Hi all,
A while back at a hamfest I picked up a mystery radio being sold by a guy selling items from an SK's estate. He didn't know what it was at all, so I got a good price on it. Bringing it home, I found out that it's a BitX40 v3.
The builder didn't label any of the buttons or knobs on the radio, so I had to figure those out myself. Got it all sorted out except for one switch that goes to another smaller board under the main PC board, but that'll be a question for another time. There apparently have been multiple mods done by the original builder to the radio, but so far I haven't been able to reverse engineer what's been done to it. It does work great and has great receive audio as well as good transmit audio.
Right now, the things I want to figure out is how much power output the radio should have. All other Bitx's I've had are 10W output, but this one seems to only be 5W with one IRF510 final. If 5W is what I can expect out of this radio, then fine. I was making contacts on a net last night.
The radio was built without having a hookup for a CW key. I'd like to install a CW jack so I can operate CW with it. I did find a schematic but can't seem to find where to hook up a key to the circuit.
Any help appreciated.
--
Tom Sevart N2UHC
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Re: Fixed: cw latency and wsjtx/flidigi sidetone
Thank you Ashhar for everything you have done for this project for us all! I appreciate it!
I have a minor update?to make zbitx work with wsjtx/fldigi/etc and fixed cw latency. You have to update?just the raspberry zero.
From a terminal window, type this: cd ~/sbitx ./update sbitx
this should do it
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Fixed: cw latency and wsjtx/flidigi sidetone
I have a minor update?to make zbitx work with wsjtx/fldigi/etc and fixed cw latency. You have to update?just the raspberry zero.
From a terminal window, type this: cd ~/sbitx ./update sbitx
this should do it
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Re: zbitx cw performance problems solved?
The kernel GPIO driver may also record the exact time of each interrupt. So if we may accept certain latency, but want to keep the original timing, it is doable. Well, it is inconvenient like playing electric guitar via a high latency virtual amplifier and sound procesor...
73 Wojtek SP5DAA
sob., 12 kwi 2025, 12:43 u?ytkownik Gordon Gibby KX4Z via <docvacuumtubes= [email protected]> napisa?:
I believe Ashhar has already handled the interrupt recognition on key closure.? ?The problem appeared to be "doing something as a result" - which impacts other portions of the system.? ?That is where the slow polling was appearing to cause the problem.? ?Speeding up THAT part made a HUGE improvement in the sBitx and Erik's results with the zBitx appeared to be the same improvement.? ?Now Ashhar is contemplating integration.? ?
Gordon KX4Z
Unfortunately, I haven't received my zBitx yet, but as I cen see from the schematic diagram: , the key (J3) is connected to pins GPIO7 (PTT) and GPIO21 (R-DASH).
Both those pins are interrupt capable (correct me if I'm wrong). The libgpiod offers a possibility where the thread sleeps waiting for the change of the state of a set of interrupt capable GPIOs. Can't that be used to improve the latency instead of periodic polling?
In the worst case, the handling of the interrupt of selected pins can be implemented in the kernel space.
(A few years ago I had to write a few kernel drivers that connected to the GPIO subsystem in linux (e.g. or ). They were not used for low-latency handling interrupts, but that's possible as well.)
?
73,
Wojtek SP5DAA
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Re: zbitx cw performance problems solved?
I believe Ashhar has already handled the interrupt recognition on key closure.? ?The problem appeared to be "doing something as a result" - which impacts other portions of the system.? ?That is where the slow polling was appearing to cause the problem.? ?Speeding up THAT part made a HUGE improvement in the sBitx and Erik's results with the zBitx appeared to be the same improvement.? ?Now Ashhar is contemplating integration.? ?
Gordon KX4Z
Unfortunately, I haven't received my zBitx yet, but as I cen see from the schematic diagram: , the key (J3) is connected to pins GPIO7 (PTT) and GPIO21 (R-DASH).
Both those pins are interrupt capable (correct me if I'm wrong). The libgpiod offers a possibility where the thread sleeps waiting for the change of the state of a set of interrupt capable GPIOs. Can't that be used to improve the latency instead of periodic polling?
In the worst case, the handling of the interrupt of selected pins can be implemented in the kernel space.
(A few years ago I had to write a few kernel drivers that connected to the GPIO subsystem in linux (e.g. or ). They were not used for low-latency handling interrupts, but that's possible as well.)
?
73,
Wojtek SP5DAA
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Re: zbitx cw performance problems solved?
Unfortunately, I haven't received my zBitx yet, but as I cen see from the schematic diagram: , the key (J3) is connected to pins GPIO7 (PTT) and GPIO21 (R-DASH).
Both those pins are interrupt capable (correct me if I'm wrong). The libgpiod offers a possibility where the thread sleeps waiting for the change of the state of a set of interrupt capable GPIOs. Can't that be used to improve the latency instead of periodic polling?
In the worst case, the handling of the interrupt of selected pins can be implemented in the kernel space.
(A few years ago I had to write a few kernel drivers that connected to the GPIO subsystem in linux (e.g. or ). They were not used for low-latency handling interrupts, but that's possible as well.)
?
73,
Wojtek SP5DAA
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Re: zbitx cw performance problems solved?
Dear CW enthusiasts, I saw a lot of complaints in the past weeks about bad CW performance here.
is this problem now solved?
DL4ZAQ Peter
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Thank you Evan. Not sure when I will get going on it, but I have it now!? Oh wow.. nice a discord server..
I'll check that out too.
Brad
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Thank you Evan,
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I was on Jeff's shop website and saw that he was away and the boards were unavailable. I would prefer to wait and buy the boards from him. While waiting for his return I was going to deoxit the encoder and see if I could clear it up and if disaster struck I would then have a replacement on hand. I noticed that if I apply a bit of side pressure I can get the results I want. I left my email on his site for response.
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This is one slick rig and I like using it. Backup parts are always good to have.
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Thanks again,
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Dean/ N2TNN
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Hi Dean,
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Here is the part that Jeff Duce used in his sBitx encoder board replacement:
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I suggest you try to contact Jeff, as the strain on the stock board will damage the new part.
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You could try moving the connector to the other side of the board.? You must swap top to bottom to have the bottom encoder control the frequency.? I have not verified this as I purchased the boards from Jeff.
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You can sign up for an email when Jeff returns:
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73
Evan
AC9TU
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I see that the encoder boards are not available. Does anyone have the encoder part number. My tuning encoder just went wacky. Turn the know right and the freq goes down and then it jumped an entire band.
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Thanks,
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Dean/ N2TNN
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Not sure what version you are on, but the AGC is aggressive on this transceiver. Try adjusting it and see if you get desired results.
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i thought I had seen this on here but I am not sure how to search for it.? In ssb mode when I end a transmission it seems like a long time before I can starting hearing the received signal again.? Some times I miss as many as 4-5 words from the person replying to my transmission.? Any ideas here?
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Jeff Darby
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Re: Quick Delivery of zBitx to Germany / VAT and DHL duty tax processing / First succesful FT8 QSOs
Hi,
It seems that in Germany it's all or nothing! My zBitx arrived in Leipzig the march 30. But, lost (or stolen!) it never left for France.
They started the laborious steps with DHL to get them to refund me the VAT, and refund HFsignals! I'm waiting..1
Enjoy with your new toy....
?
73
Patrick
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Re: Quick Delivery of zBitx to Germany / VAT and DHL duty tax processing / First succesful FT8 QSOs
It seems you found the trap too. zbitx has a separate branch on github, but the program name remains sbitx.
The 32-bit , while the .
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Gyula HA3HZ
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Re: An update to the sbitx software - v 3.02
Reed AA1RB,
I think you got lost because you didn't check the date of the topic. This discussion is about the 32-bit software sbitx.
There is a 64-bit version that is still maintained by the developer as of March 2024.
sbitx includes RPi4, which is no longer being developed in 32-bit form, or at least not much.
Unfortunately, the current new product software is also called 32-bit sbitx, so it's hard for new users to tell which one they're using. If you have any of the hardware versions of sbitx (RPi4) in your possession (sBitx DE, V2, v3), then it's worth downloading the 64-bit image and doing some updates to use the best sbitx software available. The RPi4 is capable of running both 32 and 64-bit, so don't worry about that. If so, I recommend reading the ' Sbitx v2 to v3 update problem' and the ' New sBitx V3 to me' topics. I can't help you any further, I described what you need to do then and there.
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I am using sbitx v2 hardware with 64 bit v4.4 software. I have currently made over 10k QSOs in 1.5 years.
I have some experience.
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Gyula HA3HZ
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Re: Quick Delivery of zBitx to Germany / VAT and DHL duty tax processing / First succesful FT8 QSOs
Same experience with my arrival:? Also ordered Dec. 30, also ~46,-� handling and vat to be paid before delivery via paypal. Delivery with DHL Express on Thursday. First FT8-Contact with Italy successful. Did not look for the RTC-Battery, but time-Display also behaves like Joergs Zbitx. Will look inside this afternoon.
73, Wolfgang
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Re: zBitx Battery for real time clock missing
Joerg,
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Thanks for bring this to our attention. Can you send us an email at support at hfsignals dot com with your order details and any hi-resolution photos of the board? I'm attaching photos of the RTC battery for your reference.
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73,
Ragav
VU3VWR
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Brad,
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Here are the links I said I would post after getting home.? Because of other errors, it took me longer than expected.
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The 64-bit image can be downloaded here:
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JJ also set up a Discord server:
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There is a lot of good information on the server.
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73
Evan
AC9TU
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Odd, my wife has hers tomorrow.
? ? ?Frank Krozel ? ? ? ? ? ?KG9H Life Member, ARRL ? ? (630) 924-1600 kg9hfrank@...
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de KG9H
Life member, ARRL
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DL4ZAQ_Peter
HA3HZ
