Graham G3MFJ has been building electronics since neighbors started dropping off broken valve radios for him to fix as a child. Licensed since 1957, he eventually found his way to the G QRP Club through a friend (Tony G4WIF) who paid his first year's membership without asking, and ended up spending years as the club's treasurer and parts buyer — sourcing SA602s by the thousand and 2N3866 transistors by the hundreds to keep the Sudden kit line alive.In this episode we talk about his friendship with George Dobbs G3RJV, the founder of the G QRP Club, how the Sudden Receiver, Transmitter, and ATU kits came together, the homebrew test equipment book he wrote with Tony Fishpool, and a lifetime of building.Join us as we explore how you can get involved in portable radio, QRP, and more in this episode of the All Portable Discussion Zone (AP/DZ). Every aspect of portable operations is covered in this biweekly podcast, from news and gear to achievements, the workbench, contests, awards, and beyond.**SolderSmoke DISCORD INVITE**: https://discord.gg/GYVRZSBVFCConnect with us:* Discord: https://discord.gg/WVE3vVveWU* YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/redsummitrf* TikTok: @redsummitrf* X (formerly Twitter): @NJ7V_Support the channel:* Buy us a Coke: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/RedSummitRF* Red Summit RF Amazon Storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/redsummitrf#apdz #HamRadio #Workbench #Electronics #homebrewradio #DIYradio #amateurradio #hamradiopodcast #scratchbuild #G3TSO #vintageradio #tuberadio #vacuumtube #CW #morsecode #GQRP #kitbuilding #hamradiohistory

Mike G3TSO has been licensed since 1964 and building since well before that. His philosophy is simple: find a design that does most of what you want, take it, modify it, and make it your own. It's how he went from crystal sets and valve receivers built from a library book called Fun With Radio, to miniature transceivers the size of a pencil box — and it's an approach he's been refining for over 60 years.In this episode Mike walks through his homebrew journey from a spark transmitter built at age 12 with no idea of the consequences, through decades of valve receiver builds, chassis fabrication, and his pencil box transceiver project. Along the way he shares why learning from disasters beats learning from successes, and why the best thing a builder can do is just start.Join us as we explore how you can get involved in portable radio, QRP, and more in this episode of the All Portable Discussion Zone (AP/DZ). Every aspect of portable operations is covered in this biweekly podcast, from news and gear to achievements, the workbench, contests, awards, and beyond.**SolderSmoke DISCORD INVITE**: https://discord.gg/GYVRZSBVFCConnect with us:* Discord: https://discord.gg/WVE3vVveWU* YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/redsummitrf* TikTok: @redsummitrf* X (formerly Twitter): @NJ7V_Support the channel:* Buy us a Coke: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/RedSummitRF* Red Summit RF Amazon Storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/redsummitrf#apdz #HamRadio #Workbench #Electronics #homebrewradio #DIYradio #amateurradio #hamradiopodcast #scratchbuild #G3TSO #vintageradio #tuberadio #vacuumtube #CW #morsecode #GQRP #kitbuilding #hamradiohistory

Peter HB9EBE has been building his own antenna matching units since getting back into ham radio about 10 years ago, and his approach is about as minimal as it gets. His go-to field tuner is a homebrew L-match built around a single toroid and polyvaricon, small enough to fit in a dental floss case and simple enough to build in 30 minutes. Combined with a QMX in a custom carbon fiber enclosure and a random wire on a 3D-printed spool, the whole station comes in under 400 grams.In this episode we dig into his homebrew matching unit designs, his antenna evolution from resonant end-feds to random wire, why he chose an L-match over other topologies for field use, and how he handles the tradeoffs of ultralight QRP construction when every gram counts.Join us as we explore how you can get involved in portable radio, QRP, and more in this episode of the All Portable Discussion Zone (AP/DZ). Every aspect of portable operations is covered in this biweekly podcast, from news and gear to achievements, the workbench, contests, awards, and beyond.**SolderSmoke DISCORD INVITE**: https://discord.gg/GYVRZSBVFCConnect with us:* Discord: https://discord.gg/WVE3vVveWU* YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/redsummitrf* TikTok: @redsummitrf* X (formerly Twitter): @NJ7V_Support the channel:* Buy us a Coke: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/RedSummitRF* Red Summit RF Amazon Storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/redsummitrf#apdz #HamRadio #QRP #amateurradio #hamradiopodcast #SOTA #PortableOps #CW #QMX #HansSummers #homebrewradio #ATU #antennatuner #Lmatch #Zmatch #QRPantenna #EFHW #scratchbuild #HB9EBE