Dex:? Don't despair.? The carriers you hear are probably SW broadcast stations.? We share the band with them above 7200 kHz.? Farhan sends the kits out with the BFO where it should be, so unless you have retuned that, I'd leave it alone for now.? 40 can be kind of dead and noisy during the day -- perhaps give? it a try at night.? Does all that noise disappear when you disconnect the antenna? ? Hang in there.? 73? Bill ??
On Saturday, July 15, 2017 4:51 AM, Dexter N Muir <dexy@...> wrote:
My BITX40 kit has fought me all the way, and despair is setting in. First assembly was 'al fresco', with long leads just stripped enough to solder where necessary or use clip leads. There was activity of a sort, but horrendous hash! OK, I thought, better clean up the wiring a bit. Antenna BNC recommended less than 3" from board - done. Speaker (and mic) - pairs twisted - a no-brainer, already done - check. Volume and Tuning pots - better shield them. OK, that'll need Molex surgery. OK for the younger eyes and nimbler fingers, my efforts not up to par. Tuning pot soldered to the pins via some ex-CD audio lead (twin-ax). Similar Raduino output to DDS pins. Volume pot similarly twin-ax'd but left a bit of wire on the Molex plug to connect. Whew! Done. Molex less than 100% stable, move 'em a bit they crackle. Decoupling power supplies improved things a little, largely subduing tuning clicks from the Raduino. Still horrendous static, but glimpses of an occasional carrier. AM on 40? That'd be a rarity! Commercial intruders? no band-chart, HF's terra incognita to me. What's up here? Brought in (read:unearthed) my trusty old Leader SG-11 sig.gen, verified by sweep I'm hearing somewhere just above 7MHz, and sensitive enough to clearly detect on low output setting, control turned to minimum and output lead shorted - case-leakage radiation. Good enough for me, why no voices? There's a fair amount of wire about gutter-height, a guesswork OCF - should be hearing mid-ZL at least. Farmed in a NiCd battery from a long-unused drill, while that was being charged the static reduced enough to discern faint 'donald-duck' voices. Is the BFO on the proper (high) side of the filter? No way to tell, professional assistance required. Long time away from nearest active Club (ZL2KO), and having nearly shaken of the seasonal Cold I'm destined for Rest-home 'respite', so it'll have to wait.
