Hans,
Take some time off, get rested, and then come back to it
with fresh eyes, before you release.
Anyone that has ever released an engineering product can
tell you that you may have thought you were busy while you
were developing on a rapid schedule, but the real harrowing
work begins once you release the beta.
For those that aren't developers, once a project is released,
the masses that were only mumbling and grumbling, while they
anxiously awaited release day, will instantly change into an
unsatisfiable mob with pitch forks and torches, demanding
instant fixes, and gobs and gobs of helpful new features.
They will never accept advice to step back to the CW only
release and wait for SSB bugs to settle down.
A gift once given, becomes an entitlement.
Rest first, a cautious, but fully concealed alpha/beta test next,
and only when it feels right, do your release.
-Chuck Harris, WA3UQV
On Fri, 14 Mar 2025 17:51:25 +0300 "Hans Summers via groups.io"
<hans.summers@...> wrote:
Hi all
Today I came across, in my thousands of files on the SSB project, the
attached file. Which is a photograph of my 'scope screen showing
two-tone 700 + 1900 Hz testing, the top trace is the RF output and
the bottom trace is the DAC output to the amplitude modulator. But
that isn't the point. The point is the filename, which indicates the
date I took the photo, 20-Aug-2024. Which wasn't even the beginning
because by then, I already had 2-tone modulation working and stuff.
It means probably after I got back from Dayton last May then went to
Germany for Friedrichshafen hamfest, after I got back from Germany
early July and got caught up on the emails, I got properly into the
SSB project.
So this is the shocking thing, 9 months, my friends, 9 months of hell,
breaking my poor brain, hurting my head, you can't imagine how
much... I'm not talking about headaches I'm talking about somehow,
even the brain cells themselves were just hurting from the pain.
Every day I kept to a routine, tried to finish the support emails and
other operational tasks in the morning, and then start doing R&D
after lunch; a pattern I pretty much sustained.
But 9 months, people! 9 months of my poor life! 9 months of living
breathing DREAMING about SSB... now you know what happens after 9
months? It gets time to draw a line, and to give birth to the thing!
This is by far the most complex firmware or software project I have
yet indulged in. It's been a huge effort but I think that there are
several ground-breaking things which over the coming years may well
become important and lead the way forward in amateur radio
transceiver design. So it's worth it. But I should give birth now.
It's all pretty good, it hangs together, everything works with
everything else. I have implemented SSB transmission from the USB
audio, SSB transmission from a plugged-in microphone. SSB
transmission from an internally generated 2-tone test signal. Not
yet, the internal microphone. I do not yet know what range of
microphones this will work from. I will publish details of the
microphone I am using. We have CESSB, ALC (if CESSB is switched off),
self-calibration and testing tools, a transmit equalizer, different
SSB bandwidths, LSB and USB. AGC works, the S-meter and power meter
and SWR meter work. We have phase predistortion and self-calibration
tools for self-measurement of the phase distortion. There's a
configurable VOX feature that works via USB sourced or microphone
sourced audio. The CAT commands are all updated for SSB
compatibility. Etc.
So my suggestion - if the hordes find this agreeable, is that I now:
- spend a couple of days testing and testing and testing and
trying to find anything that breaks; then I
- spend a day or two writing a document which explains how to use
the SSB tools and set it up for SSB; basically a
changes-relative-to-current firmware document; then I
- publish the firmware file on the QRP Labs website
- The brave try it out and no doubt, someone will find some bug or
another.
- Meanwhile I will produce a proper update to the operating manual
and we can eventually all agree that the cautious can also be
recommended to install it.
- Then I'll attend to missing things; I don't think that there are
many missing items but I would of course want to enable the internal
microphone and a way of keying it.
Comments welcome...
73 Hans G0UPL
