Re: BITX QSO Afternoon/Evening, Sunday, April 22, 3PM & 7PM Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere.
Come on guys...my BITX40 is no Maserati but it had an excellent night. 40M peaked about an hour before sunset (my greyline). That random QRM about every 10-15 min might be some kind of radar I'm told. No contests or QRN tonight...S5-S7 noise floor on the big rig. Guess no one is doing laundry tonight in my neighbourhood!
Record number of stations on tonight between 1900 - 2100 HRS Z. Most were well over 5x5 using my 40M dipole @ 30ft. QSO's with N4DR Marc, N6ORS Keith, KN4AIE Rick, WI1B Ken, WA4THR Vic, WA2FZW John, KC1FSZ, AC9RZ Doug and picked a few new ones WA3O Mike, N2HTT Mike, W2NDG, KE0NXP Glenn, AD0RW John and WS4JM Jay.
Mathew S. - get your ticket and join the group. Thanks for the reception reports.
Got my uBITX built and stuffed in a can, finally. Quickly upgraded to KD8CEC's V1.061 firmware. What a huge improvement from the stock version. Still not happy with the calibration settings so work in progress. I suspect the uBITX needs LOT'S OF MIC AUDIO from what I'm hearing up here so keep that mic up close and personal.
Tom VE3THR
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Doug, Thanks for the info. I usually use jt65. It sounds like this heat sink would work fine for that, correct? About 45sec transmit cycles interspersed with 1 minute receive cycles. tim ab0wr On Sun, 22 Apr 2018 10:37:07 -0700 "Doug W" <dougwilner@...> wrote: As a follow up to my post about this heat sink, I did some testing of
digital Tx'ing into a dummy load yesterday as I think I have my
digital interface set up the way I want.? I did not use anything to
test the temperature other than touching the MOSFET and heat sink and
going by feel.? At a full 7 watts out nothing got more than just
barely warm at FT8 cycles running for about 15 minutes.? At WSPR
timing both the IRF510 and heat sink got hot enough I was double
checking the junk box to make sure I had a few spare IRF510's.
Bottom line, I think this heat sink is ok for occasional FT8
operations at full power (which was all I wanted it for) but if WSPR
is your flavor of choice you'll need to crank the power way down.
All in all I got what I wanted for about 73?.? I should also mention
that although it is hard to tell in the picture the MOSFET is fully
sitting on the silicone pad.? I lined the pad up with the heat sink
overlooking the fact the the IRF510 is angled coming off the board.
Fortunately the pad was wide enough to accommodate my error.
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Re: uBitx Relay K3 Pins 1 and 5 Location
Paul has it right. The pin numbers on the schematic don't seem to have any resemblance to the actual pin numbers on the data sheets. I had to actually use an ohmmeter from attached components to determine the actual pin locations on the bottom side of the circuit board. tim ab0wr On Sun, 22 Apr 2018 17:05:09 -0700 "alans77 via Groups.Io" <alans77@...> wrote: Can anyone provide a picture on the location of K3 pins 1 and 5 on
the circuit board? The schematic pin numbers do not match the
manufacturers data sheet. 73, N4AYE
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Re: BITX QSO Afternoon/Evening, Sunday, April 22, 3PM & 7PM Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere.
Not bad here this evening in Iowa. Worked KG5WLO, Ralph, VE3THR, Tom, and WS4JM, Jay. Also heard earlier WA3O, KE0NXP, WA4THR, and AC9RZ.
Used my uBITX with my half-wave (mostly) vertical wire.
John AD0RW
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Re: Teensy 3.5/3.6 upgrade for uBITX
I'd consider why the Zero sells for $5. I think the biggest issue is that the Pi is a different animal than the Arduino family. First, it does not have a home in the Arduino IDE, where most of the ?BITX work is being done. Second, it doesn't have the depth of add-ons that the Arduinos do. Those that do exist seem to be more expensive. Third, most of the work on Pi is either done in scripting languages or Python, neither of which is popular on the Arduino. If you need more horsepower, consider the Protoneer (eBay 282786290858). It has 256K of flash, 32K of SRAM (HUGE benefit), and is clocked 3x faster than the Nano at a cost of $15. It looks very promising.
Jack, W8TEE
On Sunday, April 22, 2018, 8:45:16 PM EDT, Jim Sheldon <w0eb@...> wrote:
I don't really have a clue regarding the Pi Zero. ?I do know the Pi Zero is faster, with a bit more RAM. ?I don't think it would easily replace a NANO, and wouldn't interface easily to the uBITX. ?Not saying it can't be done, but someone other than our group will have to be the guinea pigs on that one LOL.
JIM
On Apr 22, 2018, at 7:28 PM, freefuel@... wrote: Hi Jim,?
what are your thoughts on doing the same with the Raspberry Pi Zero boards? in some areas such as my own they can be purchased for as little as $5 USD.?
-Justin N2TOH
P.S. I should find the most effective place to ask about an Arduino IDE add on for the Pi boards so they might function as an Arduino alike board.?
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Re: Teensy 3.5/3.6 upgrade for uBITX
at times I have wondered at what point has a person reached too many adapter boards, and should really consider a fresh start.? As you already stated about interfacing the Si5351A chip and the Raspberry pi board, they are after all both 3.3 volt IO devices.
-Justin N2TOH?
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Re: BITX QSO Afternoon/Evening, Sunday, April 22, 3PM & 7PM Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere.
I was only on for a few minutes, but Tom VE3THR was booming in here in MA.?
I worked him on my newly QRO'd station with 20W.? Bill N2CQR was kind enough to include the latest update on his blog:?
73s,
Bruce KC1FSZ?
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Re: BITX QSO Afternoon/Evening, Sunday, April 22, 3PM & 7PM Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere.
I could hear N4AEI, N2HTT, WI1B, and N4DR. There was also a KE0NEP, but I'm not sure I got the call right.? I asked for a relay to check in and someone heard me, but then some kind of loud buzzing covered everything up.
Dan W2DLC
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Re: Teensy 3.5/3.6 upgrade for uBITX
I don't really have a clue regarding the Pi Zero. ?I do know the Pi Zero is faster, with a bit more RAM. ?I don't think it would easily replace a NANO, and wouldn't interface easily to the uBITX. ?Not saying it can't be done, but someone other than our group will have to be the guinea pigs on that one LOL.
JIM
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Show quoted text
On Apr 22, 2018, at 7:28 PM, freefuel@... wrote: Hi Jim,?
what are your thoughts on doing the same with the Raspberry Pi Zero boards? in some areas such as my own they can be purchased for as little as $5 USD.?
-Justin N2TOH
P.S. I should find the most effective place to ask about an Arduino IDE add on for the Pi boards so they might function as an Arduino alike board.?
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Re: Rectifier fuse crowbar.
#ubitx
The diodes in parallel will up the current capacity but volt drop won't change much. Using schottky diodes will give the lower voltage drop you need.
Paul ZS2OE
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Re: BITX QSO Afternoon/Evening, Sunday, April 22, 3PM & 7PM Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere.
I was mobile in Northern Virginia and worked a bitx station in Missouri at about 7pm but there was strong qsb as he was very strong then quickly went down to barely readable.
72/73 de Chas ai4ot
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Re: Teensy 3.5/3.6 upgrade for uBITX
Hi Jim,?
what are your thoughts on doing the same with the Raspberry Pi Zero boards? in some areas such as my own they can be purchased for as little as $5 USD.?
-Justin N2TOH
P.S. I should find the most effective place to ask about an Arduino IDE add on for the Pi boards so they might function as an Arduino alike board.?
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Re: BITX QSO Afternoon/Evening, Sunday, April 22, 3PM & 7PM Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere.
Fought through the noise and made one QSO with VE3THR Tom. ? That's 2 weeks in a row.?
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Re: uBitx Relay K3 Pins 1 and 5 Location
Take a look at the attached pic.? I had the same issue on my BITX40.
On Sun, Apr 22, 2018 at 7:05 PM, alans77 via Groups.Io <alans77@...> wrote: Can anyone provide a picture on the location of K3 pins 1 and 5 on the circuit board? The schematic pin numbers do not match the manufacturers data sheet. 73, N4AYE  
-- Paul Mateer, AA9GG
Elan Engineering Corp.
NAQCC 3123, SKCC 4628
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uBitx Relay K3 Pins 1 and 5 Location
Can anyone provide a picture on the location of K3 pins 1 and 5 on the circuit board? The schematic pin numbers do not match the manufacturers data sheet. 73, N4AYE  
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Re: BITX QSO Afternoon/Evening, Sunday, April 22, 3PM & 7PM Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere.
The only station i could really hear well tonight was Tom. I could hear some of the other stations on and off but I had an S9 noise level here tonight. Was using the FT-891 again tonight running 10 watts. Hopefully I'll get the BitX-40 back on the air by next weekend.?
--
John - WA2FZW
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Heard Glen KE0NXP talking with WA4THR, both were 5x7. I think I heard VE3THR, but kinda down in the mud.
I didn't jump in because my BITX is in pieces on the bench.
Jack, W8TEE
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Re: BITX QSO Afternoon/Evening, Sunday, April 22, 3PM & 7PM Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere.
The band seems to be pretty good right now, but I couldn't make anyone out on 7277.? I called on 7277 and 7177 several times, both at 7:20 PM ET and at 7:35 PM ET.
Tony KB9A
Hearing someone on 7277, but can't make out a call. Lots of QRN here tonight.
--
John - WA2FZW
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Re: BITX QSO Afternoon/Evening, Sunday, April 22, 3PM & 7PM Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere.
Hearing someone call sign ending in THR.? Also hear a NE Missouri station from here in WV.
Hearing someone on 7277, but can't make out a call. Lots of QRN here tonight.
--
John - WA2FZW
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Rectifier fuse crowbar.
#ubitx
I am using 2 fuses. One for the output transistors and one for everything else.? I was thinking of using one 6 amp rectifier that points in the direction of the power switch and then a wire from the power switch back to power each fuse.? It won't crowbar the fuse with wrong polarity but just stop current flow.? Voltage drop should be around .5 to .7 volts.? I could always parallel 2 of them to cut the voltage drop to 1/2.? What do you think?
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Jim Sheldon
alphaindia4oscartango
AA9GG
Lee