Re: Micro-BITX ... Lost in post ? Possibly
Hi Mark ? Mine posted same date as yours, tracked to Mumbai 15th as well, still not arrived¡maybe they¡¯ve become lovers and eloped ;-)¡seriously I haven¡¯t emailed HF Sigs yet, maybe I should in case a bag of them have gone missing ? 73 de Charlie GI4FUE ?
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From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Marc Jones via Groups.Io
Sent: 10 January 2018 13:54
To: [email protected]
Subject: [BITX20] 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: Micro-BITX ... Lost in post ? Possibly
Mark,?
You and I are in an almost identical situation, I live in London UK. Day 31 here.
I ordered my uBitx on 10th December (first-batch order, like yours), my package was also tracked into and *out of* the Mumbai 'Office of Exchange' on 15th December as confirmed at
I haven't chased it with HF Sigs yet but there seems little point unless to arrange for a replacement to be sent but I am now starting to wonder at what point this is the best course of action (see below and the latest from Royal Mail)? The radio was a Christmas present to myself, I knew it was very unlikely to arrive before Christmas but I really did expect it to have arrived by now.?
I have also seen or heard nothing since Mumbai. I too have spoken with the UK Royal Mail and they have no record of the tracking number as issued by India Post and to back this up the tracking number is not recognized as valid on the UK Royal Mail online tracking system.?As far as the UK Royal Mail is concerned my package is not on the UK system and they can not confirm where it is, if indeed it has arrived in the UK at all. That *is* a concern.??
For further confirmation, I have *this morning* spoken with Customer Services at the London Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre (HWDC) (Tel UK 0843 548 8217)?via Royal Mail customer services, which is the UK main sorting office for international mail sent by air to the UK, and they are (1) Unable to track my package, (2) Have assured me that they are *not* suffering a major backlog. UK Royal Mail are quite clear - the package has *never* been on their system.?*This afternoon* the advice of the UK Royal Mail parcel tracking team (Tel UK 0345 774 0740), using my India Post tracking number as reference was that: (1) The Parcel should be here by now and that they strongly recommend initiation of what they called a 'postal investigation' which must be started by *the sender* through India Post, and that India Post would then liaise with UK Royal Mail, I was also advised that an investigation can take up to 8 weeks. They also confirmed that they are not aware of any backlog in UK customs (HMRC) clearances at their international handling centre and in fact said that typical handling time was (quote) "5 days or less at the moment *because* of Christmas".
I assume (or more accurately, I fear) that this proposed 'postal investigation' would involve continued delay whilst the package is located and/or any remedial action is taken, ie. a claim for the loss is submitted and then eventually a replacement (back log permitting) is sent? Ouch.
Where does the responsibility now rest to sort this out because from what I have heard from UK Royal Mail today they don't think that this is their problem furthermore I am sure that the solution is no longer about just being patient!
To be clear, in no way is this a personal criticism of Farhan or the excellent innovations and fun he has brought to the amateur radio community, or the fantastic work he continues to do to offer worthwhile employment opportunities to ladies in India, but it is a genuine concern from a customer (and Bitx enthusiast) who simply wants to enjoy their new radio but who is now starting to fear that their package could be lost/taken and that it's going to be months before a uBitx arrives.
Of course it could arrive tomorrow despite what the UK Royal Mail have told me today ... stranger things have happened!
?
73 Carl M0ICR
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Re: Micro-BITX ... Lost in post ? Possibly
Mines probably with yours, somewhere between here and there.
Phil - G7BZD
On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 1:54 PM, Marc Jones via Groups.Io <gw0wvl@...> wrote: 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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The software for automatic link establishment also turns out show you a spectrum analyzer in bar chart form. ?Just by watching the waterfall in FL DGI or other software you probably got a intuitive understanding as well.
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 10, 2018, at 12:41, Rod Self < km6sn@...> wrote:
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Dave,
Thanks. I dug into the software and? found out how to get into setup. OK now.
r.e. the BFO - as you know, the receiver on a ubitx is a 12 MHz fixed-frequency receiver. USB/LSB switching is done in the previous mixing stages. Using band-noise as a wideband signal source, if one views the ubitx audio output on an audio spectrum analyzer,
it should be quite easy to set the BFO frequency to a desirable setting.
On Linux there is a great open-source audio spectrum analyzer called JAAA. On garden-varitey USB sound cards you can see at least an 80 db range. I will use JAAA to view the ubitx audio spectrum and set the BFO accordingly. Then, in the ubitx.ino code, one
can tweak the SECOND_OSC_USB and SECOND_OSC_LSB constant definitions to achieve balance when switching sidebands.
I am sure there are useful audio spectrum analyzer programs for Windows and Mac, which would work equally well.
That is my plan for today; I will travel to my shop and will let you know how it works out.
Cheers,
Rod KM6SN
On 01/10/2018 08:59 AM, Dave Bottom wrote:
Rod,
When in SETUP keep turning the knob clockwise and finally BFO Set will appear.? It always starts at the same default frequency (this should be fixed and display the current frequency setting) but then you can change the BFO.? Record your setting so you
can try different values, but listening while adjusting on a SSB station works (sort of).
Dave WI6R
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Re: Micro-BITX ... Lost in post ? Possibly
Mine was ordered on the 9th December, posted on the 12 and "Put into the bag"? at Mumbai airport.? I guess that the "Bag" must be pretty full by now!!!
David G4LDT
On 10/01/2018 13:54, Marc Jones via Groups.Io wrote:
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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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Seems acceptable to twiddle RV1 (or some sort of mike audio gain) when switching bands, given the $120 price.?
Though we need a convenient way to indicate how far to twiddle.
Adding negative feedback as per post 38817 to the existing uBitx final,
then driving that reduced but consistent output into something like the WA2EBY is also a good option.
Jerry, KE7ER
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On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 09:24 am, M Garza wrote:
I guess it would be more like a 4P switch, 2 for the input pads and 2 for the LPFs.
You could also use relays. The switch would just turn on the appropriate relays.
?
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Re: Micro-BITX ... Lost in post ? Possibly
I ordered my uBITX on December 10th and it still shows "in Transit" (to VE3). ?Note that on the reply email from PAYPAL
says "Shipping: India post 3-4 weeks (with partial tracking)", so there is no guarantee of being able to track it all the way.
Mark, ?I wouldn't give up hope just yet. It is not long overdue?and this is a busy time of the year for shipping.
I would give it a few more weeks before I start worrying.
Cheers
Michael VE3WMB?
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Dave,
Thanks. I dug into the software and? found out how to get into
setup. OK now.
r.e. the BFO - as you know, the receiver on a ubitx is a 12 MHz
fixed-frequency receiver. USB/LSB switching is done in the
previous mixing stages. Using band-noise as a wideband signal
source, if one views the ubitx audio output on an audio spectrum
analyzer, it should be quite easy to set the BFO frequency to a
desirable setting.
On Linux there is a great open-source audio spectrum analyzer
called JAAA. On garden-varitey USB sound cards you can see at
least an 80 db range. I will use JAAA to view the ubitx audio
spectrum and set the BFO accordingly. Then, in the ubitx.ino code,
one can tweak the SECOND_OSC_USB and SECOND_OSC_LSB constant
definitions to achieve balance when switching sidebands.
I am sure there are useful audio spectrum analyzer programs for
Windows and Mac, which would work equally well.
That is my plan for today; I will travel to my shop and will let
you know how it works out.
Cheers,
Rod KM6SN
On 01/10/2018 08:59 AM, Dave Bottom
wrote:
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Show quoted text
Rod,
When in SETUP keep turning the knob clockwise and finally
BFO Set will appear.? It always starts at the same default
frequency (this should be fixed and display the current
frequency setting) but then you can change the BFO.? Record
your setting so you can try different values, but listening
while adjusting on a SSB station works (sort of).
Dave WI6R
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I guess it would be more like a 4P switch, 2 for the input pads and 2 for the LPFs. You could also use relays. The switch would just turn on the appropriate relays.
Just thinking out loud.
Marco - KG5PRT
On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 11:19 AM, M Garza <mgarza896@...> wrote: Here is an idea for the variable input pad control: Since you are probably going to have a rotary switch to select the correct LPF, use a double pole rotary switch.? 1 pole controls the LPF and the other selects the correct input pad.?? Yes, it makes the part count increase, but it is only a few more resistors.
Just an idea.
Marco - KG5PRT
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Hobbypcb has a 5 watter that's pretty good.
TAPPR (?) has a 20 watt unit
I've built both the above and they are good amps.
Lots of them from 5 to 50 watts, $20 to $300
PJH, N7PH
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Here is an idea for the variable input pad control: Since you are probably going to have a rotary switch to select the correct LPF, use a double pole rotary switch.? 1 pole controls the LPF and the other selects the correct input pad.?? Yes, it makes the part count increase, but it is only a few more resistors.
Just an idea.
Marco - KG5PRT
On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 10:51 AM, Diver Martin <diver.martin@...> wrote: The biggest problem to adding an amp to the uBitx is the fact that it's using the IRF510's as the output amplifier, and the output power is not consistent.? I've thought about adding my 50W amplifier to the uBitx, but the issue there is that the amplifier only needs 0.7W drive at 40m, and needs 3W drive at 10m.? The uBitx is putting out 7-10W @ 40m, and under 3W at 10m, so a variable attenuator or something would be needed, or a set of attenuation resistors and switches.
One option might be to reduce the gain (Increase negative feedback) of the output amplifier using R261/R262 which are pretty large at 200 ohms, and increasing the input drive.? I haven't experimented with this yet though, and they'd probably have to be beefier resistors.? All things in due time, my mod PCB project comes first (it's almost done, will hopefully send out a preliminary design email tonight).
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Re: Implement a uBITX Memory Manager Program
?That's ok. Just putting it out there.? For myself I'm going to be working with an ESP32 device anyway.
73, Michael
KM4OLT
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Re: Micro-BITX ... Lost in post ? Possibly
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On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 05:58 am, Marc Jones wrote:
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: #ubitx Re: Ubitx only on preorder now
#ubitx
Bearing in mind the time of year (Christmas + holidays + New Year)
and the fact that item was
mailed 12 Dec........give it a chance before you start doing a War
Dance!!
Dave
G4JBE
On 10/01/2018 13:57, Marc Jones via
Groups.Io wrote:
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I've
had no luck in trying to find where my Micro-Bitx is , Tracked yo
Mumbai airport then ..... Nothing, Various phone calls to royal
mail , Nothing on there system ... Who knows where it is ??
Regards?
Marc 'Gw0wvl'
...
On Thu, 28 Dec 2017 at 12:48, philip yates
Mine is still marked as sent India Post
12th Dec, tracking info say's Mumbai Air 15th Dec, and
thats it.
Bet its found its way to work, almost feel like
going and letting myself in, just in case.
But better not as the boss will not like it.
Phil - G7BZD
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Re: #ubitx Re: Ubitx only on preorder now
#ubitx
I've had no luck in trying to find where my Micro-Bitx is , Tracked yo Mumbai airport then ..... Nothing, Various phone calls to royal mail , Nothing on there system ... Who knows where it is ??
Regards?
On Thu, 28 Dec 2017 at 12:48, philip yates <phil@...> wrote: Mine is still marked as sent India Post 12th Dec, tracking info say's Mumbai Air 15th Dec, and thats it. Bet its found its way to work, almost feel like going and letting myself in, just in case.
But better not as the boss will not like it.
Phil - G7BZD
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Rod, When in SETUP keep turning the knob clockwise and finally BFO Set will appear.? It always starts at the same default frequency (this should be fixed and display the current frequency setting) but then you can change the BFO.? Record your setting so you can try different values, but listening while adjusting on a SSB station works (sort of).
Dave WI6R
On Tue, Jan 9, 2018 at 1:55 PM, Rod Self <km6sn@...> wrote:
Hi All,
How does one get into setup to set the BFO
frequency? The instructions on the web site appear not to work.
Rod KM6SN
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The biggest problem to adding an amp to the uBitx is the fact that it's using the IRF510's as the output amplifier, and the output power is not consistent.? I've thought about adding my 50W amplifier to the uBitx, but the issue there is that the amplifier only needs 0.7W drive at 40m, and needs 3W drive at 10m.? The uBitx is putting out 7-10W @ 40m, and under 3W at 10m, so a variable attenuator or something would be needed, or a set of attenuation resistors and switches.
One option might be to reduce the gain (Increase negative feedback) of the output amplifier using R261/R262 which are pretty large at 200 ohms, and increasing the input drive.? I haven't experimented with this yet though, and they'd probably have to be beefier resistors.? All things in due time, my mod PCB project comes first (it's almost done, will hopefully send out a preliminary design email tonight).
On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 8:44 AM, Rob N4RMK <N4RMK.tn@...> wrote: I'm a total novice with electronics, so I'm not sure whether I could effectively make this mod.? I'm just thinking that a 50 watt or 100 watt amp would be an awesome addition to the uBitx.
-- Martin Held - AE7EU
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If there aren't any questions, then what is there to learn?
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Re: Implement a uBITX Memory Manager Program
If you are wondering about RTOS, I think RTOS should be monitoring most interrupts as much as possible. However, the questioner is curious about the timeout.?Timeouts will only occur in the original source of uBITX.
Suppose that you press the menu button once and wait for the next button in the while statement.
Let wsjt-x transmit the protocol that reads the frequency once every 500ms, and if there is no response, it displays an error and disconnects.
When the user presses the button to select the menu and wonders whether to move the band or change the CW tone, 500ms flows and wsjt-x displays an error and disconnects.
This is a problem that can be easily solved using an interrupt or an RTOS.?
For this reason I talked about the interrupt and the RTOS.?If you are wondering about RTOS, please feel free to ask.
I will explain in detail what I know.
Ian,
?I've been wondering if RTOS might be an option to handle all the interrupts etc?
73, Michael
KM4OLT
-- Best 73 KD8CEC / Ph.D ian lee kd8cec@...
(my blog)
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I'm a total novice with electronics, so I'm not sure whether I could effectively make this mod.? I'm just thinking that a 50 watt or 100 watt amp would be an awesome addition to the uBitx.
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Ron:
You can put any files in Git that you like. There's not a sketch configurator that you can pick and choose modules to include in a sketch. You could code in a bunch of conditional compilation blocks and build a .h file to select these blocks, but boy does that make the code an unreadable mess. I believe I put my Git Cheat Sheet on the Wiki. James
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Charlie Morrison
Michael Monteith
Marc Jones
Rob N4RMK