At the request of Ashhar I'm posting this here.
Original message:?
Rose,
I was told by the sales that you are having trouble with your sbitx. As we mentioned in our manual as well as the website, the place to ask and quickly get help for the radios is by joining our mailing list. If you click on /g/BITX20/join, you can join us in a minute.
Let me take a few minutes to explain, why the help is through the group and not a regular support by email etc. The sbitx is an open source radio. For instance, it is the ony radio in the world that supports FT8 mode without needing an external computer. The FT8, in turn, has been developed by Dan Tayloe, W1JT, a Nobel laureate. If someone runs aground with FT8, much of the protocol details are not even fully understood by me (I wrote the sbitx core). We need help from others who understand those parts better.
The sBitx is an SDR, and as an SDR, almost everything is controlled by software. The sBitx software is open source, which makes it do so many things that a normal radio won't. This also means that it is being actively developed by a number of hams who don't work for us. They are all active on the bitx20 group.?
The second reason for asking help in the group is that almost every conceivable problem has been voiced and resolved in the past emails. When you post a query, others just look up prior fixes to it and you the collective wisdom of the group quickly resolves the issues.
Now, about your issue itself.
1. You have referred to two mics. What make and kinds are these mic? Is any of the mics supplied by us? The sbitx mic needs the tip to be connected to the mic's +ve, the ring to the PTT and the sleeve to the ground.
2. You mentioned the sidetone. it can be adjusted clicking on settings button on the left column of the user interface, this will bring up the settings that includes the sidetone volume.
3. You output power does appear to be low. I would want to know the current draw when receiving and when you try transmitting on LSB with mic gain set to 1 and drive 1 and without any speech into the mic. This will measure the idling current on transmit without any modulation.
Do post the outcome of #3 to the group and we will take it up from there.
My reply:
Ashhar,
It is good to hear from you, but I have been promised help for the past few weeks.
I was really behind the concept of the radio and I understand but I excepted some kind of out of box experience with at least a minimum level of functionality. Why should I not contact the manufacturer if the thing I've purchased literally hasn't worked since day 1 out of the box. I can understand it in terms of future development and participation.
1. Yes I have used two mics, the original one provided and also a new one wired up in the same manner. A similar styled fist grip mic. I have recorded the sound from both in audacity, the one that was supplied does sound really tinny by comparison and has to be gained right up to hear anything.
In software I was having to gain it up to 70-100 just to get any output at all. My new mic worked better but I've tested so many things it isn't totally consistent. My email chain has more detail.
2. Yes I am aware sidetone is adjustable, and I have tried it, it sounds awful. Like I can hear the peaks of my voice and that is it. It's choppy and incoherent. This matches with the report only contact that actually ever responded to me using this radio.
3. The radio is currently boxed up again as I had not heard anything since around the 5th. And had zero progress, again after being promised multiple times of having resolutions.
But at idle at 13.5v I was drawing around 800mA. And at transmit I'm pretty sure it was around 10A but that was with tone or voice. I'll have to set it up again to gather these results as you have asked but I am away for a couple of days. Though I'm fairly sure it was in a similar range.
I have had constant issues with the radio, it has not worked since I received it.
To answer question 3. In LSB with drive 1 and nothing going into the mic the draw was 1.5A at 13.5V
