Re: The Users User Manual
An HF amplifier idea and example. Last year I made a CW kit that was plagued with second class components which earned me an Official Observer Card for frequency instability and chirp. and an RST of 578c. This spooked me and really squelched my tinkering and building ambitions. Until this BITX40 came along and someone on our local Tech Net recommended I get this thing. Well this someone talked me out of getting an amp kit for it because of the very low input rating.? Well, I have seen a hack or project page with this same linear amplifier kit used on the BITX40. And I can't find it for you today. The reason I mention it now is the reference to using an amp in the instructions about adjusting the power output for QRP or an external linear amplifier. This kit and some others i've looked at want very low input levels. This one wants 1-5mW. I have wondered how this could be done with what I have. Perhaps pick up the RF signal before it gets to the final? What would be the power level at the drive transistor? In regards to the BITX40 I have seen the power output drop all the way down to nothing when turning the RV136 all the way down to the right (clockwise). ?As for measuring 1-5mW of power out, you might have to use special equipment and some math. And maybe some expert advice. But here is a bit of kit to think about. This one is called ?DIY KITS 45W ssb linear power amplifier for transceiver HF radio AMP I put the name up because links tend to die on Ebay?. So here is what I was talking about- http://www.ebay.com/itm/2017-DIY-KITS-45W-ssb-linear-power-amplifier-for-transceiver-HF-radio-AMP-/121754204165?hash=item1c591db805:g:TS4AAOSw14xXFFS9
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Received BitX40 (Ver3), (0317), today, 4-10-2017.? Ordered 3-27-2017. Received 4-10-2017. Dandridge, TN, USA. serial no: N3-864V 73 Craig KM4YEC
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Hi Ian, No, I did not miss it. I have downloaded what is available on http:// www.hfsigs.com but it could be better. My opinions above were not meant to slam the Creator of the Bitx, but to shed some light on what other builders or potential builders face when they go about deciding to purchase and build a project.? I am happy to see folks taking the time to research, develop, and implement their ideas. I appreciate the fact that I am not an engineer but I hope to learn and use these projects as they are designed first. Then once all is well, I can go on to adding my ideas.? I appreciate all the Ideas Folks, but I want to be able to use & enjoy the products they are offering and not just waste my time and money.? 73, Kevin Gilot NZ1I
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All:
If you place a *.cpp file (i.e., a C++ source code file) into the same directory as an *.INO file, that *.cpp file is automatically given its own tab in the IDE and is compiled into the program. If the *.cpp file has an associated header support file (e.g., mysource.cpp, mysource.h), that should also appear in the same directory.
Jack, W8TEE
From: Tim - K7PTM <tamccain@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, April 10, 2017 9:33 AM
Subject: Re: [BITX20] Bitx-40 S meter
Ok, I figured it out for those that are having trouble. ?Open the main BitXtra40 file. ?Then open a new tab in the Arduino IDE paste the information from the UpsideDown file into that new tab. ?Then compile. ?There may be a different way to open both files in the same IDE environment, but this is how I got it to work.
Question for you Andrew -?
I havent uploaded this sketch yet, but I probably will tonight. ?Does this have the tuner like Don had, or like Farhan designed? ?
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tuning clicks (continued)
This interesting thread has just started on Github about the tuning clicks with the si5351 library:
Hopefully this will eventually lead to a solution!
73, Allard PE1NWL
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Re: Birdie at 7199 - a surprising observation!
Kevin and John, Thanks for the information. It has already been implimented. I put RG174 on the VFO feed from Raduino to main board early on in the build. The line setting drive current to 4 ma is active and I may set it back to 2 ma as that is where it was before the birds showed up. My intention now is to do the "factory reset" after I play around with a few things just for giggles. Gotta find the time....
Tnx guys, PJH, N7PXY?
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Both of my local Radio Shacks are closing. If you have one near by that is closing, check it out. I picked up some parts today at 80% off. Probably still slightly over priced, but there's no three week wait for the shipping from China.
James KE4MIQ
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Re: Birdie at 7199 - a surprising observation!
Makes sense to me.? The birdie at 7.2 is due to 5*4.8mhz = 2*12mhz ?The crystal filter is between the VFO and the BFO so those harmonics should never meet if we have proper shielding. ?Coax on the VFO is part of proper shielding.? Of course changing drive level will adust the strength of the various VFO harmonics and will also have an effect. Will be interesting to see how bad that birdie is when we use the Si5351 CLK0 for the BFO, as there will be some crosstalk within the Si5351. ?We do have the option of moving the VFO to 19.2mhz, reducing the birdies but using the not-so-steep skirt of the filter
On Mon, Apr 10, 2017 at 09:15 am, Allard PE1NWL wrote: So then I guess it must have been the RG-174 coax (and the cable
arrangement perhaps) that made the difference. ?
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Re: Birdie at 7199 - a surprising observation!
Hi Kevin,
the default drive current is 2mA. So uncommenting the line and compiling
with 2mA shouldn't make any difference.
So then I guess it must have been the RG-174 coax (and the cable
arrangement perhaps) that made the difference.
Well, apparently 2mA works OK in your rig. You could still try 4, 6, 8 mA
and see if it makes any difference (birdies, receiver sensitivity, noise,
etc).
73, Allard PE1NWL
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On Mon, April 10, 2017 15:37, Petry, Kevin wrote: Just a suggestion: I found that the drive current line in my Raduino was
commented out. I removed the comment slashes and compiled with the
current set a 2 MA.
I also replaced the two wires that carry the VFO signal from the Raduino
to the board with a short length of RG-174U coax and the birdie is now
completely gone. Not sure which change killed it at this point.
Kevin
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Re: NEWS: Si5351mc library with size optimization and click free tuning noise!
Count me in! Sadly, I am off to work myself for a 48 hour shift.
I'll try it as soon as I get back.
Jonathan
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Any dare beta-testers out there?
I'm ready for bug hunting/feature adding/improvements on it...
I'm working now in a test Randuino code using this lib, I will
post it maybe tomorrow... (today is Monday: get back to WORK!)
73 de Pavel CO7WT.
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NEWS: Si5351mc library with size optimization and click free tuning noise!
Hi folks!
Over the weekend I put together my click-less Si5351 code in the
form of a lib: Si5351mcu ()
It has some advantages over the etherkit/adafruit libs:
- Simple: just the functions you need to get it working, no
super-duper extra options almost nobody use...
- Size: it's optimized for size and MCU 8 bit operation.
- Click free tuning: it has a trick in the initialization of the
lib that allows click free tuning over a wide range.
All the magic lies in the initialization process, please read the
README.md file for instructions and check the example code.
Any dare beta-testers out there?
I'm ready for bug hunting/feature adding/improvements on it...
I'm working now in a test Randuino code using this lib, I will
post it maybe tomorrow... (today is Monday: get back to WORK!)
73 de Pavel CO7WT.
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Re: VFO/BFO selecting outputs
I spoke too soon. Band must have been
dead when I checked it last night. Just tried and I am picking up
stations but clearly have the USB/LSB part of the code borked.
Excellent news, all I need to do is figure out the code changes.
Thanks!
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Well, got the coax attached and all I
get is birdies, no RX. Not sure why. I can see the BFO clk
running. I removed the xtal and attached the coax as in here:
/g/BITX20/topic/4703461#24270
I didn't make any other changes to the code, which I may need to
for LSB/USB operation. Unfortunately I ran out of time and have
to take off for mt 48 hour work shift, so I won't be able to dig
into it until Wednesday aft. Any suggestions as to where to
look?
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Re: VFO/BFO selecting outputs
Alan,
Drat! Impetuous youth. Or rather in my case impatient old man! I had already removed the xtal by the time I read your post or I would have just tombstoned the resistor. When I get back from work this week I'll put it back in.
Thanks!
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Jonathan,
You don't need to remove the xtal.
Much easier is to just remove R101 to disable the analog BFO alltogether.
Or lift one leg ("thumbstone" it).
If you ever want to go back to the original situation you only need to
reinstall R101.
73, Allard PE1NWL
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Re: VFO/BFO selecting outputs
Well, got the coax attached and all I
get is birdies, no RX. Not sure why. I can see the BFO clk
running. I removed the xtal and attached the coax as in here:
/g/BITX20/topic/4703461#24270
I didn't make any other changes to the code, which I may need to
for LSB/USB operation. Unfortunately I ran out of time and have to
take off for mt 48 hour work shift, so I won't be able to dig into
it until Wednesday aft. Any suggestions as to where to look?
Thanks!
Jonathan
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Good!
I had borrowed that code from Farhan's original script, which
compiles with the older etherkit library.
All three of the lines of code I gave you should either
reference CLK0 or CLK2, I gave you a mix. ?The Raduino with
cabling as delivered and described in the Wireup uses CLK2 for
the VFO. ?So I'd guess most people will want to use CLK0 for the
BFO.
On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 01:46 pm, Jonathan Peakall wrote:
Got CLK2 going!
?
_.
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Re: Birdie at 7199 - a surprising observation!
Here is a picture at the output of Si5351 not connected to a mixer, just terminated with 51R resistor. This happens when the output is different from 25MH. Only CLK0 is enabled. Quartz at 27MHz. The spurious "needles" in the spectrum appear to be related as follows:
And apparently these are not the harmonics of the fundamental VFO frequency. This is rather disturbing because they appear blow and above the fundamental. No wonder I have numerous birdies. Suspiciously 25 MHz is 800 MHz (PLL) divided by 32...
I wonder if decoupling the different supply pins of Si5351 might help. Another thing I might tryis to buffer the CLK0 with a fast logic gate with separate low noise power supply.
73 de LZ1NEF
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It's got both, it's currently set to to shuttle tuning as per Don's which i actually think is more useful because it doesn't jump about. If you want Farhan's original just change the line in loop() to doTuning() rather than doShuttleTuning().
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Re: Birdie at 7199 - a surprising observation!
Just a suggestion: I found that the drive current line in my Raduino was commented out.? I removed the comment slashes and compiled with the current set a 2 MA.
I also replaced the two wires that carry the VFO signal from the Raduino to the board with a short length of RG-174U coax and the birdie is now completely gone.? Not sure which change killed it at this point.
Kevin
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Ok, I figured it out for those that are having trouble. ?Open the main BitXtra40 file. ?Then open a new tab in the Arduino IDE paste the information from the UpsideDown file into that new tab. ?Then compile. ?There may be a different way to open both files in the same IDE environment, but this is how I got it to work.
Question for you Andrew -?
I havent uploaded this sketch yet, but I probably will tonight. ?Does this have the tuner like Don had, or like Farhan designed? ?
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On Mon, Apr 10, 2017 at 04:03 am, Raj vu2zap wrote: Remove R1 hi Raj, Thanks a lot! I see removing the R1 should do the trick.? have a nice day. vy 73's hanz de PA3ZZ
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I too made the "rookie" mistake. And by using the RS electret capsule, may have compounded the problem further. I did have my base rig antenna disconnected but there was still the ambient noise thing. Originally I had no audio, which led me to replacing my mic wiring back from the board and the electret. Went back to the original (which was still ok) and even in close proximity the audio sounded better, if not great. Will try the web sdr later. Still would like to know the original electret capsule spec. Anyone? Thanks to all
Sent from Mike's iPad WA1MAD
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Craig Thibodeaux
Kevin Gilot NZ1I
Allard PE1NWL
