I haven't been able to make a contact yet, and I think my PA isn't putting out enough power. Awhile back on the subject of bad audio, Farhan suggested I ask someone for a signal report. No one I asked at the club could hear my Bitx 40.
I am going to cut and paste an Email I sent to my elmer. Perhaps some of you already know about this one.
Jim and I tested the Bitx 40, and I could hear him better connecting the antenna directly, but he could not hear me even with 20 volts into the final. I went back through the alignment instructions, and I am not sure I am reading the multimeter right.?
This is what I am doing. I moved the red probe wire to the 10ADC socket. Set dial to 10A. cut positive 12V PA input. Inserted meter in series with meter pos to power IN pos. Meter neg to PA side pos input. Now I press PTT, turn BIAS pot counter clockwise until I see 00.10, looking for 100mA as instructed. Is this showing 100mA? It further instructs me to say hello loudly to see an amp or more. But it only goes up to 00.50. And goes up to 00.90 when BIAS is turned all the way up. I also put the meter on DCA/200m setting, showing 00.0, adjust to 01.1, and it goes up to 02.4 with a loud hello. I would expect to see an over load message at this setting if the current approached an AMP. I can hear my self on my nearby SW receiver.
I am not sure I am doing or reading it right because of the unexpected results, and inexperience. My watt meter when set for 5 watt range shows about 2 watts. When I tested my CW radio it showed 6 or 7 on the 5 watt range. So I think it's working right.
