John,

Sounds like you know way more than I about the USPS. ?But looking online, ACS stands for Address Correction Service. I wouldn't think packages would get sent there routinely. ?That clerk wasn't too clear on what ACS was, but she did think it meant something might be wrong with the label. ?Maybe one of those machines misread a barcode.

The NW US has had a tough winter. ?Portland seldom sees much snow, and doesn't have much in the way of snow removal equipment or snow savvy drivers. ?Whole town shuts down every time there's a couple inches. ?Just yesterday morning the streets there were a sheet of ice from freezing rain. ?I'm way out in the boonies, a 7 hour drive from Portland (on a summer's day). ?Local towns are having residents leave the taps dripping to keep the lines from freezing, the months of cold weather have taken the frost line down to the water mains. ?I'm 5 miles from our mailbox, of which I clear over a mile with my tractor, and the county's big snowplows have trouble keeping the rest open due to drifting snow. ?Makes it tough to check for packages. ?Tried driving to Portland in early December, found out in La Grand that 160 miles of I84 had been shut down from the Idaho border to Pendleton for over a day, virtually no mention of it on the ODOT website. ?Even the oldtimers say it's been a tough winter.

A couple decades ago the company I worked for was selling camera interface boards that I designed into mail sorting machines to read bar codes. ?I made several field trips to help them out ?Monstrous noisy machines, Rube Goldberg would be proud. ?The guys working on the software would send a stack of sample mail through a machine every time they wanted to test, and after a few dozen runs it would all be half shredded. ?We created a special camera simulator to drive our camera interface so they could read a few thousand images from disk, no longer needed to put on ear protection and head down to the machine room.

Jerry Gaffke, KE7ER ? ?Flora Oregon, USA

One for Jack W8TEE really ut it may interest others, this webpage details some boards and using them with the Arduino IDE.

Very interesting.

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Rob G4NQX

Well,? I've trawled through over 2000 posts and gleaned as much useful information as I can.? This version is dated and contains lots more useful info.

At this point since early January there has been around 1500 posts to Groups.io BitX20 !

That's some going for a group, just shows how popular the BitX is.
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Rob G4NQX

In the Raduino code are extra features which are commented out from running.? If you decide to uncomment them to use and reprogram the Nano then the wiring is as follows:-

There is code for? dual vfo, rit, cw tx/rx.

It's already in the code but commented out in the “ loop() “.? You need to uncomment them and reprogram the Nano.

It uses a pushbutton on Nano A3 pin to select using tap, press, double tap method.

Wiring colours used are

Brown = CW?? Key ?

Red? = Calibrate and CW tone output when in CW

Orange = Pushbutton to select Dual vfo’s,? RIT,? CW

Blue = PTT Sense

Black = LPF Select – not catered for yet

I am updating the Tips n Mods and will post it soon

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Rob G4NQX

Proper addresses, tracking numbers, they all meaning nothing when a package goes missing.? I ordered an amplifier interface cable a few weeks ago and it was scanned as being loaded on a truck headed for Colorado, and that was the last scan ever.? I contacted the Post Office, they checked, said "Yep, it's lost!? Contact the seller and let them know.".? No asking the sending and receiving ends to look for it, etc., they didn't care, it was gone and the seller's problem.? Really annoyed me.
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For the record though, that's the first package the USPS has lost for me in many, many years.

Just three people so far. First at 19 miles, second at 12.5 miles, and third at 7.6 miles. And I could hear the third one weakly but audible.?

I mentioned before on the bad tx audio thread that the sound of my ssb signal is not as loud and clear on the SW receiver as I expected. And this multimeter reading seems to be half of the 1 amp expected. On the receiver I have to turn it up louder to hear my self with headphones than the volume the level for listening to other stations.

Some other folks reported 1V read at Q13 when having transmit problem. Mine is reading a bit more than 3V at two pins on one side and 12V on the other while transmitting. I understand this is normal operation. Just trying to narrow it down before swapping out the final.?

My first cw kit got me a official observer card because of frequency instability and chirp. Replacing the PA gave me a perfect sounding signal after that. I can't help but wonder if I got a random faulty part again. Or maybe I hurt it when the raduino freaked out. I'll just go ahead and replace it tomorrow.

Some have gotten the analog VFO to work well enough by changing some parts, search for NPO in this mailing list. ?Most people here are moving to the Raduino or similar, as the Si5351 is far more stable. ?But playing with stuff like that counter is how you learn.

If it works as advertised, that's a very nice frequency counter for $10. ?

Says "dual frequency design, intermediate frequency value and plus / minus mode can be preset" ?which suggests to me you can enter an intermediate frequency of 12mhz and it will display the correct transmitting frequency by reading the VFO. ?You may have to read the manual. ? Otherwise, could measure the VFO frequency and subtract that from the 12mhz IF frequency of the Bitx40 using a hand calculator. ?As you suggest, it may not be exactly 12mhz, you could measure the BFO frequency at the emitter of Q11 to get an exact figure.

Also need to to figure out ?how to hook it up to the VFO without disturbing the VFO too much or injecting display noise into the radio. ?Maybe you just clip the counter's probe into that VFO. ?Or may require ?a resistor network, a one transistor buffer, coax, shielding, bypass caps, ...? ? ??

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The PLJ6 does not work when the VFO freq must be subtracted from the IF freq as in the Bitx40.? The PLJ6 works fine when the VFO is added to the IF as in a 20M radio.? I have used a PLJ6 in a 20M MFJ radio and it works very nicely.

It is supposed to work in subtraction mode but there must be a bug in the firmware.? I don't know anyone who has gotten it to work in subtraction mode.

73,? George

Wow, user error on my part, I was measuring total current. ?I just inserted meter in just the PA line and all is OK now, 100ma.

I guess the excitement to get the BITX connected quickly, I was too quick on the trigger to read the setup slowly, ?Thanks so much for the quick response.?

I know there's no AGC but has anyone been looking to modify so as to add an S-Meter based on RF signal level, not tapping off Volume control.

Thanks so much for the quick response....lesson learned, read twice and slowly.

Tnx,

Faris

Hi,

I just got my license a month ago and have been sitting on my bitx40 until I got it. I also ordered a PLJ6-LED frequency counter off of ebay to mess around with, as seen Is there any way to keep the analog VFO on the bitx40 and use a frequency counter to display the VFO frequency? From what I understand I would have to find a way to measure the frequency of the crystals on the board then add or subtract the offset and put that into the frequency counter. Is that correct? Has anyone here done this with their bitx40 yet? I apologize in advance for such a noob question, I'm slowly but surely modifying my bitx40 and it has been a great introduction to electronics!

If you are seeing 7 watts out, sounds like it is working. ? ?However:

Setting RV1 to the top of its range (5.4v?) could easily blow the IRF510. ? Just slowly bring it up to 100ma of drain current into the IRF510.

There is no zener, perhaps you are referring to the LM78L05 3 pin regulator? ?Should be 5.0 volts, within a tenth of a volt or so.

Jerry