Collaborate Disseminate
Sometimes when you need a component, the best way to get it is by building it yourself. [North Carolina Prepper] did just that, creating his own trombone-style variable capacitor by …read more Continue reading Making Variable Capacitors By Stretching Aluminium Cans
There’s one component which used to be ubiquitous in every experimenter’s junk box, but nowadays unless you happen to be a radio amateur the chances are you may not have …read more Continue reading A Variable Capacitor For Not A Lot
Have you ever looked up a recipe online, and before you got to the ingredients, you had to scroll through somebody’s meandering life story? You just want to know how …read more Continue reading Teardown: Analog Radionic Analyzer
Amateur Radio as a hobby has a long history of encouraging experimentation using whatever one might have on hand. When [Tom Essenpreis] wanted to use his 14 MHz antenna outside …read more Continue reading Surplus Syringes Make Satisfactory Tuner for Amateur Radio Experimentation
The inside of classic radios holds wonders that the sterile chips and SMD components of today’s circuits can’t hold a candle to. Chunky resistors and capacitors, vacuum tubes with cathodes aglow, and seemingly free-form loops of wire forming inductors will all likely make an appearance. But the most fascinating bit of any old radio was connected to the tuning knob: the big variable capacitor with its interdigitating metal plates. Watching one at work, with its plates evenly and finely spaced, is still a joy to behold.
In an attempt to recapture a little of that magic, [Jeremy S. Cook] came …read more
Continue reading DIY Tuning Capacitors from Washers and 3D-Printed Parts
If you enjoy building radio projects you may have noticed something slightly worrying over the last few years in your component supply. Variable capacitors are no longer as plentiful as they used to be. There was a time when all radio receivers contained at least one, now with the advent of the varicap diode and the frequency synthesiser the traditional tuning capacitor is a rare breed. They are still made, but they’re not cheap and they won’t appear so readily in your junk box any more.
Fortunately a variable capacitor is a surprisingly simple device, and one you can make …read more
