On May 17, 2023, at 19:58, Bill Maxwell via groups.io <wrmaxwell@...> wrote:

?sBITX V2 #12 arrived here around two weeks ago and has been waiting for me to make time to remove the front panel and fit the RPi4. That finally happened yesterday, prior to my taking both the DE and the V2 to my club's two-weekly technical night meeting. Fitting the RPi went easily, so I moved on to making sure the phones, key and microphone plugs? were firmly connected, then gave the entire board an admiring closer examination.

I quickly noticed that the clamp holding the P.A. trannies to the heat sink did not look to be sitting flat. I recalled somebody reported finding the mounting screws on their V2 required tightening, so reached for an appropriate screw driver to check mine. I was surprised to find that the entire clamp pivoted sideways as the screwdriver touched it. What's more, one the screw would not tighten. It quickly became apparent that the problem lay in the fixed nut, "nutsert" or whatever the trade term may be. It had obviously been pressed into a blind hole in the heat sink but for some reason, had? now climbed out of that hole, presumably at some time during transit from Hyderabad. Whatever, it is no longer a press fit. Please see photos.

Given that the clamp serves no electrical purpose, merely applying physical pressure to hold the transistors against the heat sink, I am thinking that I should be able to glue the captive nut back into the hole using something like JBWeld or other steel treated epoxy. Ordinary epoxy might also do the job, although I have used JBWeld in other heat prone areas with success. I did think of using one of the gap filling thread-lock products from Loctite and other suppliers but not sure that heat might be an issue.
Happy to hear other thoughts.

Mine might be a one-off failure but I suggest that consideration be given to tapping the blind hole and screwing the clamp down directly to the heatsink, adding a spacer if necessary, Ashhar. The press fit approach is clearly not fully reliable.

Bill? ?VK7MX

?

Hi Barry,

unfortunately I can rule that out. I switched back and forth between the sBitx and my FT-450D to rule out antenna problems or propagation. A few hours ago I had another opportunity to directly compare my v2 to a friends Developer edition on the same antenna.
While the DE's waterfall was lighting up with signals at 60 RF gain, mine stayed almost completely black at 100 gain. Only the strongest signals showed a very faint line, just like in the first picture.

?

Hello all!

I have received my v2 yesterday and was very happy that it was very sensitive on receive. 50-55 RF gain was more than enough for FT8 and even weak cw signals. Any higher and only the noise floor would rise. I've updated the sBitx as instructed in the manual and sent one or two FT8 CQs at low power (drive <30). Didn't make a QSO but was happy with my callsign appearing on PSKReporter.
I continued to play with it on rx only for about an hour on 20m. The whole time everything was fine until I left the room for a quick bathroom break. The radio was on cw receive with drive at the lowest setting (just to be safe) and RF gain still at about 55. When I got back it suddenly was very deaf and only hears very strong signals. Even at RF gain 100 the waterfall shows no noise floor anymore. Only very few strong FT8 stations show a very faint line.
The only other thing I see on the waterfall is some weird noise that only appears between 42 and 45 RF gain and very few birdies. This noise is the same on all bands and doesn't change when tuning around.
TX still seems to be fine. I've tested tx with very short transmissions to not kill anything and slowly increased drive every time. The power meter in my ATU-100 did report about 20-22W at drive 100. In my experience the ATU-100 reads a little low by about 5W. After reading Farhans post about calibration I think the reduced power output is fine since I didn't calibrate yet.

I did make an image of the provided SD card as a backup before i turned it on the first time. Since it worked flawlessly in the beginning, I burned this image to a second SD card to rule out any software issues, but unfortunately it shows the same behavior.

The first picture shows FT8 decode with very few stations and one strong station appearing in the waterfall at RF gain 100. The second picture shows the weird noise between 42 and 45 RF gain.

Does anyone have any suggestions what I could do?

73,
Nanak, OE3NQA

On May 17, 2023, at 1:17 PM, Ashhar Farhan <farhanbox@...> wrote:

?

John,

I was waiting for the last upgrade to settle down. It is now all done. Expect it inside a day.

- f

On Wed, May 17, 2023, 12:02 PM John K4WCL <kf4wcl@...> wrote:

Fahran,

When and where will a updated, downloadable image be available for those of us that do no speak Linux?? I can download an image and burn it to an SD card.? I was under the impression that this would be available soon, but as of yet, have seen no mention of this on this group or on the sBitx website.? Tnx.

de K4WCL

John Galgano

On May 17, 2023, at 10:51 AM, Ashhar Farhan <farhanbox@...> wrote:

?

I reply to all messages within 24 hours. I have been travelling for the last few days. As for the problems, many are just need a different explanation for getting it done.

Since the last update of may 9th, if the radio has been properly updated, there are no show stoppers except for the iambic keying.

On Wed, May 17, 2023, 10:47 AM Yvon AE7YD <Yvon@...> wrote:

I bought the V2 expecting a working transceiver as it followed the experimental version and it also was demonstrated in multiple YouTube videos by Fahran as
a working radio,
I find that I have been mislead and paid for a lemon. But the worst part is that Fahran does not even comment on those detailed problem reports on this group,
I would have been less upset if at least he would show some care and priority. I feel for the people at Dayton who will buy those at this time useless radios.

Yvon AE7YD

On May 17, 2023, at 10:51 AM, Ashhar Farhan <farhanbox@...> wrote:

?

I reply to all messages within 24 hours. I have been travelling for the last few days. As for the problems, many are just need a different explanation for getting it done.

Since the last update of may 9th, if the radio has been properly updated, there are no show stoppers except for the iambic keying.

On Wed, May 17, 2023, 10:47 AM Yvon AE7YD <Yvon@...> wrote:

I bought the V2 expecting a working transceiver as it followed the experimental version and it also was demonstrated in multiple YouTube videos by Fahran as
a working radio,
I find that I have been mislead and paid for a lemon. But the worst part is that Fahran does not even comment on those detailed problem reports on this group,
I would have been less upset if at least he would show some care and priority. I feel for the people at Dayton who will buy those at this time useless radios.

Yvon AE7YD