Hi Steve,
Thanks for your reply I appreciate the advice,
I returned the led to the correct way around and I have about 15-20mm twisted tightly on the gimmick capacitor to try and get as much shift as i can, i have a very strong signal in argo but no shift.
I am using a LM7806CV linear regulator soldered in to the pcb at the power supply point on the board with 330uF on board with 220nF across it and 82nF on the 6V output of the regulator.
I followed the excellent argo instructions by VK6DI and i have a strong white line with a halo.
I did try using a 9V battery and it worked however with a lot of drift as the battery discharged (battery was already low) I think the issue could be the long lead from the pcb to the wall wart power supply or something to do with the regulator being quite close by to the led and the gimmick capacitor on the board. i think i will remove it and try again... the poor little pcb is getting a thrashing with all the rework :)
Any one have any more tips for this issue ?
-Dan
VK5DJW
On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 7:13 PM, Stephen Farthing
<squirrox@...> wrote:
?
Hi Dan,
Sorry to hear you are having trouble. I have copied this to Hans who designed the beacon - he is extremely busy at the moment and may not have time to reply. So consider my words a temporary measure until he gets back to you.
1. The LED does not light when the beacon is operating. It is used as a variable capacitance diode rather than an LED - this is a feature documented on Hans's site. An LED costs a fraction of the amount of a "proper" varactor which is why we use them it the kits.?
2. The circuit diagram and the PCB silkscreen are correct. If you look at the silk screen you will see a D shape where the LED fits. When you fit the LED the flat side of the LED (which indicates the cathode) must correspond with the flat on the silkscreen. As shown in the circuit diagram, the cathode connects to the junction of R1 ?and C3. Loads of people have fitted the LED the wrong way around....me included!
5. The gimmick capacitor at C3 adjusts the height of the signal. On my 40 meter beacon the wire length is 1.5 cm for each lead and 2 loose turns at the base....this gives me a 4 Hz shift. Your mileage may vary.?
3. As you can hear the output on your RX you would appear to be getting power out. So I am guessing the issue really is with your ARGO setup. Take a look at this excellent guide, by VK6DI,?
to setting up Argo...
Hope this helps,
72 de Steve G0XAR
On 21 February 2011 04:12, danw1million
<daniel.wiering@...> wrote:
?
Hi all,
I was hoping someone could give me some advice on the setup for the 30m QRSS beacon kit.
I have built the kit set it to 10.14050 MHz.
I tuned for max signal on CW/USB using a Yaesu receiver, and I also tried tuning to 10.14050 using my IC7000 as a receiver and I get a series of straight lines using argo but no keying waveform.
I can hear the keyer output from the chip working well using a bud earphone, however I cannot see it in argo.
Things I have tried so far:
- I have tried the Led both ways as the pcb overlay did not match the circuit diagram.
- I have tried changing the gimmick capacitor height from approx 15mm all the way to nearly 50mm with loose and tight twisting.
- I have added a 6V regulator to the board so the freq does not drift as much with voltage.
- I have tried CW receiver settings with different filters and also USB, LSB, etc. but not luck
I have not yet tried:
- Earthing all unused jumper pins
- Isolated audio input to my receiver as currently it works with WSPR
What I would like to know is,
- should the led light up with keying at all ?
- is USB the correct receive mode ?
Any advice on this would be appreciated
I feel like there is something silly I am missing with this as
The signal from this little baby is nice and strong, the sine wave is clean. I just want to get it keying on the air :)
-Dan
--
It is vain to do with more that which can be done with less.
