On Nov 3, 2023, at 10:27, Gerald Sherman <ve4gks@...> wrote:

?

This is with regard to Jack's comments about those who know what it is like to take a bunch of components and turn them into that first contact.? I did that over half a century ago.? The parts came from what was scavenged from everything from a war surplus TVI generator to an old automotive air filter (that last provided the perforated cover for the 1625 PA tube "doghouse").? My programming experience is largely with the RS274 G-code used in machine tool control - not easily transferred to C, C++, Python, etc.? Unfortunately, for some of us, our years catch up with us, and we have to pass the tools to the next generation.? My eyes aren't what they used to be, and the hands aren't very steady any more.? My abilities are largely confined to something like assembling a uBIT 6 and yes, I have a couple.? One is assembled as it was shipped, the other one is a much-modified unit from Howard Zehr.

Gerry Sherman

Sent by the Windows 11 Thunderbird

On 2023-11-03 08:57, Jack, W8TEE via groups.io wrote:

All:

I'm pretty sure that Hans agrees with me that some people here have been far too unkind to Farhan and have ignored all that he has brought to QRP operators all over the world. Farhan, Hans, and myself, are trying to cater to a different type of operator than someone who is "an appliance operator". We want to market to the operator who enjoys not only operating their radios, but also the journey of taking a bunch of components, piecing them together, and feeling the thrill of making that first contact with something that was just a pile of parts only a few days ago.

Open Source is a partnership where others join the originator to extend and improve the project. Those who see it differently are probably better off buying a commercial radio. Anyone who knows Farhan or Hans also know that they strive to make their customers happy and are deeply saddened when that's not the case. They should also know that Farhan will work tirelessly to "make it right". Given all that he has brought to our tables, we need to show patience while he does just that.

Jack, W8TEE

On Friday, November 3, 2023 at 09:26:36 AM EDT, Ashhar Farhan <farhanbox@...> wrote:

Dear All,

I must apologize for the late reply to this thread. I am getting two threads on my inbox so I am not sure which one to reply to, I will probably copy paste this into both the threads.?

Before I address the problems themselves, I must explain my own behaviour of being quiet in all these emails.?

To begin with, I have written about 95% of the code on my own. I borrowed some code from Phil Karn, KA9Q's sdr receiver and some libraries like the FFTW and the Mongoose. All in all, as of today, there are approximately 30,000 lines of code. The industry average productivity of a systems level programmer is 50 lines of production grade code per day. This amounts to about 600 full working days of work. I work erratically, so on good days I manage even 300 lines of code and on other days I am just staring at some unexplained html bug for hours. All this code is not just open source but all free. It can be used by anyone to produce their own commercial radios, it can be modified, extended, and contributed to. I have also taken great care to keep the code simple and understandable.? The code belongs to the community.

I have also always acknowledged and credited the software ideas, code and the circuit origins to where credit is due. Hams build radios, learning from others. However, I have to keep track of what can be easily replicated by others as well in the bitx radio designs. Though HF SIgnals does produce bitx radios, neither their name (bitx) nor is the circuitowned by anyone in a proprietary way. We would like to actively see more people adopt the architecture and build radios around them. Earlier, Hendricks kits and now Inkits produce these designs and their modifications. We never had any commercial dealings with any of them. I do meet Bob Hendricks on the sidelines of Dayton who was kind enough to present me with one of the original?BITX20A kits, I have never met Sunil of Inkits. (The only kits that I do enjoy and build are from QRP Labs!).

I am just mentioning all this to put into perspective that we are not just a "Vendor", we are _also_ a vendor of open source radios. In the last 9 months, I have released three updates to the hardware and three updates to the software. The software was, of course, free. The hardware changes needed (for instance, the one that made DE use diode T/R instead of the relays) was posted as an upgrade of parts and PCB to all the existing customers. However, from sbitx v2 onwards, the spurs are under the FCC limit (in all our own testing, however, Gordon Gibby's tests are worrying). The main hardware challenge has been to prevent blow out of the PA. I think we have a fix. I am just nervous to lead everyone through yet another change. However, it is a simple fix, swap the IRFZ24Ns with the trusty IRF510s. They will give 25 watts on the lower bands and more than 10 watts even on 10 meters. A few changes of resistors are in order with the predriver. I will publish the mod after a few more days. Three friends extensively used this radio during WW SSB contest this weekend. The results have been heartening.

A new version of software is ready as well. I am cleaning up the HTML UI. My aim with this release is to make it usable even on a raspberry zero, this meant that the native UI should work as well (Chrome doesn't open on zero due to low memory). I am working to tweak the HTML UI? in addition to making the native GTK have complete functionality of the HTML UI as well.? So, here is where the new version (V3) is:

1. Circuit Changes: There are no changes, except that sooner, we will swap the IRFZ24Ns with IRF510s. The maximum power will be reduced from 40 watts to 25 watts. This is far less of a consequence than we think. On the oscilloscope, the peak voltage is 100v instead of 125v. However, the IRF510s have 100 V rating instead of the IRFZ24Ns that are rated for 60V. Some resistor values are tweaked to keep all the spurs down to within the FCC limits (-43 db below the peak output). Additionally, the higher bands like 10M and 12M will have higher power output of 10 watts.

The new software will work with all previous versions from sBitx DE onwards.

2. FT8: The FT8 has been fixed. I have been running FT8 on native UI as well as HTML. The timing issue has been fixed, some bugs that confused the sequencing of the messages is also fixed.

3. CW: I wrote a new CW decoder that works very well. I have been using it to Run as well as Search & Pounce. The new logger, logbook, macros and the decoder works pretty well. I have gone back to being a QRP CW operator with this.

4. Apart from this, the Hamlib's NET Ctrl allows all external programs like the WSJT-X, FLDigi can be used if the native CW/FT8 are not good enough. The issues with interoperability has been fixed.

I am going to host this version as a different fork so as to not confuse the regular users. A few of us will try this out before declaring it done.

This update has taken far more time than I thought (the software takes more time you think it would, even if you have taken this into account). There were many niggling hardware troubles including some problems with our? SMD assembler, they have been sorted out too though for a few days we were despondent enough to consider ordering SMD assembly from China instead of our regular SMD assembly shop (the moment passed).

I am grateful to the community that supports all of us who develop sbitx. I request you all to be kinder to criticism of the radio. There is no excuse as a programmer to ship out buggy code and I personally take the entire blame. Perhaps I have been ambitious to pull this off as a single contributor. We must collectively identify and fix the bugs and keep adding features. Our endeavour will be to make the basic radio as stable as we can, and then make it extendible in easy and simple ways. This is a radio that can grow younger with age, that is the magic of free software.

73, and cu on 7015 soon.

de f.

?

On Sat, Oct 28, 2023 at 3:23?AM Gordon Gibby <docvacuumtubes@...> wrote:

Jack, I am with you. I have learned so much— so so much! from this group and from these radios. I am a little bit concerned about spurious signals ?in the manufacturing production line. This is such a fantastic advance that it deserves to be a very clean radio and I’m concerned that we’ve got an issue with the filtering and bleed around. The filters them selves look fantastic!? I understand this had happened to other firms’ radios as well and so it’s not unheard of with new devices. I’m pretty convinced that we will get it fixed and then I’m looking forward to moving on to working on software, I’m especially fascinated with getting back into digital signal processing?

But I’m just swamped with the high school students I’m teaching right now. Today we had them do their first CW contacts with a roundabout technique using a web SDR.? They’re doing around six words per minute. I need them up to 15 by winter field day.?

Gordon

On Oct 27, 2023, at 11:56, John Terrell, N6LN <N6LN@...> wrote:

?

I have been lucky enough to work with my two sBitx rigs (the DE and also the V2) and the uBitx V6 before that. I have learned far more along the way about transmitter and receiver design than I could have any other way. If I want an easy contact I can simply switch on my Icom or Kenwood or Yaesu, but that’s not what I wanted. I have benefited beyond measure from the community of engineers and fellow tinkerers who have helped me. Hopefully I have helped others through my posts as they have walked me through my fits and stops. It has at times been frustrating but all in all I haven’t had this much pleasure in ham radio since I was a teenager going to TV repair shops, taking apart junked tube TV sets and building homebrew rigs. It’s like hiking for days in the mountains. There’s no hot water or wifi, but that’s not the reason to make the trip.?

Enjoy the trip.

73,
Jack, N6LN

--
Jack, W8TEE

All:

I'm pretty sure that Hans agrees with me that some people here have been far too unkind to Farhan and have ignored all that he has brought to QRP operators all over the world. Farhan, Hans, and myself, are trying to cater to a different type of operator than someone who is "an appliance operator". We want to market to the operator who enjoys not only operating their radios, but also the journey of taking a bunch of components, piecing them together, and feeling the thrill of making that first contact with something that was just a pile of parts only a few days ago.

Open Source is a partnership where others join the originator to extend and improve the project. Those who see it differently are probably better off buying a commercial radio. Anyone who knows Farhan or Hans also know that they strive to make their customers happy and are deeply saddened when that's not the case. They should also know that Farhan will work tirelessly to "make it right". Given all that he has brought to our tables, we need to show patience while he does just that.

Jack, W8TEE

On Friday, November 3, 2023 at 09:26:36 AM EDT, Ashhar Farhan <farhanbox@...> wrote:

Dear All,

I must apologize for the late reply to this thread. I am getting two threads on my inbox so I am not sure which one to reply to, I will probably copy paste this into both the threads.?

Before I address the problems themselves, I must explain my own behaviour of being quiet in all these emails.?

To begin with, I have written about 95% of the code on my own. I borrowed some code from Phil Karn, KA9Q's sdr receiver and some libraries like the FFTW and the Mongoose. All in all, as of today, there are approximately 30,000 lines of code. The industry average productivity of a systems level programmer is 50 lines of production grade code per day. This amounts to about 600 full working days of work. I work erratically, so on good days I manage even 300 lines of code and on other days I am just staring at some unexplained html bug for hours. All this code is not just open source but all free. It can be used by anyone to produce their own commercial radios, it can be modified, extended, and contributed to. I have also taken great care to keep the code simple and understandable.? The code belongs to the community.

I have also always acknowledged and credited the software ideas, code and the circuit origins to where credit is due. Hams build radios, learning from others. However, I have to keep track of what can be easily replicated by others as well in the bitx radio designs. Though HF SIgnals does produce bitx radios, neither their name (bitx) nor is the circuitowned by anyone in a proprietary way. We would like to actively see more people adopt the architecture and build radios around them. Earlier, Hendricks kits and now Inkits produce these designs and their modifications. We never had any commercial dealings with any of them. I do meet Bob Hendricks on the sidelines of Dayton who was kind enough to present me with one of the original?BITX20A kits, I have never met Sunil of Inkits. (The only kits that I do enjoy and build are from QRP Labs!).

I am just mentioning all this to put into perspective that we are not just a "Vendor", we are _also_ a vendor of open source radios. In the last 9 months, I have released three updates to the hardware and three updates to the software. The software was, of course, free. The hardware changes needed (for instance, the one that made DE use diode T/R instead of the relays) was posted as an upgrade of parts and PCB to all the existing customers. However, from sbitx v2 onwards, the spurs are under the FCC limit (in all our own testing, however, Gordon Gibby's tests are worrying). The main hardware challenge has been to prevent blow out of the PA. I think we have a fix. I am just nervous to lead everyone through yet another change. However, it is a simple fix, swap the IRFZ24Ns with the trusty IRF510s. They will give 25 watts on the lower bands and more than 10 watts even on 10 meters. A few changes of resistors are in order with the predriver. I will publish the mod after a few more days. Three friends extensively used this radio during WW SSB contest this weekend. The results have been heartening.

A new version of software is ready as well. I am cleaning up the HTML UI. My aim with this release is to make it usable even on a raspberry zero, this meant that the native UI should work as well (Chrome doesn't open on zero due to low memory). I am working to tweak the HTML UI? in addition to making the native GTK have complete functionality of the HTML UI as well.? So, here is where the new version (V3) is:

1. Circuit Changes: There are no changes, except that sooner, we will swap the IRFZ24Ns with IRF510s. The maximum power will be reduced from 40 watts to 25 watts. This is far less of a consequence than we think. On the oscilloscope, the peak voltage is 100v instead of 125v. However, the IRF510s have 100 V rating instead of the IRFZ24Ns that are rated for 60V. Some resistor values are tweaked to keep all the spurs down to within the FCC limits (-43 db below the peak output). Additionally, the higher bands like 10M and 12M will have higher power output of 10 watts.

The new software will work with all previous versions from sBitx DE onwards.

2. FT8: The FT8 has been fixed. I have been running FT8 on native UI as well as HTML. The timing issue has been fixed, some bugs that confused the sequencing of the messages is also fixed.

3. CW: I wrote a new CW decoder that works very well. I have been using it to Run as well as Search & Pounce. The new logger, logbook, macros and the decoder works pretty well. I have gone back to being a QRP CW operator with this.

4. Apart from this, the Hamlib's NET Ctrl allows all external programs like the WSJT-X, FLDigi can be used if the native CW/FT8 are not good enough. The issues with interoperability has been fixed.

I am going to host this version as a different fork so as to not confuse the regular users. A few of us will try this out before declaring it done.

This update has taken far more time than I thought (the software takes more time you think it would, even if you have taken this into account). There were many niggling hardware troubles including some problems with our? SMD assembler, they have been sorted out too though for a few days we were despondent enough to consider ordering SMD assembly from China instead of our regular SMD assembly shop (the moment passed).

I am grateful to the community that supports all of us who develop sbitx. I request you all to be kinder to criticism of the radio. There is no excuse as a programmer to ship out buggy code and I personally take the entire blame. Perhaps I have been ambitious to pull this off as a single contributor. We must collectively identify and fix the bugs and keep adding features. Our endeavour will be to make the basic radio as stable as we can, and then make it extendible in easy and simple ways. This is a radio that can grow younger with age, that is the magic of free software.

73, and cu on 7015 soon.

de f.

?

On Sat, Oct 28, 2023 at 3:23?AM Gordon Gibby <docvacuumtubes@...> wrote:

Jack, I am with you. I have learned so much— so so much! from this group and from these radios. I am a little bit concerned about spurious signals ?in the manufacturing production line. This is such a fantastic advance that it deserves to be a very clean radio and I’m concerned that we’ve got an issue with the filtering and bleed around. The filters them selves look fantastic!? I understand this had happened to other firms’ radios as well and so it’s not unheard of with new devices. I’m pretty convinced that we will get it fixed and then I’m looking forward to moving on to working on software, I’m especially fascinated with getting back into digital signal processing?

But I’m just swamped with the high school students I’m teaching right now. Today we had them do their first CW contacts with a roundabout technique using a web SDR.? They’re doing around six words per minute. I need them up to 15 by winter field day.?

Gordon

On Oct 27, 2023, at 11:56, John Terrell, N6LN <N6LN@...> wrote:

?

I have been lucky enough to work with my two sBitx rigs (the DE and also the V2) and the uBitx V6 before that. I have learned far more along the way about transmitter and receiver design than I could have any other way. If I want an easy contact I can simply switch on my Icom or Kenwood or Yaesu, but that’s not what I wanted. I have benefited beyond measure from the community of engineers and fellow tinkerers who have helped me. Hopefully I have helped others through my posts as they have walked me through my fits and stops. It has at times been frustrating but all in all I haven’t had this much pleasure in ham radio since I was a teenager going to TV repair shops, taking apart junked tube TV sets and building homebrew rigs. It’s like hiking for days in the mountains. There’s no hot water or wifi, but that’s not the reason to make the trip.?

Enjoy the trip.

73,
Jack, N6LN

--
Jack, W8TEE

I am grateful to the community that supports all of us who develop sbitx.

I am grateful to you and the rest of the sbitx developers! I am enjoying my 'tinkering'! I'm sorry some discover late that the radio may not be what they thought it was. I think you've done a great job explaining what the radio is and what it is not.

I am looking forward to the software update. I like that you have done hamlib net control. I think that will make it even easier for us to tinker. I am willing/able to try the software as early as you want to release it. If you want to reach me, I can be reached via the email address in qrz.com.

-- Regards, Dave, N1AI

On Nov 2, 2023, at 23:40, Ashhar Farhan <farhanbox@...> wrote:

?

Gordon,

I noticed that there is a lot of noise around the signals fundamental. That shouldn't be there either.

- f

On Fri, Nov 3, 2023, 6:21 AM Gordon Gibby <docvacuumtubes@...> wrote:

Articles with similar circuits:

On Thu, Nov 2, 2023 at 03:32 PM, Rafael Diniz wrote:

any problem, lemme know. I'm running bullseye 64 bit here.

I'm really struggling. Bullseye 64-bit on the same hardware that had Buster 32-bit crashes very often. This is the Pi 4 that came with the sbitx and has been taken on a few POTA activations and have not seen any problems with it. I'm now down to the point of installing the non-desktop 'lite' image just to see if I can't understand what is crashing and why.

-- Regards, Dave, N1AI

On Nov 2, 2023, at 19:21, Evan Hand <elhandjr@...> wrote:

?Gordon,

Good work so far.

A subsequent test could be pulling the 1n4007 diodes for all but the one filter under test.? That would determine if the blow-by is coming through the bias circuit or the diodes themselves causing the harmonics.? If that is not the issue, adding back the other diodes one filter at a time might show some interaction.

Just suggestions.? I would help if I had v2.

73
Evan
AC9TU