Gary,
I've tried both and normally closed works best for me.
73,
Bill, N4QA

Bill
Are you sure that it is a normally closed switch? I don’t think that is right.
Gary
W9TD

Thanks, Rob. That makes sense.

73, Mike KK7ER?

Marc,

Good news.? You do not need to put the BS170s in to test the receiver.? I would test the receive first in case of an issue with IC5.? The steps are to verify the receiver, test IC5, then install the BS170s and test the transmitter.

Good luck, and good job on testing the MOSFETs.
73
Evan
AC9TU

开云体育

I used a blackberry usb charger. ?I wired on the barrel connector on to the usb cable as well. ? My thought as that a simple usb battery pack could then be used in the field. ?

Evan
The link you posted is the page I used (great minds think alike). ?I used 5V, the resistor from Gate to Source was 1K, the other resistor from + to LED was 2.2K. ?The LED was a solid light when I flicked the switch. ?

I am getting blinking led then solid, ?The IC2 is barely warm after a minute or two (without the BS170s installed). ?I just measured .6mA in receive mode without the BS170s installed. ?Turns out my multimeter was not working for measuring current, wonder if I smoked a fuse in it. ?I am getting 5V out of IC2.

Am I safe to put the BS170s back in? ?I assume I need that for receiver testing?

Really appreciate everyone’s help. ?
--
Marc
N8LO

Roger,
I thought I needed to put the meter in series, but it didn’t work for me. ?I will have to test again, I may have had a bad connection.

Thank you for confirming my initial thoughts, that I quickly ignored.
--
Marc
N8LO

Wahoo! We're having fun now! To be clear here, this is really a "just to see if I can do it" project and there are lots better tuners out there and more elegant ways to do labeling.

(Thanks for the?Mike's Electronic Parts info!!)

I'm actually pretty pleased with the waterslide decals. It's still not "perfect" but plenty good for government work!

Things I've learned:
1) I'm using Krylon Triple-Thick Crystal Clear Glaze but any acrylic lacquer spray should work. I decided I wasn't spraying it heavy enough on the decals. I tend to over do spray paints so I was being a bit too conservative. Four light coats seemed to work well with about 30 minutes between coats.
2) THEN WALK AWAY FROM THE DECALS FOR 24 HOURS AND LET IT CURE!
3) When applying the decals, first use 70%-ish alcohol on the box to clean it.
4) Don't over wet the decal and put it on as soon as it starts to slide. Hold down a tiny edge of the paper backing as you slide off the decal. This tends to take out any wrinkles. Put the decal roughly were you want it -- and then -- QUICKLY take a tissue and LIGHTLY blot away any excess water. Now move the decal into the final position since the blotting will probably have moved it.
5) THIS IS THE IMPORTANT STEP!! WALK AWAY FROM THE DECAL(S) AND LET IT DRY!! Any attempt to fiddle with the wet decal is going to make it worse. If it's really bad, take it off and do another one.?
6) Drying them in the sun seems to be a good idea and seems to shrink up the decal just a touch.
7) After everything is dry, apply several coats of?acrylic lacquer.
8) WALK AWAY FROM THE BOX FOR 24 HOURS!!
9) Make yourself a coffee mug for fun. (Not dishwasher safe and don't spray with?acrylic lacquer because it's not 'food safe.')

Someone mentioned that there are white decals available as well as transparent. The thing to know in addition is that it's "very hard" to do white lettering on a black box. Why? because inkjet printers don't have white ink so you can't do a transparent decal this way. You could create a black rectangular decal with white lettering with white decals BUT the color of black probably won't match the color of the case. There are other ways to attack this but if you really want a black faceplate, any solution short of having someone screen print it is going to be "hard." One of the coolest methods is making the faceplate out of black circuit board material and having it produced in one of the low volume prototype shops in China.?

Oh, yeah . . . what's the black circle at the top? I drilled the switch hole in the wrong place. Slaps head.? And put in a plastic plug I had lying about.

73,
Mark KB0US

Hello,.? ? On my QCX+ the display is always showing the top layer of blocks on the screen.? ?I know from the manual it states that there may be an issue with the microcontroller not communicating with the rest. I've reseat it multiple times with the same issue. No bent ends, the correct orientation, solder joints good.??
? ? ? ? But I have one of the earlier versions of the 40m radio, with a different version on the chip.? ? It's T1.05? on the 2020 era chip. When I try to use the earlier chip, it seems to start to boot up- but then throws an error code.?
? ? ? Is the original chip no good? , being the old one boots up a little, Or will it not work with the newer ones??
? Possibly there might be some other issue

???????? IDEAS WHERE TO START????????

Mike's Electronic Parts has a nice knob set including the screw and adapter for those little polyvariccon capacitors.



He has a bunch of other interesting items, like NOS 40673 mosfets.? Not cheap but if you need one for repairs or nostalgic builds (I used a bunch of them in the early 70's) they are available.

Mark K9TR

A lossy line (e.g. old coaxial cable) "improves" SWR :-)

Milo? OK1FMY

But it’s not Ethernet, it’s TIA 568, and while Ethernet WiFi adapters are a dime a dozen, there’s no such thing as TIA568 to WiFi for any arbitrary physical layer that might be on the wire.

73, Willie N1JBJ

Yes I have the TCXO chip installed. I’ll give that a try shortly!!

?Thank you?

Ryan?

That’s what I was thinking and after I entered the frequencies it still didn’t show up on the WSPR map.?

thank you
ryan

Since I have here other things T/R triggered with a /PTT (inverse PTT) signal I have upgraded the PA PTT input too.? I have added a P-channel MOSFET to be also triggered by a /PTT line (current).? A QDX can handle that.? This is how I made it.

I went by a KISS protocol.? It costs around 10mA of supply current to satisfy the ZD.? It works very well, although I haven't checked the new timing of T/R switching to be sure.? The T/R start is delayed for some 20ns.

73 Bojan S53DZ

There...that's better !
73,
Bill, N4QA

Brother !
I can't seem to do attachments consistently.
Will try again soon.
Bill, N4QA

Here are a couple of pics describing my homebrew AH-4 tuner controller.
I use this controller with any rig capable of producing 3 watts or so of rf output.
72 / 73,
Bill, N4QA

As I read the information on this device ( ), I don't think plugging a USB WiFi dongle into it alone would do anything.? That is a "wired" 2-piece device where the computer end (local) just sees the distant "hardwired" (using CAT5 cable) USB port.? Any device connected to the "distant hub" is physically connected to the computer that is attached to the "local device".?

The CAT5 cable is required.? Plugging a WiFi dongle into the distant piece without the CAT5 connection would be no different than plugging a WiFi dongle into a plain old USB hub (placed in another room) with no computer attached.?
--
Rob KB8RCO