Introduction
These are English translations of an article series that was published in a Malayalam science magazine, 'Electronics For Everybody', from 1994 - 1998. These articles are mostly on home brewing strategies, explained in a simple way, while the book (Gateway to Ham Radio) intends to give all the basics of electronics, along with giving a powerful support to all, for their advancement.
These articles were written at a time when home brewing was at its zenith and there were components shops in every town in India. Etching PC boards of own design was a craze those days. Soon there had been a paradigm shift, mostly because all types of gadgets appeared in the market comparatively at much lower costs and better performances. One another reason was the changing HF band condition that made low power AM QRPs difficult to strive through. Also, the general enthusiasm towards research and innovation also deteriorated heavily, as the trends changed.
These articles, however, serve as virtual support to those theories that are established in the book. It may make things more digestible. It will heavily help a new comer, especially if he hails from some arts categories.
About me, I come from an English literature background. I could make it, only because there were a lot of friends and seniors ready to offer. What that pushed me forward was the truth that many of the licensees were not science students at all! Yes, in 1991, after 7 years of my entry, I could design and make a 12 Volt HF transceiver of 5 watts output. This 5 watts was enough to contact almost all stations in South India. For a few years I was on that and have contacted far and wide on AM or CW. I thought that writing everything down might help some one else. Shri B Soman Nair, then Chief Editor of the magazine invited the series and it all happened one by one every month. OM Mukund VU2 DRL was the driving force behind. I'm happy, even though I lost seven to ten days every month.
The real satisfaction was when I came to know that these issues were still intact with many new Hams. A lot of people had been asking for old copies of the magazine. I was helpless! But OM Jayachandran VU3BWB and OM Madhu A65DE helped me to recover all those issues, easily. Thank you both. The soft copies in both languages were prepared to be shared free. But everything ended up in creation of a totally new book - Gateway to Ham Radio.
There is a humble request to all the readers - begin doing something only after reading the full texts. Even though you do not propose to assemble anything, the basic information imparted through these articles will certainly widen your knowledge base, considerably.
Thank you all. Kindly do not forget to contact us in case of clarifications/comments/suggestions.
Chapter 1 - Radio Signals and Ionosphere
Chapter 2 - BFOs and LSB/USB/CW Signals
Chapter 3 - QSL Cards
Chapter 4 - Receivers and transistors
Chapter 5 - DC Receivers and VFO
Chapter 6 - Oscillators, Transistors
Chapter 7 - Low Power AM transmitters
Chapter 8 - 3.5 MHz doubler VFO
Chapter 9 - Communication Receivers
Chapter 10 - PLL, AGC controlled IF stages
Chapter 11 - Receiver parts
Chapter 12 - Multi band BC Receiver
Chapter 13 - Band pass filters
Chapter 14 - Make custom coils
Chapter 15 - Toroids
Chapter 16 - Modulation techniques
Chapter 17 - SSB Transmission
Chapter 18 - SSB Generators
Chapter 19 - Crystals and Single sideband
Chapter 20 - Multipurpose Test meters
Chapter 21 - SSB Mixers
Chapter 22 - SSB linear stages
Chapter 23 - RF Power amplifiers
Chapter 24 - Linear Power amplifiers
Chapter 25 - Linear/Output amplifiers
Chapter 26 - QRP Module layout
Chapter 27 - SWR Protection
Chapter 28 - Simple Dipole antennas
Chapter 29 - Transmitter Antennas
Chapter 30 - More on Antennas
Chapter 31 - Multi-band German Quad antenna
Chapter 32 - Electronic Keyers
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