The flatness is appealing to me as well.? If I can get it flat, via drive circuitry, finals, or some combination then I can build myself an amplifier as its own project to see if I can create a local aurora centered above my house...the boys will love that and the wife and daughter will continue to roll their eyes.

73 Rob AG5OV

Rob,

It's why I have a 2nd one on order. I've modified this one about all
I'm going to. My first one is my power outage rig and it works fine.
Going to leave it alone. When the new comes in I'll leave it on a
breadboard to play with and worry about a case later.

I'm not concerned about more power but would like to have more
equalized power across the bands. I'll probably only play with the
driving circuitry.

I also want to see if I can get the carrier suppression to a good level
instead of marginal and the same for the 3rd order IMD.

tim ab0wr

On Mon, 02 Apr 2018 12:05:49 -0700
"Rob Snow" <rsnow@...> wrote:

Thank you for all the stories, I love hearing them and I'll bet
others do too.

I'm certain, now, that jumping into an IC-7300 wouldn't have supplied
the same experience...not that I won't end up with one (or a FT-450D,
as funds allow).

The joys and countless hours of fretting over coax (ended up using
400MAX), discovering and solving broadcast interference, driving
ground rods and tying them, lightning arrestor, even something as
simple as picking a 2 way antenna switch has led to much education
and knowledge.

Now to ponder this 2nd uBITX and these RD16's sitting on the shelf...

73 Rob AG5OV

Check that your key contacts are clean, maybe pull a sheet of clean paper through them.
Then check the voltage across the key with a DVM, should be 5v with the key up, 0v when the key is down.
If it's somewhere in-between, it will think you have an iambic paddle hooked up.

The ideal solution for those wishing to use the uBItx with a straight key is outlined in this thread:
? ?/g/BITX20/message/44395
Adds a menu entry to select "CW Mode" vs "SSB Mode", then uses the PTT line for a straight key.
Could key the transmitter using a the PTT button on the mike when in CW mode.
Should work much cleaner to have a digital read of the keying line instead of interpreting?
one of four voltage levels as is currently done to support the iambic keyer.

Jerry

Greetings,?

I just finished wiring up an original first run uBitx that I received late Dec. 2017.? I am mainly a CW operator and use a straight key 100 percent of the time.
The original firmware I think does not allow for straight key use.? All I get is the letter "A" when I try to transmit.?

I would like to purchase a programmed Raduino with the updated firmware loaded so I can operate CW with a straight key.? If there is anyone willing to help
me with this request I would much appreciate your help and kindness.? Please contact me with my posted email address on QRZ.com to lessen the daily emails posted here on the groups.io .I have ordered a NANO to try and do this myself.?

I know, I do not understand PC's and their file systems or what the file system levels are called to reach my goal.

73 and TU, de Jeff K9JP

Thank you for all the stories, I love hearing them and I'll bet others do too.

I'm certain, now, that jumping into an IC-7300 wouldn't have supplied the same experience...not that I won't end up with one (or a FT-450D, as funds allow).

The joys and countless hours of fretting over coax (ended up using 400MAX), discovering and solving broadcast interference, driving ground rods and tying them, lightning arrestor, even something as simple as picking a 2 way antenna switch has led to much education and knowledge.

Now to ponder this 2nd uBITX and these RD16's sitting on the shelf...

73 Rob AG5OV

开云体育

I made some Mixer PCBs to play with.

I used an little more expensive match diode ring.

The is a spot for matching transformers and a Pad Attenuator.

I did use one and I heard signals, but did no testing.

Here is the data.

I have extra PCBs, email me for info?

Mike, WA6ISP

motdog at Verizon dot net

Michael,

I got used to using a prototype board called a Surfboard. There are
many different arrangements of pads. While expensive on a per-unit
basis it works for me. You still have to cut traces to make pads for
things like smd transistors and jfets and to provide isolated pads for
components but you don't have to do it for the whole circuit board. I
just layout how I'm going to do it on a piece of paper and then work on
the board. 

I have never heard of a burin. I've always just used a hobby knife and
while it works its hard to get straight cuts and to then clean out
between the cuts. 

What brand of burin do you use? Do they make one that would useful to
remove the trace between cuts?

I see this set on ebay, would they work?


We are probably a little different in age. I keep my notes in engineers
notebooks, the kind that have graph paper on every page. A carryover
from my Chemistry/Physics/EE training in the late 60's and early 70's.
I like flipping through the pages. 

Good luck in whatever you create!

tim ab0wr



On Mon, 02 Apr 2018 08:08:07 -0700
"Michael LeBlanc" <michaelleblanc1@...> wrote:

Thanks Tim and Raj. I'll go ahead and wire things up now that I know.
Once I get the mixer soldered-up, I'll check it with my signal
generator and scope.

By the way, I do keep a journal: I scan most of my pencil sketches
and drawings and save them in Evernote (  ). I'm
using SMD components; my layout drawings are made with Adobe
Illustrator and hand-cutting pads and traces on a PCB using an
engraver's burin ( 
)?acquired many years ago through my fine art degree. "Come up and
see my etchings!" ;-) I hope to document this process once I get a
little further along.

At any rate, this technique is very time-consuming at the front-end
of the development cycle. It requires several layers of
error-checking, and if I do it properly, it results in a
perfectly-working circuit at initial power-up.?

-Michael VE1LEB

-- 
Mike Hagen, WA6ISP
10917 Bryant Street
Yucaipa, Ca. 92399
(909) 918-0058
PayPal ID  "MotDog@..."
Mike@...

And the date yesterday was?

Paul 5B8BA

My point is, for some young person thinking about a career in electronics,
the Arduino environment is not a bad place to start.
It encourages exploring the interface between a computer and external hardware.
It's possible for the inquisitive to completely figure out what's going on down to nand gates.
And learning C is not time wasted.

That said, at some point they should move on to a more professional programming environment, as you suggest.
I'd recommend installing some flavor of Ubuntu on an old machine, and explore the many different
programming languages available for free.? Me, I'm happiest with vanilla C and/or Python.

Start a new programmer out in the typical Java programming environment
and they may just give up, figuring it's turtles all the way down.
??

For me, it was when I moved from submitting Fortran card decks to the computing center
and started writing assembly code for a little PDP8 that I really got excited about
programming and computer architecture.? I could finally understand what a computer *is*.

Jerry

Michael,

I got used to using a prototype board called a Surfboard. There are
many different arrangements of pads. While expensive on a per-unit
basis it works for me. You still have to cut traces to make pads for
things like smd transistors and jfets and to provide isolated pads for
components but you don't have to do it for the whole circuit board. I
just layout how I'm going to do it on a piece of paper and then work on
the board.

I have never heard of a burin. I've always just used a hobby knife and
while it works its hard to get straight cuts and to then clean out
between the cuts.

What brand of burin do you use? Do they make one that would useful to
remove the trace between cuts?

I see this set on ebay, would they work?
www.ebay.com/itm/6pcs-2-35mm-Engraving-Bit-Burin-Graver-Pit-Olive-Ivory-Carving-Tool/173093922415?epid=8015978400&hash=item284d33a66f:g:IRcAAOSw-JJaWOOx

We are probably a little different in age. I keep my notes in engineers
notebooks, the kind that have graph paper on every page. A carryover
from my Chemistry/Physics/EE training in the late 60's and early 70's.
I like flipping through the pages.

Good luck in whatever you create!

tim ab0wr



On Mon, 02 Apr 2018 08:08:07 -0700
"Michael LeBlanc" <michaelleblanc1@...> wrote:

Thanks Tim and Raj. I'll go ahead and wire things up now that I know.
Once I get the mixer soldered-up, I'll check it with my signal
generator and scope.

By the way, I do keep a journal: I scan most of my pencil sketches
and drawings and save them in Evernote ( ). I'm
using SMD components; my layout drawings are made with Adobe
Illustrator and hand-cutting pads and traces on a PCB using an
engraver's burin ( (engraving)
)?acquired many years ago through my fine art degree. "Come up and
see my etchings!" ;-) I hope to document this process once I get a
little further along.

At any rate, this technique is very time-consuming at the front-end
of the development cycle. It requires several layers of
error-checking, and if I do it properly, it results in a
perfectly-working circuit at initial power-up.?

-Michael VE1LEB

开云体育

Both of my uBITX were shipped by DHL from India, one in December last year and one last month. ?Both where received here in California two days after shipment from India and without duty.

I agree 10 watts is good enough. It does not make sense from the
linearity, thermal and energy management to just gain half a true S
unit. Also, to "nail" the output to what you can get on 10 m, and
attenuate the drive on the lower bands, a piece of cake. To me, the
next logical step is at least 6 to 10 dB (40 100 watts). That is a job
for an external amplifier. 30 years ago 10 watts was good enough.
Nowadays cheap SWPSU have increased the noise floor 30 dB. The goal
should be to strive to lower that level of EMI pollution. You can't
work'em if you can't hear'em!

Thanks Tim and Raj. I'll go ahead and wire things up now that I know. Once I get the mixer soldered-up, I'll check it with my signal generator and scope.

By the way, I do keep a journal: I scan most of my pencil sketches and drawings and save them in . I'm using SMD components; my layout drawings are made with Adobe Illustrator and hand-cutting pads and traces on a PCB using an ?acquired many years ago through my fine art degree. "Come up and see my etchings!" ;-) I hope to document this process once I get a little further along.

At any rate, this technique is very time-consuming at the front-end of the development cycle. It requires several layers of error-checking, and if I do it properly, it results in a perfectly-working circuit at initial power-up.?

-Michael VE1LEB

I'm not convinced there's a need for continuous ALC during transmit
But would be very cool to set the appropriate power out level when tuning up on a new band.

Or better yet, tune up on each band into a dummy load during calibration,
and store appropriate 45mhz IF shifts into a lookup table.

Jerry

My first transmitter (1953) was a 6V6 running at abouit 250 volts built on a piece of wood and with a single 80M novice crystal. Lucky if it got 5 watts into my random wire antenna. The term QRP was not in common use and it was just what a kid in Brooklyn could afford.?

As with uBitx, it started a lifetime of discovery and launched me on several engineering careers. Thought still a working engineer, I have been inactive for decades hamwise, but uBitx has rekindled my excitement, and I am awaiting my first unit while thinking about getting a second in the pipeline.

Thanks again, Ashhar!