Sorry for the newbie question, but the WA2EBY kit is for 1W drive, won't that splatter like crazy with 5-10W from a uBitx? Or how would an operator decrease the uBitx output power that low to let the amp work??
John
On Jan 10, 2018 10:24 AM, "N8DAH" < Dherron@...> wrote: Only ones I know of are the Hardrock-50, HFpacker and the WA2EBY. All but the last one are total kits and cost 300+
I just built up a WA2EBY amp and am pretty happy with it so far.
I got the pcb's from
Toroids
Build notes
I would suggest if you choose the WA2EBY option be sure to do a proper parts list as the on from the link in the build notes is a bit outdated.
?
? 73
?? GL
?? David
??? N8DAH
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Re: Implement a uBITX Memory Manager Program
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Only ones I know of are the Hardrock-50, HFpacker and the WA2EBY. All but the last one are total kits and cost 300+
I just built up a WA2EBY amp and am pretty happy with it so far.
I got the pcb's from
Toroids
Build notes
I would suggest if you choose the WA2EBY option be sure to do a proper parts list as the on from the link in the build notes is a bit outdated.
?
? 73
?? GL
?? David
??? N8DAH
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I hope this isn¡¯t too far off-topic to ask here. ?I¡¯ve looked for an amplifier kit similar to the Bitx radio. ?Does anyone here know of such a kit? ?
de N4RMK?
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Re: Trouble With Alternate Audio Inputs (BITX40 Module)
Do you have something to detect the presence of radio frequency energy?
A general purpose communications receiver would do fine for this. Just tune it to the various places that energy should show up as the heterodyning takes effect, and Leigh a short insulated antenna wire over the appropriate portion of the Bitx40 circuitry and see if there¡¯s energy there.
If you don¡¯t have that, you could make a small high input impedance RF detector with a small signal diode, 2 capacitors and a high-in put impedance voltmeter. Like a five dollar harbor freight digital voltmeter.
Then just follow the signal chain.
Sent from my iPhone
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On Jan 10, 2018, at 09:33, Michael Davis <maddmd818@...> wrote:
Well, I am ready to attempt to troubleshoot my Bitx40 mic input circuit. I printed the mic circuit and will attempt to either inject an audio signal along the mic input line into Q12 and then to the trifilar transformer. After that I'm lost. First I'll replace the electret capsule, just in case it is defective. It does have 3.99 vdc at its contacts when PTT is pressed. Feel free to chime in either in forum or to me individually. It was working so well and suddenly no transmit. All transistor voltages measured normal, including the IRF510 in receive and transmit. Thanks
Sent from Mike's iPad WA1MAD
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Guess I am confused about git!
You make it sound like git is a collection of independent routines
that do functions and you get to select the functions you want to include in your sketch.
I thought git held complete sketches and you would have to "sort" out the code needed for a specific function?
Ron
From: Ashhar Farhan <farhanbox@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, January 9, 2018 8:50 PM
Subject: Re: [BITX20] Code snipits
neil, the trouble with having different downloads is that if you use one, you will lose the functionality of another! with git, you will be able to pull whatever changes you need into one build. the unfortunate trouble with git is that no one has written a simple one page how-to for hams. perhaps, allard can take a stab at it? - f
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Re: Trouble With Alternate Audio Inputs (BITX40 Module)
Well, I am ready to attempt to troubleshoot my Bitx40 mic input circuit. I printed the mic circuit and will attempt to either inject an audio signal along the mic input line into Q12 and then to the trifilar transformer. After that I'm lost. First I'll replace the electret capsule, just in case it is defective. It does have 3.99 vdc at its contacts when PTT is pressed. Feel free to chime in either in forum or to me individually. It was working so well and suddenly no transmit. All transistor voltages measured normal, including the IRF510 in receive and transmit. Thanks
Sent from Mike's iPad WA1MAD
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Re: Implement a uBITX Memory Manager Program
Ian,
?I've been wondering if RTOS might be an option to handle all the interrupts etc?
73, Michael
KM4OLT
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Micro-BITX ... Lost in post ? Possibly
I had confirmation that my Micro-Bitx was posted on the 12 the December, Tracked to Mumbai airport ?on the 15 the December, Then it seems to have got lost, Various phonecalls to Royal mail with the tracking number has turned up a blank, Its not on there system, A few emails to HF SIG's , And I've been told it won't get lost in the post .....Time is ticking on, Perhaps its wedged behind a seat in a Royal mail van ? .... Who knows ... Ile give it another week in case it does turn up , If not ile have to email HF SIG's again and go from there .... British postal services can be hit SNF miss st the best of times .
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Re: Audible pickup of outside noises on speaker line?
#ubitx
A metal enclosure should help, but isn't necessary. If everything is properly hooked up and grounded you should be good to go. Many people run their bitx40/ubitx in the plastic case from?Excellway (sold on BangGood).
I second Robert's comment about the volume wires - that's a fiddly bit of circuitry. Basically anything picked up by the "hot" wires on the volume potentiometer will get amplified and some out of your speakers. I'm currently dealing with some broadcast FM signals on this part of the board.?
Many thanks everyone. David.. yes I know I had my hands & face pretty close to the transistors when it started transmitting to.. thankfully the default frequency is within the 40m band, so not the worst thing in the world, but I had no idea it'd do this; not intentional by any means.
I haven't really touched any components per say, but rather noticed when listening with headphones that noise from the real world was leaking in. Indeed my wires are too long & not twisted. I was hoping to get a proper case before doing too much here, but as far as the knob & audio wires it's easy to lengthen if need be. There's definitely no shielding, and the case I purchased is the plastic casing as seen floating around here lately on eBay. Perhaps I could purchase something to lay the inside of the case with a shielding type tape?
On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 2:12 PM KD8CGH < rkayakr@...> wrote: I suspect a problem in the wires going to the volume control. If you look at the schematic those wires carry a weak AF signal that then goes to the final AF amplifier. Any electronic noise picked up from the uBitx board, Raduino or outside air will be amplified along with the signal. Try shortening and/or rerouting those wires. From your picture it looks like you have no case shielding, so the mixers and amplifiers may pick up any stray signal floating in the air.
My uBitx had a great clean receiver. I added several extra wires to connect an internal audio filter for CW in the line to the volume control and the noise floor went up significantly - so I know that you can screw it up that way.
If you touch a component the capacitance of your body can affect the circuit. If touching the case or tapping the table produces an effect without a mic plugged in you may have a loose connection. Loose connections, especially loose grounds, are also a great source of noise.
--
David K4DBZ
Unofficial bitx chatroom:?https://discord.gg/CrHvWFc
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Re: Audible pickup of outside noises on speaker line?
#ubitx
Many thanks everyone. David.. yes I know I had my hands & face pretty close to the transistors when it started transmitting to.. thankfully the default frequency is within the 40m band, so not the worst thing in the world, but I had no idea it'd do this; not intentional by any means.
I haven't really touched any components per say, but rather noticed when listening with headphones that noise from the real world was leaking in. Indeed my wires are too long & not twisted. I was hoping to get a proper case before doing too much here, but as far as the knob & audio wires it's easy to lengthen if need be. There's definitely no shielding, and the case I purchased is the plastic casing as seen floating around here lately on eBay. Perhaps I could purchase something to lay the inside of the case with a shielding type tape?
On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 2:12 PM KD8CGH < rkayakr@...> wrote: I suspect a problem in the wires going to the volume control. If you look at the schematic those wires carry a weak AF signal that then goes to the final AF amplifier. Any electronic noise picked up from the uBitx board, Raduino or outside air will be amplified along with the signal. Try shortening and/or rerouting those wires. From your picture it looks like you have no case shielding, so the mixers and amplifiers may pick up any stray signal floating in the air.
My uBitx had a great clean receiver. I added several extra wires to connect an internal audio filter for CW in the line to the volume control and the noise floor went up significantly - so I know that you can screw it up that way.
If you touch a component the capacitance of your body can affect the circuit. If touching the case or tapping the table produces an effect without a mic plugged in you may have a loose connection. Loose connections, especially loose grounds, are also a great source of noise.
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Re: Audible pickup of outside noises on speaker line?
#ubitx
I suspect a problem in the wires going to the volume control. If you look at the schematic those wires carry a weak AF signal that then goes to the final AF amplifier. Any electronic noise picked up from the uBitx board, Raduino or outside air will be amplified along with the signal. Try shortening and/or rerouting those wires. From your picture it looks like you have no case shielding, so the mixers and amplifiers may pick up any stray signal floating in the air.
My uBitx had a great clean receiver. I added several extra wires to connect an internal audio filter for CW in the line to the volume control and the noise floor went up significantly - so I know that you can screw it up that way.
If you touch a component the capacitance of your body can affect the circuit. If touching the case or tapping the table produces an effect without a mic plugged in you may have a loose connection. Loose connections, especially loose grounds, are also a great source of noise.
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Re: Audible pickup of outside noises on speaker line?
#ubitx
Well first off, get yourself a dummy load if you're not licensed. Much better to accidentally transmit into some resistors rather than into thin air (or you arm).
The audio chain on the bitx40 is highly susceptible to noise. I imagine the same is true for ubitx. Try twisting all your leads together, probably no need to go and replace with shielded leads. Make sure lead lengths are short. Make sure you don't have any floating grounds.
The Raduino was a big source of noise on the bitx40. For me, this was solved by adding an RC filter for the 12V line. There have also been problems with the stock volume pot, maybe replace that with a higher quality part (i use Digikey part?987-1739-ND).
N.B., all the problems I've listed are for the bitx40, but I suspect some still exist on the ubitx.
Good luck and good luck on your exam!
Hello everyone, I've got my uBitx setup & hooked up to a 40m dipole I've sort of strung along the ceiling of my 1 bedroom apartment; it's not ideal at all, and the coax is not rg59 albeit short. Long story short, still unlicensed, waiting to take the exam this spring.
Anyhow, on to the issue at hand. I have wired up some speakers which works but the audio is simply terrible, no bass to speak of at all. Alternatively, I have the speaker jack also wired up and I notice I can hear myself tapping on the table or touching the casing / near the components. Is this simply lack of good shielding of the mic input or speaker assembly?
This picture is not the latest "revision" of my "work", since I have shortened down the coax running (rg59) so it no longer is bent and rewired the rotary encoder due to it being inverted.
Now, a few issues: 1. Noise floor is high and reception is poor. Compared to my CountyComm GP-5 SSB radio where with a little whip antenna I can receive clear audio but can barely hear anything on the uBitx, even with speakers.
Granted, the GP-5 has amazing AGC, serious DSP and all, so there's that. I tried running the uBitx off 12v batteries but had no drop in noise floor. I disconnected all electronics in my basement apartment but no audible difference in noise floor.
Could this be attributed to poor / non existent shielding? Is my front end poor? I accidentally transmitted without an antenna hooked up when not wiring up the pull up resistor for the keyer..
Any advice is appreciated. I'm incredibly new to this side of electronics.
--
David K4DBZ
Unofficial bitx chatroom:?https://discord.gg/CrHvWFc
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Re: My ?BITX in its new home
A ham I met at the recent Builders Fest here in Tennessee showed me a trick he uses to attach the larger knobs to the smaller shafts.? He goes to the hobby shop and picks up a short piece of clear plastic tubing that fits the 1/8 inch shaft and the knob goes on top of that.? Worked like a champ!??
73 Rick ND4F
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Re: #ubitx Re: Ubitx only on preorder now
#ubitx
Ordered uBitX on 12? Dec... got DHL number Monday! Yipeeee... can't wait!! Steve/N0AAH?
On Jan 10, 2018 4:04 AM, "Mvs Sarma" < mvssarma@...> wrote: Perhaps the uBITX is sold as semi knocked down.
?Mostly assembled. Either you purchase and enjoy doing minor mounting fitting etc and get the quality adjusted in factory, ?or make one yourself using the schematic and resources provided on the bitex site and obviousl;y the designer's site. , Ujjwal jee best of 2018. Seeing you on a site after a long time, sir. ? regards ?mvs sarma ?vu3zmv
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Re: Digitally Controllable Heathkit Vacuum Tube Radio
The SB 100/102/101 series had a switch to choose the VFO or crystal oscillator. I simply grabbed the RG-174 coax cable to the Crystal oscillator ?and added a section to it, rerouting it to an unused RCA phono plug Jack on the back panel.
on the HW series I¡¯ll probably have to add a toggle switch.
Sent from my iPhone
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On Tue, Dec 5, 2017 at 06:37 pm, Gordon Gibby wrote:
Howdy Gordon,
may I ask where your injecting your heterodyne signal from the Si5351a into the SB-100?? my guess would be at the common connector on the band switch, is this correct? if that is the case I had considered altering one of the wafer sections to indicate
the band position, or perhaps adding a sensor to the shaft for that purpose. another wafer switch maybe with a resistor ladder??
-Justin N2TOH
-Justin N2TOH
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Re: #ubitx Re: Ubitx only on preorder now
#ubitx
Perhaps the uBITX is sold as semi knocked down.
?Mostly assembled. Either you purchase and enjoy doing minor mounting fitting etc and get the quality adjusted in factory, ?or make one yourself using the schematic and resources provided on the bitex site and obviousl;y the designer's site. , Ujjwal jee best of 2018. Seeing you on a site after a long time, sir. ? regards ?mvs sarma ?vu3zmv
On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 1:43 PM, <ujjwalis@...> wrote: Hi Ashhar,
Are you planning to offer the amazing uBitX as "Kit Form" or just the PCB ??
I got into Ham for the Sheer joy of Home brewing and would love to build the TRx by myself, one Coil at a time ?? I have build a NR60 in class 9th from scratch including Screen printing /etching? PCBs and winding all the coils and look forward for similar challenge building your latest creation!?
?
73's?
Ujjwal??
?
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I¡¯m going to try the Cirrus Logic WM8510 Codec. I¡¯ll try using for both input and output, uses Ic2 for control. Since I¡¯m using the PB version of the ATMega 328 it has two ic2, two, spi, two uarts in same footprint as standard 328.
If I get it working I¡¯ll let everyone know.
James Lawrie
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On Jan 9, 2018, at 14:10, John Sutter <jds@...> wrote:
I've been thinking of making an Audio/Interface PCB for the BITX40/uBITX.
What would be good to have on it?
Microphone Speech Processor: Jeff Cummings's design using the SSM2167
AGC: Which is the current favorite?
What else?
Easy-Digi circuit if I can get permission or a footprint for the module(?)
?
I'm thinking of releasing the Gerber files and let folks get their own boards
made. AllPCB's price went up to $2.10 per board for 100x100mm.
--
John Sutter
W1JDS CM87xi
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Re: My ?BITX in its new home
Use a heat gun to soften the glue, should come off then.
James Lawrie
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On Jan 9, 2018, at 17:35, Keith VE7GDH <ve7gdh@...> wrote:
Jack W8TEE wrote...
However, even the 3mm knob I have seems wobbly...
it may not actually be metric, but a 1/8" knob. Again, I'm still waiting for my uBITXs to show up. The
shaft diameter on the knob I picked up for my BITX40 was
too large even though it was the size specified. I wish
I had thought about heat-shrink back then. I ended up
putting a squirt of hot-melt glue in the knob before
putting it on the volume control shaft. It will be
interesting if I ever have to remove it!
--
73 Keith VE7GDH
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Audible pickup of outside noises on speaker line?
#ubitx
Hello everyone, I've got my uBitx setup & hooked up to a 40m dipole I've sort of strung along the ceiling of my 1 bedroom apartment; it's not ideal at all, and the coax is not rg59 albeit short. Long story short, still unlicensed, waiting to take the exam this spring. Anyhow, on to the issue at hand. I have wired up some speakers which works but the audio is simply terrible, no bass to speak of at all. Alternatively, I have the speaker jack also wired up and I notice I can hear myself tapping on the table or touching the casing / near the components. Is this simply lack of good shielding of the mic input or speaker assembly?  This picture is not the latest "revision" of my "work", since I have shortened down the coax running (rg59) so it no longer is bent and rewired the rotary encoder due to it being inverted. Now, a few issues: 1. Noise floor is high and reception is poor. Compared to my CountyComm GP-5 SSB radio where with a little whip antenna I can receive clear audio but can barely hear anything on the uBitx, even with speakers. Granted, the GP-5 has amazing AGC, serious DSP and all, so there's that. I tried running the uBitx off 12v batteries but had no drop in noise floor. I disconnected all electronics in my basement apartment but no audible difference in noise floor. Could this be attributed to poor / non existent shielding? Is my front end poor? I accidentally transmitted without an antenna hooked up when not wiring up the pull up resistor for the keyer.. Any advice is appreciated. I'm incredibly new to this side of electronics.
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N8DAH
Rob N4RMK
Michael Monteith
Marc Jones
Bob Benedict, KD8CGH
James Lawrie