Re: 20m QCX RF Output Question
#qcx
This is where my lack of experience at QRP is coming into play, plus?I¡¯m just surprised
I am getting 50% less than the advertised output power and figured it was a simple fix. Really, I¡¯m just hoping to get my particular kit to put out 3 watts. I¡¯m still getting 2.29 watts with a 13.6 volt battery. Is?that sufficient power to make contacts?
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Re: Balloon breaking previous records U3B-25
Great flight Dave...nice work on the altitudes on this one.
As for garbage,you do not need a book...after all,a tree was sacrificed for the book and second,all people need to do is stop talking about what they see floating around or blowing around on the ground and just PICK IT UP !
If everyone did that,problem solved...so simple.
Unless you live in a cave using nothing but everything natural,chewing on bark wearing leaves for pants,your just as guilty.
Lets not be a politician or Hollywood movie star running around telling others how they are the problem as they fly over head in private jets.
Do as I say not as I do?
Every time I am at the beach and see a balloon...I pick them out and place into recycle bin at home...so I am good for some balloon launches .
I also do not drive,buy fuel and run animals over...so I have a lot of balloon launches to go to catch up to the average citizen :)
Jim
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Re: 20m QCX RF Output Question
#qcx
There seems to be a lot of folks worrying at not getting 5 watts out of the 20m rig.
My 20m? QCX is putting out 3 watts or so. Am I bothered, am I going to increase the voltage from 12 to 16 Volts ? No, there is not much point. If you raise the voltage to 16v or so then you are just stressing the components more. Bypassing the reverse protection diode may squeeze a tiny amount more but what is the point considering the risk involved ?
Look at it this way....
Someone running 1000 watts has an S9 signal at the receiving end
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?250 watts? ?"? ? ?"? S8
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?62.5 watts? "? ? ?"? S7
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?15.6 watts? "? ? "? ?S6
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?4 watts? ? ?"? ? "? ?S5
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?1 watt? ? ? "? ? "? ?S4
You can see from the above that busting a gut to get an extra 1 to 1 1/2 watts is a pretty futile exercise. Much better to run the rig at a conservative level than risk over stressing components
or removing the reverse polarity protection. Notice the jump in output power to achieve each extra S point.
If you want more output then go buy a linear. GM3OXX, now sadly SK worked the world many times and never used more than 1 watt from homebrew rigs and wire antennas.??
Just use and enjoy these fantastic little QRP rigs - 3 watts is ample power an extra 1 1//2 watts?
isn't going to do diddly squat.
Reg? ? ? ? ? ?G4NFR
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Re: 20m QCX RF Output Question
#qcx
KT4RK de G4RCD,
Hello Robert and all QRP Labbers, This is my first post to this group.
I built a QCX 20 a while ago. Initially I was getting 2.5 Watts out with 13.6 Volts supply. I noticed that when keeping the key down for about 2 seconds the power output slowly increased to 3 Watts. ?This increasing power was caused by faulty 390pF capacitors in the Low Pass Filter (C25 & C26). Changing these I was getting a steady 3 Watts out.
I then tried removing 2 turns from L3 ¨C as suggested by TIM, G4ARI. With NO other changes, I now have over 5 Watts of stable output, with the same Power supply voltage.
I think that this is worth a try.
I am very happy with my QCX 20 - it is a great little rig. 73, Mark, G4RCD. Sent from my mobile phone: +44 7808 330195.
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On 2 Apr 2019, at 21:02, KT4RK < Kt4rk.tn@...> wrote: Fair enough, but it¡¯s all I have to work with and the new caps measured right on the money. That said, I installed them and the output power is still the same.?
I checked the readings on IC3 and the voltages are within spec. I¡¯m stumped.?
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This question gets asked about every two weeks. If you look on Digi-key, Mouser, Arrow, and many other vendor sites, they all offer such encoders, both mechanical and optical with a variety of ppr. Debouncing is an issue when the mechanical arm "vibrates" when passing over the detents. It sends a false pulse chain to the software that can be misinterpreted. You can debounce in software just as well as hardware.
Jack, W8TEE
On Tuesday, April 2, 2019, 4:32:34 PM EDT, Norm Havercroft <norm@...> wrote:
Has anyone either found a replacement encoder without detents or removed the detent ball to get detent free rotation?? Would a de- bounce circuit help with a free turning encoder?
73,
N7NSD
Norm Havercroft
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Has anyone either found a replacement encoder without detents or removed the detent ball to get detent free rotation? Would a de- bounce circuit help with a free turning encoder?
73,
N7NSD
Norm Havercroft
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Re: 20m QCX RF Output Question
#qcx
Fair enough, but it¡¯s all I have to work with and the new caps measured right on the money. That said, I installed them and the output power is still the same.?
I checked the readings on IC3 and the voltages are within spec. I¡¯m stumped.?
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Re: #QSX suggestion: E-ink display?
#qsx
@Shirley
I was asking Jack about his Morse Code Tutor.
Apologies for the typo. Had eye surgery recently so sometimes I miss things.
/ Gerry
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Re: AtMega328's programming
Programming a new ATMega328P using AVRDUDE and a USBASP programming lead?(less than $15USD)
- Place the QS3 firmware file in your c:\users\[your name]
- Open the cmd window
- Copy and paste these lines in to your command editor and hit enter:
avrdude -B10 -c usbasp -p m328p -U flash:w:v3.12a.hex
avrdude?-B10?-c?usbasp?-p?m328p?-U lfuse:w:0xF7:m
avrdude?-B10?-c?usbasp?-p?m328p?-U hfuse:w:0xD9:m
avrdude?-B10?-c?usbasp?-p?m328p?-U efuse:w:0xFC:m
?
You should see the script run and the?Atmega328p chip will be programmed. Takes a couple of minutes to complete.
If you see an error, then check your settings and try again!
For me, the issue was the bit rate, this has to be set to '10' i.e. -B10 to allow the AVRDUDE to communicate. Just add -B10 to your commands to make these work.
-- Best regards, Chris M0XFL
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Re: Balloon breaking previous records U3B-25
I realize we're drifting off topic here, but the subject is important and it seems lots of us feel strongly about it... I want to steer the discussion away from the merely aesthetic... We have inherited Romantic cultural notions of "pristine Nature," and unsightly garbage offends our sensibilities... But the actual problem is not that our delicate aesthetic sensibilities are being offended... The problem is that we are destroying the life-sustaining systems of our planet... Read Alanna Mitchell's book "Seasick, The Global Ocean in Crisis." That will sober you up in a hurry... One environmentalist suggested a few decades ago, as a sort of "modest proposal," that instead of sending garbage to landfills, it should be piled in rows alongside our highways, so as we drove around on our daily commutes we would have to look at the amount of waste we were producing... Plastic bags (or the remains of round-the-world balloons) stuck in tree branches are unsightly, but that's not where the crisis is...
NB: The book is available at Amazon, and no doubt lots of other places... I have no connection with Alanna Mitchell or her publisher, and I'm not getting any kickbacks... It changed the way I see the world and the role of humans, and I think it's a book everyone should read...
Best, Calvin Devries VE3EIT
On Tuesday, April 2, 2019, Jim ..... via Groups.Io <n2nxz= [email protected]> wrote: One more note and many of you are guilty as is everyone you know.
Every garbage day I have to go around and pick up plastic bags among many other things people allow to blow around because they can not seem to understand what WIND is.If it is a windy day and happens to be YOUR garbage day,do you say to self,"Maybe not a good day for this,will wait for next week" ? No....put it out there,run off to work and by noon it is all over the neighborhood and your garbage can is laying in the road for cars to swerve around...yet another hazard.I see this by the dozens EVERY week and puzzles me how the average person has no clue or common physics of how WIND works.Thankfully,most balloon hobbyist understand this better than the average human.All in the name of "recycling" here in NY the woods and lands are decorated with plastic bags and many other items...looks atrocious.Defeats the whole purpose of recycling.Never hear a word from anyone but here on QRP Labs groups we are concerned...weird.Look on the bright side...everything you use on earth is taken from the earth...having it return the same way is the same thing only oriented differently and it bothers you to see it rather than deep under ground.The only garbage made from this earth are deep space satellites that will never return...everything else will always stay on earth forever. :)
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Re: QLG1 - Clarification on what the green LED should do
I¡¯ve built three recently and have had no problems.? KI5ACA
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On Apr 2, 2019, at 7:27 AM, Hans Summers < hans.summers@...> wrote: Hi all
FYI - I had time to build a QLG1 kit from the current batch, it worked fine and the 1pps LED (green) pulses, 0.9 seconds un-lit, 0.1 seconds lit.?
This sample of 1 (in addition to other reports from people in this group), indicates there is no systematic error with the entire batch. But, I have received a report from another constructor of "inverted-1pps" behaviour. So it appears there may be a small number that have the inverted 1pps behaviour, though it does not appear to prevent proper functioning of the kits; the one I built just now doesn't give any idea of the proportion that may show this behaviour.?
73 Hans G0UPL
73 Hans G0UPL On Thu, Mar 28, 2019 at 2:34 PM Steve Kavanagh via Groups.Io <sjkavanagh1= [email protected]> wrote: Thanks, Hans.? I will proceed assuming everything is working, even if a bit strangely!
73,
Steve VE3SMA
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Re: QSX and CAT control & various libraries that allow rig control
#qsx
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Re: QLG1 - Clarification on what the green LED should do
Hi all
FYI - I had time to build a QLG1 kit from the current batch, it worked fine and the 1pps LED (green) pulses, 0.9 seconds un-lit, 0.1 seconds lit.?
This sample of 1 (in addition to other reports from people in this group), indicates there is no systematic error with the entire batch. But, I have received a report from another constructor of "inverted-1pps" behaviour. So it appears there may be a small number that have the inverted 1pps behaviour, though it does not appear to prevent proper functioning of the kits; the one I built just now doesn't give any idea of the proportion that may show this behaviour.?
73 Hans G0UPL
73 Hans G0UPL
On Thu, Mar 28, 2019 at 2:34 PM Steve Kavanagh via Groups.Io <sjkavanagh1= [email protected]> wrote: Thanks, Hans.? I will proceed assuming everything is working, even if a bit strangely!
73,
Steve VE3SMA
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Re: 20m QCX RF Output Question
#qcx
Correction to my last message - ceramics should read '105'.
Chris
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Re: Balloon breaking previous records U3B-25
One more note and many of you are guilty as is everyone you know.
Every garbage day I have to go around and pick up plastic bags among many other things people allow to blow around because they can not seem to understand what WIND is.If it is a windy day and happens to be YOUR garbage day,do you say to self,"Maybe not a good day for this,will wait for next week" ? No....put it out there,run off to work and by noon it is all over the neighborhood and your garbage can is laying in the road for cars to swerve around...yet another hazard.I see this by the dozens EVERY week and puzzles me how the average person has no clue or common physics of how WIND works.Thankfully,most balloon hobbyist understand this better than the average human.All in the name of "recycling" here in NY the woods and lands are decorated with plastic bags and many other items...looks atrocious.Defeats the whole purpose of recycling.Never hear a word from anyone but here on QRP Labs groups we are concerned...weird.Look on the bright side...everything you use on earth is taken from the earth...having it return the same way is the same thing only oriented differently and it bothers you to see it rather than deep under ground.The only garbage made from this earth are deep space satellites that will never return...everything else will always stay on earth forever. :)
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Re: 20m QCX RF Output Question
#qcx
Your comment on missing 10u capacitors makes me think you may have built a Rev 4 board and kit using Rev 3 instructions.
Rev 4 changed two 10u electrolytics at C21 and C22 to 1u capacitors.? Obviously you have fitted something, as you have a working QCX but you may well find that two of your 'spare' capacitors are the 1u intended as C21 and C22.? Ceramics would be labelled '106' .
This may affect clicks and thumps on switching and keying, but isn't related to your power output question.?
I get 2w out of my QCX-30 on 13.8v which some may think a bit low.? I may have a look at that later, but for now, I'm just getting on with using a great little rig.
Good luck
Chris G4CWS
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Re: Balloon breaking previous records U3B-25
On Mon, Mar 25, 2019 at 08:26 AM, Joe Street wrote:
I have found garbage of this sort on the summits and shoulders of pristine mountains
Good news,then you were there to pick it up and place into a garbage receptacle where it can be transferred back into the ground,only somewhere else :)
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Isn't it just the peak voltage that matters, rather than peak to peak? That gets us back to 28/29V.
John
G4YTJ
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Re: 20m QCX Slight Tapping Sound
I do seem to get a light 'tap, tap, tap, tap" sound at perfectly repeatable intervals. ?It not extremely bad Curt, Check the "S Meter" setting in the manual. Somewhere it explains the most likely reason for this and how to turn it off. 73 Alan G4ZFQ
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> 7.5W is about 20V RMS into 50 ohms at about .4 A.? That would be?about 29V Peak to Peak.?
Isn't 20V RMS 56V peak to peak?
-- 73 Richard G4TGJ
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KT4RK
Jim .....
jjpurdum