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Low frequency from U-QRSS-kit.
Gérard Vigouroux
Belle journ???eHi all !
I just finished assembling my U-QRSS-Kit for 30m. It seems to work fine at once except the frequency. I couldn't get it higher than 10 139,840 Mhz with adj C8 at minimum. I replaced C5 (22pF) by 15pF. The freq has up a bit to 10 140,120 Mhz which is still a bit low (for example WSPR is around 10 140,200 +/- 100). I replaced C4 (22pF) by 15pF. This didn't change anything for the freq ! By the way I don't understand why ? However 10 140,120 MHz beeing still too low I wonder what is to be done now : Must I reduce C5 to a lower value (let's say 10pF) ? Must I reduce C3 ? I will greatly appreciate your experience and your opinion. 73's to all of you. Gerard, f6gwb. |
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Re: 30 hours of WSPRing with the U-QRSS kit V 1.3 and still Txing
"woodiescbj"
Hi Philip , thanks for the spot I also had a spot into Florida USA this mornig from W3HH, a distance of 7508 Kms, SNR -24.
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QRPp rocks yer socks off. 73 Colin --- In QRPLabs@..., "Philip" <pcteee@...> wrote:
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Re: 30 hours of WSPRing with the U-QRSS kit V 1.3 and still Txing
"Philip"
Hi Colin
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I spotted you this evening at 20:30 and 21:10 Running my Softrock transceiver today whilst I'm finishing boxing my UQRSS rig.. Philip G4JVF --- In QRPLabs@..., "woodiescbj" <jobaco@...> wrote:
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Re: 30 hours of WSPRing with the U-QRSS kit V 1.3 and still Txing
"woodiescbj"
Sorry for the typo the batteries are only 2000mAH
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--- In QRPLabs@..., "woodiescbj" <jobaco@...> wrote:
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Re: 30 hours of WSPRing with the U-QRSS kit V 1.3 and still Txing
"David Barber"
From my experiments I believe that once drift due to temperature
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stabilisation is taken into account the major cause of further drift is variation in supply voltage. To my mind the oscillator section might well benefit from a separate stabilised supply line. David G8OQW *** -----Original Message-----
From: QRPLabs@... [mailto:QRPLabs@...] On Behalf Of woodiescbj Sent: 21 August 2012 11:11 To: QRPLabs@... Subject: [QRPLabs] 30 hours of WSPRing with the U-QRSS kit V 1.3 and still Txing Hi, I have been running the U-QRSS kit with 4 AA, 1.4v 8000mAH rechargable batteries on WSPR with FRAME set at 14 non stop for the last 30 hours, on my first try I used batteries I had forgotten to recharge and at sometime during the night they stopped doing their job but I am happy to report no corrupted data was found when replacing them. I am still having problems with freqency drift, before I destroyed the PBC around the Xtal the drift on WSPR was mostly 0 but since rewiring the PBC it is now permently -1 to -2 and over a 14 hour period I was spotted by GW0OAJ 7 times from 10.140231 down to 10.140218 a difference of -13 Hz its a good job that I can tune so far up on WSRP otherwise I would be off the scale. 73 de Colin DD5CF |
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Re: 30 hours of WSPRing with the U-QRSS kit V 1.3 and still Txing
"woodiescbj"
Thanks Steve, this kit has been one of the best I have built and has a huge fun factor, I will be up in the hills at our QTH on Sunday and look forward to seeing the results on WSPR using a small magnetic loop.
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73 Colin --- In QRPLabs@..., Stephen Farthing <squirrox@...> wrote:
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Re: 30 hours of WSPRing with the U-QRSS kit V 1.3 and still Txing
"woodiescbj"
Hi Tony, many thanks for your reply, you are right with the 30m band, I have noticed two 10 hour periods during the night with no spots, I am suprised that I can tune up as far as 10.140260 as my Xtal is 10.14000.
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My antenna is a G5RV folded as an open ended horizontal delta loop about 7m off the ground the open wire feeder goes into the shack through the wall into a homemade AMU, I also use a modified homemade G4ILO wonderloop for portable use, I have changed the loop dia from 80cm to 1.20m by bolting 4 1m alumium strips together, these then from a natural loop when attached to the base. Thanks for the link to NOAA and the GPS module, I will have think about getting one. 73 Colin DD5CF --- In QRPLabs@..., Tony Volpe <tony.volpe.1951@...> wrote:
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Re: 30 hours of WSPRing with the U-QRSS kit V 1.3 and still Txing
Tony Volpe
Hi Colin,
Mine will drift too if not disciplined by GPS and will happily move 20htz overnight if the GOS is off. I have not 'destroyed my pcb'. I think some crystals are more free spirited than others.?
I don't know how many spots you are getting, and I think once you said your antenna was not ideal, but don't despair. The last few days the 30 metre band has been a bit low. Things will pick up when our friendly local star settles down a bit.
I am noticing a connection between the fall in spots and an increase in solar xray emissions. Stronger xray emissions increase the absorbing capacity of the D layer which affects Medium and low frequency emissions. I think 10.140 MHZ is at the upper end of frequencies absorbed by an active D Layer.
Check out recent xray activity here: 73s de G0BZB Op Tony |
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30 hours of WSPRing with the U-QRSS kit V 1.3 and still Txing
"woodiescbj"
Hi, I have been running the U-QRSS kit with 4 AA, 1.4v 8000mAH rechargable batteries on WSPR with FRAME set at 14 non stop for the last 30 hours, on my first try I used batteries I had forgotten to recharge and at sometime during the night they stopped doing their job but I am happy to report no corrupted data was found when replacing them.
I am still having problems with freqency drift, before I destroyed the PBC around the Xtal the drift on WSPR was mostly 0 but since rewiring the PBC it is now permently -1 to -2 and over a 14 hour period I was spotted by GW0OAJ 7 times from 10.140231 down to 10.140218 a difference of -13 Hz its a good job that I can tune so far up on WSRP otherwise I would be off the scale. 73 de Colin DD5CF |
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Re: Ultimate QRSS filter components
"ferrymanr"
Thanks for the link Steve. I had not been aware of that.
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I obtained a couple of 14.060MHz crystals recently. Not really high enough for WSPR but these can be pulled a bit. I doubt if they will go up by 30 kHz though. How about a fully synthed Ultimate QRSS kit (for under 20 quid)?? Dick G4BBH --- In QRPLabs@..., Stephen Farthing <squirrox@...> wrote:
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Re: 6w m1kta on 30 m QRSS
"Dominic"
--- In QRPLabs@..., Stephen Farthing <squirrox@...> wrote:
Thanks Steve. I have taken a break from the pileups and worked on the beacon...it was off frequency and out of band it is now corrected. 10.140MHz and a little high. On RX dial 10.1400000 Argo says I am on 1100 I have offset a little higher than the EU beacons. QRSS3 sendng 6w/m1kta/ik14ll I would be very happy to rx reports and if you can save any captures that would be brilliant. Or email them to me here as I have internet here in 6W. 72 Dom 6W/M1KTA |
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Re: Ultimate QRSS filter components
Stephen Farthing
Hi Dick,
Thanks for the note. In his design Hans used the standard GQRP club output filters which are described here??. I have 14.000,000 xtals in stock if you want to get in the QRSS band. I do plan to do some 20 meter kits in the next run of kits which should be ready by next Monday.?
73s Steve |
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Ultimate QRSS filter components
"ferrymanr"
As the Ultimate QRSS should work on all bands up to 17M I wonder if a set of component values for the output filter has been calculated for bands other than the three bands listed. I built a 20M version of the filter section on Veroboard to temporarily convert my 30M board to 20M but used guesstimate values. The only other change was a 14.060MHz crystal. It would be nice if there was a chart of calculated values for all bands.
Dick G4BBH |
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Re: "Error: Frequency" on power up.
"G1IVG"
Hi Bob & Steve,
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I have corrupt characters in the following menu options: (a) SPEED 003!VG (Should be 003) (b) Frequency 1001400000 (Should be 10,140,000) The Speed is OK as I can do as you said and clear the corrupt characters from the first three digits by scrolling through until the numerical characters are shown. I ignore the "!VG" as these are not selectable due to the corruption in the EEPROM. The Frequency is were I have a problem as only numerical characters are available as I scroll through clearing the previous corruption in the display. This leaves me with just 10 numerical characters and I'm unable to select the "," that separates the MHz for the KHz etc... I have had the kit working with v1.03 for just over a week with no problems. I'm using a 12vdc supply and that's them fed through a 7805 regulator with 10uf electrolytic capacitors on both the 12v input and also the 5v output of the 7805. It looks like I must have Zapped it somehow, oh well at ?4.29 it's worth ordering another microprocessor and trying again. Thanks both for the help. 73 de Colin G1IVG --- In QRPLabs@..., Bob <vk7zl@...> wrote:
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Ultimate QRSS kit online from Stavern (JO58AX) in Norway
Steinar Aanesland
Hi all
After upgrade to version 1.04 my kit is working perfect :) I am now beaconing in qrss3 mode on 30m from a small town on the east cost of Norway (Stavern). My beacon has already been spotted on the grabber by OZ9QV in JO65cp (see the picture). My antenna is an 8m long fish pole with radials , tuned to 30m. la5vna S :) |
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MF/LF Question QRSS Ultimate Beacon Kit
"w5cov"
Just curious how low in frequency anyone has built their board for ?
I bought 2 so far . One will be devoted to 30 meters . The 2nd one I plan on using in some sort of configuration to use on the new LF ham band ( 470-476 kHz.) that we will soon have here in the USA . I already have a homebrew transverter for the band . However I also have a DDS that is not currently assigned to any project. I also have the choice of GPS discipline or a Wenzel OCXO . Haven't decided which to use on the 2nd board . Anyone doing any experiments in this area or planning any ? During the winter , I also run a USA part 15 LowFer beacon , in the 160-190 kHz. range . This probably means a couple of more of these kits will be added to the beacon lineup . It will make an easy means to generate several different modes this year on the LowFer beacon . Anyone else in the group that has interest in or already operates in the MF/LF range . I would like to hear from you about any of your projects in this area . This would also include the USA AM broadcast band , where we can also run a part 15 beacon . We also have another part 15 allocation on 22 meters . We are talking very low power and on LF/MF bands an inefficient antenna under the part 15 rules . VERY QRpp 73's Charlie , W5COV |
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Re: "Error: Frequency" on power up.
Hans Summers
Hi Colin, Bob, Unfortunately that was a problem on some earlier versions. In the later versions we added the "brownout" fuse, this disables EEPROM programming when the supply voltage drops below 2.7V. It prevents corruption of the EEPROM when you switch off. You still I think, be well advised to use a reasonable sized electrolytic capacitor at the supply terminals so that there are not any really really sharp cutoffs in power voltage. Maybe that's just superstition.
The solution Bob mentions does work, but it's still a bit ugly having some pieces of remaining text on the display and not being able to erase them.? For your interest: the reason for the annoying display is that the parameters are stored in the EEPROM as strings of characters, not raw numbers. I did it this way because I was trying to squeeze a lot of functionality into the 16Kbytes program memory of the ATmega168. The next larger device is the ATmega328, which has 32K - but more expensive and so that would have increased the cost of the kit, which I wanted to avoid. Some parts of the program take up some considerable space - e.g. the character pattern table of the Hellschreiber mode, or the WSPR encoding algorithm to turn locator + callsign + power into the 162-symbol WSPR message. To make things take less space, I just stored the parameters in EEPROM as strings. There is no initialisation, because at chip programming time we upload a pre-prepared EEPROM image as well as the program.?
As so often happens, when I think about it again, I can imagine ways to do it differently after the experience of writing it the first time. I could store the parameters in EEPROM as raw numbers, and could probably still make the program fit. I could then provide a "hard-reset" facility, such as holding both buttons for > 2 seconds (or some such thing you wouldn't normally do), that could be used to reset all the parameters. If I did this then there'd always be a solution to "reset to factory settings", no problem.
Next version, I'll try and do this, when I have some time - but it's not a trivial matter. In the mean time, there is no way to reset the EEPROM contents other than getting a new chip from Steve. As I said though I think the more recent chips, Steve programmed the brownout fuse so this corruption shouldn't occur as long as a clean power supply is being used.
73 Hans G0UPL --- In QRPLabs@..., Bob wrote:
> > Colin >? > I had a similar problem with V1.02 but have managed to correct it by? > selecting the first digit then holding down the right button and let it?
> scroll through a few times and it eventually came back to all numerals.? > Repeat the exercise for all the corrupted positions. > The only problem now is a 'H' at the end which I can't erase.
>? > Bob ?VK7ZL >? >? > On 17/08/2012 06:43, G1IVG wrote: > > > > Hi all, > > > > My Multimode QRSS kit was working OK, however tonight when I powered?
> > it up I got the "ERROR: FREQUENCY" message displayed. > > > > If I go through the menu options the Frequency setting is showing a? > > non numerical corrupt type 10 digit entry full of non numerical figures.
> > > > My callsign was also corrupted in a similar fashion as well as the? > > message and locator. It looks like I've corrupted the EEPROM within? > > the micro-controller.
> > > > I'm unable to select the "Delete All" character as I only get the? > > option to enter numerical characters in the display. The Delete All? > > symbol is not available.
> > > > Is there a way to clear all user settings held in the EEPROM to? > > default settings or do I need to order a replacement micro-controller? > >
> > I'm currently using v1.03 and if I replace it with my original v1.00? > > the user settings are all OK, however the kit has the known bugs that? > > were in v1.00 > >
> > Regards > > Colin G1IVG. > > > >? >? > --? > LF/HF QRSS Grabber:
>? > NDB & Navtex Logging: > |
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Re: Ultimate QRSS kit back online after destroying the PCB
"woodiescbj"
Thanks Philip, it took me 3 days to sort it out, W3BI spotted me this morning at a distance of 6191 Kms, not bad for a G5RV folded as a open ended delta loop 7m high and a Frankenstein version of the U-QRSS.
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73 Colin DD5CF --- In QRPLabs@..., "Philip" <pcteee@...> wrote:
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