After whatever went on with the first Bitx40 that I was shipped and especially after it appeared that the Radrino got whacked during troubleshooting when I switched from 12v to 13.8v I'm exclusively on 12V now. ?I use the 15Ah Bioenno battery that I bought for my FT-817ND which puts out about 13.4v so I installed a voltage converter/stabilizer between the battery and the radio. ?I set it for around 12.1v with no load. ?See links below...
I purchased two different ones to try. ?With the first one which has a display, I set it for 12.1v and the voltage drops to just under 12v when I power the Bitx on. ?When I key up and talk the voltage does not go any lower than the initial voltage drop. ?Actually 12.1v was the highest I could get when adjusting the output because the device can only control at a minimum of 1v difference between the input and output. ?not sure what happened to the other .2v but either way it seems fine. ?What's nice is that this device gives you a pretty clear indication that you are really transmitting because you see the fluctuations in current as you are talking into the mic. ?I haven't checked what happens to the voltage with the second one but measuring the power output of the Bitx on the Bird 43, the power output using either one shows that I'm putting out about as close to 6 watts as it could be without the needle actually covering the 6 indicator so I suspect that either of these are fine. ?I built the radio with it only ever being a QRP radio so what appears to be about 5.9 watts is more than I was expecting. ?Also, these devices do not appear to induce any type of noise into the receive or transmit of the radio. ?For everyday use I may stay with the one that doesn't have the display because I can leave it connected to the battery at all times without the load of the LCD and backlight drawing from the battery. ?Having the one with the display will allow me to have a quick indication of what's going on with the radio if I ever question if the final has gone defective.
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