Re: WSPR Receive Frequency on QCX Mini With TCXO
Tune the dial ?to the centre of the WSPR band 097100
Tones will vary between ?600 and 800 but you should have a full passband to pass to the PC
Any Hum etc on the audio connection ?ruins the chances of decoding anything but you should still see a few carriers in a waterfall?
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Re: OCX+ T1 Toroid Continuity Process
Bill, you should also check for continuity from point 5 to point 8n to make sure they are connected perly via the circuit board at points 6 and 7. Should be OK to proceed. good luck ... Ron
Greetings and thank you for indulging a rookie question. I'm new to complex kits.
I have wound, then soldered T1 onto the board, and have continuity in each of these points:? 1 to 2, 3 to 4, 5 to 6 and 7 to 8.
Does this mean I successfully installed T1 and can proceed with construction?? I just want to know the precise continuity steps.
- Bill
W3WJ
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Re: #qmx #firmware 1_00_017 AGC, S-meter, LPF sweep
#qmx
#firmware
P.P.S. yeah there's a lot of clutter in there. Like my workbench (see attached)... the QMX "Lab" is almost as cluttered as the real one.?
On Sat, Feb 17, 2024 at 1:27?AM Hans Summers via <hans.summers= [email protected]> wrote: P.S. Attached... "The Lab" Easter egg...?
On Sat, Feb 17, 2024 at 1:25?AM Hans Summers via <hans.summers= [email protected]> wrote: I got 17 loaded just fine.? Anyone have suggested AGC settings to start with?
Adrain?YO3GFH said:
"I configured AGC with the values seen in your screen captures, they seem pretty sane, I only changed "Recovery dB/s" (from 10 to 15) and "Threshold S" (from 8 to 7)."?
I think that is reasonable...?
I remind all that: - I was being a little extreme perhaps in my settings, because I wanted to see what goes on, during my development and testing
- I had long hang time and slow recovery dB/second because again, I wanted to see what was going on, and be able to demonstrate in the video?
- My video test case was also extreme... S9+30dB... to demonstrate the extreme capability of the AGC system to totally delete any possibility of that massive signal reaching the earphones, in this case it instantly applied about 36dB attenuation, and no blip at all is seen on the Audacity software's recording of the audio (which is also streamed over the USB sound card interface concurrently to the audio output). And also to clearly show everything for the video.?
- My 40m noise floor is too high here right now, as I said on the video, my antenna fell down. It doesn't work as well lying on the roof which has a metal frame inside the tiles.?
Easter egg: If you press the D key on the terminal screen, in the main menu, you get my secret "lab", it's my playground which I use during development of my various functional additions, and for debugging, etc. What's in there now is some debug info on the AGC as that's the task I had most recently on the lab bench. Might be interesting, if you are wanting to play with the AGC.?
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Re: #qmx #firmware 1_00_017 AGC, S-meter, LPF sweep
#qmx
#firmware
P.S. Attached... "The Lab" Easter egg...?
On Sat, Feb 17, 2024 at 1:25?AM Hans Summers via <hans.summers= [email protected]> wrote: I got 17 loaded just fine.? Anyone have suggested AGC settings to start with?
Adrain?YO3GFH said:
"I configured AGC with the values seen in your screen captures, they seem pretty sane, I only changed "Recovery dB/s" (from 10 to 15) and "Threshold S" (from 8 to 7)."?
I think that is reasonable...?
I remind all that: - I was being a little extreme perhaps in my settings, because I wanted to see what goes on, during my development and testing
- I had long hang time and slow recovery dB/second because again, I wanted to see what was going on, and be able to demonstrate in the video?
- My video test case was also extreme... S9+30dB... to demonstrate the extreme capability of the AGC system to totally delete any possibility of that massive signal reaching the earphones, in this case it instantly applied about 36dB attenuation, and no blip at all is seen on the Audacity software's recording of the audio (which is also streamed over the USB sound card interface concurrently to the audio output). And also to clearly show everything for the video.?
- My 40m noise floor is too high here right now, as I said on the video, my antenna fell down. It doesn't work as well lying on the roof which has a metal frame inside the tiles.?
Easter egg: If you press the D key on the terminal screen, in the main menu, you get my secret "lab", it's my playground which I use during development of my various functional additions, and for debugging, etc. What's in there now is some debug info on the AGC as that's the task I had most recently on the lab bench. Might be interesting, if you are wanting to play with the AGC.?
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Re: #qmx #firmware 1_00_017 AGC, S-meter, LPF sweep
#qmx
#firmware
I got 17 loaded just fine.? Anyone have suggested AGC settings to start with?
Adrain?YO3GFH said:
"I configured AGC with the values seen in your screen captures, they seem pretty sane, I only changed "Recovery dB/s" (from 10 to 15) and "Threshold S" (from 8 to 7)."?
I think that is reasonable...?
I remind all that: - I was being a little extreme perhaps in my settings, because I wanted to see what goes on, during my development and testing
- I had long hang time and slow recovery dB/second because again, I wanted to see what was going on, and be able to demonstrate in the video?
- My video test case was also extreme... S9+30dB... to demonstrate the extreme capability of the AGC system to totally delete any possibility of that massive signal reaching the earphones, in this case it instantly applied about 36dB attenuation, and no blip at all is seen on the Audacity software's recording of the audio (which is also streamed over the USB sound card interface concurrently to the audio output). And also to clearly show everything for the video.?
- My 40m noise floor is too high here right now, as I said on the video, my antenna fell down. It doesn't work as well lying on the roof which has a metal frame inside the tiles.?
Easter egg: If you press the D key on the terminal screen, in the main menu, you get my secret "lab", it's my playground which I use during development of my various functional additions, and for debugging, etc. What's in there now is some debug info on the AGC as that's the task I had most recently on the lab bench. Might be interesting, if you are wanting to play with the AGC.?
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Re: #qmx #firmware 1_00_017 AGC, S-meter, LPF sweep
#qmx
#firmware
Bill,
I simply used the values from Hans’ video on YouTube.
I put out a CQ on 40m after the upgrade to 1_00_017 and worked Ralph DL1HR who was also using a QMX.
The AGC certainly makes 40m more pleasant to listen to. Thanks, Hans.
73
John
G4YTJ
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Re: An interesting diagnosis
Oh, and that is not limited to ham-parts. Yesterday I replaced a stereo receiver for my XYL and her karaoke stuff. Instead of doing it step by step and doing one speaker at a time, I pulled all eight speaker wires out of the old receiver, keeping them neatly in a line on the floor so I wouldn’t mix them up, as they go through walls and under the carpeting. Not a good plan - as I was reaching for my flashlight the sleeve of my shirt got snagged on one of the leads and in a microsecond all eight pairs got jumbled. Off to the garage for my DVM to start tracing. Time for a glass of wine…
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On Feb 16, 2024, at 3:06?PM, Hans Summers <hans.summers@...> wrote:
Hello Jeff? Success!? After a one hour operation, the patient lives.? I was able to remove the bad cpu, remove the good cpu from a donor board, being careful to not mix them up!!!!
Ha! You had me chuckling... "being careful to not mix them up"... I admit, I can't count how many times I managed to remove a miniscule SMD component, sat back and?admired in quiet celebration my for success in not ruining?the PCB; then managed to remove the corresponding SMD component from a donor board (nearly all my partial reels of fresh SMD parts for manufacturing being warehoused far across the world), similarly admiring my accomplishment in getting the functional part off the donor board. Taking a deep breath, before starting the job of installing the donor part onto the board-under-repair. Only to swear. Oh #$@#... so after all that, which was the dead part, and which is the working one...?
Hhahaha I thought that was only me. But when I read your sentence, I felt I may not be so alone in the universe...? ?
--
Jim / K7TXA
Eagle, ID
SKCC 10447T
BUG 301
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Re: An interesting diagnosis
Hello Jeff? Success!? After a one hour operation, the patient lives.? I was able to remove the bad cpu, remove the good cpu from a donor board, being careful to not mix them up!!!!
Ha! You had me chuckling... "being careful to not mix them up"... I admit, I can't count how many times I managed to remove a miniscule SMD component, sat back and?admired in quiet celebration my for success in not ruining?the PCB; then managed to remove the corresponding SMD component from a donor board (nearly all my partial reels of fresh SMD parts for manufacturing being warehoused far across the world), similarly admiring my accomplishment in getting the functional part off the donor board. Taking a deep breath, before starting the job of installing the donor part onto the board-under-repair. Only to swear. Oh #$@#... so after all that, which was the dead part, and which is the working one...?
Hhahaha I thought that was only me. But when I read your sentence, I felt I may not be so alone in the universe...? ?
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Re: #qmx #firmware 1_00_017 AGC, S-meter, LPF sweep
#qmx
#firmware
I got 17 loaded just fine.? Anyone have suggested AGC settings to start with?
73, Bill NZ0T
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Re: #qmx #firmware 1_00_017 AGC, S-meter, LPF sweep
#qmx
#firmware
Hello Bojan ? Hi Hans,
well, perhaps I did not explain my observations well.
When doing the SWR scans we transmit a preset portion of RF power into a load/antenna. In my case it is 45%. And the scan stops before the LPF begins to attenuate. Here, on the other hand, when doing the LPF scan we transmit over 1W of RF power thru the LPF into a load but up to the frequencies which are well beyond the cut-off of the LPF. So, most of the scan time we get great VSWR. I get quite a current increase (up to the current limit) when that happens. I feel the 1/4 of full RF power is too much for such a measurement.
I'm not sure it's so bad. Problem is, if you use lower power, the noise floor hits you sooner. So the range of the measurement is less. If you use more power, then as you say, VSWR hits. But there is a difference too - the SWR sweep is done into an antenna. The LPF sweep should be done into a more innocent resistive dummy load. I did check the BS170 suffering when sweeping the LPF, done at 25% power output... it seemed harmless to my judgement... of course, I could make it configurable; so the constructor owns his responsibility. Which is also a danger... but I did try at 100% also and still had no fails?or anything, and some extra dB of vertical range of course. But chose the 25% power (50% voltage) setting as it seemed conservative. But maybe I am still too much of a cowboy, I don't know.?
73 Hans G0UPL
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Re: #qmx #firmware 1_00_017 AGC, S-meter, LPF sweep
#qmx
#firmware
On Fri, Feb 16, 2024 at 08:15 PM, Hans Summers wrote:
Hello Bojan
?
With the LPF sweep I suspect that the chosen output power is too much for the LPF test as it is obvious that half of the sweep goes into the filtered zone.
?
Please could you explain? I didn't understand what you're getting at?
?
?
Hi Hans, well, perhaps I did not explain my observations well. When doing the SWR scans we transmit a preset portion of RF power into a load/antenna. In my case it is 45%. And the scan stops before the LPF begins to attenuate. Here, on the other hand, when doing the LPF scan we transmit over 1W of RF power thru the LPF into a load but up to the frequencies which are well beyond the cut-off of the LPF. So, most of the scan time we get great VSWR. I get quite a current increase (up to the current limit) when that happens. I feel the 1/4 of full RF power is too much for such a measurement. ? -- 73 Bojan S53DZ
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Re: An interesting diagnosis
Bravo, Jeff! Next time you have to replace a CPU, it would be nice if you could video the process!
73, Randy, KS4L
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On Feb 16, 2024, at 2:43?PM, Jeffrey W Moore via groups.io <jeffreymoore@...> wrote:
? Success! ?After a one hour operation, the patient lives. ?I was able to remove the bad cpu, remove the good cpu from a donor board, being careful to not mix them up!!!! clean up the pads on the board, clean up the legs of the good cpu and finally solder the new cpu in place. ?Power on and all is good. ?The rig has a few other minor problems that I’ll fix up and ship it back to its home QTH.
my technique for this is to use a bead of flux and low temp solder around the entire cpu. ?I move my iron around the perimeter until the chip is loose. ?I then slide it off the board.
I clean the legs off the good cpu by placing each side of the chip on a flux soaked piece of solder wick. ?I apply heat and all solder is wicked away. ?
Soldering in the new cpu is done with flux (I love flux), thin solder and a very small iron.
73
Jeff
W1NC
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Re: An interesting diagnosis
Success! ?After a one hour operation, the patient lives. ?I was able to remove the bad cpu, remove the good cpu from a donor board, being careful to not mix them up!!!! clean up the pads on the board, clean up the legs of the good cpu and finally solder the new cpu in place. ?Power on and all is good. ?The rig has a few other minor problems that I’ll fix up and ship it back to its home QTH.
my technique for this is to use a bead of flux and low temp solder around the entire cpu. ?I move my iron around the perimeter until the chip is loose. ?I then slide it off the board.
I clean the legs off the good cpu by placing each side of the chip on a flux soaked piece of solder wick. ?I apply heat and all solder is wicked away. ?
Soldering in the new cpu is done with flux (I love flux), thin solder and a very small iron.
73
Jeff
W1NC
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Re: WSPR Receive Frequency on QCX Mini With TCXO
The QCX-mini has a very sharp CW-filter with center at 700 Hz. Try tuning your QCX-mini at 14.0964 MHz. Then you can hear(!) WSPR. At oder versions of WSPR-software you can change the pitch so you can use it to decode. With the WSJT-x its not changeable anymore. And these old versions of WSPR dont run und er W10 :-( Another possibility is to shift tones using Spectrum lab Software: Take a look at but use Osc=800 Hz.
73!
Peter DL3NAA
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Re: #qmx #firmware 1_00_017 AGC, S-meter, LPF sweep
#qmx
#firmware
S-meter and AGC seem to work very well, however, as Danny noted, when transmitting, some artefacts like static can be heard on each dah or dit. With AGC disabled, these are gone.
I'll look into that.?
I configured AGC with the values seen in your screen captures, they seem pretty sane, I only changed "Recovery dB/s" (from 10 to 15) and "Threshold S" (from 8 to 7). Couldn't they be used as defaults after a factory reset? It would reduce the hassle involved after a reset, IMO.
Yes I definitely want to set up some reset defaults. Once it becomes clear with some use, what values are typically appropriate.?
The values I used in the video are probably a bit extreme. I was tending to use extreme values because it makes it easier to see what's going on and make sure the AGC logic is working properly. Also easier to see in a demo.
73 Hans G0UPL
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Re: #qmx #firmware 1_00_017 AGC, S-meter, LPF sweep
#qmx
#firmware
Hello Bojan
With the LPF sweep I suspect that the chosen output power is too much for the LPF test as it is obvious that half of the sweep goes into the filtered zone.
Please could you explain? I didn't understand what you're getting at?
73 Hans G0UPL
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WSPR Receive Frequency on QCX Mini With TCXO
Hi,?
Can someone please advise?? I want to use my 20M QCX Mini with TCXO to listen to WSPR using WSJTx. Do I set my receive frequency to 14.0956 MHz, or 14.0971MHz?
My PC time is spot on, but I don't log anything on either frequency at the minute. I'm just wondering which frequency I should be on before I start looking for other issues.?
Thanks?
Karl
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Re: #qmx #firmware 1_00_017 AGC, S-meter, LPF sweep
#qmx
#firmware
Hans, thanks very much!
S-meter and AGC seem to work very well, however, as Danny noted, when transmitting, some artefacts like static can be heard on each dah or dit. With AGC disabled, these are gone.
I configured AGC with the values seen in your screen captures, they seem pretty sane, I only changed "Recovery dB/s" (from 10 to 15) and "Threshold S" (from 8 to 7). Couldn't they be used as defaults after a factory reset? It would reduce the hassle involved after a reset, IMO.
Nice work, as always!
Regards,
YO3GFH
op. Adrian
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Re: #qmx #firmware 1_00_017 AGC, S-meter, LPF sweep
#qmx
#firmware
S meter works well.
With the LPF sweep I suspect that the chosen output power is too much for the LPF test as it is obvious that half of the sweep goes into the filtered zone.
--
73 Bojan S53DZ
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Re: QMX First time start help
Popped the new buck converter in, downloaded and dropped FW 1_00_017 and shazaam!
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Bruce Akhurst
Ronald Taylor
Randy
Frank, KF6HF