Hi Alan, I had a look at the building instructions again and saw that I had stupidly forgotten to add the jumper for the PA,? I have been running the kit up to now with a separate power supply for the PA, duh, I have spent hours looking for the fault, panic over.
Thanks for your help, 73 Colin.

Hi Hans,

does the 1.00d also contain the fix for the WSPR encoding (as described in?/g/QRPLabs/message/18134)? Or will this be included in a future release?

best 73,
Peter, HB9TVK

Hans G0UPL

The reason for the tape is that it provides some
additional protection during shipping...

Thanks for the info. I removed the tape on the first
one, but I'll leave it in place on the second one.

--
73 Keith VE7GDH

Cory KD9INL wrote...

Mechanical rigidity, so the patch antenna isn't held to
the board just by the center pin.

Thanks for your reply, but I wasn't referring to what I
assume is double-sided tape on the patch antenna. The clear
tape I'm asking about is is the RF Module YIC51612.

PS - your QCX should be there any day now!

--
73 Keith VE7GDH

Bob ZL1RS wrote...

...on the GPS module (YICxxxxxx) that comes pre-fixed
to the PCB? (neither of the unopened kits here have any)

Yes, that is the RF Module that I'm referring to.I have
two GLG1 GPS receivers. Both had some clear tape over
the YIC51612 RF Modules. I was just curious what reason was. See attached photo.

--
73 Keith VE7GDH

Answering my own question. Set the bias per the manual. The high setting for PA voltage is a little over 7V. I could go higher but it's a weak signal beacon not VOA.

The OCXO wasn't drifting because it wasn't set right. It was drifting because it wasn't working. I must've toasted the heaters when I tried to adjust it. I'll just take the screws off the lid and replace the transistors <--- OCXO owners inside joke...

73
NE5U

Mike

I've had the U3s on the left in the photo below for quite a while (at one time it had the relay board installed). It was my first one and I bought the OCXO version. The first time that I put the assembly in a case I wired the little power supply board (I swapped it out today) so that if power was applied the board was hot and switched the 5V to the U3s. Oops. I also used a single BS170 and jumped 5V to the PA. When I built the second U3s I used some eBay power supplies, the PS for the controller is set at 5V. 13.8 VDC is switched BEFORE the two supplies. I also installed (3) BS170 transistors.?

The overhauls were to (1) convert the left side switch to high and low PA power (5V or 10V approximate), (2) rewire the old U3s so that power to the supplies was switched, (3) separate the PA supply from the control board supply (old U3s), and (4) add two more BS170 transistors to the old U3s. Essentially, other than the synth and low pass filter (one is 20m and one is 30m) they are functionally the same now.??

I have to set the transistor bias for the old U3s and the OCXO was never really set right. The synth only version is more stable than the OCXO. I saw this??on Hans site. I have a fairly decent bench power supply with 1/10mA current display so I'll probably just use it

Question- Should I set the bias with the 5V PA supply and adjust for 250mW output into 50Ω using an oscilloscope and then adjust the high voltage to the PA to yield 500mW? How high can I run the PA voltage? Where should I limit the output of the (3) BS170??

开云体育

Does anyone know if there’s any special reason why there is tape on the GPS module in the GLG1? TIA.

... on the GPS module (YICxxxxxx) that comes pre-fixed to the PCB?? (neither of the unopened kits here have any)
... or do you mean on the patch antenna??? Used to stick the antenna to the PCB to the center pin doesn't get broken if the antenna is twisted or knocked.

Does anyone know if there’s any special reason why there is tape on the GPS module in the GLG1? TIA.

--
73 Keith VE7GDH

Have a look here:
Item 13, shows a nice heat sink solution... Use heasink plaster (glue) to stick the mosfets into the hoel.
Nick.

Have you considered using metallic copper tape? It’s very adhesive and conducts well.?

Now I was contemplating building one of the QRP Guys paddles for the KX3 and modding it to fit into and on top of the key jack on the right... Or just building a DIY paddle from some double sided PCB...


73, VK4PLN

Not knowing the origin of the cores in question that were reported to be out of tolerance, while waiting for my own QCX20 to ship (#2179), I got out my stock of cores.? All of mine were purchased from W8DIZ's and I have always had good luck with them in the past. However, I have no idea where he obtains them.

First, I ran DL5SWB's "Mini-Ring" toroid calculator, taking the specified values of inductance for L1, L2, L3 and L4 from the charts in version 1.08 of the QCX construction manual.

L1 and L3 are specified as 0.77 uH, L2 is supposed to be 0.90 uH with L4 being called out as 0.40 uH.

I decided to try using the T37-2 (Red) cores for all 4 of the coils to start with and see how close I could get them to the required inductance.? For .77 uH, Mini-Ring calls for 14 turns (I used #28 wire) and the inductance measured with a well warmed up LC-100A came out at 0.771 uH and 0.770 uH with even turn spacing on the T37-2 cores.? For 0.90 uH, Mini-Ring wants 15 turns and that one came out to 0.899 uH and I got 0.900 by slightly squeezing the turns together.? L4 is supposed to be 0.40 uH and Mini-Ring says 10 turns.? For this one, I got? 0.368 uH with an even spread of 10 turns and 0.412uH with them compressed.? I played around with the spacing until I was able to achieve 0.401 uH .? I've set them aside in labeled "baggies" and I'll use these coils in QCX20 #2179 when it arrives.

In the meantime, a friend of mine locally also has one on order (#1834) that should get here before mine does and since I've been asked to build it, I will use the supplied T37-6 cores for L1, L2 and L3 with the T37-2 core for L4 as supplied, adding or removing turns if needed in the alignment.? I also plan on checking both sets of capacitors to see how close they come to the specified values.? Should prove interesting.

I have the utmost faith in Hans' original design and am in no way criticizing his work, just doing some judicious experimenting because a number of people have reported low power using the values specified in the manual and have had to adjust the number of turns on the LPF coils to get more power output..?

I didn't measure the inductances on my 40 meter version, just used the book values.? When first tested I was getting about 1.9-2 watts out on 12 volts.? After I put it in a well shielded enclosure and moved the LCD away from the PA and LPF, I'm getting 4.9 or so watts out.? Of note also, I'm now running 13.8 volts from a bench supply instead of a 12 volt battery on the 40 meter version and I really believe the slight increase in voltage is more responsible for the higher power output than moving the LCD and/or putting it in a shielded enclosure.? However, the shielded enclosure certainly can't hurt and it helped get rid of most, if not all of the clicking noises in the receiver audio.? I can only hear them if I have the volume wide open and that's painful to the ears so it won't normally happen here.

Jim - W0EB

Thanks for all the kind words folks.

?

I added the relay board last night, and am now QRV on 20, 17, and 15 meters.

?

The relay board is working great, and I am getting great performance on all bands.?

?

I also was able to mesure the power output on the single transistor, and its coming out as 50mw.?

Ok Hans no worries I embedded in my coffet alu a small headphones of 25mm 24 ohms and it works very well sometimes I am obliged to lower the gain, for me it's perfect, thank you for this indication I made a post because some guys seem to have problems with audio here it 's cool 73 Joel!

Search "heatsink plaster" on eBay.

How can a heat sink be attached, glue?