Re: ws1t implementation with wd8cec firmware.
The software is Wsjt had a typo.
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Re: ws1t implementation with wd8cec firmware.
In WSJT-X settings (Radio tab), you have USB for the serial port, choose the correct port number from the dropdown in the serial port setting (assuming you have the USB cable connected to the uBITX and arduino).
Nigel
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Re: Nano Capability with 2.8" TFT Displays
On Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 08:20 pm, Jerry Gaffke wrote:
Hello Jerry,
I was thinking more like the eBay 201950756171 and use the 4 pin SPI connector. 73 Kees K5BCQ
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ws1t implementation with wd8cec firmware.
I uploaded the wd8cec firmware so that I can run digital and use a usb cord from computer to arduino.? Ian has some videos about implementing ws1t and other computer software. I am running windows7pro.
Ian's video
?
My setup which gives me an error.
TIA for help
73
Dave K0MBT
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Re: VK2AUJ's ?BITX project
Great build Yves and I see you have lots of room for a decent size batteries. I noticed you removed the heat sink on the regulator on the Raduino,? did you make some mods to the board that reduced the heat generated? that made this possible? I¡¯ve added a 47ohm resistor in-line with the? 12v feed to the regulator and that reduced the heat generated by the large? voltage drop across the regulator.
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On Apr 30, 2018, at 23:25, John Sharpe < johsharpe@...> wrote: Nice project Yves, welcome to the Bitx world. I now have a Bitx40 and a uBitx. A lot of the fun is reading all the mods and ideas posted on this group and trying them out.
73s, john VK2VOL
Just had to build one of these?.. I used to have a KX3, but what I really wanted was a lunch box radio I could just leave on the ground outside. |
The Manly Warringah Radio Society (MWRS) is the radio club I belong to in Sydney Australia!
Yves vk2auj
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Re: ND6T AGC implementation for uBIT-X
Likewise, one of each board for me.? Thanks again for doing this!
-KI4QGJ
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Thanks for the summary of that hour and 15 minute presentation.
Someday when I find a decent network connection I may sit through it.
He mentions grounding and counterpoises.?
Google "EFHW counterpoise" and you'll get lots of differing opinions.
Here's mine (and I'm by no means antenna expert either):
If you have any coax from matchbox to rig, I doubt an explicit counterpoise is needed.
Not a bad idea to attach a good earth ground to the matchbox
to avoid trouble during electrical storms, and trouble from the kilovolts
of RF involved if stuffing a kilowatt into 3000 ohms.?
Likewise, an earth ground at the rig for safety is always a good idea.
For portable QRP ops with at least five feet of coax from the matchbox to rig,
I doubt an earth ground is needed for either performance or safety.
If no coax at all, put a hand on the case and your body will probably give sufficient counterpoise.
This is for an EFHW antenna system near resonance,
a significant counterpoise may be needed when off resonance.
Jerry, KE7ER
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On Tue, May 1, 2018 at 04:11 am, Kelly Jack wrote:
Summary of Steve Ellington's video presentation on efhw on youtube.
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On Tue, May 1, 2018 at 07:16 am, Rag LB-Three-RE Stein-Roar wrote:
USB mode is default until you key the CW key port,?
LSB mode below 10Mhz.?
I think you are confusing the ?BITX with the BITX40 the op was asking about.
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Re: w8tee bitx40 vfo document missing final connect
Very top left, GND and OUT2 is the buffered output.? If you are using jumper wires make sure you twist them together.? Small coax would be even better.
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Hello USB mode is default until you key the CW key port,? LSB mode below 10Mhz.?
You can add digital connector at back of the radio for digital mode. I plan to do that for psk31, FT8, RTTY?
73 LB3RE
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Hi
I¡¯m just awaiting delivery of my Bitx 40 with Raduino.?
Do I need a mod to the circuit to operate USB data using an easy Digi or is usb selectable as a function selectable via the function button??
73 de G6EXF
Jeff? Hi Jack, all
> Hans and Ashhar will both be at the FDIM conference just? > before the Hamvention starts, in Fairborn, OH. I'm fairly certain? > there will also be a fair number of ?BITX users at that? > conference, too.
QRP Labs has a table at vendor evening at FDIM (Thursday 17-May-2018) and also a booth at the Dayton hamvention, #6414. I hope to have a good selection of QRP Labs kits on show and for sale.?
73 Hans G0UPL
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Amateur Radio Kit - Metal Cases - Traffic for those wondering..
Received an email this morning? from ? Sunil Kumar Lakhani at? http://amateurradiokits.in?
I added DHL shipping to the Semiens Gray uBITX case I ordered a while back.
I wanted to make sure he connected my DHL payment to the CASE payment. (Order #1554)
All is fine with my order and HE mentioned He? WILL BE shipping 50 cases by the weekend !!! (WOO! HOO!)
I know someone is going to ask- when did your order the case? . Let me check PAYPAL history -? MARCH 16th, 2018
So I hope this posting reduces email inquiries, so they can focus on shipping at hand.
This is as much fun as a Novice in 1965 with a homebrew? 6V6 transmitter and a BC-348Q surplus receiver.
Larry W8LM
ARRL Life Member -Licensed 52 years.
Past President, 2 terms, VFW post 3115 Amateur Radio Club, W?VFW- Wichita, KANSAS
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A 66' piece of wire radiates the same whether it is driven from the center (a dipole)
or from the end (an end fed half wave).??
The primary compromise of an EFHW? is?in how well the matchbox (mostly a
matching transformer) works, allowing our 50 ohm transmitter to drive the 3000 ohm load
seen at the end of the wire.? A well designed matchbox can minimize those losses
to where they are of no consequence.? This can be measured by putting two such
matchboxes back-to-back, bringing the impedance back down to 50 ohms,
then measure the power into a 50 ohm dummy load.
Another compromise comes when you try operating on the upper bands, there is
a bag of tricks required to make a half dozen bands all be resonant when the frequencies
of interest are not quite exact multiples (and there are other factors that can bring
those bands out of resonance).? ?A good EFHW will have low SWR at the?
frequencies of interest, at other frequencies the SWR rises considerably.
Also the radiation patterns on the upper bands?give pot luck as to where
all those lobes are pointed, can be hard to predict.
Though pot luck can be fun.
Many EFHW designs don't measure up to the performance of a dipole.
Some do.? Something like a G5RV antenna can give as good of performance
as an EFHW, but requires ladder line and a tuner.? A good EFHW would be
hard to beat with anything less than a bunch of rotatable beams.
Opinions will vary, I'm sure.
Ask 10 hams what the best antenna is, you will get dozens of answers.
Jerry, KE7ER
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On Tue, May 1, 2018 at 12:24 am, Nigel G4ZAL wrote:
My 66ft EFHW is resonant on 40 thro' 10 including 30m (SWR is just above 1.5:1 on 30m) it is strung up with a dogleg around mid length.?
What appeals to me is that it is simply fed at one end and only has a single 2metre counterpoise.
I found it best with the feedpoint elevated above ground (1.5 metres in my case).
I estimate it is a few db down when compared to a dipole and seems to be borne out in real life when observing signal reports on FT8 - it is a compromise antenna after all.
All in all, it's decent performer with minimal visual impact (essential according to SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed)) !
I plan to extend it to 80m with a loading coil as per some of the linked designs in the above posts.?
Nigel
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Re: ND6T AGC implementation for uBIT-X
One of each for me even though I have done little SMD work - could be interesting!
73, Bill NZ0T
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Re: uBitx Build Done and 1st QSO at K4XD
Great write up Rowland, looks like your having lots of fun. These uBITX¡¯s are a lot of bang for a buck and Ian¡¯s firmware sure makes this rig more versatile. With a few small hardware up grades will improve functionality. I did several up grades but the response flatting by Howard ?worked great I now get up to twice as much power out on the higher bands than before. I¡¯m seeing 10 watts on 20 meters and 4 watts on 10 meters where 10 was 1.5w and 20 was about 4w before.
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On May 1, 2018, at 08:23, RowlandA < rarcher@...> wrote: Thanks to SolderSmoke hooking me with tales of uBitx joy, I had to get in the game, and the deed has been done!??
Ordered the uBitx kit on March 30, it shipped April 25 and arrived 3 days later, so just under 30 days from order to arrival.??
I perused case options and not having the tools, talent or patience to drill holes in the XYL's cake tins and hope things lined up, I saw the Amateur Radio Kits of India cases and with all the extras supplied at a low price, ordered one on April 15, the day orders re-opened.? It arrived before the uBitx.
When I opened the case I found a Big Bag O' Parts stuffed neatly inside.? Wow!? In addition to a bunch of hardware, zip ties, and wire, there were small PC boards to make it easier and neater to mount and connect to the USB/DB-9/spare mini phone jacks, power, switch and fuse, and encoder.? In other words, no need for ugly construction with the potential for shorts and solder blobs.? Fuse holder with fuse, power switch and jack all included.? Plastic panel to cover the LCD.? Knobs!? And other stuff - it's really an impressive pile that would take a lot of scrounging to round up a la carte.? If you like to scrounge and improvise, by all means, go for it.? But Sunil should really point out that his "case" is really a beauty of a case plus all the stuff you'll need to finish your uBitx kit.? I think I added about a foot of wire to go from the power board to the uBitx board.? Everything else I needed was included.
Idea for Sunil - how about offering a "Pro" version of your case with some of the most popular mods on PC boards, like the audio pop / AGC board being discussed here now?
I took my time with the build and spent about four hours on Saturday and three on Sunday before plugging in an antenna and powering up.? It came on but turning the encoder didn't do anything.? I discovered that in a clumsy attempt to scrape between two traces on the encoder add-on PCB, I separated one of the solder pads from the trace.? De-soldered and stuck it in another hole further down the trace, and voila, encoder worked fine and I was greeted with a 40M rag chew on 7130. The encoder was working the "wrong way" - turning the knob clockwise decreased frequency - so I reversed the brown and black wires and all was good.? Receiver working!??
I connected a USB cable to the USB jack provided with Sunil's case but got an "unknown device" error from Windows.? Searching for drivers yielded nada.? I assumed there was a wiring error but there wasn't - I'm not sure when it happened, but I think when I loaded XLoader to update the firmware I also got the right driver (??) because after a reboot and plugging into the USB jack again, it connected OK.? I used the KD8CEC 1.61 firmware and set DXLab's Commander to the right COM port and told it the rig was an FT-817, and bang, CAT control was working.? Very cool!??
I wired the front panel Key jack as a straight key and used an off-the-shelf "CW cable" - DB-9 to mini phone, CW on the RTS line - to my laptop.? I connected DXLab's Winwarbler to the COM port for CW and told it to key on RTS, and that worked too.? Nice!? I tried some CW contacts but didn't get a response, but I could see from the power output meter on my antenna tuner that I was putting out 5.5W on 40M.??
Plowing ahead, I decided to try FT8 with WSJT-X, and put a small USB sound card dongle into the mix.? Mini phone cords from the sound card to the Mic and Phone jacks, told WSJT-X to use DXLab's Commander for rig control, and the waterfall filled with FT8 signals and the WSJT-X frequency display tracked the uBitx.
I responded to AB0GT's CQ and was just a bit surprised when he immediately came back with a -07 db report - right about where you'd want to be.? This was on 20M and the power output reading on the tuner said 4W.? I was using a 3 element SteppIR up about 50 feet pointed at MO, (I'm in NC) but 1000 miles with 4W wasn't shabby for the first contact with a new rig.? Happy dance!? Next Q was with WA6I, 2350 miles away and another good FT8 signal report.??
Bottom line - I'm a very happy camper, this was fun to build and I have to credit NeoTheNomad VU3NEO's Youtube videos, this group, instructions on , Farhan's ingenious design and Sunil's great case and "random stuff you need" for making it a good experience.? Only a couple wrong turns along the way, no smoke and no scrounging beyond a couple feet of wire.? It's not a step-by-step, Heathkit(r) manual process by any means, but if you've done a few builds and don't mind digging around on the Internet a bit, it's very do-able and I can't think of anything that comes close to it in value.
Well done all!
73,
Rowland K4XD
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Re: ND6T AGC implementation for uBIT-X
Hallo Kees,
I would like to order both boards/kits, AGC and pop fix. Thanks a lot!
73, Frank
PA7F
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The stock firmware only supports LSB.
Improved Raduino firmware for?BitX40?supporting LSB, USB, CWL, CWU, and other?useful functionality?is available at?
73 Allard PE1NWL
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uBitx Build Done and 1st QSO at K4XD
Thanks to SolderSmoke hooking me with tales of uBitx joy, I had to get in the game, and the deed has been done!??
Ordered the uBitx kit on March 30, it shipped April 25 and arrived 3 days later, so just under 30 days from order to arrival.??
I perused case options and not having the tools, talent or patience to drill holes in the XYL's cake tins and hope things lined up, I saw the Amateur Radio Kits of India cases and with all the extras supplied at a low price, ordered one on April 15, the day orders re-opened.? It arrived before the uBitx.
When I opened the case I found a Big Bag O' Parts stuffed neatly inside.? Wow!? In addition to a bunch of hardware, zip ties, and wire, there were small PC boards to make it easier and neater to mount and connect to the USB/DB-9/spare mini phone jacks, power, switch and fuse, and encoder.? In other words, no need for ugly construction with the potential for shorts and solder blobs.? Fuse holder with fuse, power switch and jack all included.? Plastic panel to cover the LCD.? Knobs!? And other stuff - it's really an impressive pile that would take a lot of scrounging to round up a la carte.? If you like to scrounge and improvise, by all means, go for it.? But Sunil should really point out that his "case" is really a beauty of a case plus all the stuff you'll need to finish your uBitx kit.? I think I added about a foot of wire to go from the power board to the uBitx board.? Everything else I needed was included.
Idea for Sunil - how about offering a "Pro" version of your case with some of the most popular mods on PC boards, like the audio pop / AGC board being discussed here now?
I took my time with the build and spent about four hours on Saturday and three on Sunday before plugging in an antenna and powering up.? It came on but turning the encoder didn't do anything.? I discovered that in a clumsy attempt to scrape between two traces on the encoder add-on PCB, I separated one of the solder pads from the trace.? De-soldered and stuck it in another hole further down the trace, and voila, encoder worked fine and I was greeted with a 40M rag chew on 7130. The encoder was working the "wrong way" - turning the knob clockwise decreased frequency - so I reversed the brown and black wires and all was good.? Receiver working!??
I connected a USB cable to the USB jack provided with Sunil's case but got an "unknown device" error from Windows.? Searching for drivers yielded nada.? I assumed there was a wiring error but there wasn't - I'm not sure when it happened, but I think when I loaded XLoader to update the firmware I also got the right driver (??) because after a reboot and plugging into the USB jack again, it connected OK.? I used the KD8CEC 1.61 firmware and set DXLab's Commander to the right COM port and told it the rig was an FT-817, and bang, CAT control was working.? Very cool!??
I wired the front panel Key jack as a straight key and used an off-the-shelf "CW cable" - DB-9 to mini phone, CW on the RTS line - to my laptop.? I connected DXLab's Winwarbler to the COM port for CW and told it to key on RTS, and that worked too.? Nice!? I tried some CW contacts but didn't get a response, but I could see from the power output meter on my antenna tuner that I was putting out 5.5W on 40M.??
Plowing ahead, I decided to try FT8 with WSJT-X, and put a small USB sound card dongle into the mix.? Mini phone cords from the sound card to the Mic and Phone jacks, told WSJT-X to use DXLab's Commander for rig control, and the waterfall filled with FT8 signals and the WSJT-X frequency display tracked the uBitx.
I responded to AB0GT's CQ and was just a bit surprised when he immediately came back with a -07 db report - right about where you'd want to be.? This was on 20M and the power output reading on the tuner said 4W.? I was using a 3 element SteppIR up about 50 feet pointed at MO, (I'm in NC) but 1000 miles with 4W wasn't shabby for the first contact with a new rig.? Happy dance!? Next Q was with WA6I, 2350 miles away and another good FT8 signal report.??
Bottom line - I'm a very happy camper, this was fun to build and I have to credit NeoTheNomad VU3NEO's Youtube videos, this group, instructions on uBitx.net, Farhan's ingenious design and Sunil's great case and "random stuff you need" for making it a good experience.? Only a couple wrong turns along the way, no smoke and no scrounging beyond a couple feet of wire.? It's not a step-by-step, Heathkit(r) manual process by any means, but if you've done a few builds and don't mind digging around on the Internet a bit, it's very do-able and I can't think of anything that comes close to it in value.
Well done all!
73,
Rowland K4XD
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Re: ND6T AGC implementation for uBIT-X
I would also mlike two of each board.
??? 73
????? Bob? KD8CGH
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That's what an amateur antenna for 136 kHz and lower frequencies looks like, but they still work. This also applies to most 475k?z amateur antennas. Regards Lawrence
On Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 7:29 PM, Gordon Gibby <ggibby@...> wrote:
?wet string--- yup, but unless it is longer than shoelace, the radiation resistance will be a bit tiny on 80 meters!
cheers!!
gordon
Even the proverbial piece of wet string when matched works.
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Anyone have link to latest software load to go into new replaced Arduino ?? Artns7e@...?
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_Dave_ AD0B
Skip Davis
LB3RE/LC0X "Rag" Stein-Roar
Frank PA7F
Allard PE1NWL
Bob Benedict, KD8CGH