Easiest ShopTalk in a long time.
As you probably know, son G2 may be coming back this winter to build a home down here. Despite his role as medical director on a 750-tradesman server farm build, even he knows there’s a lot left to learn about housifying. So I did what any proud dad (with a keyboard addiction) would do — I cooked up a straightforward guide that turns homebuilding into a recipe.
It’s called:
“The DIY House Bible: A Practical Guide for First-Time Builders”
It’s not complete, but you can at least get a sense of where the alligators are. This isn’t some glossy, blue-sky bullshit brochure. It’s measure-cut-join-finish wisdom. If you’ve ever thought about picking up a hammer or saw, this one’s for you, bud.
SX-32: Whether to Weather
With the new Evolution table saw up and running – just the ticket if you want to build a quick 3″ square tube rocket stove en masse – (because you can cut mild steel on it) – the only major projects around here get around to ham radio.
The only change I would make to the saw, by the way, is for them to lighten up on the glossy print on the box – which looks great and I’m so sure there’s a retail point to it, but the shit will not burn worth a damn (high clay content papers are like that) so if you buy and Evolution and IF you have a burn barrel, don’t be in a hurry, yeah?
OK – hot weather and now we’re into the time of the year when full-scale ham radio nonsense lands in the office. All the projects are lined up BUT I still don’t have the kick-ass old school general coverage receiver. (Well, except the Hallicrafters SX-26 Super Defiant). Imagine my surprise when an SX-32 in reasonable shape popped on eBay Saturday for $89-bucks! (OK, over $200 with tax and shipping, but still..)
Roosevelt’s Radio?
Yes, that’s right: I love working on old-time, old school tube type radio gear. When not mashing down the frontiers of domain wall-scaling which is a whole other deal.
If you remember your history> Franklin Roosevelt used to sit in the Oval during WW 2 and listen to reports from all over the world – BBC and American networks. (Like Trump, but without a social account, one imagines.)
His radio of choice was a Hallicrafters SX-28. Which was a dandy radio because it had two (not the usual one) R.F. Amplifier. In a superheterodyne radio, having two RF amplifiers between the mixer tube and the antenna- makes it harder to intercept what the receiver was tuned to. this “RF oscillator leakage idea was a key element in one of the late Clive Cussler’s novels, with Jack Du Brul, too. *(The Sea Wolves…Isaac Bell Adventures #13.)
Understand I have always wanted a perfect SX-28 for my desk. Thing is? They run about a kilobuck (or more – and this is before shipping – for something totally minty). This SX-32 (which is even more rare, ergo a better “investment” in the hobby) is a great $89 wish-filler.
The SX-32 is almost (but not quite) identical to the coveted SX-28-A. Similar push-pull 6v6 audio output and I have the right speaker in the collection already. Except that the SX-28 has a bass boost while the audio curves of the SX-32 are a bit more “vanilla” but “have soldering iron, can fix” is the motto here.
It should be a great deal of fun. And besides, once it is back up to spec and a mains-powered Heathkit Q-multiplier is added, it should be fine as a low band receiver and it might match up with the Globe Scout (and either the HA-5 VFO or the Globe 755).
Only five months from Straight Key Night so times a-wasting! Planning three classic tube rigs for the event this winter: The SX-32 (or Super Defiant) and the Globe, the Gonset GSB-100 with Thunderbolt amp and Drake 2B/BQ, and last but not least, the Hallicrafters SX-117/HT-44/ and Loudenboomer amplifier. I will doubtless burn your eyes out on the electronic trivia behind getting ready…
An Advanced Ham Radio Note
A side of RF engineering with that coffee for you? How about we delve into why some ancient tube type transmitters may have “punched above their weight” on the air due to scalar effects from poor circuit design?
You will love this paper… The Knightmare Loop. All may come back to a quirk in neutralization…but that will have to wait for lab time this fall…
With temps here due north of 100 Wednesday, Mr. Ure is planning some “kick-it” time on 20 CW and time working on the next book…
So for now, shop reorganizing and praying for cooler weather will be occupying most of the coming week. Along with the new crowns being installed by the dentist, which verily, verily, reduced the flow of play money for the month a bit…
Write when you get rich, it cools off, or we get a “false peace” to stall the global war in the fall, It will be a bonus if we all make it to SKN…
George@Ure.net /ac7x
Three Stooges – House Builders clip
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6a0puVEfhhk&pp=ygUbVGhyZWUgU3Rvb2dlcyBidWlsZCBhIGhvdXNl
Another book well done, George.
Stay safe. 73
it would be a good thing for ‘shop talk Sundays’ to have a new project to follow,,,, building G2s house
but today’s topic of radio is out of my knowledge acquired, but the straight key night does remind me of what little morse code is retained to memory from Boy Scout days
I see Obumma remembers … — …
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/07/team-obama-concocts-silly-scheme-try-rescue-themselves/
did we UNbend the antenna support tube ? yet?
angled emission vs horizontal,,, Earth to Mars,,, Elon can you copy?
Don’t forget the lowly angle grinder! The one power tool not mentioned is not only my favorite, but the one I have many instances of! Mostly I use it with a cutoff wheel, but have used it for virtually everything else too.
The most difficult part of building anything is either dealing with regulations and bureaucracy or finding ways to avoid it. Second is concrete work – relatively permanent but exhausting bull work – especially if working alone.
My suggestion is where possible, never rent tools unless they’re never going to be used by you again. Tools retain value and the only downside of owning them is finding a place to put them. Owning a small tractor with a loader or a skidsteer helps enormously, as does owning a few sections of scaffolding and planks for access as you go up. You can’t place a ladder against a wall until it exists!
I mixed mortar at age 7 for my father’s cinderblock laying for our basement, we had to carry water from a creek in the woods about 1200 ft away.
We made our ladders from 2×4’s. A big step was when he made a table saw from 2×4’s (no adjustments).
I still have the motor and bearings, all from a nearby Sears.
(“G2 may be coming back this winter to build a home down here. “)
lol lol it brings back memories of me building my first home.. no money to do it..what to do.. I had read as a boy that during the depression and ww2 that lumber was in short demand..so much so that The returning soldiers could afford to build a home..
https://rexresearch1.com/HouseConstructionLibrary/RammedEarthstructurescodepractice.pdf
then one day I seen one of the building that was built be the college back then..it was amazing already fifty years old and strong as a bunker.. just dirt sand or gravel and a little Portland cement.. I visited with a professor at a local college on this and he gave me the name of a professor at Kansas state .. teaching his kids how this was done… he decided to teach them compressed earth blocks and rammed earth..
https://rexresearch1.com/HouseConstructionLibrary/CompressedEarthBlockDesignConstruction.pdf
it became a dream.. could i.. I tried to get the building permit but they said stick build only.. where in the hell was I going to get the money to buy wood..rammed earth or compressed earth blocks was a way I could actually do it.. anyway rammed earth and ceb blocks became a dream..they found the best mix was 5+3+2 five parts gravel or sand three parts clay two parts portland..
anyway I found an old three story barn..the wood was mine if I took it down..while dismantling it on one of the most beautiful places on earth they had the old ice house..god I could have built a beautiful earth termed home there..
at the lumber yard I seen a video.. beta where a beautiful young blonde built a home in thirty minutes..lol nope even though I said yeah I can do that…I found out all the hard parts was skipped over lol..building the house was a big job..luckily I got some friends that helped and the walls went up quick..( not so on the second house I built)
I still want to build my dream house..At church about fifteen years ago a group of missionaries was giving a talk about their mission.. to build sustainable housing a church school and clinic.. so I got with a company that builds manufacturer that sells CEB blue to presses and had it sent to their mission vilkage.. they eventually sent a nice letter and photos of their progress..it was beautiful and felt good.. I had one of those presses sent to myself to.. but shipping it to me was very expensive ..
https://www.scribd.com/document/463515735/Shot-earth-for-sustainable-constructions-pdf
now I read a book with n earth create and my first home came to mind when digging the footings by hand I didn’t have the money for the proper aggregate I used gravel at fifteen dollars a truckload.. so earthcrete does make sense.. like rammed earth but a little more water in the mix..
https://directives.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files2/1720529713/Chapter%2014%20-%20Shotcrete.pdf
https://shotcrete.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2008Win_Morgan-Totten.pdf
I built a framing table for my second hoome.. the easy way to lay the walls out on walls that has a wall butt up to it I put a nail board..sure takes the work out of it.. I met my friend that gives lectures wit TED because someone at one of his lectures told him he should meet this idiot .. been a long time now..