An order fulfillment update as of 8 May, 2018:
I ordered a ubitx on 3 May.? The Item shipped on 8 May!?
Given there was a weekend involved between the order and ship dates, this is actually a 2 day order turn-around!?
Performance of this caliber is a far, far cry from the 2 month backlog and is?very much appreciated.?
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Re: Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me
Looks like good advice.
The Polyphaser stuff has been around for awhile, and is designed for this kind of use.
If you are in an area that sees lightning, you want a proven system.
And you want to follow all instructions closely.
Here's a discussion on eham that might put the fear of god in you.
? ??
Unfortunately, those whose budget just barely covers a Bitx40 might decide to go without.
This one is good to a kilowatt, $68.99 plus shipping.? ?
? ??
Plus multiple ground rods, #6 copper wire, ...
Gets worse if you have multiple antennas.
One of these gas discharge tubes might do it for cheap:
? ??
but I'm not about to hazard a guess as to what's appropriate around lightning.
And that eham discussion suggests the Polyphaser thing is more than just a GDT,
has some caps in it too, and I have no idea what else.?
Anybody with a cheaper solution they feel is adequate for QRP levels?
I'm sure lightning could find a way to bite us here.
But being off grid with no landline phone has its advantages.
While in college I spent summers on BLM fire crews, once spent a couple weeks
in a tower spelling the regular lookout.? They take lots of lightning.
Had a special stool you could cower on in the center of the floor during a storm,
big honking glass insulators on the bottom of the legs.
Just sit there and watch the sparks fly about within the cabin a few feet away.
And then when it was over, the VHF radio still worked.
Jerry
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On Tue, May 8, 2018 at 08:24 am, ajparent1/KB1GMX wrote:
Doug,? A ground rod outside (preferable a 8ft or longer...) with a Polyphaser arrester at the top of it
and the cable connecting to that first.? Then a COAX coming inside.? That is a generally safer
and brings all static charges to ground first.??
To make it NEC (national Electric code) a wire #6 or heavier from that ground rod to the
house ground usually near the power entrance is required.? (all grounds bonded together.).
I also advise for dipoles and other non DC shorted (and grounded) antennas a resistor at
the feed point of 100K (2W) to bleed static as well.? Static build up from wind can be as
damaging as a bolt from the sky just not as noisy.
Disconnectig is good practice but a grounded and suppred connection outside its advised.
Allison
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I ordered mine on May 3 and according to DHL I should get it on May 11.
73, Dennis W7DRW
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Lightning protection for your BITX transceiver
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This case was made by my friend with a laser engraver. It's kind of a miniature Collins S-Line version with plans to add a speaker/power supply case and amplifier/tuner/swr bridge case. The main board case comes with? all holes fitting. About $40.00.? Dan - WM7W? 
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Re: Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me
No question that is the correct way to do things.? I've actually had a polyphaser protector bookmarked and just got cheap and didn't want to spend almost as much as the radio is worth to protect it which I know is no excuse.
Does anyone have any experience with Altelix? Looks like it might be a good enough solution at a much lower price point.?
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On Tue, May 8, 2018 at 08:24 am, ajparent1/KB1GMX wrote:
Doug,? A ground rod outside (preferable a 8ft or longer...) with a Polyphaser arrester at the top of it
and the cable connecting to that first.? Then a COAX coming inside.? That is a generally safer
and brings all static charges to ground first.??
To make it NEC (national Electric code) a wire #6 or heavier from that ground rod to the
house ground usually near the power entrance is required.? (all grounds bonded together.).
I also advise for dipoles and other non DC shorted (and grounded) antennas a resistor at
the feed point of 100K (2W) to bleed static as well.? Static build up from wind can be as
damaging as a bolt from the sky just not as noisy.
Disconnectig is good practice but a grounded and suppred connection outside its advised.
Allison
? --
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In past years 2009 the last solar minima I worked a lot of DX using only 4W.? On 10 a good antenna can
help a a lot so a dipole for 10 well? up and? a rectangle taller than wider (73x146" choke fed at the bottom)
with the top at 20ft both worked very well as they heard better.? It was clearly if I could hear them they could
hear me.
Allison
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Re: Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me
Grounding experiences, from my commercial radio days, says to not take the equipment ground to the electrical panel ground.
The problem is that if your radio antenna or equipment ground is better than the provider ground, lightning will travel from the
electrical wiring feeding the house to your equipment ground.
We ran into this at remote tower sites as well.? If we grounded the tower and equipment it would always get hit but
if we didn't ground the tower and equipment there was no "ground" for the lightning to flow to.
When we had a building with a grounded tower we never tied to the commercial ground as the tower ground
was always better than the panel ground and would draw lightning from the distribution lines to the tower ground.
Just a thought.
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Re: Amateur Radio Kits Case Arrived - 5 STARS * * * * * -#ubitx
Hello
I¡¯m French station F1BFU.?
I ordered my uBitx on April 22 and received it yesterday. Very correct packaging with plastic case.
Look at the pictures of the package unpacking.
I am very happy with it and now I have to assemble it and put it in the box that has not arrived yet.
73 QRO Gilles F1BFU-QRP
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I would be very interested in the radio.
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...yesterday was a good day for 10m.? The uBITX is a more than capable little animal. FT8 using CEC firmware with CAT (onni-rig) on a homebrew windom, stock board. (parts already on order for the tx power board change) 
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Well, I ordered my BITX40 on the 3rd. It was shipped today and is supposed to be received here in Angier, NC on Thursday the 10th. Let's see how that goes.
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Just going to bump one last time, anyone have any ideas on rebuilding the driver stage?
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N5WLF, Greggory (or my nickname, Ghericoan)
General Class, Digital Radio Hobbyist
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Re: Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me
Doug,? A ground rod outside (preferable a 8ft or longer...) with a Polyphaser arrester at the top of it
and the cable connecting to that first.? Then a COAX coming inside.? That is a generally safer
and brings all static charges to ground first.??
To make it NEC (national Electric code) a wire #6 or heavier from that ground rod to the
house ground usually near the power entrance is required.? (all grounds bonded together.).
I also advise for dipoles and other non DC shorted (and grounded) antennas a resistor at
the feed point of 100K (2W) to bleed static as well.? Static build up from wind can be as
damaging as a bolt from the sky just not as noisy.
Disconnectig is good practice but a grounded and suppred connection outside its advised.
Allison
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Re: Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me
After getting struck by lightning once, I have my ladder line grounded through its balun to a ground bar in my shack right where it enters. This will not protect from a direct strike, but it will handle nearby discharges. A direct strike will vaporize my ladder line, so there is no point in me going over the top protecting it.
At the shack subpanel, I put in an 8ft galvinzed rod connected to the panel with 8ga wire. Then from the panel it goes to a ground bar up on the wall, where all my equipment is grounded to.
The tower outside has three of these 8ft galvanized rods on it, one off of each point, all bonded together with 8ga wire. The tower's ground is seperate from the building's due to the fact I would have to cross three cables from the cable co at six inche depth.?
I am not the best to ask on this subject, but this is just what I have setup.
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N5WLF, Greggory (or my nickname, Ghericoan)
General Class, Digital Radio Hobbyist
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Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me
Full disclosure, I know better.? As we enter thunderstorm season around here lightning surge moves further up my list of issues to address.? I have one RG8X cable coming in through a window that I connect to whatever radio I am playing with at the time (BITX40, ?BITX or SDR).? I am guilty of using a temporary solution long enough to bring the temporary status into question.? My current laughable protection scheme is lacking.? If I am away for a while or the sky looks questionable I disconnect the cable and leave it sitting loose.? If it looks really bad I have weatherproofed the cable connector and thrown it back out the window.? On my list is to at least properly ground the cable where it enters the structure instead of pretending to operate portable in my house.? So now that I have embarrassingly admitted my sins to the group my question is this, what are you doing?
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I don't think something is broken. Using an average power meter I get a little more than 10w on 28mhz, 2 on 21, 4 on 20, more 10 on 7. To increase it on the higher bands we should modify like the designer suggested
Il 08/mag/2018 15:04, "richcarter03052" < re.carter@...> ha scritto: I just finished assembling my uBitx and get what I think is low power output.? I tried two different power meters to verify my results.? Measurements were taken in CW with a dummy load and 13.8VDC.
80M - 11.0W
40M - 7.3W
20M - 3.4W
10M - 0.7W
Is this normal power output?? I hear relays clicking when I change bands..
Also, in SSB mode, I get very weak power.? Unless I blow into the mic, I get no needle deflection on my peak-reading power meter.? I see a few threads about changing some resistors.? I'm using the stock mic element however and don't expect to need this.? Any comments please?
Rich - KE1EV
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I still have the original software, and mostly all I do is digital or some CW. Those numbers at least on the bottom three bands seem normal to me.
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I just finished assembling my uBitx and get what I think is low power output.? I tried two different power meters to verify my results.? Measurements were taken in CW with a dummy load and 13.8VDC.
80M - 11.0W
40M - 7.3W
20M - 3.4W
10M - 0.7W
Is this normal power output?? I hear relays clicking when I change bands..
Also, in SSB mode, I get very weak power.? Unless I blow into the mic, I get no needle deflection on my peak-reading power meter.? I see a few threads about changing some resistors.? I'm using the stock mic element however and don't expect to need this.? Any
comments please?
Rich - KE1EV
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Re: Amateur Radio Kits Case Arrived - 5 STARS * * * * * -#ubitx
They aren't complaints.? Read the first line again.
Rich
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Re: Amateur Radio Kits Case Arrived - 5 STARS * * * * * -#ubitx
I guess if it were all gold plated and free into the
bargain.....there would still be someone to come
up with some trivial complaints !
Dave
On 08/05/2018 13:47, richcarter03052
wrote:
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I got my case last
week and assembled the radio.? I really like the case.? It's well
made and well worth the money.
I have a few comments.
The potentiometer holes in the front-panel are too small.?
Drilling they out is trivial but necessary.
There is a replacement volume control pot included with the case
kit.? The replacement lacks an on/off switch.? I assume that the
issue here is that it's impossible to find a knob for the
pot/switch included in the original kit.? There is a new on/off
button for the back panel.? I can't see anyone wanting the button
located on the back so I ordered a replacement pot with integral
switch on ebay.
The audio jacks for the front-panel are made for PCB mounting.?
These are hard to wire.? I replaced mine with panel mount jacks
from my parts bin.
The kit includes three small circuit cards.? One for wiring the
power button and fuse-holder, now not needed since I discarded the
button.? One for wiring the encoder.? Since I already wired it,
not much use to me.? One for a serial and USB port and two audio
jacks on the back-panel.? There are no instructions so I have no
idea how to wire this and i have no idea what the jacks are for.
There's an LED for the front-panel that should display TX/RX
state.? This might be nice, but I can tell the radio mode without
it.? No wiring instructions for this either.
Feet are included with the kit.? They are too tall and not
necessary.? I put small stick-on rubber pads on the bottom of
mine.
The kit includes duplicate parts like the pots and audio jacks
already included in the original kit.? I assume this is to replace
them if they are damaged when disassembling the kit for mounting
in the new case.? The extra parts seem like a waste of money for
the seller.
I have no idea what I'll do with this thing when I'm finished.? I
need another rig like I need another hole in my head.? It's an
entertaining project however.
Rich - KE1EV
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Martin 2E0RNF
atouk
Ghericoan