I just ordered one from hfsigs.com today so I expect that I will have it sometime next month. I have a project case that I think will be perfect for this project but I wanted to ask what was the first mod or hack that everyone made to theirs when it came in that everyone who is purchasing should look at doing when they get their device in the mail.?

I have been watching this forum page for about two weeks and the conversations that you all have had in support of each other definitely made me want to buy one and get involved in this project.?

Thanks again

If you are going to mod the radio, I suggest you order a second one because they are easy to break and a second one provides a reference how to fix the first one.

1. The mod that made the biggest improvement for me was an RF Gain knob.? I added a 10k ohm variable resistor (potentiometer) in series with R16, so I now have an RF Gain control on my radio.? It certainly improves the user experience when listening to high power signals. Remove R16, solder two wires to the pads, connect them to a potentiometer with a 220 ohm resistor in series.? I used a 10k pot, but a 5k or even a 1k would probably also work, I use less than 10% of the turning angle. I can turn down the high power signals and listen to them without damage to my ears, or I can turn down the noise while monitoring a frequency, and turn it back up when I hear something interesting.? The receiver as delivered is seriously loud in headphones, hopefully this will reduce my future hearing aid bills.

2. I did this mod and I believe it helps but I have not heard my signal yet, so can't confirm that:? I paralleled a 22pf capacitor and a 5pf cap in the same method as the vk3ye video. Audio sounds more punchy. It also helps to speak loud with the mike right next to your mouth. I had some faint signal qso's where they couldn't hear me until I very clearly and loudly barked out my call. The power meter jumps higher the louder you speak.

3. I removed c113 but this may not be necessary if you do mod 1, above.

4. I haven't done this yet, but a shuttle tuning mod is in my future.? I only have one working Raduino with another in the mail, but when I get my second one, I will start programming the arduino sketch to do various things.? I have a shuttle tuning sketch written up but not tested yet.? Shuttle tuning is where the frequency does not change with the knob at a center point, but if you move it left or right the frequency goes down or up until you move it back to the center point.? The frequency will move faster the further you turn the knob left or right.

You don't have to do any of these mods, the radio is good out of the box.? But if you like to tweak things, modding can be fun.

Simon,

Sorry to hijack this post...

Could you please upload your sketch with the rotary encoder and voltage check?

Thank you!

Mike WA3O

Mike,

There is nothing of mine in there.? I started with Ron's (PA3FAT) sketch which has the encoder?stuff and removed the s meter code.?All I did was comment out the smeter and bargraph functions in the loop. ?/g/BITX20/files/Radruino%20with%20rotary%20encoder%20and%20S-meter

Then I added Don's (ND6T) hardware mod and code for the voltage measurement which I tweaked to run every two minutes as it was ticking each time it ran - I haven't bothered to sort out the tick.

This goes in the definitions:

#define TWOMIN (1000UL * 120)? // two minutes

unsigned long rolltime = millis() + TWOMIN;? // variable to test against millis() in the loop

This goes in the loop:

if((long)(millis() - rolltime) >= 0) {?? //checks to see if its time to read the supply voltage again
?? float supply = (analogRead(A1));? // read the supply voltage
?? float voltage = supply/50.6;? // follow Don's method to determine the denominator
?? float volts = round(voltage*100)/100; // I only wanted one decimal point
?? lcd.setCursor(0,1);
?? lcd.print(voltage,1); lcd.print("V");
rolltime+=TWOMIN; // add two minutes to the rolltime variable to test against for next time.

}

As its currently set up the voltage is tested for the first time only after two minutes after power on.?I'm sure it could be rewritten to test immediately. I haven't bothered with it yet.

Happy to load it up in full but I would like to clean it up a bit, I'm a lazy coder and cut and paste a lot of stuff without commenting and also take shortcuts like commenting out bits I don't need. There are also some other lazy tweaks that I've done to personalise it to my preferences which again are not well formed code, but work as quick hacks.

Also, there is no crediting in there for the bits I've brought in so I'd like to make sure that's good too.

Regards

Simon

Thanks Jack.

I am a self taught using the heuristic that if it works ok when I run the sketch then it will do until it doesn't do what I thought it should. ?So I know my coding is not going to be optimal or elegant. Not sure what I did with the volts voltage variables. I may have forgotten to save that last edit.

By the way my first ever dds was based on the one you did for the 49er and I tweaked it to use on the BITX40 before the raduino came out. So my BITX became much more workable thanks to you. (I apologise for turning your elegant coding on that into what is most likely a jumbled mess!)

Thanks again.

Regards?

Simon VK3ELH

Jack, quick question, I'm currently sourcing parts for the PKAA project. It appears the?MSA-0386 op amp is no longer readily available and that you referred to substituting it with a?MAR-3SM+ in the assembly manual. I see lots of?MAR-3SM listed on eBay but not?MAR-3SM+. Is a?MAR-3SM and a?MAR-3SM+ interchangable?

Second, do you have a link to the source you used for the box you put the PKAA in?

Thanks,

Roy

WA0YMH

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