Agreed all 'round. Long-term the paddle is best. Operates with a roll of the wrist!
Just getting into Ham Radio(50-odd years ago), my Morse tutor was George Studd, ZL2AFZ, a DX Ranger. A visit to his 'shack' in Napier NZ found him relaxed at his desk, fist-to-paddle, rig burbling in the background. After a minute or two of talk, rig still burbling (also in response to his wrist-roll at the paddle), I asked what he was doing. "Just chatting with a chap in Los Angeles. It's just about midnight there. He's just signed off to take his wife downtown for a banana split". Talk about culture clash! Here's us? in li'l ol' Enzed with everything closing down around 4:30, "6 o'clock swill" days, and here's George chatting with me verbally in the shack at the same time as he's chatting with L.A. by CW - an L.A. still in full swing around midnight! That mono-tone burble was the L.A chap, mustabin 40-50WPM! Inspiring! That's Ham Radio Education!
73 de ZL2DEX
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Dear Peter, Hi again, I will take those off you hands.I assume the PayPal is as for the ubitx I bought yesterday.please just confirm and I will PayPal you.? Many thx. 73. Ian Reeve M0IDR
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As you may know, I've sold my V4 ubitx - shaking hands and poor eyesight
are not conducive to working with smd's!
I've still got quite a few SMD inductors (about 200 ) for the 45Mhz
filter mod, so if anyone wants to take a job lot and keep all the V4 UK
and Europe owners supplied, then this is probably your last chance.
You can have the lot for ?3 including postage.
Peter, G8FWY
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As you may know, I've sold my V4 ubitx - shaking hands and poor eyesight are not conducive to working with smd's!
I've still got quite a few SMD inductors (about 200 ) for the 45Mhz filter mod, so if anyone wants to take a job lot and keep all the V4 UK and Europe owners supplied, then this is probably your last chance.
You can have the lot for ?3 including postage.
Peter, G8FWY
---
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Hi Dave, ??????????? like the idea of a mouse,any chance of a look please.regards Dave.
??????????
My wife and I are learning ditties, morse, I saw the neat built in iambic keyer and thought I need one. Looked around and found a dead computer mouse, just perfect!
Took it apart, scraped some of the un-necessary bits away and soldered a resistor to the left and right main switches and jumpered them in parallel. Hooked up a salvaged stereo 3.5mm cord off something.
Works well.
Now to get our speeds up.
73
Dave
k0mbt and n0bex
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Er ...That would? probably have been me ...Photos attached ..Note new Q11/Q31 have to be mounted "upside down" and rotated to get the pins lined up as per photo ...Also need to change R14-R34 from 220 ohms to 150 ohms ...Got more gain ..didn't bother to measure ..If you're going to change anyway ...
Jim
On Thursday, March 7, 2019, 7:39:17 AM PST, d balfour <davesters@...> wrote:
Hi Ashhar,
Been following this for some time I think I remember someone talking about changing q11 and q31 to a pnp and getting more gain. Then a couple of weeks ago another ham mentioned that his v5 was about 30% more sensitive than his v4.
It would appear that if I were to change q10, 11 and 12 the receive gain would go up?
Thanks
Dave
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Re: cannot trust any version or any mod.
Mike I think some frustration indeed but I trust you will indeed get this unit working to your expectation and within FCC specs. What I would suggest is you work on that with as few additions as possible to the board, other than the needed mods. For me to be honest its part of the fun of this radio. I am an Electrical Engineer who went into Embedded software/hardware mostly digital very young and what this has done is force me once again to involve myself in RF electronics and its great. Sincerely Laurence KB1HKO On Thu, Mar 7, 2019 at 9:28 AM Michael Mitchell <mitchellmichaelh@...> wrote:
In the 70's I was a radio tech (marine and business ) I was an electronics teacher. What I am trying to say is I am perfectly able to get the radio working which is why I am not selling it until I do. What I am saying is even with all the band aids the radio was misrepresented and it seems new problems pop up every week.Therefor I cannot trust this radio.
At the moment I have $280 plus invested.. If I sell it it will be an Ebay auction. If I dont sell it will sit on a shelf .
On Thu, Mar 7, 2019 at 9:17 AM Jim Myers <kd7eir@...> wrote:
Avoid the self-induced stress and tell us a price. Most of us are more than capable of making this radio perfectly legal and reliable.
--
WM4MM
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Re: What have I done to the receive? Weird screech?
#ubitx
two capacitors:
one ceramic or other cheap one, anywhere from .0047 to .1 microfarad
the other an electrolytic, anywhere from 10 uf to 100 uf
both across the power wires, as close to the board as possible.
some audio amplifier chips require such bypassing very close to the chip not to have problems......
hope this is luckily your problem....but it is just a guess
cheers,
gordon
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On Wed, Mar 6, 2019 at 09:49 PM, Gordon Gibby wrote:
Maybe add filter capacitor close to the unit between the power leads.?
Any recommendations on the capacitor to use and exact placement?? I'll get to work on it this weekend.
Thanks!
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Re: New V5 with poor carrier suppression.
In addition to the residual carrier, the uBitx also has significant IMD and some opposite sideband,
though that should all be close in to your main signal and more or less legal anywhere AM phone is legal.
If you have been following this group much, you should be aware of issues with harmonics and spurs.
The harmonics will be dealt with by the LPF's on the output of your 500 Watt amp if it's any good.
Perhaps the v5 is sufficiently free of spurs, has that been resolved?? Spurs can be quite significant on v3 and v4.
The spurs can be lower than the transmit frequency, and so will be going out on the air.
I'd consider possible spurs to be the primary issue here.
At 500 Watts, I'd want carrier and opposite sideband and IMD issues to be resolved as well.
And would discourage the use of any external amp with a uBitx (especially at 500 Watt)
unless you have a spectrum analyzer and know how to use it.
When transmitting 5 or 10 Watts, the bonus signals can generally be forgiven.
Not at 500 Watts.
Jerry, KE7ER
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On Wed, Mar 6, 2019 at 09:06 AM, Mike wrote:
?I noticed that my New version 5 has poor carrier suppression. I noticed this when I ran my UbitX into my LDMOS amp and I seen about 10 watts out of carrier. I was wondering if it is due to a maladjustment in the BFO? The radio has very good sounding TX audio (especially with the IC7300 mic) and very good RX audio.?
?I also understand that the gain from the LDMOS amp is "amplifying" the problem (.5 watts into the amp gets about 500 PEP out).
?I am using the latest CEC 1.12 software
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This is a critical bit of information regarding how best to set up a uBitx,
should be in the hfsignals description of the uBitx.
Many here are just turning up mike gain and/or RV1 for max power,
having no idea that this results in a disproportionate increase in harmonics and spurs.
Does this bit of advice (50mv of audio for 7 Watts out at 7mhz, RV1 at 60%) also apply to the v3 and v4?
I assume you mean 50mv RMS of audio, perhaps at 1khz?? (So RMS, not peak, not peak-to-peak?)
And that one should not twiddle mike gain or RV1 when moving to other bands, even if power drops off some.
Ideally, the uBitx would have a way to generate this audio from a digital IO pin and a couple resistors,
a square wave should be good enough.
Power can be measured with a shottky diode RF detector and either a DVM Nano analog input pin.
Would be nice to have a proven recipe for this.
Jerry, KE7ER
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On Wed, Mar 6, 2019 at 10:35 PM, Ashhar Farhan wrote:
the ubitx has more gain on tx as well as rx than the previous boards. this is due to the BFR93w transistors in the 45 MHZ IF in place of the 2N3904s.?
The carrier and spurs will be appear to be higher if the tx gain (controlled by RV1) is running flat out. it is best to reduce this to about 60% of the full gain. A way to know this is to connect a 50 mv audio signal to the mic, transmit SSB on 7 MHz and reduce the power until it is around 7 watts.
?
- f
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Re: What have I done to the receive? Weird screech?
#ubitx
On Wed, Mar 6, 2019 at 09:49 PM, Gordon Gibby wrote:
Maybe add filter capacitor close to the unit between the power leads.?
Any recommendations on the capacitor to use and exact placement?? I'll get to work on it this weekend. Thanks!
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Only been a ham for a year but am near 70. Can see the point of slapping the hand one way or the other when I get old enough.
A computer mouse has some interesting parts in it. Have thought about adding a electet mic in it as there is an additional switch on the side. Would need another conductor in the cord for ptt.
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Re: Calibrating the Version 5.1
I got my 5.1 calibrated successfully.....So far very satisfied with this new version....Thanks for all the help....Mike W4ZGI
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Hi Ashhar,
Been following this for some time I think I remember someone talking about changing q11 and q31 to a pnp and getting more gain. Then a couple of weeks ago another ham mentioned that his v5 was about 30% more sensitive than his v4.
It would appear that if I were to change q10, 11 and 12 the receive gain would go up?
Thanks
Dave
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Jack, I agree with you. As a ham of 45 years you are exactly right, however,? you cannot deny that using the mouse in that manner is unique and embodies true ham radio spirit.
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Dave:
I may be way off base here, but I would discourage you from using a mouse as a keying system. First, when you get to be two years younger than dirt, fingers just don't work like they used to...plus arthritis and other joint difficulties come to the fore. Once you start using CW, you'll probably find you'll really like it, so get something "comfortable" over time and that doesn't cost a fortune. I think paddles make sense, as a straight key can get tiring in contests and long QSO's and become more difficult as your speed increases. QRPGuys has a single level paddle for $20 or you can roll your own for next to nothing. These days, most rigs have a keyer built in, but you can make a keyer for about $5 using an ATTiny.
Just a thought...
Jack, W8TEE
On Thursday, March 7, 2019, 9:38:19 AM EST, d balfour <davesters@...> wrote:
My wife and I are learning ditties, morse, I saw the neat built in iambic keyer and thought I need one. Looked around and found a dead computer mouse, just perfect!
Took it apart, scraped some of the un-necessary bits away and soldered a resistor to the left and right main switches and jumpered them in parallel. Hooked up a salvaged stereo 3.5mm cord off something.
Works well.
Now to get our speeds up.
73
Dave
k0mbt and n0bex
|
My wife and I are learning ditties, morse, I saw the neat built in iambic keyer and thought I need one. Looked around and found a dead computer mouse, just perfect!
Took it apart, scraped some of the un-necessary bits away and soldered a resistor to the left and right main switches and jumpered them in parallel. Hooked up a salvaged stereo 3.5mm cord off something.
Works well.
Now to get our speeds up.
73
Dave
k0mbt and n0bex
|
Re: cannot trust any version or any mod.
In the 70's I was a radio tech (marine and business ) I was an electronics teacher. What I am trying to say is I am perfectly able to get the radio working which is why I am not selling it until I do. What I am saying is even with all the band aids the radio was misrepresented and it seems new problems pop up every week.Therefor I cannot trust this radio. At the moment I have $280 plus? invested.. If I sell it it will be an Ebay auction. If I dont sell it will sit on a shelf .
On Thu, Mar 7, 2019 at 9:17 AM Jim Myers < kd7eir@...> wrote: Avoid the self-induced stress and tell us a price. Most of us are more than capable of making this radio perfectly legal and reliable.
|
Re: cannot trust any version or any mod.
Avoid the self-induced stress and tell us a price. Most of us are more than capable of making this radio perfectly legal and reliable.
|
Re: uBitx V4 Audio extremely quiet and other needed mods#ubitx
Today they have the technology to put in the magic smoke even in the
smallest components.
Nobody can stop the release of the smoke, not even me.
Amazing!
Raj, vu2zap
At 07-03-19, you wrote:
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Come on now.... that is half the
fun of ham radio.... doing something you don?€?t have a clue about just
to see if it works.? It?€?s like going to the casino and hoping
it?€?s your lucky day.? Ha!? When the smoke comes out you
learn an unforgettable lesson.
David J. Wilcox K8WPE?€?s iPad
On Mar 6, 2019, at 9:52 PM, Wayne Leake
<wayneleake@...>
wrote:
?The mention of not
plugging or unplugging the headphone/speaker with the radio on reminded
me of an incident years ago.
?I did radio repairs in my brothrs TV hop yers ago.
?Had a customer brought in a Bearcat IV scanner with no audio.
?seems he decided to install an RCA jack on the back to plug an
external speaker in.
?However, he did so with the radio plugged in and
"ON"
?Cost him a few $$ to replace the audio IC.
?A bit of a costly lesson for him.
?Always work on things with the radio off, and even unplugged,
except for making tests when you know what you are doing.
?Wayne WA2YNE
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Re: uBitx V4 Audio extremely quiet and other needed mods#ubitx
Come on now.... that is half the fun of ham radio.... doing something you don¡¯t have a clue about just to see if it works. ?It¡¯s like going to the casino and hoping it¡¯s your lucky day. ?Ha! ?When the smoke comes out you learn an unforgettable lesson. David J. Wilcox K8WPE¡¯s iPad
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On Mar 6, 2019, at 9:52 PM, Wayne Leake < wayneleake@...> wrote: ?The mention of not plugging or unplugging the headphone/speaker with the radio on reminded me of an incident years ago. ?I did radio repairs in my brothrs TV hop yers ago. ?Had a customer brought in a Bearcat IV scanner with no audio. ?seems he decided to install an RCA jack on the back to plug an external speaker in.
?However, he did so with the radio plugged in and "ON" ?Cost him a few $$ to replace the audio IC.
?A bit of a costly lesson for him.
?Always work on things with the radio off, and even unplugged, except for making tests when you know what you are doing. ?Wayne WA2YNE
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Hoshnasi
_Dave_ AD0B
Jim Myers
Raj vu2zap
David Wilcox K8WPE