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Re: ND6T AGC implementation for uBIT-X
Kees,
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A couple more things that might fit into that shipping envelope: ? ? Four of Mouser's? ?283-200-RC? for a dummy load? (these are 3W 200 ohms, under a dime each) ? ? A schottky diode plus C's and R's to build a diode RF detector, cost another dime, display to a DVM or perhaps the Nano's A7 Both of those would be very useful when working on a uBitx. Jerry ? On Tue, May 15, 2018 at 05:02 pm, Kees T wrote:
Engineers being Engineers and not wanting to leave well enough alone.... |
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Re: A friendly suggestion for Farhan.
Gordon,
Small Loops. That is not entirely true.? There are a number of loop characteristics that contribute to the low noise as they very often have a higher signal to noise.? The biggest factor is they are closed systems and very low impedances. This makes them less susceptible to electrostatic fields at near field distances.? That and being directional. They are also electrically small so signals are smaller. My biggest pain when I read about them is hyping them like its a replacement for three elements at 60ft. It is not.? ? However that said its useful and can be a great asset for some situations. And yes you can work DX on them too.? But keep this in mind I used a cheap MFJ 8ft whip on my? Tacoma running a KNQ7A (about 7W out) from central MA to a foundation station in VK3 Land. I figured my EIRP was about .5Watt allowing for antenna efficiency and all.? Propagation is a wonderful thing.? So for that contact it was better than anything as driving down RT at 60mph what else would work(or be attached)!? ?But if you don't try you can't claim even trying. For DX try a DL5 using 100W on 40 with a wire that was literally on the ground (grasswire).? He said I was weak but he did hear me.? Hence my belief, try something, and cheaper is better (in case its terrible).? ;) Allison |
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Re: Raduino not working 0 Volts on Pin 6 (red wire)
#ubitx-help
#ubitx
david todd
Don't know if this will help but when I assembled my unit I accidently staggered the display pins. I only found this out when I assembled a case for it and my mounting holes were off. Another area is the pins on the board. They can be staggered accidently. Have you tried connecting the USB port to ur computer and see if it will fire up?
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Hope this helps 73s David Ka9koj Sent from Yahoo Mail. Get the app -------------------------------------------- On Wed, 5/16/18, kj6etl <pa1zz@...> wrote:
Subject: [BITX20] Raduino not working 0 Volts on Pin 6 (red wire) #ubitx-help #ubitx To: [email protected] Date: Wednesday, May 16, 2018, 7:32 PM Hi, I am strugling with a uBitx. The Raduino isn't responging to any input. There is 0 volt on pin 6 (red wire for the funktion button) to ground on the yellow wire (pin 4) or common ground on the chassis. I guess that without power we can't switch anyting. I tested with and without the encoder connected etc etc. Do I have a faulty arduino board or can this be fixed with software? Looking forward to your replies. Rogier |
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Re: Antenna Impedance Confirmation
OK, so we won't use the 3 digit display for any indication because of the hassle of shielding it and we don't want extra noise generated if we can help it. We did shield one and the noise drop was substantial.
How about another inexpensive approach for QRP (needs to be tested) using a 10 LED display which reads out in 3dB power steps with a 30dB range, ANY 30dB range......20W (43dBm) to 20mW (13dBm). That way the LEDs mean: 10 is 20W, 9 is 10W, 8 is 5W, 7 is 2.5W, 6 is 1.25W..... 1 is 20mW, you get the idea. Yes, the granularity is not great ....but usable. One AD8307 which is switched between Forward and Reverse or two AD8307s, one for Forward and one for reverse.? Connect the above to the coax via a Stockton or other bridge coupler with appropriate attenuator. 73 Kees K5BCQ |
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Re: A friendly suggestion for Farhan.
Gordon Gibby
¿ªÔÆÌåÓý" For the lower bands?
Allison, thank you for putting that into print.? ?I have the hardest time explaining to people why these antennas are so "quiet" --- and it isn't because they are so efficient!!!
cheers,
gordon
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of ajparent1/KB1GMX <kb1gmx@...>
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2018 5:59 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [BITX20] A friendly suggestion for Farhan. ?
Jerry,
The more you stock and hold for sale the more costs. Holding material aka stock is sunk money and the cost?is sufficient to mount up fast.? Better to build one or a few things and do it efficiently. I have the Slopbucket 20 and its both interesting and a very good compact 20M SSB/CW. ITs not a bitx artecture its moe Epiphyte in origins or like the 6M design I published in QQ 12 years ago.? My SB20 does about 7Wat 13.8 and more off a 4S2P lipo pack (nominal 14.8), not bad for one IRF510.? SMT to 0603?doesn't make me flinch the smaller 0402 is a pain. FYI the antennas here include: ? 75M dipole at 12ft for NVIS? ? 160M inverted V? (hint the property is 150x150ft so space is an issue) ? LNR EF-quad (40/20/15/10) up 30ft ? PAR EF40/20/10? 90 degrees to that and about 33ft up. ? Inverted L bottom fed with remote match box (relays and such) ? Grasswire? 130ft OCF at about 6 inches, read K3MTs Grasswire Story. ? ? ? ?Its a broad band low angle antenna, I use it for low band DX. ? Tower 1 30ft with VHF/UHF tree (see QRZ). ? Tower 2 35ft is the center of the 160M dipole (low inverted V) The list of antennas tried and later replaced is way longer. My last task for the antenna engineering firm was loop antennas for transmitting.? They are compact and?narrow band so constant tuning is required.? For the lower bands 160-40 unless huge they are chronically inefficient.? They work as well as a loaded 8ft mobile whip but are self contained not requiring radials.? Its a small compromise antenna that has utility.? The hidden utility is they are directional and that can really help null out noise sources.? Ferrite loaded loops are very good for receiving if you don't mind tuning them Amidon sells 1" by 1foot rods for that stuff. Name an antenna I've likely tried it or have one built for prior use or field day. I agree ideal is a 120ft tower.... ain't going to happen here.? But I firmly believe if you don't put something up/out/on the ground your not trying.? Why because everything works better than nothing. Allison |
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Raduino Questions for Bitx40
Thomas Erwin
Greeting,
If I may I have a few questions about my Bitx40.? My display will only on power up will show "Raduino v1.01 and will stop there.? I have checked the purple wire going to the center wiper and I can vary it from 0-5volts.? I can also hear the 12 mhz on my other radio. However it will not go on to display the frequency on the display.? So I'm wondering does the "Raduino v1.01" really tell me that the software is working correctly in the nano board? I don't really have much experience with this stuff, just downloaded the IDE? and got a few books on the arduino, I'm on? the path to learning about them.? My bitx40 does not have? L4 and C93 on it,? So does the uno and board that attached to it provide all the signals that the bitx40 needs?? I watched Ashhar Farhan's video on troubleshooting and I did not have a signal at Collector at Q7 the 5 mhz on the main board.? Is this normal if the L4 and C93 are not mounted on the main board?? I feel that I need to get the display working before I go on with this. Thanks for all input Tom WD9GON |
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Re: A friendly suggestion for Farhan.
Jerry,
The more you stock and hold for sale the more costs. Holding material aka stock is sunk money and the cost?is sufficient to mount up fast.? Better to build one or a few things and do it efficiently. I have the Slopbucket 20 and its both interesting and a very good compact 20M SSB/CW. ITs not a bitx artecture its moe Epiphyte in origins or like the 6M design I published in QQ 12 years ago.? My SB20 does about 7Wat 13.8 and more off a 4S2P lipo pack (nominal 14.8), not bad for one IRF510.? SMT to 0603?doesn't make me flinch the smaller 0402 is a pain. FYI the antennas here include: ? 75M dipole at 12ft for NVIS? ? 160M inverted V? (hint the property is 150x150ft so space is an issue) ? LNR EF-quad (40/20/15/10) up 30ft ? PAR EF40/20/10? 90 degrees to that and about 33ft up. ? Inverted L bottom fed with remote match box (relays and such) ? Grasswire? 130ft OCF at about 6 inches, read K3MTs Grasswire Story. ? ? ? ?Its a broad band low angle antenna, I use it for low band DX. ? Tower 1 30ft with VHF/UHF tree (see QRZ). ? Tower 2 35ft is the center of the 160M dipole (low inverted V) The list of antennas tried and later replaced is way longer. My last task for the antenna engineering firm was loop antennas for transmitting.? They are compact and?narrow band so constant tuning is required.? For the lower bands 160-40 unless huge they are chronically inefficient.? They work as well as a loaded 8ft mobile whip but are self contained not requiring radials.? Its a small compromise antenna that has utility.? The hidden utility is they are directional and that can really help null out noise sources.? Ferrite loaded loops are very good for receiving if you don't mind tuning them Amidon sells 1" by 1foot rods for that stuff. Name an antenna I've likely tried it or have one built for prior use or field day. I agree ideal is a 120ft tower.... ain't going to happen here.? But I firmly believe if you don't put something up/out/on the ground your not trying.? Why because everything works better than nothing. Allison |
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My first uBITx arrived!
LiviuS
Hello all, I'm a new member of this group. My uBITx was ordered early feb., sent early march and arrived early may in YO. Due to the "care" taken by the Romanian post, no information about the arrival was sent to me. Thanks to India Post for backtracking the delivery!! With a 15-days delay I retired my item, in perfect condition though. So... the real delivery time to YO is about 90 days. First contact: roughly packed, kit complete as listed on hfsignals website, the audio amp in an? 8-pin DIL socket (thanks Fahrhan, the through-hole solders are useful for hacking, specially for te digimodes lovers!). Microscopic exam of PCB: visually perfect, neat solders, clean board. Mechanical design for casing started last week, with the goal in mind to obtain a portable/mobile HF fieldday/emergency station setup, in a small suitcase (I'm seeking the local shops for a rough plastic one). This weekend the startup tests are programmed. Next week the CEC 1.61 software will be adapted and tested for a 4x20 display and without wspr. --- Liviu, radio YO5QCD
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Re: share your BITX success stories
I guess I would be able to obtain the 1000mi/W award as I had contact with Fiji from the Texas/Mexico border at the Gulf Coast.
But as I am fairly new (6 months) still have to learn about those things. Contact was made on 10m with FT8 in March. Before that I only had seen reception reports drom Japan and Europe.? So pretty pleased with my uBitx with an end-fed in the attic. John KG5WJQ |
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Re: A friendly suggestion for Farhan.
Hfsignals is set up to autostuff the surface mount parts with hundreds of boards at a shot.
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Then it's handwork to wind the coils and add the through-hole parts, align and test. To do an accurate job of throwing all those 1206's and SOT23's into a bag could cost more than the autostuff.?? Might be interesting for them to offer just the autostuffed board with surface mount parts as a reduced price option, we dig up our own through-hole parts? Perhaps include all the matched quartz? Just bare boards? But all those different products in the price list would make life more complicated there increasing overhead.? ?I doubt there would be much volume for any of the above options. All conjecture on my part. Easy enough for us to remove parts. There are other *Bitx* variants (and the KD1JV Slopbucket) offered as kits, some are multiband.? Jerry,? KE7ER ? On Thu, May 17, 2018 at 09:56 am, K9HZ wrote:
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Re: A friendly suggestion for Farhan.
Something to do on cold winter nights, eh?
tim ab0wr On Wed, 16 May 2018 21:55:25 -0500 "K9HZ" <bill@...> wrote: You know, I¡¯d love to see the uBITx as a kit.? In fact, I¡¯d take it |
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Re: share your BITX success stories
My call is fire up on 40 and call CQ!? Someone is likely to answer.? ? If you don't?
you never know if the propagation has happend.? I find a lot of South Americans on 10M during the day, but people keep telling me 10 is dead. 75ohm coax to a dipole is not a bad thing but you may need a simple tuner to match it to the radio.? Allison |
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Re: A friendly suggestion for Farhan.
david todd
Have u thought about a magnetic loop?
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Or an end fed dipole,? I use one but I'm only up about 10 ft. And with my lot I zip zag the wire. Also use a homemade vertical with tapped loading coil on bottom. The vertical is actually an extendo paint stick that extends up to 16 ft. Bought at home depot for 25 dollars. Had some scrap 12 gauge Romex wire and took the ground wire andvwrapped it around my wife's nesttea jar. About 20 times. I decided to space it about 1/4 inch from each winding. Put it in a wood box, mounted it on the vertical mounting pole. Used alligator clips to change inductance. I made a chart inside box to show which tap works best for which band. I use an mfj versa tuner fed with rg8 I was using rg6u until my son mowed over the cable rg6 u gives 75 ohms and is cheap. And for less than 100 watts it works for me. I also have 20 radials but some of them had to be zigzagged. I also have a modified cb whip on tripod with loading coil that I use from inside the house. Hope this helps. All my antennas together less than 50 dollars. I picked up the tripod and cb stick for 5 dollars each at S yard sale. I just added a coil and some fitting I already had on hand. Anyway hope this helps. 73s David Ka9koj Sent from Yahoo Mail. Get the app -------------------------------------------- On Wed, 5/16/18, John Smith via Groups.Io <johnlinux77@...> wrote:
Subject: Re: [BITX20] A friendly suggestion for Farhan. To: [email protected] Date: Wednesday, May 16, 2018, 9:58 PM On Wed, May 16, 2018 at 08:30 am, ajparent1/KB1GMX wrote: My suggestion, likely the less expensive route: Build a better antenna.? Less expensive and you will hear stations better.? Use a full size dipole at least a half wave length high (or higher) for example 20M for the 40M band.? ?A wire beam for 20M?can be a considerable equalizer.? A bit of wood, wire and rope.? I happen to like the VE7CA tribander (20/15/10M).? ?A wire beam for 40m is not out of the question, the group I hang with does both of those for field day. I totally agree with the ideal antenna installation. But at this time where I live, 19 foot apex of an Inverted vee with the ends suspended at 8 feet is the best I can do. And with the BITX 40, I have made SSB contacts at the four corners of the United States from Oklahoma City when everything else happens to be in my favor at that time. I still have to polish my digital interface and try some simple digital modes. I found that too much audio volume into the radio overloads the mic circuit and produces weird chirp like issues. a volume knob on the interface would help better adjust the volume for optimum output without distortion. I have been distracted with other projects and haven't played with the BITX 40 in several months, but I still read what's happening in a few places. A good AMP project has always been of interest, but inexpensive kits also require the use of filters, and that requires some equipment more expensive than a BITX of some kind, a amp, and filtering combined. The fun factor doesn't twist my arm that much to do it anyway. I feel stuck between discovery, and buying commercial sometime. |
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Re: Using IRF530 outputs and 2N3553 drivers in ubitx
You can across the bands but you need a deign impedance of a about 3-5 ohms and enough loading?
to keep it down there which means a heavier driver and a different driver output transformer (something the 4:1 turns area).? From a system design standpoint its very doable as I make? 6M amps using MRF150? (400pf input C) and there are more than a few commercial amps using them in push pull parallel for 2-30mhz. Its just not an easy drop in.? But over 5W at 30mhz also says its far from horrific as is. I'd suspect a 2:1 transformer using BN43-6802 with a tube and strap for the low impedance side might be the winner. The driving transformer needs to have a lower? leakage inductance and impedance on the MOSFET side. All in all, if the higher bands are of less interest, then call success and move on as the results at he low end are pretty decent. Allison |
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Re: uBitx diagnostic document from Facebook group
#ubitx
I believe there are some images missing from the document?
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Re: Using IRF530 outputs and 2N3553 drivers in ubitx
Wow 940pf. ?You can design for it to work at 30 MHz but thats not gonna work at 3.5 or 7.0 MHz without switching parts in and out. ?
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? Dr.?William J. Schmidt - K9HZ On May 16, 2018, at 7:48 PM, ajparent1/KB1GMX <kb1gmx@...> wrote:
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Re: Why I bought a uBITX
I haven't seen a lot of flames here regarding imprecise measurements.
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If you have the Harbor Freight digital voltmeter (often free with any purchase), you are about as well armed as most folks here in the forum.? If you have trouble troubleshooting, somebody may urge you to build a diode RF probe, that's about it. Some do have good lab gear and and decades of experience, can measure filter passbands or intermodulation distortion or harmonic content, and they then report back telling us what they saw.? But that sort of thing is definitely not required. If anybody suggests you should spend more on test gear than you did on the radio, that's your opportunity to go ahead and flame them good. Jerry, KE7ER On Thu, May 17, 2018 at 10:07 am, kq2q2000 wrote: I¡¯ve been Flamed in the past for not being Precise and well Documented. Opinionated Flamers are ready and armed?24/7.? |
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BITX QSO Afternoon/Evening, Sunday, May 20, 3PM & 7PM Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere.
John P
BITX QSO Afternoon/Evening, Sunday, May 20, 3PM & 7PM Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere.
Join us as we make contacts from BITX40 to BITX40 on 7.277 MHz in 40 meters! This is a worldwide event for BITX40 stations starting at 7pm in each time zone. To participate, call CQ BITX on Sunday, starting at?3PM and/or 7PM?your local time. The BITX QSO Night continues through the evening and conditions usually improve after sunset, so it is worthwhile to participate later in the evening. Suggested Best Operating Practices: Work at QRP power levels unless conditions require more power. Report your QSO's, discuss propagation, noise, signal reports, audio reports, antenna type, etc. in this thread. This is an undirected, scheduled event.? The BITX QSO Night relies on you to call CQ BITX to initiate contacts with other stations, so warm up that final and transmit a few calls on Sunday evening.? Talk to you then! |
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Re: Why I bought a uBITX
Roxie,
You forgot us who also like to play with the radio hardware.... ;-) The idea of a split is usually bad as the hardware/software do not see the user issues and maybe the user gets to see what improvements people are thinking of. That said your wish list is not unreasonable.? However CAT is not required for most data modes though its handy.? Can CAT be done yes. As an owner/user you also have the option to do (make, copy, even suggest) these things.? Its a builder/makers radio.? However as a group we are self directed and there may not be a universal single answer.? We do have a lot of feedback as well for things that do or clearly don't work.? Its up to you to read and sort through it. Then again its exactly why I like it.? So many things to try and incorporate.? After all what is my idea of perfect is likely to give others the shakes or be out of contention on price.? But that for me is the fun of experimenting and building.?? Allison |
K9HZ
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