Cool video! Reminded me of hearing my first QSO, as done by my Elmer, W8FTQ. He talked to his son every Sunday and our cub scout den was there for one of those. That was my intro to ham radio. The neat thing: He was in Medina, OH, and his son was in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Collins S-Line equipment with a 5 element beam on a 60' telephone pole.) I became a W8FTQ groupie and got my Novice shortly after that. Great memories...
Jack, W8TEE
On Wednesday, May 9, 2018, 3:39:46 PM EDT, Gerry Hull <gerry@...> wrote:
Hey Jack,
Very cool.? Imagine, for Education?? Our current??crop would laugh at that.
That brings me to another point.? ?This uBitX?project is awesome because it is bringing together new and old.? ?It has so many things to tinker with -- newbie or OT.? I guess with sales numbers it has seen, it has certainly hit a cord.
I've been telling as many people as I can about it, and as I've learned, I'm pretty late to the game.
Amateur Radio needs more projects like this one.? ? ?We also need marketing...? Have you seen this video??? A very Motivational vignette for Amateur Radio (even though an add for a comms company).? ?
I'd love someone to make an experiential?video about building their?uBitX?(Not how-to instructions, but showing that you assembled it and had a QSO somewhere interesting with it.)
Everyone, Keep Up the great work.
73, Gerry W1VE
On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 3:26 PM, Jack Purdum via Groups.Io <jjpurdum@...> wrote: I was part of an NSF Grant to study "Microcomputers In Education" as taught by Larsen and Rony of Bugbook fame. Each of us was given a KIM-1 "microcomputer" as part of the course. It had an 6 digit 7-segment display with 256 BYTES of memory. (Later versions ballooned it to 1K!) Everything was written in 6800 assembler in octal!
Jack, W8TEE
Mine was a SWTPC 6800 with 2k to 4k memory upgrade running the Motorola 6800 and MIKBUG ROM bootloader. Later spent another $600?for a 8k memory card to get me up to 12k so I could load a basic interpreter from audio tape with a 300 baud Kansas City "standard" cassette interface. Took 15 minutes from power on to prompt to get everything loaded! Still have it sitting in the attic!
Roy WA0YMH On Wed, May 9, 2018, 10:03 AM Jerry Gaffke via Groups.Io <jgaffke= [email protected]> wrote: Like the PDP8 and Imsai 8080.
Back before EEPROM or fuse link ROM or Flash.
The alternative was to build enough memory by hand to boot the machine
using an array of diodes, a diode wherever you needed a zero bit.
But a row of switches on the front panel was cheaper, and the hourly rate for
an operator to flip switches every morning was pretty cheap too.
If the operator did it enough, they could key in the boot sequence from motor memory
while thinking about some coding problem to be tackled that day.
I had a friend who spent enough time around a PDP8 and ASR-33 that he could?
look at the holes in punched paper tape and know what was being said.
Jerry
On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 07:36 am, Jack Purdum wrote:
OMG! I built one of the Altair's for a friend and had to program it to test whether I had built it correctly. For those who don't know, those switches are for setting the binary bits for each byte of the program. When you had that byte set, you hit a "Deposit" switch which moved that byte into RAM. You could tell early Altair programmers by the "binary blisters" on their index finger!
Jack, W8TEE
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Re: Where to measure uBitx PA current draw?
#ubitx
I believe the current specified in the tuneup document is the total current supplied to the uBITX. That is why the document is written to specify the current increase when adjusting the idle current.
Tom, wb6b
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Where to measure uBitx PA current draw?
#ubitx
Hi All,
Where exactly do you measure the PA current draw when setting the bias?
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Hey Jack,
Very cool.? Imagine, for Education?? Our current??crop would laugh at that.
That brings me to another point.? ?This uBitX?project is awesome because it is bringing together new and old.? ?It has so many things to tinker with -- newbie or OT.? I guess with sales numbers it has seen, it has certainly hit a cord.
I've been telling as many people as I can about it, and as I've learned, I'm pretty late to the game.
Amateur Radio needs more projects like this one.? ? ?We also need marketing...? Have you seen this video??? A very Motivational vignette for Amateur Radio (even though an add for a comms company).? ?
I'd love someone to make an experiential?video about building their?uBitX?(Not how-to instructions, but showing that you assembled it and had a QSO somewhere interesting with it.)
Everyone, Keep Up the great work.
73, Gerry W1VE
On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 3:26 PM, Jack Purdum via Groups.Io <jjpurdum@...> wrote: I was part of an NSF Grant to study "Microcomputers In Education" as taught by Larsen and Rony of Bugbook fame. Each of us was given a KIM-1 "microcomputer" as part of the course. It had an 6 digit 7-segment display with 256 BYTES of memory. (Later versions ballooned it to 1K!) Everything was written in 6800 assembler in octal!
Jack, W8TEE
Mine was a SWTPC 6800 with 2k to 4k memory upgrade running the Motorola 6800 and MIKBUG ROM bootloader. Later spent another $600?for a 8k memory card to get me up to 12k so I could load a basic interpreter from audio tape with a 300 baud Kansas City "standard" cassette interface. Took 15 minutes from power on to prompt to get everything loaded! Still have it sitting in the attic!
Roy WA0YMH On Wed, May 9, 2018, 10:03 AM Jerry Gaffke via Groups.Io <jgaffke= [email protected]> wrote: Like the PDP8 and Imsai 8080.
Back before EEPROM or fuse link ROM or Flash.
The alternative was to build enough memory by hand to boot the machine
using an array of diodes, a diode wherever you needed a zero bit.
But a row of switches on the front panel was cheaper, and the hourly rate for
an operator to flip switches every morning was pretty cheap too.
If the operator did it enough, they could key in the boot sequence from motor memory
while thinking about some coding problem to be tackled that day.
I had a friend who spent enough time around a PDP8 and ASR-33 that he could?
look at the holes in punched paper tape and know what was being said.
Jerry
On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 07:36 am, Jack Purdum wrote:
OMG! I built one of the Altair's for a friend and had to program it to test whether I had built it correctly. For those who don't know, those switches are for setting the binary bits for each byte of the program. When you had that byte set, you hit a "Deposit" switch which moved that byte into RAM. You could tell early Altair programmers by the "binary blisters" on their index finger!
Jack, W8TEE
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My very first computer was the slightly upgraded over the Kim-1, the SYM-1... the first computer I used was a tty linked to Lawrence Livermore Labs over an Anderson Jacobson 103A acoustic coupler modem. Ken, N2VIP
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On May 9, 2018, at 2:26 PM, Jack Purdum via Groups.Io < jjpurdum@...> wrote: I was part of an NSF Grant to study "Microcomputers In Education" as taught by Larsen and Rony of Bugbook fame. Each of us was given a KIM-1 "microcomputer" as part of the course. It had an 6 digit 7-segment display with 256 BYTES of memory. (Later versions ballooned it to 1K!) Everything was written in 6800 assembler in octal!
|
I was part of an NSF Grant to study "Microcomputers In Education" as taught by Larsen and Rony of Bugbook fame. Each of us was given a KIM-1 "microcomputer" as part of the course. It had an 6 digit 7-segment display with 256 BYTES of memory. (Later versions ballooned it to 1K!) Everything was written in 6800 assembler in octal!
Jack, W8TEE
On Wednesday, May 9, 2018, 1:32:29 PM EDT, Roy Appleton <twelveoclockhigh@...> wrote:
Mine was a SWTPC 6800 with 2k to 4k memory upgrade running the Motorola 6800 and MIKBUG ROM bootloader. Later spent another $600?for a 8k memory card to get me up to 12k so I could load a basic interpreter from audio tape with a 300 baud Kansas City "standard" cassette interface. Took 15 minutes from power on to prompt to get everything loaded! Still have it sitting in the attic!
Roy WA0YMH
On Wed, May 9, 2018, 10:03 AM Jerry Gaffke via Groups.Io <jgaffke= [email protected]> wrote: Like the PDP8 and Imsai 8080.
Back before EEPROM or fuse link ROM or Flash.
The alternative was to build enough memory by hand to boot the machine
using an array of diodes, a diode wherever you needed a zero bit.
But a row of switches on the front panel was cheaper, and the hourly rate for
an operator to flip switches every morning was pretty cheap too.
If the operator did it enough, they could key in the boot sequence from motor memory
while thinking about some coding problem to be tackled that day.
I had a friend who spent enough time around a PDP8 and ASR-33 that he could?
look at the holes in punched paper tape and know what was being said.
Jerry
On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 07:36 am, Jack Purdum wrote:
OMG! I built one of the Altair's for a friend and had to program it to test whether I had built it correctly. For those who don't know, those switches are for setting the binary bits for each byte of the program. When you had that byte set, you hit a "Deposit" switch which moved that byte into RAM. You could tell early Altair programmers by the "binary blisters" on their index finger!
Jack, W8TEE
|
Wow….does that bring back similar memories of my first computer experience….on the F106 Delta Dart in USAF….the compute interface was what you see there….in the middle of that front panel……a row of toggle switches….but not puny ones like that….mil spec….and nice large amber 28 volt lamps…..and to make it easy, there was the line above each group of 3 switches and lamps to indicate the octal address…..
After an aircraft landed you would be tasked to go run routines to pull flight data and also used to run maintenance routines or to really have fun, hook up to hydraulics, ground power, a refer unit to keep everything cool (move the cockpit switch to just a little open, and in FLA lower the cockpit to almost close) and then run a routine that would have the speed tapes and the altimeter run up to about 1.5 and 57k, open the bay door, lower the armament rails, simulate a couple ir and radar missiles and toss a air to air nuke, and plane would jump as those pneumatic supersonic rated doors cycled, along with the big jump when the vertical tail control surface slammed back and forth as you simulated breaking the sound barrier…..yeah….motion video games before they ever existed….while watching the best weather radar and every plane in the sky, and tracking your buddy on the flight line by the heat of his cigarette….and if anyone had any magic cubes for their instamatic….it was full day.
Classic computer interface.
Craig KM4YEC
On May 9, 2018, at 10:36 AM, Jack Purdum via Groups.Io < jjpurdum@...> wrote:
OMG! I built one of the Altair's for a friend and had to program it to test whether I had built it correctly. For those who don't know, those switches are for setting the binary bits for each byte of the program. When you had that byte set, you hit a "Deposit" switch which moved that byte into RAM. You could tell early Altair programmers by the "binary blisters" on their index finger!
Jack, W8TEE
 I saw somewhere online that someone has an Arduino based version of it; even looks the same! -- ?John - WA2FZW   
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I'm using a "Ham It Up" up converter and it includes a noise source as part of the package. However, I like the one you linked to as it doesn't seem need an additional directional coupler or hacked together resistive bridge.?
By the way, I use the Ham-It-Up converter with a SDR dongle running with OpenWebRX on a Raspberry Pi. It was surprising to me that the SDR dongle with the up converter seems to be a better receiver than the uBITX. Although, I'd imagine the uBITX may do better in RF overload conditions like Field Day.
Tom, wb6b
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Re: New ideas for the Audio TX/RX pop and PA output stage improvements on ubitx.net
The Bitx40 did that, removes power to the LM386 when transmitting.
It still has a nasty pop.? Killing the pop is more difficult than it first looks.
I've heard but not tried that reducing or even completely removing the big
power supply filter caps at C75 and C52 (for the TDA2822 and audio preamp at Q70)
can cut the pop considerably.?
The VA7AT 15 piece pop fix that Kees is kitting up is a bit more complicated
but apparently the best fix thus far.?
Plenty of other ways to choose from:??
Jerry
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On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 11:25 am, Joe Puma wrote:
This is probably a question for Jerry or the likes. ?Could this method help the TX/RX pop? Pull the power to the TDA chip?? ?
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Re: uBitx distorted transmit audio
I always check my tx audio as I use the Ubitx as tx and I often receive with a Softrock SDR. If you have an sdr you can transmit into a dummy load a check your tx audio with the sdr with the antenna input disconnected. You can use an ordinary receiver ad well but you will not see the spectrum on the PC. My unit was almost perfectly aligned, just 100hz off frequency. 2khz seem a lot and maybe you can fix it with the menus. As for reported audio by others I would not care. My unit cuts very well the basses and has a good modulation from 500 to 2800hz. Some people say I am off frequency because they wish to hear more basses. Others say it is perfect. I say I like it as I monitor it at all times. You have to evaluate yourself your modulation. Don't trust what others say, they have all different ears... So check with another receiver your transmitted audio. It could be just fine.
Il 09/mag/2018 19:04, < dwithers@...> ha scritto: I received my ubitx in early Jan after ordering it in mid December. I have been on and off with making progress with it, but have been following this forum since then. This board has a problem and I was hoping to see someone else come up with it too. The software rev. is XX at bootup. So I have been hesitant about changing anything until I consulted with the group. It works fine on TX and RX on CW.
On SSB (l or u) the voice audio is severely distorted. When others hear me on the air or when I listen on a local receiver you can tell what the words are (callsigns) but they are distorted. I have tried several different mic elements. I have injected audio from a sig gen into the mic and also directly on the input pin. The rig will pass 300 – 3K tones fine. The output of the audio/mic amp looks fine too. The tones sound good OTA.
When I look at the power out on a dummy load it drops off dramatically above 3Khz. I think the human voice has tones above 3K. The second thing seems to be that the rig is about 2Khz off frequency from the dial. When checking into a local net I’m reported low as I recall.
I hope there is a simpler solution that diddling with the frequency parameters. Oh, the receiver receives fine on the designated frequency.
Any ideas?
Dan Withers – WM7W
I’m old too. I was hand booting a DG Nova 1200 before reset-program load was implemented. I couldn’t lift a Wangco 5 mb disc drive either.
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Re: Removing solder resist.
I use a abrasive wheel on my dremel at a slow speed.? It is about the size of a nickel? and looks like rubber with fine abrasive dust molded in.?? I have even cut them in half and rubbed the trace by hand.?? Leaves nice clean shinny copper exposed.
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Re: New ideas for the Audio TX/RX pop and PA output stage improvements on ubitx.net
I haven’t been follow the tx/rx pop yet and I don’t know if any of this is being done yet in the circuitry of the ubitx but I’ve been playing around with HT’s making a AllStar node and learned that on the Baofeng and maybe other radios there is no power going to the audio chip when tx’ing or if the squelch is closed.?
This is probably a question for Jerry or the likes. ?Could this method help the TX/RX pop? Pull the power to the TDA chip? ?Now maybe it might not matter or make a difference due to timing and build up voltage or current on the circuit. I’m out of my league here but was thinking out loud.?
Joe
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On May 9, 2018, at 6:36 AM, victorladeira@... wrote: ? ?Can these mods be used with the stock irf510's? Will it improve the output and fix the audio pop. Still waiting for my??RDF16HHF1. I have the 2:3 wound and ready to go!
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Thanks! Victor AL3K
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Re: Removing solder resist.
Now that’s a good thought, both parts of it. ? Regards. ? Max K 4 O D S. ? I've Never Lost the Wonder. ? Antique Electronics Site: ? ?
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From: [email protected] [mailto: [email protected]] On Behalf Of Fred Cooper Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2018 12:55 PM To: [email protected]Subject: Re: [BITX20] Removing solder resist. ? ...??? Try a couple of the missus’s nail/emery boards......????? ( don’t tell her I told you!!!?? ) G4ZWI ? Sent from for Windows 10 ? ? I didn’t mean flux.? I meant the green material that coats most of a PC board.? Some of it usually has to be removed to modify a board. ? Regards. ? Max K 4 O D S. ? I've Never Lost the Wonder. ? Antique Electronics Site: ? ? From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of ajparent1/KB1GMX
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2018 12:43 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [BITX20] Removing solder resist. ? I presume you means the colored overcoating.? IF so its an epoxy material and very tough
so abrasion/scraping is the near only means as anything aggressive enough to soften it?
will likely damage other parts.
If your removing flux residue, Isopropanol-91% cheap and any pharmacy has it.
Do not use near fire or flame.
Allison
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Fuse-link proms predates the Altair!? It was the first effort to get off the front panel
using two 32x4 parts as 32 bytes was enough[barely] to run a binary loader.
Before that I'd use them to build simple state machine logic.
The goal was turnkey startup.? To make that happen a IO board was created and
a tape recorder highly modified to create a saturation read/write with FM encoding.
Once the bugs were out I could load files at about 2.5kbytes a second.?
The NS* Disk was a huge step up.? However it was in the Altair chassis?
and when it would crash [its favorite habit] it would munge the disk. That lead to
the NS* Horizon.? ?Soon after a 765 FDC and a bit of effort lead to a better floppy
system 360K per 5.25" drive which was then huge and 1MB for a SA850 8".? By
1980 I had a Teltek controller and a ST506.? Having 5MB and CP/M was finally
a time when space {enough of it} was not an issue.? ?That machine lives now?
with two 31mb Quantum D540, Z80 at 10mhz, 256K of mapped ram, and a highly
modded version of CP/M I never let out (CP/M2.2 that could multiprocess,
but not MPM) as it was a bit too weird but ran everything CP/M.? At that time
I had 4 machines running CP/M only two with disks as they could "network"
using high speed (19200 baud) serial bus between each other and share files.
The goal wa capability of the PDP-8 running TSS-8 (timesharing),? PDP11
RSTS and VAX/VMS.
Terminals the first non TTY was a Ct1024 then VDM-1.? Those were upstaged by
a H19 with modified software (emulated a Vt52 properly).? Later real VT100,
Vt180, VT320s.
Along the way TinyC and Ron Cains SmallC were part of the library along with
BDS C.? ?My favorite editor was Vedit as it was Teco compatible and was also
full screen mode that understood the Vt100 and VT320 cursor keys..
I kept a lot of the old hardware. over the years added more.? Over the years
there were two constants Computers and Communications.
Allison
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Re: Removing solder resist.
In the past I have bought a quart can of acetone at a hardware store.? That’s what I’ll do if the government hasn’t band the sale of it.? Wow.? I just looked in my chemical storage area and found I still have half that can left.? I know the precautions.? ? Regards. ? Max K 4 O D S. ? I've Never Lost the Wonder. ? Antique Electronics Site: ? ?
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From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Doug W
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2018 12:48 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [BITX20] Removing solder resist. ? On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 10:38 am, MAX wrote: Acetone sounds better than alcohol.
If you can't get to a hardware store most drugstores carry nail polish remover that is 100% acetone.? Look for the clear stuff without dyes or scents.? Just make sure you treat it like the nastiness it is and don't blame me if you get strange looks from the cashier.
?
--
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Re: Removing solder resist.
On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 10:53 am, Michael Hagen wrote:
acetone is pretty high powered for me, might take other things off the PCB!
Just to clarify, I am not saying acetone is or is not the right solution to the OP's problem.? I am just sharing a way to find it that might be more convenient. ? --
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Re: Removing solder resist.
...??? Try a couple of the missus’s nail/emery boards......????? ( don’t tell her I told you!!!?? ) G4ZWI ? Sent from for Windows 10 ?
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
From: MAXSent: 09 May 2018 18:53 To: [email protected]Subject: Re: [BITX20] Removing solder resist. ? I didn’t mean flux.? I meant the green material that coats most of a PC board.? Some of it usually has to be removed to modify a board. ? Regards. ? Max K 4 O D S. ? I've Never Lost the Wonder. ? Antique Electronics Site: ? ? From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of ajparent1/KB1GMX
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2018 12:43 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [BITX20] Removing solder resist. ? I presume you means the colored overcoating.? IF so its an epoxy material and very tough
so abrasion/scraping is the near only means as anything aggressive enough to soften it?
will likely damage other parts.
If your removing flux residue, Isopropanol-91% cheap and any pharmacy has it.
Do not use near fire or flame.
Allison
|
Re: Removing solder resist.
99Cent store by my QTH
has the clear nail remover in a small bottle (acetone), you
don't have buy a pt or quart that way.
I bought a gal of
acholol to use for flux removal, acetone is pretty high
powered for me, might take other things off the PCB!
Mike
On 5/9/2018 10:48 AM, Doug W wrote:
On Wed, May 9, 2018
at 10:38 am, MAX wrote:
Acetone sounds better than alcohol.
If you can't get to a hardware store most drugstores carry nail
polish remover that is 100% acetone.? Look for the clear stuff
without dyes or scents.? Just make sure you treat it like the
nastiness it is and don't blame me if you get strange looks from
the cashier.
?
--
--
Mike Hagen, WA6ISP
10917 Bryant Street
Yucaipa, Ca. 92399
(909) 918-0058
PayPal ID "MotDog@..."
Mike@...
|
Re: Removing solder resist.
I didn’t mean flux.? I meant the green material that coats most of a PC board.? Some of it usually has to be removed to modify a board. ? Regards. ? Max K 4 O D S. ? I've Never Lost the Wonder. ? Antique Electronics Site: ? ?
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of ajparent1/KB1GMX
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2018 12:43 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [BITX20] Removing solder resist. ? I presume you means the colored overcoating.? IF so its an epoxy material and very tough
so abrasion/scraping is the near only means as anything aggressive enough to soften it?
will likely damage other parts.
If your removing flux residue, Isopropanol-91% cheap and any pharmacy has it.
Do not use near fire or flame.
Allison
|
Well, close.
Tracy Kidder documented the soul of the Data General Eclipse MV/8000.?
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Show quoted text
On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 10:43 am, Jerry Gaffke wrote:
If you ever try to sell that Nova on ebay, include a copy of Tracy Kidder's "Soul of the New Machine"
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Gerry Hull
Craig Thibodeaux
Lee
