Build your own low-cost radio at LARC-7 and more!

Lamakaan Amateur Radio Club at Hyderabad, India, which I would call the birthplace of popular BITX QRP SSB radio, is hosting the most anticipated event Lamakaan Annual Radio Convention or LARC-7, on 14th and 15th December 2024. LARC is an annual event usually held on the 2nd Saturday and Sunday of December every year. It is a great opportunity for radio amateurs to showcase there experimentation with newer radio techniques, building radios and antennas as well as interacting with fellow hams across the region and the globe. There are plenty of workshops, talks, forums and contests planned for LARC-7.



You can assemble the sBITX version 3, an upconverting superhet with multi-band TX at LARC-7 and the workshop is being conducted by VU2BVB. You have to provide your own monitor, keyboard and mouse while the basic kit for sBITX can be bought at the convention. Another workshop by VU3DX is for you to build a two line LCD display for uBITX v3. Next one is assembling uBITX 6, again by VU3DXA. Workshop for building a low cost end fed half wave antenna for 40m for field day and home use is being conducted by none other than VU2ESE! There is a LEO satellite workshop for beginners by the doyen of satellite operations in this region, VU2AAP. You could build your own CW transmitter from scratch in just 2 hours by attending another workshop by VU2ESE and no experience is needed for this session! Sessions for QO-100 upconverter and amplifier are led by VU2XZ. Pricing for all these kits have been detailed at the LARC-7 website and I found them quite affordable for the average radio amateur in this region.

 

Very cool. This sounds like an interesting talk:

 

I was also quite surprised to see that. Do you have any idea how a particle accelerator can be homebrewed and how that can help for your shack?

 

No idea

 

Oddly enough...yes, I do.

You'll need to locate a copy of "The Scientific American Book of Projects for The Amateur Scientist by C.L. Stong, published in 1960.

Section VI, Chapter 4 is "A Homemade Atom Smasher." It describes in detail how to build a small desktop particle accelerator. Basically, it consists of a an electrostatic generator (which gets its own separate how-to chapter in the book), a glass tube about 30 inches long, a filament to emit electrons to be accelerated, and the vacuum-pump assembly to pump the sealed tube down to 10 microns pressure.

I'd estimate that over half the effort is not in building the accelerator, but building the vacuum system to pump it down that hard.

I'll leave it to someone else to figure out how it can help you in your ham shack.

 

Thanks a lot for enlightening us. Surprised to know that it was considered way back in 1960. Hope others will come out with how it is useful in ham shack!

 

You describe a protoTWTA or a way to generate hard radiation..

 

Google AI tells me that: A traveling-wave tube amplifier (TWTA) is a vacuum tube that amplifies radio frequency (RF) signals in the microwave range.
So, is it a way to generate microwaves for the GHz enthusiasts out there?

 

A home brew transmitter using a TWTA is unlikely.

 

Will have to wait till LARC-7 is over and someone tells me what they were actually up to!