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On the Air! Finally!

 

Good afternoon all.

I've finally got a Bitx40 on the air! Another local ham had acquired a Raduino version and decided he had too many projects to get it going so he sold it to me for just under cost. I swapped it out with the original version Bitx40 in the case that I'd already made and hooked it up as directed. It appears to be working exactly as designed. Phew! It's been a long time getting something on the air! Attached are a couple of photos of the completed unit. The only thing I'm not keen on is the travel of the pot before it switches to 100 kHz steps. Has anyone had any success with mods that folks have done to give more travel? I tried a 1meg pot but it didn't seem to make much difference. Aside from that, I'm thrilled to have it on the air.

I'll keep working on the original non-radiuno version, but at least it's not keeping me from getting contacts. I made a couple yesterday immediately after finishing the build.?

All the best!

73 de KB1VNA
Eric

IMG_20170730_122819777.jpg
IMG_20170730_122800951.jpg

 

Eric KB1VNA wrote...

Attached are a couple of photos of the completed unit.
I like your case!

The only thing I'm not keen on is the travel of the
pot before it switches to 100 kHz steps. Has anyone
had any success with mods that folks have done to
give more travel? I tried a 1meg pot but it didn't
seem to make much difference.
Are you sure it isn't going to 10 KHz steps when you
get to the ends of the pot? I was originally going to
do the mod adding a fixed resistor on the top and
bottom ends of the pot with a push-button across each
resistor to manually step up and down, but I have a
10-turn pot on the way that will actually do away
with "galloping" or manually stepping up and down.

/g/BITX20/topic/fixing_the_galloping_vfo/4552318?p=,,,20,0,0,0::Relevance,,galloping,20,2,0,4552318

Raduino is up to v1.20.1 now, but the following
description from 1.04 should still apply.

/g/BITX20/topic/raduino_v1_04_allowing/4694574?p=,,,20,0,0,0::Relevance,,10+turn+pot,20,2,0,4694574

I should be back on the air with a BITX40 within a
day or two. I'm waiting for a replacement IRF510 to
show up. However, I'll be listening on 7277 KHz
this evening.

--
73 Keith VE7GDH
Vince Vielhaber
 

What's the NEC board?

Vince.

On 07/30/2017 12:40 PM, Eric Torraca wrote:
Good afternoon all.

I've finally got a Bitx40 on the air! Another local ham had acquired a
Raduino version and decided he had too many projects to get it going so
he sold it to me for just under cost. I swapped it out with the original
version Bitx40 in the case that I'd already made and hooked it up as
directed. It appears to be working exactly as designed. Phew! It's been
a long time getting something on the air! Attached are a couple of
photos of the completed unit. The only thing I'm not keen on is the
travel of the pot before it switches to 100 kHz steps. Has anyone had
any success with mods that folks have done to give more travel? I tried
a 1meg pot but it didn't seem to make much difference. Aside from that,
I'm thrilled to have it on the air.

I'll keep working on the original non-radiuno version, but at least it's
not keeping me from getting contacts. I made a couple yesterday
immediately after finishing the build.

All the best!

73 de KB1VNA
Eric
--
Michigan VHF Corp.

 

The tuning voltage into the Raduino is somewhere between 0 and 5v, determined by the position of the pot. ?Doesn't make much difference if the pot is 1k or 100k, the pot is simply a voltage divider. ?Somewhere above 100k, tuning voltage will be affected by the internal resistance of the Raduino's analog pin, and under 1k that pot starts sucking appreciable current from the battery. ? I suggest you download Allard's code from ??to your Raduino, then adjust the high and low tuning limits in the Allard's settings menu. ? Here's a comment from his sketch:
??In the SETTINGS menu we can limit the tuning range depending on the potentiometer used and the band section of interest.
??Tuning beyond the limits is still possible by the 'scan-up' and 'scan-down' mode at the end of the pot.
??At the two ends, that is, the tuning starts stepping up or down in 10 KHz steps.
??To stop the scanning the pot is moved back from the edge.

Jerry, KE7ER?


On Sun, Jul 30, 2017 at 09:40 am, Eric Torraca wrote:
The only thing I'm not keen on is the travel of the pot before it switches to 100 kHz steps. Has anyone had any success with mods that folks have done to give more travel? I tried a 1meg pot but it didn't seem to make much difference. Aside from that, I'm thrilled to have it on the air.
David Wilcox
 

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I like your mic. ?How did you mount it in the pvc tube and did you add any packaging or padding material inside or any spit screen in front of mic cartridge? I was thinking of using a smaller diameter pvc tube but your larger size looks good and more functional to hold in your hand.

Dave K8WPE

On Jul 30, 2017, at 12:40 PM, Eric Torraca <eric.torraca@...> wrote:

Good afternoon all.

I've finally got a Bitx40 on the air! Another local ham had acquired a Raduino version and decided he had too many projects to get it going so he sold it to me for just under cost. I swapped it out with the original version Bitx40 in the case that I'd already made and hooked it up as directed. It appears to be working exactly as designed. Phew! It's been a long time getting something on the air! Attached are a couple of photos of the completed unit. The only thing I'm not keen on is the travel of the pot before it switches to 100 kHz steps. Has anyone had any success with mods that folks have done to give more travel? I tried a 1meg pot but it didn't seem to make much difference. Aside from that, I'm thrilled to have it on the air.

I'll keep working on the original non-radiuno version, but at least it's not keeping me from getting contacts. I made a couple yesterday immediately after finishing the build.?

All the best!

73 de KB1VNA
Eric
<IMG_20170730_122819777.jpg>
<IMG_20170730_122800951.jpg>
Jack Purdum
 

Hi Dave:

Attached is an article I did for QRP Quarterly on using the mic parts that come with the BITX40 to make a mic. My cost was under $1.

Jack, W8TEE


From: David Wilcox via Groups.Io <Djwilcox01@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2017 3:33 PM
Subject: Re: [BITX20] On the Air! Finally!

I like your mic. ?How did you mount it in the pvc tube and did you add any packaging or padding material inside or any spit screen in front of mic cartridge? I was thinking of using a smaller diameter pvc tube but your larger size looks good and more functional to hold in your hand.

Dave K8WPE

On Jul 30, 2017, at 12:40 PM, Eric Torraca <eric.torraca@...> wrote:

Good afternoon all.

I've finally got a Bitx40 on the air! Another local ham had acquired a Raduino version and decided he had too many projects to get it going so he sold it to me for just under cost. I swapped it out with the original version Bitx40 in the case that I'd already made and hooked it up as directed. It appears to be working exactly as designed. Phew! It's been a long time getting something on the air! Attached are a couple of photos of the completed unit. The only thing I'm not keen on is the travel of the pot before it switches to 100 kHz steps. Has anyone had any success with mods that folks have done to give more travel? I tried a 1meg pot but it didn't seem to make much difference. Aside from that, I'm thrilled to have it on the air.

I'll keep working on the original non-radiuno version, but at least it's not keeping me from getting contacts. I made a couple yesterday immediately after finishing the build.?

All the best!

73 de KB1VNA
Eric
<IMG_20170730_122819777.jpg>
<IMG_20170730_122800951.jpg>


LowCostMicBuild003.doc
LowCostMicBuild003.doc

 

I guess now is as good a time as any to show mine since I haven't done that yet. I have since replaced the LCD to one with green text with black background. The enclosure is a holiday tin from a thrift store for .49 cents and painted black. And the mic is a small hardware box from a tool kit, and used telephone cord for the electret and PTT button. And it works too. I just had to throw that in for laughs.?

DSCF0116.JPG
DSCF0118.JPG
DSCF0116.JPG
DSCF0118.JPG

 

John, I love your mic. Too bad you're not "Adam" or you could call it your "Invisible Hand Mic."?

Dave, The mic is built around a piece of single sided copper clad pc board cut to fit in the pvc pipe. I scraped away strips to make the traces and soldered in the cap and the element that comes with the kit. I had a larger momentary switch that I liked better than the one from the kit so I used that. I feels good in the hand but I haven't had enough feedback on air yet to know how it really sounds. It seems to get the job done though. I haven't put in any kind of screen yet, but I plan to. It's very close to Jack's design but I had originally made it a couple years back for a Hendricks Bitx 20a that's towards the back of the project backlog.?

Keith, you're right, it's 10kHz, and thanks for the keyword, I didn't know it was referred to as galloping.?

Jerry, thanks for the tip!

Vince, I don't remember what it came out of. I wanted the case to be as "up-cycled" as possible so I used a bunch of random circuit boards I had laying around from various parts scavenging forays. It was probably from something non-functional that someone gave me at some point. Maybe a Sony TV? I found some boards that were roughly the right size and shape and depopulated them with a heat gun. Then I cut them down to the right size and used them for the top, front, and rear panels. The other sides are bent sheet metal from a big-box hardware store. I'm pretty pleased with the way the case came out!

73 de KB1VNA
Eric
Alan Jones
 

Eric,
Congrats on building up your BITX40 !
I really like the creative way you used pcb's from other circuits as your enclosure.
The front of your rig really looks cool!

73,
Al, N8WQ
n8wq.com

On Sun, 30 Jul 2017 12:40:08 -0400, Eric Torraca <eric.torraca@...> wrote:

Good afternoon all.

I've finally got a Bitx40 on the air! Another local ham had acquired a Raduino version and decided he had too many projects to get it going so he sold it to me for just under cost. I swapped it out with the original version Bitx40 in the case that I'd already made and hooked it up as directed. It appears to be working exactly as designed. Phew! It's been a long time getting something on the air! Attached are a couple of photos of the completed unit. The only thing I'm not keen on is the travel of the pot before it switches to 100 kHz steps. Has anyone had any success with mods that folks have done to give more travel? I tried a 1meg pot but it didn't seem to make much difference. Aside from that, I'm thrilled to have it on the air.

I'll keep working on the original non-radiuno version, but at least it's not keeping me from getting contacts. I made a couple yesterday immediately after finishing the build.?

All the best!

73 de KB1VNA
Eric

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