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Can not find platform.local.txt referenced in Read_Me.ino file. Ron

First things first. I love it even though it does have some issues I need to address. As others have said, it is a fantastic bit of feature-rich kit for the price. Received it in the UK on the 4th of May, a little ahead of when I thought it might be shipped. No VAT or charges from the carrier have been requested. The date of this post is 22 May 2022 and the software versions in the shipped version are: display: v1.06 and main board v3.052. It is running nicely on two batteries. On RX: current drawn is 460 mA. On TX: at 100 drive into a dummy load it is 2.6 Amps. Power out (20m 14.035 MHz) Vbat = 7.7 V Drive = 100 Pwr = 7.00 Watts Drive = 80 Pwr = 5.00 Watts Drive = 50 Pwr = 2.65 Watts Drive = 30 Pwr = 1.00 Watts Drive = 25 Pwr = 0.69 Watts At Drive = 100 above, heating and power loss of the rx components is 3.85 watts; transmitted power is 7 Watts and the battery is supplying 20 watts. The box is dissipating 13 watts when transmitting, so it is going to warm up. I'll try and get an estimate of the thermal impedance of the box to get an idea of how long it is wise to transmit, particularly with FT8. My morse is so slow and gappy it is not going to be a problem!! The morse keyer issues are already noted, and I find both the straight key and iambic modes unusable, but there is likely RF in the box causing issues. The question I am asking is this RF leak a likely cause of some of the keying issues when using a straight key or paddle? Using the automatic CQ (F1) facility as the benchmark for my investigation, it fails to complete a full 3x3 CQ call around 25% of the time. The code it produces is clean and easy to decode but it suddenly stops randomly without completing. Sometimes it is near the start, other times it is towards the end, and all points in between! I call this possible RF induce effect a truncated TX. The device continues to work normally after a truncated TX event. Applying some ferrites to the power cable from the cells gave a small improvement. This also made the straight key and paddle operation less glitchy. I also noticed the frequency of truncated TX incidents increased as the rear heatsink warmed up, hinting at some thermal component at work. Possibly, an inductor losing permeability as it warms?? Another hint pointing the finger at leaking RF is when I touch and hold the heatsink during a transmission the frequency of truncated TXs goes down. Again, it does not eliminate them. I also tried short cables and ferrites for the morse keys, to no great effect. FT8 also looked like its transmissions were being cut short. PSKreporter saw them but I didn't manage to complete a QSO. I need to do a bit more investigation here. The morse decoder works nicely. Its secret is twiddling with the IF setting and fine tuning into the blue bandwidth cursor. Once set it appears to work well in a range of conditions. I activated VNC so have a number of ways to access the machine. Could this additional overhead for the processor be a factor in the truncated TX issue? I feel it is unlikely. This is probably as far as I can go without taking the alan key to it and opening the case; which is the next step. Does anyone have any advice or guidance about tracking down this alleged RF issue? eg Where to Start? Applying some shielding? 73 John

Hi group, Doing some FT8 with my zBitX using the built in FT8 software. Generally working fine, but I noticed an anomaly on the device display of decodes vs the RPi desktop display of decodes in the sBitx software. Specifically, I responded to a CQ using the device display and knob and the contact completed as expected and was logged. During the process of the contact, the RPi desktop sBitx display showed both my outgoing messages and those from the other station in response, as I would expect. On the device display however, ONLY my outgoing messages were shown. The incoming messages to me from the other station were not, despite the fact that they are present in the desktop view. Is this intentional for some reason? A known issue? Thanks! Steve KF8KI

Hello all: New zBitX owner here too, after picking one up at Hamvention. I've been putting it through it's paces and trying to figure out how it best fits in my toolbag. I'm hoping to use it for various *OTA activations, but I need to make sure that I have determined the appropriate setup and am making sure it's reliable here at home before I head out somewhere with less resources. That said, I've been using FT8 and I find that the built in FT8 interface is a bit clunky and I much prefer WSJTX, which I have configured and working well. (I may start another thread on the built in FT8) WSJTx of course requires access to the RPi desktop and I really don't want to haul a keyboard, mouse and a monitor out to a park somewhere if it can be avoided, so I was hoping to use RealVNC with a tablet or other device so I can access the desktop. I have RealVNC set up and working fine, but what I'm finding is that when trying to operate, I can't work very long before the WIFI interface fails. Worse, when it does fail, trying to restart just the wlan0 interface (using sudo ifconfig wlan0 down/up) will not work either. It requires a full reboot. wlan0 down causes the interface to show disconnected. wlan0 up seems to do nothing. In cases where the interface hasn't gone into failure mode, those commands work fine. I've run the zBitX on the bench in receive only with an SSH connection open for hours and WIFI has been fine, so I thought it might be RF related, but I tried a similar test to see how long I could keep a RealVNC session open just in receive and it failed even just on receive after about 5 minutes. Of note in that case, the SSH session was still open too. Trying it again currently with just RealVNC to see if that makes a difference. I'll report back. Now I'm wondering if it's a WIFI "load" issue, since RealVNC is going to put much more load on the unit than an SSH connection open and doing nothing. Anyone else run into this or have recommendations? If the setup matters, zBitX is running on a power supply at 8.5V. Thanks for any wisdom! Steve KF8KI

I tried to do my first POTA activation with zBitx. In the FT8.mc macro I have defined: F9 CQPO,CQ POTA * {GRIDSQUARE} After pressing F9 in my external keyboard, zBitx displayed "CQ POTA SP5DAA KO02" but the psk monitor didn't reported my transmission. Instead, it reported transmission from SP5DA. It looks like zBitx erreneously and silently drops the last character of my callsign. How can I fix it? zBitx is a perfect device for SOTA & POTA activity unless I have to take a laptop to run WSJT-X on it... 73, Wojtek SP5DAA

Which power supply is recommended for this radio? Thanks, Bob

Could anyone recommend an affordable power supply I can use with the zBitx, to use with 110 or 220 VAC, 50Hz and 60Hz? Cheers, Rafael

So, the Zbitiz has been out for a minute. Would you all that have the radio say it is safe to buy with no major issues? Read a few reviews that stated some issues with the unit. I know nothing is perfect obviously. I would much prefer to spend $200.00 than $600.00 for the FX-C4R honestly.

Hi Ashhar, From another post: "I am preparing a new messagijg system that works over ft8 protocol that is different from js8call. It is more like a messenger. It needs the radio to be on, 24x7 (and why not!). That will happen ay the FDIM." Any updates? 73 Wei AG6AQ

Picked up a zBitz at Dayton, I couldn't pass this up. My interest tends more to experimenting, developing and improving than operating, but I do enjoy operating also. My development experience is mostly on embedded systems (flight computers for amateur rockets) where timing is critical and it has to work. The RPi environment is totally new to me so I will be leaning for occasional help from some of the developers here for help in bringing me up to speed if they are willing. Of course I will share all of my trials and tribulations. 73, John N2AFU

I just got notice my order number 4001 is on the way. I am excited to get it in hand and play with it. I ordered it on 04.06/2025, so that's good with all the supply problem they have had. I missed getting to Dayton, but watched the YT video. FT8 messaging sounds very interesting also. Another tool in the tool box to play with. Don KB5KWV

Tony, I just purchased one (a zBitX) at Dayton (FDIM, the QRP Meeting) and have tinkered with it learning everything I can. The bands have been less than stellar but everything seems to work well for me. What fun in a little box for $170 (no shipping if bought at Dayton). If you like to tinker and experiment it looks like a good choice. I would rather have a new thingy to play with (built an Old Friend for 30 meters and a CFT1 on the dining room table in our condo this past winter in Florida -the weather was ucky) so this was an ideal something new to get on the bands with when our club does a POTA adventure. I am always the first to try new things but our club has two more zBitX’s on the way, one by a newbie and one by a more experienced ham. We have lots of fun with QRP and low power here in northwest Michigan. The G90 seems to be a popular item too. I remember when I first moved to this area 53 years ago there was a ham who was rather well heeled and always had the best and newest rigs back when they cost a month’s wages or sometimes more. We had difficulty not drooling on his newest rig. Now it’s easy to have the newest in the QRP field as the size and cost is much different by comparison. And if you want more power the amplifiers aren’t that expensive today. Dave K8WPE

Hi All, I have had my Zbitx for a month or so now. Been using it. Had a few QSOs. Noted the problems others have identified. Choo Choo train noises. and heating. I would like to take apart to add shielding etc. Have taken the front panel off but can't see how to withdraw the 'sandwich'. Rather not resort to 'brute force and ignorance'. Has anyone posted a YouTube video of how to do this or some pictures. Also like to know how to upload FT8 QSOs to PSKreporter & QRZ.com does the zBitx work in a similar way to WSJTX in this respect? If these are seen as silly questions. Please no snark. My request for future revisions for the zBitx to display the IP address it has been assigned somewhere on one of its screens. 73 de 2E0IIY Andrew Wade 6 Elliott Grove BRIXHAM TQ5 8RT 07971 827026

BitXers? Someone have a link for a decent low cost mic for the zBitx? All my mics are Kenwood or Yaesu. They wont work of course. I am assuming any standard 3.5mm plug microphone will work but want to check with the group before I order -- "POWER, WE DON'T NEED NO STICKIN' POWER" - EVERY KX2 OWNER Always respect the airwaves, 73 de KI7PBR, Gary

I hear a pulsing noise from my zBitx speaker, even with a dummy load connected instead of an antenna, and both the audio volume and IF gain turn down. Seems to pulse or hum 3 to 5 times per second. Is this normal? Or an issue that needs to be fixed? Anyone else hear this from their unit? If it’s a problem with my unit, any ideas on where I should I look to diagnose and solve this noise issue? 73, Ron