Good question, considering where Wales is located ?;-)
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Wouldn't this require the statement:
? ?pinMode(D3, INPUT_PULLUP);
in setup()?
Jack, W8TEE
From: Andrew Whaley <azwhaley@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2017 1:15 PM
Subject: Re: [BITX20] Bitx-40 S meter
The function buttons are really easy, just get a momentary push switch and wire one side to D3 which is pin 5 on P3 and wire the other side to ground. The arduino has pull-up resistors built-in. On my sketch, I have two function buttons :- #define P1_5 ?(A3) ? ?// Orange ? ?// Function Button 1 (INPUT) #define P3_5 ? (3) ?// New wire ? ?// Function Button 2 (INPUT) The function button on A3 is compatible with Farhan's original code (for calibration), so I've used the the new function button for the tuning lock and scanner function but you could easily swap these around. Function button 1 (on A3) already has a wire on the connection (orange on mine) whereas D3 will require a new wire soldering on to connector P3.
?
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The function buttons are really easy, just get a momentary push switch and wire one side to D3 which is pin 5 on P3 and wire the other side to ground. The arduino has pull-up resistors built-in. On my sketch, I have two function buttons :- #define P1_5 ?(A3) ? ?// Orange ? ?// Function Button 1 (INPUT) #define P3_5 ? (3) ?// New wire ? ?// Function Button 2 (INPUT) The function button on A3 is compatible with Farhan's original code (for calibration), so I've used the the new function button for the tuning lock and scanner function but you could easily swap these around. Function button 1 (on A3) already has a wire on the connection (orange on mine) whereas D3 will require a new wire soldering on to connector P3.
?
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On Tue, April 11, 2017 18:52, Marc Jones via Groups.Io wrote: It's Beaming towards Europe from here in Wales .. So, what direction is that? E? W? N? S? ;=) 73, Allard PE1NWL
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A two element wire Yagi, at almost a 1/4 wave up , It's a bit low but it's the best I can do here , It's ?Beaming towards Europe from here in ?Wales ..
On Tue, 11 Apr 2017 at 16:07, davetelling . <davetelling@...> wrote: What kind of antenna are you all using? I have an off-center fed (OCF) 40m dipole, with the feed point up about 25 ft, and the ends slightly lower. I was finally able to make contact with a net yesterday, but only one station could hear me, and it was about 500 miles south of me. I am thinking that the low height of my antenna is resulting in a fairly high radiation angle. Have others had better success with verticals, or some other antenna configuration?
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I am using a full wave 160 meter loop, fed by balanced line into a balun, then coax into the antenna match, and into the radio.
On Tue, Apr 11, 2017 at 9:10 AM Frank Dinger ,GM0CSZ < gm0csz@...> wrote: Vertical antennas are good for low angle radiation and hence DX,but pick-up noise when in? built-up areas . So vertical antennas are great for rural country side areas.
Although? having a? gain lower than? a dipole ,a magnetic loop antenna is right for built-up areas since it favours magnetic field radiation ,not electric field radiation ,the latter being the main source of local noise such as from switch mode PSUs ,etc Frank , GM0CSZ / KN6WH?????? in IO87AT
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Vertical antennas are good for low angle radiation and hence DX,but pick-up noise when in? built-up areas . So vertical antennas are great for rural country side areas.
Although? having a? gain lower than? a dipole ,a magnetic loop antenna is right for built-up areas since it favours magnetic field radiation ,not electric field radiation ,the latter being the main source of local noise such as from switch mode PSUs ,etc Frank , GM0CSZ / KN6WH?????? in IO87AT
On Tue, Apr 11, 2017 at 4:06 PM, davetelling . <davetelling@...> wrote: What kind of antenna are you all using? I have an off-center fed (OCF) 40m dipole, with the feed point up about 25 ft, and the ends slightly lower. I was finally able to make contact with a net yesterday, but only one station could hear me, and it was about 500 miles south of me. I am thinking that the low height of my antenna is resulting in a fairly high radiation angle. Have others had better success with verticals, or some other antenna configuration?
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Re: tuning clicks (continued)
Yes, but the problem is mainly with the latest v2.0.2 and v2.0.3 SI5351
libraries.
The earlier versions are much quieter. That's why currently v2.0.1 is
recommended.
73, Allard PE1NWL
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Regular old dipole here, cut for 160 meters and a tuner to get it to
load on 40.? Making contacts all over the place. Band conditions is
the key and around me 40 has been pretty dead the last couple of
weeks. In fact this last week I didn't even bother putting the bitx
on the air, just been tinkering with it.
On 4/11/2017 8:06 AM, davetelling .
wrote:
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
What kind of antenna are you all using? I have an off-center
fed (OCF) 40m dipole, with the feed point up about 25 ft, and
the ends slightly lower. I was finally able to make contact with
a net yesterday, but only one station could hear me, and it was
about 500 miles south of me. I am thinking that the low height
of my antenna is resulting in a fairly high radiation angle.
Have others had better success with verticals, or some other
antenna configuration?
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Hi I'm using a 1/4 wave vertical ground mounted with two radials. Having contact about 1.500 miles away when conditions are good.
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What kind of antenna are you all using? I have an off-center fed (OCF) 40m dipole, with the feed point up about 25 ft, and the ends slightly lower. I was finally able to make contact with a net yesterday, but only one station could hear me, and it was about 500 miles south of me. I am thinking that the low height of my antenna is resulting in a fairly high radiation angle. Have others had better success with verticals, or some other antenna configuration?
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Re: tuning clicks (continued)
I am using Raduino 1.05, and the 2.0.1 si5351 library, and I have zero tuning clicks. I am not sure why, but my radio tunes smoothly and quietly. I do, however, have a lot of no-signal hiss that I'd like t reduce!
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Re: NEWS: Si5351mc library with size optimization and click free tuning noise!
Hum...
Strange, I my tests it doesn't have click noise. the Arduino-arcs
was using the etherkit (with clicks) then switched to a modified
version of the QRPlabs sample code (also clicks) and then I
managed to get that code into the lib I published that does not
has clicks, at least in my setup.
If you has a RTL-SDR or other SDR tool, use it as an spectrum
analyzer and put the waterfall at top speed (I use Gqrx over
Linux) with the click making libs you can barely see the RF stops
and start with noise on the change points.
With my lib the RF stop is missing and it's more clean on the
freq change points... I don't know why it's not working on your
setup.
Also you mentions that you are using CLK2, this lib does not use
CLK2, only CLK0 and CLK1, I'm working on port the original
Randuino code to use my lib and test it on a bitx40v3_smd with a
Randuino that a local ham friend has.
I will test it trough the week and reply back with the sample
code and comments when done.
Thanks for testing it and reporting.
73 de Pavel CO7WT.
El 10/04/17 a las 17:14, Andrew Whaley
escribió:
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
I tried your new library Pavel and followed your initialisation
suggestion but found it had no impact on the clicks on my rig.
If anything I thought they were slightly louder. Also maybe I
wasn't using it correctly but the radio didn't seem to receive
either suggesting that the frequency wasn't set correctly. I'm
using CLK2. Have you got a sample BitX40 sketch using your
library ?
Also I make use of the functions in the Etherkit library to
enable and disable clock output for CW mode keying.?
Thanks, Andrew
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Re: Birdie at 7199 - a surprising observation!
I'd ground both ends of the coax. ? ? But you guys are welcome to try lifting the shield on one end. ?Grounding both ends will reduce radiation. ?Would be most unusual not to do so in a case like this. If the Raduino draws power in surges (perhaps when updating the Si5351 while tuning), the current surge will flow through the normal Raduino ground wire back to your chassis power connector, and also through the VFO coax shield to the Radiuino and then to the chassis power connector using the Bitx40's ground wire. ? If that surge through the coax shield proves to be a problem, I'd add capacitance between 12v and ground (and perhaps also 5v and 3.3v to ground) out at the Raduino. ?And possibly a series resistance, much like how R111 and C110 prevent surges at U1 on the Bitx40 board from injecting noise into the rest of the radio. ?If it's those surge currents causing the tuning clicks, that should be easy tame. ? The coax is there to solve this business of having the VFO radiate a fifth harmonic that gets into the unshielded BFO/modulator creating the 7.2mhz birdie, and other issues like that. ?Good grounds on both ends of the shield will minimize such radiation. ?But if you find that cutting a VFO ground reduces tuning clicks, putting a 0.1uF cap between Raduino ground and cable shield might be a good compromise. But opinions vary. ?And results vary as well on both the birdie and the tuning click. ?I'm happy with my radio as is. ?So I'm done ranting on this, and you guys all do what you do.
On another note: ?How many thousands of Bitx40's are out there now? ?Perhaps it's getting to where any rig anywhere can tune into 7.2mhz and hear all the Bitx40's in the world singing away. ? (Just joking!) Jerry?
On Tue, Apr 11, 2017 at 06:43 am, Jonathan Peakall wrote: So, in terms of coax for the VFO and BFO: Ground both ends or not?
?
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Re: BITX40 without Raduino?
Jack W8TEE
That is a good question.? Because my BITX-40 was early in the stream I did not get the Raduino
with it.? In order to improve stability I built a separate Huff-&-Puff stabilized Vackar type VFO.? This
works very well and could be a viable solution for others who just want a simple single-band rig.
Farhan...?
Arv? K7HKL
_._
On Tue, Apr 11, 2017 at 6:21 AM, Jack Purdum via Groups.Io <econjack@...> wrote: All: Does anyone know if HF Sigs will sell the BITX40 like it used to be sold without the Nano/LCD display? That price used to be $45. I see where you can buy the Raduino for $25, so perhaps they would also sell just the board for $45. I'd like to do that since I'm adding a different display and Arduino.
Jack, W8TEE
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Re: Birdie at 7199 - a surprising observation!
So, in terms of coax for the VFO and BFO: Ground both ends or not?
JOnathan
On 4/10/2017 10:24 PM, Jim wrote:
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
No, you were quite correct.? When two parts of a circuit
already share a common ground (e.g. Raduino and BITX40), only
ONE END of the coax shield should be connected.? Otherwise, you
are providing multiple return paths for both DC and RF current,
leading to unpredictable and unexplainable behavior.? If the
circuits at each end do NOT share a common ground (e.g.
transmitter and antenna, scope and circuit under test,
transmitter and amplifier, etc.), then BOTH ends of the shield
need to be connected in order to provide a common return path.
-Jim W7JLL
(just reading the mail while waiting for my BITX40)
On 04/10/2017 03:13 PM, Steve Greer
wrote:
Ok so I wasn't thinking wrong every time I seen
someone instruct another to ground both ends of the rg-? I
would think to myself I thought shielding was 1 end only not
to cause a loop.? I'm just a rookie hack at best so I wasn't
sure wrong or right.
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All: Does anyone know if HF Sigs will sell the BITX40 like it used to be sold without the Nano/LCD display? That price used to be $45. I see where you can buy the Raduino for $25, so perhaps they would also sell just the board for $45. I'd like to do that since I'm adding a different display and Arduino.
Jack, W8TEE
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Well I've managed to get it all up and running but that shuttle tuning is taking a bit of getting use to. Now it's time to try and get the function button to work!!! Any one got any pointers please. Mark 2w0jmk
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I did and they seem to be about the same price. Also, changing the profile on the board would take more time than you think because of all of the I/O traces on the Mega being brought out. I also forgot to mentioned that there is one SMD on the board; a?MAR-3SM which is a DC-to-Daylight amp. I've bought these from China and, while probably fake, all have worked. The best price I've seen domestically (I think) is:?? Although I have no experience with them, they have fast delivery times.
Jack, W8TEE
From: Lawrence Galea <9h1avlaw@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2017 5:10 AM
Subject: Re: [BITX20] pcb
Hi Jack There ere even cheaper one using the AD9951 and also various models Just put AD9851 in the ebay search window Regards Lawrence
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Re: Birdie at 7199 - a surprising observation!
data point: increasing the drive level to 4 ma caused a much louder birdie in my BITX40, so the drive level has some effect.
??? Bob
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Allard PE1NWL
Marc Jones
Mark
Bob Benedict, KD8CGH