsewhere?

What is the next step...if any?

Arv

_._

On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 3:50 PM Gordon Gibby <docvacuumtubes@...> wrote:

Well let me see if I can straighten a few things out.

I’m not completely sure about the website not being updated but I think we had to freeze the design and there was some concern about some thing about you can’t release stuff outside of your release to the FDA? ??

We had a outside group advising us on how to present material to the FDA. In retrospect, I think we made some wrong turns there. ?

I wasn’t really in charge of that aspect but I would have urged for much earlier telephone calls to and from the FDA representative to straighten out exactly what they wanted.? There was a lot of concern expressed by others that any conversations with the FDA would just lead to mountains of additional documentation required. ?

I don’t think the actual events support the conclusion at all. ? I may be wrong, but I think dad and I and others developed features that the FDA simply didn’t want and eventually had to be stripped out to get it down to the simple thing that the FDA did want, and that cost us precious time.

Acting on a guess as to the FDA’s desires there was a choice to try to find a manufacturer which I think hurt us badly. ? Again here I think if we could do it over again we would have spent more time just talking to the FDA and less time guessing their requests.

The major problem with the submission was that we had to jump a lot of hurdles merely to find all of the standards that they wanted us to certify compliance with. I screamed loud and hard that we couldn’t do anything without those standards document— A lot of the standards organizations charge a ton of money in order to make money for themselves but one of our group was able to discover ways to get us just about every standard we needed.

Oh my heavens above, I spent hours and hours reading these standards and answering really simple and stupid questions about our certification to those.

My background included both medicine and engineering, so I was able to answer things lickety-split. ?others in the team were much more cautious, overly so I believe, and moved much more slowly to answer the reams of questions that we had to answer in the certification questions.

Again, my observation of the FDA was that they actually were bending over backwards, but the delays that our team sometimes caused themselves due to overcautiousness, pushed us past the initial Histeria and the final submission did not occur until people were much less interested. ??

It’s just my opinion but had we known that we could talk much more freely with the FDA people, I think we would not have done much of the exotic development that I personally did and we would have submitted a much simpler design six weeks earlier and gotten it approved. ? We were just operating in the dark. None of us had ever dealt with the FDA before and people were terrified.?

There was a huge problem that I tried to tackle that we had zero legal protection for our volunteer developers and since most of us no longer worked for the University of Florida, we were going to be left hanging in the wind. ? I put a several day stop to the work until the lawyers gave us some legal protection! ? Never again will I begin a project for a university without demanding legal protection from the get-go.? The lawyers at UF actually did Hercules an effort to get us protection, but they actually had to run background checks on the list of people that I submit it, because they were concerned for legal liability if they offer protection to a known felons!

They did all of that in the background and got that back to us within I think two or three days. I was very impressed and I think in the end those lawyers deserve a lot of appreciation. ? It was our stupidity to begin without having these legal items taken care of.

We had a wide range of skills working on this project. Some people had vast experience covering lots of different areas, and others were much more narrow in their expertise. The incredible hysteria over the virus caused huge problems for us, with University of Florida refusing access and refusing some persons even to be on campus to work on this project. ? Some fairly surreptitiously activities took place to try to get this project moved forward. The number of people who stood up to help us is just extraordinary.? I was on the campus, and even much more so over the Internet.

In the end, I think the FDA created a rather difficult system, but had we more experience dealing with them I think we could’ve gotten through it six weeks earlier and had a big success.

On Apr 27, 2021, at 15:59, Jack, W8TEE via <jjpurdum=[email protected]> wrote:

?

Arv:

Off topic, but one of my grad school buddies took a job in DC at a small agency. A few months into the job, the director of the agency came around and told everyone to let the "In Box" stack up for the next few days. A few days later they had a "surprise audit" by the GOA. The director took the opportunity to plead for more workers because, as they could see by the In Boxes, they were swamped. He got more workers.

When I asked why (remember we were econ students), he said: First, there is zero reward to being efficient. Second, your position on the DC Social Ladder was a function of how many people you managed. The unimportance of efficiency is not unique to Capitalism. My Comparative Systems prof spent two years in Russia and became close friends with a Soviet bureaucrat who ran a major rail line. When he was coming close to the end of the current Five Year Plan, he was extremely short of his metric ton/miles quota. No problem. He loaded up 400 gondola cars with rocks and ran them back and forth between Moscow and Vladivostok until he surpassed his quota. He was rewarded for exceeding his quota.

I think there is a lot of similar crap going on in DC.

Jack, W8TEE

On Tuesday, April 27, 2021, 3:46:39 PM EDT, Arv Evans <arvid.evans@...> wrote:

Jack

Maybe Pogo was right? "We have found the enemy, and he are us!".

After all the FDA as a government entity is just the government

employees that we hired to do things in our name!? 8-)? 8-)

Arv

_._

On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 1:35 PM Jack, W8TEE via <jjpurdum=[email protected]> wrote:

Arv:

I really don't know. All I know is that things were progressing rapidly and I know Gordon had one working on his coffee table! Then everything was turned over to the U of F team so they could take care of all of the paperwork. After that, the web site literally died. The last post that I have saved was back in September. It probably didn't help that the UF team's leader got frustrated with the rest of us and quit "to write game code". His absence may have hurt the effort in FL. Perhaps Gordon knows more...

Jack, W8TEE

On Tuesday, April 27, 2021, 3:20:43 PM EDT, Arv Evans <arvid.evans@...> wrote:

Jack

Seemed that things died just after being submitted to the University

of Florida.? Was this killed by the FDA, or by the University of Florida?

While it doesn't matter much now, it could be that politics and funding

in academia contributed to the project's demise.?

Might there be interest in India in taking over the project (and willingness

at the University of Florida to release the information) so that they (India)

could build their own ventilators??

To comment on an earlier comment...It only seems like the US is the first

to be ask for help, but that is because our view from the US makes it

seem that way.? When anyone needs help the US politicians automatically

give press conferences that make it seem like they are going to do

something.? But it rarely happens, is too little, too late, or nothing happens.

If you observe this from a different country the view is quite different.

Been there, done that.

Arv

_._

On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 11:36 AM Jack, W8TEE via <jjpurdum=[email protected]> wrote:

Bob:

I've read back through the posts and did not find anyone who said the FDA prevented other countries from using the ventilator developed here. I am the owner of the Ventilator group site you mentioned and worked with Farhan and Gordon on the ventilator. Things moved along quickly until the design was sent to the U of F medical team who were preparing the documents for FDA. Somewhere in that process, everything just died. I still think glaciers move faster than the FDA on almost everything except budget requests. If other countries want to use the ventilator, seeing a "waiting for FDA approval" whether they need it or not, is still an impediment. With tens of thousands of people dying worldwide at the time, I do not understand why FDA couldn't kick itself in the ass and get things done.
--
Jack, W8TEE

--
Jack, W8TEE

--
Jack, W8TEE

Thanks Gordon.? That clarifies a lot.? Next question: Are cheap ventilators

still needed...in the US, in India, or elsewhere?

?

What is the next step...if any?

?

Arv

On Apr 27, 2021, at 15:59, Jack, W8TEE via groups.io <jjpurdum@...> wrote:

?

Arv:

Off topic, but one of my grad school buddies took a job in DC at a small agency. A few months into the job, the director of the agency came around and told everyone to let the "In Box" stack up for the next few days. A few days later they had a "surprise audit" by the GOA. The director took the opportunity to plead for more workers because, as they could see by the In Boxes, they were swamped. He got more workers.

When I asked why (remember we were econ students), he said: First, there is zero reward to being efficient. Second, your position on the DC Social Ladder was a function of how many people you managed. The unimportance of efficiency is not unique to Capitalism. My Comparative Systems prof spent two years in Russia and became close friends with a Soviet bureaucrat who ran a major rail line. When he was coming close to the end of the current Five Year Plan, he was extremely short of his metric ton/miles quota. No problem. He loaded up 400 gondola cars with rocks and ran them back and forth between Moscow and Vladivostok until he surpassed his quota. He was rewarded for exceeding his quota.

I think there is a lot of similar crap going on in DC.

Jack, W8TEE

On Tuesday, April 27, 2021, 3:46:39 PM EDT, Arv Evans <arvid.evans@...> wrote:

Jack

Maybe Pogo was right? "We have found the enemy, and he are us!".

After all the FDA as a government entity is just the government

employees that we hired to do things in our name!? 8-)? 8-)

Arv

_._

On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 1:35 PM Jack, W8TEE via <jjpurdum=[email protected]> wrote:

Arv:

I really don't know. All I know is that things were progressing rapidly and I know Gordon had one working on his coffee table! Then everything was turned over to the U of F team so they could take care of all of the paperwork. After that, the web site literally died. The last post that I have saved was back in September. It probably didn't help that the UF team's leader got frustrated with the rest of us and quit "to write game code". His absence may have hurt the effort in FL. Perhaps Gordon knows more...

Jack, W8TEE

On Tuesday, April 27, 2021, 3:20:43 PM EDT, Arv Evans <arvid.evans@...> wrote:

Jack

Seemed that things died just after being submitted to the University

of Florida.? Was this killed by the FDA, or by the University of Florida?

While it doesn't matter much now, it could be that politics and funding

in academia contributed to the project's demise.?

Might there be interest in India in taking over the project (and willingness

at the University of Florida to release the information) so that they (India)

could build their own ventilators??

To comment on an earlier comment...It only seems like the US is the first

to be ask for help, but that is because our view from the US makes it

seem that way.? When anyone needs help the US politicians automatically

give press conferences that make it seem like they are going to do

something.? But it rarely happens, is too little, too late, or nothing happens.

If you observe this from a different country the view is quite different.

Been there, done that.

Arv

_._

On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 11:36 AM Jack, W8TEE via <jjpurdum=[email protected]> wrote:

Bob:

I've read back through the posts and did not find anyone who said the FDA prevented other countries from using the ventilator developed here. I am the owner of the Ventilator group site you mentioned and worked with Farhan and Gordon on the ventilator. Things moved along quickly until the design was sent to the U of F medical team who were preparing the documents for FDA. Somewhere in that process, everything just died. I still think glaciers move faster than the FDA on almost everything except budget requests. If other countries want to use the ventilator, seeing a "waiting for FDA approval" whether they need it or not, is still an impediment. With tens of thousands of people dying worldwide at the time, I do not understand why FDA couldn't kick itself in the ass and get things done.
--
Jack, W8TEE

--
Jack, W8TEE

--
Jack, W8TEE

Hi,
I switched a long time ago to the hydrogen peroxide method. I use
hydrogen peroxide from the drug store combined with HCl, hydrochloric
acid. The acid is available at hardware stores, sold as concrete
etchant/cleaner.
This method is really nice for a lot of reasons. It doesn't stain
things like ferric chloride does. It's a light green colored clear
solution, so it's very easy to inspect your etching as it goes. I use
a clear glass plastic box and put a strong light underneath so you can
see the traces perfectly.
Also, I've never tossed any of the solution yet. You can just keep
using it over and over again. If it get's real slow, I just add a
pinch more peroxide.
I also use the magazine paper for toner transfer. The paper needs to
be what is called "clay coated", which is what gives magazine paper
the glossy smooth look. You can buy blank paper like that, but using
magazine paper is one of the three R's (re-use!)
73,
Mark
Links:
------
[1] /g/BITX20/message/87979
[2] /mt/82387976/243852
[3] /g/BITX20/post
[4] /g/BITX20/editsub/243852
[5] /g/BITX20/leave/10189903/243852/952924773/xyzzy

Bill:

Exactly. Al and I thought the uBITX was so good, we tried to extend it via the JackAl board. Not my best idea. However, we learned a lot and one message I keep hearing a lot is the "complex menuing system" of some radios. I agree and the JackAl suffered from that. Al and I are working on an SDT that /we/ want and we have gone away from a complex menu system to NO push buttons. It has a lot of features, especially DSP stuff, but nothing is more than 2 button pushes away. Also, I'm arranging the menus we do have to do what I want. That's why changing the WPM can be done in a second or so. Obviously, if someone doesn't like my T41 menu arrangement, they can change it. While your radio may not "need" a microcontroller, they can make tailoring the radio to your specific needs a lot easier than changing the hardware.

I bought a Xiegu G90 not because I love the radio, but because it small and easily taken just about anywhere. Its 20W on SSB makes a big difference when 5-10W just isn't enough. I ran 15W SSB and worked into France, Portugal, and Ireland during FD. Our SDT will be capable of 20W SSB/CW, but I can easily dial it down for QRP contest, plus it has a lot of DSP stuff the G90 doesn't have. Also, the G90's 25kHz display is almost useless during a contest using QRP. We are currently displaying 100kHz which is much better for hunt-and-pounce QRP operating.

My point is, each one of us has different perceptions of what the "ideal" radio is and how much we can afford to plunk into it. Being able to hack a uBITX, QCX, or a T41 often is where most of the fun comes from.

Jack, W8TEE

On Tuesday, April 27, 2021, 1:55:57 PM EDT, Bill Cromwell <wrcromwell@...> wrote:


Hi Jack...

......Farhan,

I have a uBitX V3 and have helped a few others by aligning and setting
them up. I also have some toys from uBitX real competition, QRP
(fill-in-the-blank). Both outfits have shown me the pieces that I need
to build the radio I really want. My radio does not need a
microcontroller to control *everything*. It doesn't need that for T-R
control at all and I don't need any built-in voltmeters nor operating
modes, nor uC keyer. I especially don't need an encyclopedic menu
*system*. The frequency accuracy and partly frequency stability is the
bright place for the uC :) I have started accumulating the parts to make
the radio I want. It may not cost less but it will be what I want -
nothing more and nothing less. All mode operation from DC to daylight
with 1500 watts? Nope :)

So thanks to HF Signals and that other outfit (you know who you are,
Hans) for the designs and the hardware.

73,

Bill KU8H

bark less - wag more

On 4/27/21 1:16 PM, Jack, W8TEE via groups.io wrote:

I would give my left...whatever...to be able to design a circuit. It
is still amazing to me to see someone sit down and, looking through
some spec sheets, knows how to string things together and make a
circuit work. Silly questions for those people, like why is that
resistor 10K and not 15K, and why is that toroid there, are major
stumbling blocks for me. Still, I really enjoy kit building and I can
make some things dance to a different tune if they are programmable,
and I get a kick out of that, too. Sadly, there are a lot of old guys
like me who miss out on both the soldering and programming fun and
there's really little to lose by trying.

Digital modes, SMD parts, microcontrollers, programming, etc. are all
elements of our hobby and we should all at least try them before
giving up on them. Who knows, you may find a new element of this
wonderful hobby that you let bypass you when a little effort would
have opened an entirely new world. So, go ahead...jump in! There are
plenty of people here who can help you out if you start to sink.

Jack, W8TEE

On Tuesday, April 27, 2021, 1:04:44 PM EDT, Trystan G0KAY
<trystandavies+nodirect@... <mailto:nodirect@...>> wrote:


Building a transceiver from scratch is indeed great fun. Soldering the
components on, winding the toroids, aligning the IF, setting up the
filters. Then testing it all for smoke, and seeing if it works.

It's even better if you have designed the circuit, perhaps from Doug
DeMaw's design guides.

Even putting on the knobs and connectors on the ready-built UBitX is
fun too and can give some sense of achievement too.

It's all good.

Some areas of our hobby do however almost preclude home construction
to some extent. Also as people get older they may find they don't have
the dexterity or eyesight they used to have. We also have a huge chunk
of the community who rarely turn on a soldering iron (that's if they
own one). There are also people who travel for a living, or have
little space, and having a ready-made transceiver makes more sense. We
all may have a reason to purchase a commercially made transceiver.

This talk will give us some idea of whether they really are as good as
the money you pay for them.

Trystan G0KAY

--
Jack, W8TEE

--
Jack, W8TEE