listening thru webssr still waiting on my bitx to come. where is the net controller located?
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I like the idea - I'm listening right now (0011 UTC) and I don't hear anything. I'm in the Reno, NV area, running an OCF 40m dipole at about 25 ft., and an IC-718. Propagation is pretty bad right now, as I can't hear much anywhere on 40m.
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Re: Birdie at 7199 - a surprising observation!
Should the SI5351 drive be 8ma. As far as I understand from several sources, diodes need to be driven hard.
73
Ken VA3ABN
On Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 7:49 PM, Allard PE1NWL <pe1nwl@...> wrote: As has been discussed in several earlier threads, many of us suffer from an extremely strong birdie at 7199 kHz.
Today, while experimenting with the VFO drive strength, I had a surprising observation: By default the VFO drive strength is 2 mA.
I increased the drive strength by adding the following line to the setup() routine: si5351.drive_strength(SI5351_CLK2, SI5351_DRIVE_4MA);
Then the birdie at 7199 completely disappeared! So far I haven't noticed any other negative side effects on the receiver. Can other BITX40 users perhaps try this too and share the results please? You can try other drive strength values too (accepted values are 2, 4, 6, 8 mA)
If this is indeed a good fix then we may have to include this in the standard Raduino code,
73, Allard PE1NWL
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Terry,
yes I did all that too and it cured the clicks then.
But now, when I use the latest library v2.0.3 the clicks are back again.
So the obvious things don't seem to work anymore with the latest library.
Have you tried the latest library already?
73, Allard PE1NWL
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I'll try to be on next week. ?Unfortunately I'll have to miss tonight. ?
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Birdie at 7199 - a surprising observation!
As has been discussed in several earlier threads, many of us suffer from an extremely strong birdie at 7199 kHz.
Today, while experimenting with the VFO drive strength, I had a surprising observation: By default the VFO drive strength is 2 mA.
I increased the drive strength by adding the following line to the setup() routine: si5351.drive_strength(SI5351_CLK2, SI5351_DRIVE_4MA);
Then the birdie at 7199 completely disappeared! So far I haven't noticed any other negative side effects on the receiver. Can other BITX40 users perhaps try this too and share the results please? You can try other drive strength values too (accepted values are 2, 4, 6, 8 mA)
If this is indeed a good fix then we may have to include this in the standard Raduino code,
73, Allard PE1NWL
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I took a 50 volt 2200 uf electrolytic capacitor and stuck it between the + and - lines feeding the dds. Right at the connector near the board. ? Killed all the clicks.
73
Terry
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I don't have the link on my phone but I read on another site that the newer libraries actually do cause the clicks. When changing frequencies the newer libraries actually shut the output off as it changes.
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State of the EEPROM After a Download
Does anyone know the state of the EEPROM after a new program is downloaded? Erased or left alone? i.e. is the calibration factor clobbered? What's the value of EEPROM cells 0-3 before calibaration is done for the first time?
Thanks, James KE4MIQ
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Different Format for Frequency Display
I've got my Raduino up and running in a sliced turkey box(as a software test bed). It ran fine as delivered, but I now have it loaded with my SSB only code. I didn't like the leading zero in the display(07.150) so I made several changes to the format strings in updateDisplay().
sprintf(b, "%8ld", frequency);
sprintf(c, "%s:%.2s.%.3s.%.3s", "A", b, b+2, b+5);
This displays as A: 7.150.000 LSB
You can find a table of format strings at cplusplus.com
James
KE4MIQ
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I suffered badly from tuning clicks in a home built DDS.
The only way I could cure it was to provide a very well filtered power supply to the DDS power circuit.
A choke in the + rail and a nice large filter cap (as well as a low cap to suppress the higher freqs)
?
Software may have some influence, but it is being induced into the hardware and a hardware fix is ultimately required.
Darryl
?
On 2017-03-31 10:02 AM, Allard PE1NWL wrote:
The clicks seem to be also related to the si5351 library version.
With v2.0.1 no clicks. With v2.0.2 and v2.03 I have quite strong clicks. So it is somehow S/W related.
I'm quite sure the noise is not coming from the LCD display. As a test I disconnected the LCD board but the clicks were equally strong.
The clicks are equally loud even when I turn the volume to minimum. This suggests that the click-noise is coming in straight to the LM384.
I then replaced the wires to/from the volume pot by shielded cable, this really helped a lot. Clicks are now almost gone (but not completely unfortunately).
73, Allard PE1NWL
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The clicks seem to be also related to the si5351 library version. With v2.0.1 no clicks. With v2.0.2 and v2.03 I have quite strong clicks. So it is somehow S/W related.
I'm quite sure the noise is not coming from the LCD display. As a test I disconnected the LCD board but the clicks were equally strong.
The clicks are equally loud even when I turn the volume to minimum. This suggests that the click-noise is coming in straight to the LM384.
I then replaced the wires to/from the volume pot by shielded cable, this really helped a lot. Clicks are now almost gone (but not completely unfortunately). 73, Allard PE1NWL
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Yup, I got a new raduino board today and it works perfectly now. Now to get it in a case and maybe some mods.?
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Mike, the wiki pages at /g/BITX20/wiki/Raduino-Topics provide pretty clear step-by-step instructions for downloading and installing the software. 73, Allard PE1NWL
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Still a mystery As stated in post 24071: ? ?I sent an email off to hfsigs asking about that extra SMD cap. ?The answer: ?I should join the Bitx20 group and my technical queries will be solved.? Have had no further response since letting them know that all of the Bitx20 group was flummoxed. ?I guess HFSigs is flummoxed as well. Jerry
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C107 is present... so what's this extra cap for??
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Sarma,
you can use the latest library version (v2.03), the sketch compiles well,
and the raduino works OK.
But I noticed that with library v2.0.2 and v2.0.3 the issue with tuning
clicks is much worse than with v2.0.1
I used to have tuning clicks in the past, and I managed to get rid of them
completely by placing capacitors at various places on the +12V rail. That
was still with v2.0.1
Later, when v2.02 and v2.03 were released, the issue with the clicks came
back again. The reason is still not fully understood yet. That's why I
would recommend to use v2.01 for the time being.
Meanwhile I have replaced the wires to/from the volume pot by shielded
wires - this greatly improves the situation, but I can still hear some
faint clicks while turning the tuning pot.
So in my opinion it's probably not a shortcoming of the library, but a
shortcoming of the BITX. The challenge is how to make the BITX less
susceptible to noise from the DDS so that we get rid of the tuning clicks
even with the latest library version.
73, Allard PE1NWL
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Twice the price of an iPhone you can get a Rigol analyzer with trancing
generator.
At 30-03-2017, you wrote:
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
Same here. I forgot my modulator
when I was portable, so I held my Android up to the mike.
73
Ken VA3ABN
On Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 11:30 AM, Randy Hall
<listk7age@...>
wrote:
- Morning,
- I used a function generator app on my iPhone for testing. I built a
resistor divider and used a DC blocking cap in line to the mic input.?
- The app is f Generator. It does sine, square, triangle, sweeps, and
noise. I found the noise useful to view the filter bandwidth and
frequency position while viewing on my Elecraft? K3/P3 scope.
- I got this idea from watching
?
on using a spectrum analyzer phone app to view the BITX40's receive
bandwidth.?
- Randy,? K7AGE
- On Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 8:06 AM, Jonathan Peakall
<jpeakall@...>
wrote:
- Thanks Ken!
- Jonathan
- On 3/30/2017 8:00 AM, Ken wrote:
- I do. But keep the pk to pk low. Less than 100mV.
- 73
- Ken VA3ABN
- On Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 10:57 AM, Jonathan Peakall
<jpeakall@...>
wrote:
- HI All,
- Is there any reason not to make a simple tone generator (ala 555) to
use for tuning up? I get tired of testing with "auuuuudio".
:-)
- Jonathan
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That's why some time ago I proposed BITX calling freq to be 7195 KHz
Frank , GM0CSZ / KN6WH????? in IO87AT
On Wed, Mar 29, 2017 at 3:05 PM, Dimitar Pavlov via Groups.Io <lz1dpn@...> wrote: in Europe max freq in 7 MHz is 7.200 MHz.
On Wednesday, March 29, 2017 2:40 PM, Michael Davis <maddmd818@...> wrote:
I like the idea someone suggested of having Bitx40 night, on a schedule and frequency. How about?starting on Thursday 3/30?24:00 UTM for an hour or two? That would be?8pm?N. America eastern time. Frequency 7285, the QRP calling frequency. If that spot is busy, try 5-10 up or down. We can try it and make a go of it every Thursday. 73
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Allard PE1NWL
Jeff
Raj vu2zap