Re: CW and the TX Pop Problem
My uBitx pops just as loud on both SSB and CW. I¡¯m still trying to fix it. It¡¯s really loud in my headphones.
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CW and the TX Pop Problem
I am not a CW operator but am curious about how the uBITX handles the mode.? Does the TX Pop occurs when the transmitter is keyed for CW?? If not, what is the difference between CW and SSB operation with regard to the TX Pop?
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Sorry Jack¡ I¡¯m down on J6 working the 160 contest and don¡¯t have the capability to search the history at the moment.? My bad. ? ? Dr. William J. Schmidt - K9HZ J68HZ 8P6HK ZF2HZ PJ4/K9HZ VP5/K9HZ PJ2/K9HZ ? Owner - Operator Big Signal Ranch ¨C K9ZC Staunton, Illinois ? Owner ¨C Operator Villa Grand Piton ¨C J68HZ Soufriere, St. Lucia W.I. Rent it: Like us on Facebook! ? ? email:? bill@... ?
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From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jack Purdum via Groups.Io
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2018 11:20 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [BITX20] Caveat Emptor!? My post also pointed to an I2C scanner program by RobTillaart, as presented on the Arduino Forum. All I was trying to do was suggest a way for Arv or John to check their I2C address on the OLED's. ? This was originally published by Jim Sheldon for figuring out the address of devices on the I2C.? A great help to me: There is a little program out there called I2C Scanner that will run on the Nano and goes out looking for I2C addressee's on the bus Dr. William J. Schmidt - K9HZ J68HZ 8P6HK ZF2HZ PJ4/K9HZ VP5/K9HZ PJ2/K9HZ Villa Grand Piton ¨C J68HZ Soufriere, St. Lucia W.I. I wasn't responding to John. The one I responded to, #40373, was on the same thread, and contained the quote that I posted. When I saw his post, I responded (#40375) . John jumped on me seven posts later (40382) because I mentioned the I2C issue, which are a problem for some OLED displays. Had he read back through the thread, he would have seen what I was responding to. So, no, I'm not going to my room.
From: Vince Vielhaber <vev@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2018 4:52 PM
Subject: Re: [BITX20] Caveat Emptor! Now settle down or I'm sending you to your rooom without dinner!
John wasn't the one with the 0.92 displays.? Check your own post!
Vince.
On 01/26/2018 04:30 PM, Jack Purdum via Groups.Io wrote:
> "I have 5 of the small 0.92 inchdisplays but have not been able to get
> any of them to work. These are TWI or I2C interface
> and my Arduino does not recognize any."
>
> Before you get mouthy, check the initial post.
>
> Jack, W8TEE
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* John P <j.m.price@...>
> *To:* [email protected]
> *Sent:* Friday, January 26, 2018 4:00 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [BITX20] Caveat Emptor!
>
> On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 12:21 pm, Jack Purdum wrote:
>
>? ? Do you have the correct I2C address for the displays?
>
> They're not I2C displays; they're the 3.5: TFTs for the analyzed.
>
> --
> John - WA2FZW
>
>
>
--
? Michigan VHF Corp.? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
?
|
My post also pointed to an I2C scanner program by RobTillaart, as presented on the Arduino Forum. All I was trying to do was suggest a way for Arv or John to check their I2C address on the OLED's.
Jack, W8TEE
From: K9HZ <bill@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2018 9:24 PM
Subject: Re: [BITX20] Caveat Emptor!
This was originally published by Jim Sheldon for figuring out the address of devices on the I2C.? A great help to me: ? There is a little program out there called I2C Scanner that will run on the Nano and goes out looking for I2C addressee's on the bus ? ? Dr. William J. Schmidt - K9HZ J68HZ 8P6HK ZF2HZ PJ4/K9HZ VP5/K9HZ PJ2/K9HZ ? Owner - Operator Big Signal Ranch ¨C K9ZC Staunton, Illinois ? Owner ¨C Operator Villa Grand Piton ¨C J68HZ Soufriere, St. Lucia W.I. Rent it: Like us on Facebook! ? ? ? ? I wasn't responding to John. The one I responded to, #40373, was on the same thread, and contained the quote that I posted. When I saw his post, I responded (#40375) . John jumped on me seven posts later (40382) because I mentioned the I2C issue, which are a problem for some OLED displays. Had he read back through the thread, he would have seen what I was responding to. So, no, I'm not going to my room.
From: Vince Vielhaber <vev@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2018 4:52 PM
Subject: Re: [BITX20] Caveat Emptor! ? Now settle down or I'm sending you to your rooom without dinner!
John wasn't the one with the 0.92 displays.? Check your own post!
Vince.
On 01/26/2018 04:30 PM, Jack Purdum via Groups.Io wrote:
> "I have 5 of the small 0.92 inchdisplays but have not been able to get
> any of them to work. These are TWI or I2C interface
> and my Arduino does not recognize any."
>
> Before you get mouthy, check the initial post.
>
> Jack, W8TEE
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* John P <j.m.price@...>
> *To:* [email protected]
> *Sent:* Friday, January 26, 2018 4:00 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [BITX20] Caveat Emptor!
>
> On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 12:21 pm, Jack Purdum wrote:
>
>? ? Do you have the correct I2C address for the displays?
>
> They're not I2C displays; they're the 3.5: TFTs for the analyzed.
>
> --
> John - WA2FZW
>
>
>
--
? Michigan VHF Corp.? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
?
|
Re: UBITX Touch Control TFT Display
Brein,
I use the following: HARDWARE
DISPLAY?- Optimum size - 2.8inch TFT - I have tried several types and sizes from various companies - hit and miss. some work but poor clarity etc.
Having used the?elegoo 2.8 inch? TFT Display with pen - from "amazon"?has resulted in 100 percent working, clear, clean, crisp displays. I have ordered 4 over time and quality is persistent. Price? around $15.00 shipped.? Best choice
Arduino Module?: Atmega 2560 - Ebay is cheapest source at less then?$10.00...? Any Atmega 2560 will work.. I have many different company modules and have found they all work great...
DDS module -? SI5351??module?(not just the chip)- available from Ebay or Adafruit direct or amazon around $11.00
Female single jacks to solder to the rear of the Atmega....
I use this method to get access to the pins from the rear of the atmega 2560 as the front is facing the front radio panel with the display plugged directly into it. There is no room to get access to the pins I have done this on 3 rigs - bitx40 and 1 ubitx This method minimizes the wires from atmega to the ubitx board.
. You can also use an interface board which vu2spf has developed - he has the pics but no pcb for sale.
Jumpers - makes it nice a clean? 1 Jumper cable (2 pin) male to female for connection of sda and sdc from atmega to dds Si5351 1 Jumper female to female 8 pin from atmaga to ubitx board 3 cables for the clocks from Si5351 to the Ubitx.? - shielded cable is best
I feed the rig with 13.5 volts - well filtered non switching powersupply
I also use 2 buck voltage adjustable down converters (around $1.50 each ebay)
For 1- -- I? feed the 13.5 volt to it and adjust it down to 9v volts to feed the atmega 2560 - keeps it cooler than running full input voltage I also add 2? filter caps -? one?2000 mfd caps?on the input the other on the output along? with a 2- 10 ohm resistor on the ouput in series to act as a filter and hash filter isolation.
The second converter is used to feed the SI 5351 module - I adjust it to 5 volts - same filters as for the first? ?- keeps the unit isolated and cuts noise.
This results in a very quiet rig and everything nice and cool.
Not required but has not failed me in 3 bitx an 1 ubitx rigs... rigs always result in a quiet rig..
I will send pin diagram next go around
Code will be available in a few weeks -?
ABOVE - rear of the atmega - black plastic to hold atmega and cables and connectors added  2 buck down voltage converters - with blue leds
 rear left of atmega with added single line female connectors top and side and bottom
NOTE:
You probably will want to install a pop click fix - Eliminates a loud pop / click whenever tx is turned on and off.
uses 1 1n4148 diode, a 470k resistor, a .22 cap and a 2n7000 mosfet......? Works amazing.....well.
This just mounts on the rear of the volume pot ?  above is view of mod - disregard the 104 cap.. this uses a bs170 but i use a 2n7000 - pin out is a little different The pic above displays the raduino connection but works with the atmega t/r pin as well( red wire was raduino connection but i use the atmega 2560 t/r pin 26 (ubitx)  my values are 470k and .22uf cap with a 2n7000 mosfet
This should get you going......
Joe VE1BWV
On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 8:46 PM, AA7GW <[email protected]> wrote: Nice On Jan 26, 2018, at 3:23 PM, Brien Wankel < brien@...> wrote: Looks great! Any interest in providing some sort of "how-to" and code for guys like me who want to do this as well?
- Brien K7XPO
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Re: IRF510 amplifier failures
Hello,
That¡¯s why I bought 10 ea... for the uBitxs I¡¯ll probably get the others rated at over 30 MHz. Always nice to stock up on useful parts. Out of all listed on there website what would you recommend for HF/VHF use?
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On Jan 26, 2018, at 19:56, K9HZ < bill@...> wrote: The RD15HVF1 has a bit of a flatter input capacitance curve with frequency so its easier to keep constant gain over 1-54 MHz¡ but the RD16HHF1 is certainly a worthy part too. ?Oh, did I mention, they are both real RF transistors? ? ? Dr. William J. Schmidt - K9HZ J68HZ 8P6HK ZF2HZ PJ4/K9HZ VP5/K9HZ PJ2/K9HZ ? Owner - Operator Big Signal Ranch ¨C K9ZC Staunton, Illinois ? Owner ¨C Operator Villa Grand Piton ¨C J68HZ Soufriere, St. Lucia W.I. Rent it: Like us on Facebook! ? ? email:? bill@... ? ? On same site I found these, made for 30 MHz?RD16HHF1. Sooo I bought 10 of them, plan to try in Bix40 first. Data sheet even shows a reference amp design, and they are 12 volt like the other one. If it works I¡¯ll let everyone know. ?
On Jan 26, 2018, at 11:32, Jerry Gaffke via Groups.Io <jgaffke@...> wrote:
The RD15HVF1's should be operated at not much more than 12v.
At 12v, the IRF510's would survive just fine with no antenna connected.
That's an infinite VSWR.
So not obvious that this is a solution to blown FET's.
Though I do think the the Ids curves go up more slowly as Vgs increases on the RD15HF1's,
which makes RV2,RV3 not so touchy.
And the RD15HF1's might be easier to drive at 30mhz.
If you do swap them in, let us know how much power you get at 30mhz.
Jerry, KE7ER
On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 03:54 am, KD8CGH wrote: Wouldn't it be better to change to a RD15HVF1 for high VSWR
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great initiative! i tried something similar a few years ago with the as a wiki but it went nowhere. it is still ticking away. however a learning was that having multiple peeps to get the content and moderation in place works best. i hardly moderate this group, it is the brainchild of hans, G0UPL and Arv is the boss. He has spent immense time and energy on nurturing this group. It is not s stretch to say we owe our existence to these two guys. I hope finds and equally committed set of people to run it.? Like the bitx20, the ubitx too will evolve into variants and more kitshops will pick it up. The structure of the website should handle this. With that easy advice, I am off to larc18. Last night 25 ubitx came alive. Today, another 24 to go!! - f
On 27 Jan 2018 7:23 am, "AA7GW" < [email protected]> wrote: Great idea and initial layout; I am very supportive of doing this, but realize the extent of the effort and wonder how some of us can help? David
This has been done to some limited extent through use of #hashtags within the group.
Others have set up #hashtags for specific topics within the group.
Problem with this is unless you actually log into /g/bitx20 you don't see what #hashtags are already established.
You are correct about the wiki.? It needs very dedicated people to keep it up to date for
a fast moving group like this.
Arv?
_._
|
This was originally published by Jim Sheldon for figuring out the address of devices on the I2C.? A great help to me: ? There is a little program out there called I2C Scanner that will run on the Nano and goes out looking for I2C addressee's on the bus ? ? Dr. William J. Schmidt - K9HZ J68HZ 8P6HK ZF2HZ PJ4/K9HZ VP5/K9HZ PJ2/K9HZ ? Owner - Operator Big Signal Ranch ¨C K9ZC Staunton, Illinois ? Owner ¨C Operator Villa Grand Piton ¨C J68HZ Soufriere, St. Lucia W.I. Rent it: Like us on Facebook! ? ? email:? bill@... ?
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From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jack Purdum via Groups.Io
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2018 6:24 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [BITX20] Caveat Emptor!? I wasn't responding to John. The one I responded to, #40373, was on the same thread, and contained the quote that I posted. When I saw his post, I responded (#40375) . John jumped on me seven posts later (40382) because I mentioned the I2C issue, which are a problem for some OLED displays. Had he read back through the thread, he would have seen what I was responding to. So, no, I'm not going to my room.
From: Vince Vielhaber <vev@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2018 4:52 PM
Subject: Re: [BITX20] Caveat Emptor! ? Now settle down or I'm sending you to your rooom without dinner!
John wasn't the one with the 0.92 displays.? Check your own post!
Vince.
On 01/26/2018 04:30 PM, Jack Purdum via Groups.Io wrote:
> "I have 5 of the small 0.92 inchdisplays but have not been able to get
> any of them to work. These are TWI or I2C interface
> and my Arduino does not recognize any."
>
> Before you get mouthy, check the initial post.
>
> Jack, W8TEE
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* John P <j.m.price@...>
> *To:* [email protected]
> *Sent:* Friday, January 26, 2018 4:00 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [BITX20] Caveat Emptor!
>
> On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 12:21 pm, Jack Purdum wrote:
>
>? ? Do you have the correct I2C address for the displays?
>
> They're not I2C displays; they're the 3.5: TFTs for the analyzed.
>
> --
> John - WA2FZW
>
>
>
--
? Michigan VHF Corp.? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
?
|
Re: IRF510 amplifier failures
The RD15HVF1 has a bit of a flatter input capacitance curve with frequency so its easier to keep constant gain over 1-54 MHz¡ but the RD16HHF1 is certainly a worthy part too. ?Oh, did I mention, they are both real RF transistors? ? ? Dr. William J. Schmidt - K9HZ J68HZ 8P6HK ZF2HZ PJ4/K9HZ VP5/K9HZ PJ2/K9HZ ? Owner - Operator Big Signal Ranch ¨C K9ZC Staunton, Illinois ? Owner ¨C Operator Villa Grand Piton ¨C J68HZ Soufriere, St. Lucia W.I. Rent it: Like us on Facebook! ? ? email:? bill@... ?
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From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of James Lawrie
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2018 2:01 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [BITX20] IRF510 amplifier failures? On same site I found these, made for 30 MHz?RD16HHF1. Sooo I bought 10 of them, plan to try in Bix40 first. Data sheet even shows a reference amp design, and they are 12 volt like the other one. If it works I¡¯ll let everyone know. ?
On Jan 26, 2018, at 11:32, Jerry Gaffke via Groups.Io <jgaffke@...> wrote:
The RD15HVF1's should be operated at not much more than 12v.
At 12v, the IRF510's would survive just fine with no antenna connected.
That's an infinite VSWR.
So not obvious that this is a solution to blown FET's.
Though I do think the the Ids curves go up more slowly as Vgs increases on the RD15HF1's,
which makes RV2,RV3 not so touchy.
And the RD15HF1's might be easier to drive at 30mhz.
If you do swap them in, let us know how much power you get at 30mhz.
Jerry, KE7ER
On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 03:54 am, KD8CGH wrote: Wouldn't it be better to change to a RD15HVF1 for high VSWR
|
Great idea and initial layout; I am very supportive of doing this, but realize the extent of the effort and wonder how some of us can help?
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On Jan 26, 2018, at 4:59 PM, Arv Evans < arvid.evans@...> wrote: David
This has been done to some limited extent through use of #hashtags within the group.
Others have set up #hashtags for specific topics within the group.
Problem with this is unless you actually log into /g/bitx20 you don't see what #hashtags are already established.
You are correct about the wiki.? It needs very dedicated people to keep it up to date for
a fast moving group like this.
Arv?
_._
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Re: UBITX Touch Control TFT Display
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On Jan 26, 2018, at 3:23 PM, Brien Wankel < brien@...> wrote: Looks great! Any interest in providing some sort of "how-to" and code for guys like me who want to do this as well?
- Brien K7XPO
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5v for 2.5ms on the vfo does sound like it might be that etherkit vco reset from last spring.
What firmware do you have installed now?
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Probably not software.
There were some issues with etherkit libraries made available last spring,
the vco was getting reset each time the frequency changed.
But that was not a problem with the firmware shipped with the radio
using an earlier version of the etherkit libraries.
And not a problem for Allard's current firmware:??
You can hear tuning clicks with no antenna connected on most of these radios,
but the noise floor pretty much completely masks it with an appropriate antenna connected.
A 50 ohm resistor in the 12v lead to the raduino, plus caps to ground on both ends of that resistor
should be sufficient to stifle this.? If not, perhaps it has to do with how the wiring is routed
to the raduino.? Maybe arrange so the 12v and ground leads to the raduino leave from the same
region of the Bitx40, and place a cap across the two there.? Maybe an issue with length of leads,
or how the leads get routed.
?
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On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 04:38 pm, <radioant@...> wrote:
Hi I'm Bob WB2TFG,
This is my first message on this group. I wanted to silence the tuning clicks on my bitx40. I have already tried putting the caps on the regulator and resistor on the power wire on the vfo and it didn't help the tuning clicks at all. So I looked at the output of the vfo with an oscilloscope and saw a large pulse coming out of the vfo when the tuning pot was turned. The pulse was about 2.5ms long with an amplitude of about 5volts. Could this be a software problem. Thanks from Bob Porter WB2TFG.
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Re: uBitx TX performance with frequency
¡°The overall gain dropped 6dB from 3.5 up to 30Mhz¡±? That¡¯s a factor of FOUR.? So Let¡¯s say the drive is 1 watt at 3.5 MHz¡ tailing off to 0.25 watt at 30 MHz? That¡¯s an enormous difference.? I would expect 1 dB or less over the entire range and that can be accomplished a lot of different ways¡ either using good design parameters or at least an AGC. ? ? Dr. William J. Schmidt - K9HZ J68HZ 8P6HK ZF2HZ PJ4/K9HZ VP5/K9HZ PJ2/K9HZ ? Owner - Operator Big Signal Ranch ¨C K9ZC Staunton, Illinois ? Owner ¨C Operator Villa Grand Piton ¨C J68HZ Soufriere, St. Lucia W.I. Rent it: Like us on Facebook! ? ? email:? bill@... ?
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From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Alex Buurlage
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2018 3:34 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [BITX20] uBitx TX performance with frequency ? This may be a futile attempt if the intermediate gain stages (pre-driver and drivers) fall off with frequency too.? I have not done this myself yet¡ still on my list¡ to actually publish a table showing the output at each stage with frequency to determine what needs attention BEFORE the PA.? Then a change to the PA makes full sense.
William, I made some measurements on the TX chain without the PA. In my case this is up to the 2N2219's as I use the original schematic. The overall gain dropped 6dB from 3.5 up to 30Mhz. This should have some influence but is not a huge problem. With the power drive input which the 2N2219's generate for the IRF's it was clear that the IRF's were hardly doing anything at the high frequencies. I've played around with bias inductors and different impedance levels at the gates of the IRF's but apart from increasing or decreasing the overall gain for all frequencies, there was not much change in frequency gain curve.
What influences most is the output transformer of the IRF's. The trifilair setup is a good starting point but I could optimize the PA efficiency by adding and removing a winding at the primary side of the transformer. (So one winding ends up bifilair.) It's not ideal though.
With the change to RD16HHF1 (not the HVF1) I have kept the FT43-37 output coil. It could be a bit small for this, so I ordered binocular coils with a slightly larger size (BN43-202) to use as an output transformer. Yes, it also helps that the RD16 series is desigined for 12 volts. The IRF's lose their lazyness at 24 volts.
I'll post the results of the experiments for those who said to be interested. I find it very interesting myself as well.
73, Alex
PA1FOX
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What a fantastic beginning. Thanks so much. As a Johnny come lately to the group there are so many messages to try to follow and keep a coherent train of thought. This is going to be a big help. I hope it catches on. Thank you for what your doing.
73
Jim
wb4ctx
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I misread the wiring instructions.? It appears that the Bitx40 comes with a pot and that you can add an encoder with other firmware loaded into the Arduino.
|
Does the Bitx40 come with a pot or an encoder?? I just got mine a few days ago and have a 10k pot, yet the wiring instructions talk about an encoder.? I'd expect the Raduino to use an encoder.
Thanks
|
Hi I'm Bob WB2TFG,
This is my first message on this group. I wanted to silence the tuning clicks on my bitx40. I have already tried putting the caps on the regulator and resistor on the power wire on the vfo and it didn't help the tuning clicks at all. So I looked at the output of the vfo with an oscilloscope and saw a large pulse coming out of the vfo when the tuning pot was turned. The pulse was about 2.5ms long with an amplitude of about 5volts. Could this be a software problem. Thanks from Bob Porter WB2TFG.
|
David
This has been done to some limited extent through use of #hashtags within the group.
Others have set up #hashtags for specific topics within the group.
Problem with this is unless you actually log into /g/bitx20 you don't see what #hashtags are already established.
You are correct about the wiki.? It needs very dedicated people to keep it up to date for
a fast moving group like this.
Arv?
_._
On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 4:46 PM, David Arthur <mumrah@...> wrote: Here's my unsolicited 0.02 USD.
Rename the Groups.io group to "bitx" (this is possible through the settings i think), create subgroups for each radio in the bitx family (bitx20, bitx40, ubitx, etc), and perhaps another subgroup for the Raduino and programming issues. There will still be a "main" group which could be used for announcements or general discussion, but subgroups would allow for users to subscribe to what interests them.
The wiki could very easily become the official bitx knowledge base, but it needs some TLC to get to that point.
--
David K4DBZ
Unofficial bitx chatroom:?
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K9HZ
James Lawrie
AA7GW Gary
Art Howard