Hi:
I'm a fairly new ham and I ordered a BITX40 module late last year - pre Raduino. ?It's my one and only HF transceiver and it works great. Congratulations Farhan!!! ?
One thing that I think is unique about my build is that the rig provides a CAT port that allows it to be controlled by programs like Ham Radio Deluxe, Commander, and logger software. ?I built my VFO board using a Teensy 3.2 controller/Si5351a/OLED display/rotary encoder and I use the USB port in serial mode to talk to a PC running the control software. ?
I'm not a contester at all, but I accidentally stumbled into the "Virginia QSO party" last weekend and, man, things were going fast and furious with those guys! ?Once I learned the lingo, I logged 15 contacts from Massachusetts to Virginia as fast as I could fill out my paper log book. But it was obvious to me that those big stations in the contest had some serious automation going on, and that led to an investigation of the N1MM+ logger, and that led to the discovery of the computer control concept. ?BITX40 operators should not be disadvantaged in any radio sports. :-)
My code makes the rig emulate a Yaesu FT-817. ?I guess the choice is pretty arbitrary, but I chose that one because the radio appears to be fairly simple and because there is very good documentation of its implementation of the CAT protocol at?? Huge thanks to KA7OEI for the great reference.
I realize the crew on this net is Arduino-oriented, so my stuff might not be completely relevant. ?But the link to the code is below in case anyone wants to look. ?Does a Raduino have a USB port? Hopefully it does.
The Teensy 3.2 is mostly Arduino-compatible and I highly recommend it for ham projects. I am using the Teensy instead of the Arduino because it is roughly the same size, has a much faster processor (72 MHz), has more memory, and has some hardware assist for DSP code. ?I use the DSP for integrated, PC-less support for digital modes, but that's a topic for a different post ...
I built my BITX40 into a candy box I got over the holidays, so I'm calling it the Peppermint Bark BITX40. ?Here it is being controlled by Ham Radio Deluxe checking into the NATA net on 7185:
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The code is here for anyone who is interested:?
73s,
Bruce KC1FSZ?
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