Fullscreen HTML5Med Res (??MB)HTML4

Contents Vol.38, No.06 June 2025 18 The 2025 Avalon Airshow This year’s airshow, again held near Melbourne, featured quite a bit of new technology, especially new drones and defences against hostile drones. There was also some new space and satellite technology on display. By Dr David Maddison, VK3DSM Aerospace exhibition report 42 Altium Designer 25 review Altium Designer 25 is the latest version of the EDA (electronics design automation) software that we use for our PCB designs. This new version supports chip-on-board routing, signal integrity checking plugins and more. By Tim Blythman EDA software review 58 Douk hybrid valve amp review This well-presented amplifier combines a dual triode preamplifier with a 100W per channel Class-D power amplifier. It’s intended to give the benefits of both technologies, and includes tone controls and a power meter. Review By Allan Linton-Smith Hifi review Page 35 Hot Water System Solar Diverter SSB Shortwave Receiver 70 Precision Electronics, Part 8 In this penultimate entry in the series, we look at how voltage references work, as they are critical to the precision of both ADCs and DACs. In turn, they are part of most modern measurement and control systems. By Andrew Levido Electronic design 35 Hot Water System Solar Diverter Page 46 2 Editorial Viewpoint 5 Mailbag 30 Subscriptions 82 Online Shop 86 Circuit Notebook 88 Serviceman’s Log 94 Vintage Radio 74 Easy-to-make Outdoor Subwoofer 101 Ask Silicon Chip Made using a prebuilt enclosure, this subwoofer can be used indoors or outdoors; for example, in a patio area. It’s attractive, inexpensive and can add substantial bottom end to most sound systems! By Julian Edgar Audio project 103 Market Centre 104 Advertising Index You can save a lot of money with this device! It lets you use excess solar power generation to power your electric water heater. Crucially, it’s a lot less expensive to put together than an equivalent commercial unit. By Ray Berkelmans & John Clarke Solar energy project 46 SSB Shortwave Receiver, part 1 This superhet-based shortwave receiver supports USB and LSB decoding and has digital tuning from 3MHz to 30MHz. It’s controlled by an Arduino and has AGC, decent noise performance, an antenna tuning adjustment & more. By Charles Kosina Radio receiver project 62 DIY 433MHz Receiver Module A companion to the 433MHz Transmitter Module we published in the April issue, this receiver matches or beats the performance of typical prebuilt modules. It also has a handy RSSI (signal strength) output. By Tim Blythman Radio control project siliconchip.com.au Australia's electronics magazine 1. Detecting smokers with a MaixCam 2. Non-contact EMF detector 3. Advanced SMD Test Tweezers case A 1970s Little General by Fred Lever June 2025  1