Had a one off crystal made by QuartSlab...Bit expensive but worth it I reckon..

The crystal frequency is 14.097100 HC49U 30pF parallel..
With C5 removed, I can tune below/through and above the WSPR portion of the 20 meter band.

Running a simple one transistor (2N3866) external PA fed from the "C OUT" connector on the kit PCB.(internal PA turned off).
This PA is running from 12 Volts and at this frequency, I get almost 500mW out (PA runs 900mW on 40 meters).

Using the external PA keeps any heat away from the kit oscillator and reduces drift by a significant amount...

Crystal and capacitors around the osc circuit are all plugged in on this kit so I can experiment with different values/bands without risking damage to the PCB..
My LPF is external as well and selected to match the band I want to use...

Anyhoo, first run this evening into my new 132' Windom shows a good selection of spots...

Over 10 from the states, one VK, one from Uruguay, two from Brazil and goodly collection from Europe...

Great fun

Philip G4JVF

???

How will you manage the fact that the antenna will not present a low impedance to beacons operating at different frequencies?

If I was doing that, I think I would give each beacon its own thin wire antenna. I use very fine wire for my antenna and it works really well, but it is more or less invisible, which for my situation is important. If you put the beacons at the top of your house, you could have 26swg wire 1/4 wave antennas coming outside and going to some poles in the garden. Where the end of the wire quarter wave would not reach the pole, you could make up the length to the tie off point with 30 pound mono filament fishing line, which is also pretty much invisible and has some elasticity which preserves the thin wire in strong wind. For poles to support the end of the wire, you can use telescopic fishing poles made of fibre glass. they are really quite cheap and work like shock absorbers. Each antenna would need a quarter wave counterpoise which could be routed about in the attic or loft of the house.

This way, each kit can transmit in its own time into a resonant antenna without having to worry about timing sequential transmissions, and antennas that don't match the output frequency.

I've been messing about with HF antennas for thirty years and used to use heavy three mm wire. It looked awful and the neighbours didn't like it. Now I have one that REALLY works well for me. It is a 180ft horizontal loop made of 26swg wire, supported at its corners (two of them on top of the house attached to chimneys) with fishing line lanyards of clear 30 pound monofilament line. The two bottom supports down the garden are on poles hidden in trees and have elastic bungee cords to absorbe the pull of the wind. It hasn't broken all year and gives me startling performance on ???30 and 20 meters.???

I got these spots out of my 200 mw UQRSS last night on 30 meters

bzb

On 9 September 2012 10:24, paulwijnand <paulwijnand@...> wrote:

???

Fb Hans,

That is a fb idea!

And when a relay from a kit is NOT powered, then the relay contact for TX is switched to a little dummyload/resistor.
It can be made a bit foolproof I think, so that only 1 Kit can transmit on the antenna, the others (if transmitting) are then transmiiting into a dummyload. They just have to wait (when they are on the same band) hi.

73 Paul, pa0ocd

--- In QRPLabs@..., Hans Summers wrote:
>
> Hi Paul
>
> > PS: Would be nice to have 2 kits running on 30 M , one on QRSS/FSKCW and the other on WSPR in a time slot so they do not byte each other.
> >
> > Perhaps something for V1.05 firmware upgrade to have running 2 or more kits, even switching antennas?....
>
> There is already a v1.05, see
>
> What I can do for v1.06, is to use one of the spare I/O pins (labelled
> F0/F1/F2 on the connector) as an indicator of when the kit is
> transmitting a frame. This signal could then be used to switch a
> relay, to connect the kit output to the antenna. This way, you could
> have multiple kits running different modes and even, different bands.
> As long as the frames were set up so that they were transmitting at
> different times, you could make this work quite well.
>
> 73 Hans G0UPL
>
>

?

Hi Paul

> PS: Would be nice to have 2 kits running on 30 M , one on QRSS/FSKCW and the other on WSPR in a time slot so they do not byte each other.
>
> Perhaps something for V1.05 firmware upgrade to have running 2 or more kits, even switching antennas?....

There is already a v1.05, see

What I can do for v1.06, is to use one of the spare I/O pins (labelled
F0/F1/F2 on the connector) as an indicator of when the kit is
transmitting a frame. This signal could then be used to switch a
relay, to connect the kit output to the antenna. This way, you could
have multiple kits running different modes and even, different bands.
As long as the frames were set up so that they were transmitting at
different times, you could make this work quite well.

73 Hans G0UPL

Hi Paul

PS: Would be nice to have 2 kits running on 30 M , one on QRSS/FSKCW and the other on WSPR in a time slot so they do not byte each other.

Perhaps something for V1.05 firmware upgrade to have running 2 or more kits, even switching antennas?....

There is already a v1.05, see

What I can do for v1.06, is to use one of the spare I/O pins (labelled
F0/F1/F2 on the connector) as an indicator of when the kit is
transmitting a frame. This signal could then be used to switch a
relay, to connect the kit output to the antenna. This way, you could
have multiple kits running different modes and even, different bands.
As long as the frames were set up so that they were transmitting at
different times, you could make this work quite well.

73 Hans G0UPL

Paul,

I am interested in the idea of the magnetic loop antenna. I wonder how many db down they would be on a big horizontal loop like mine. The advantage of being able to hide it in the loft of the house is very attractive, especially for a fixed frequency like WSPR or QRSS where tight bandwidth is not a real issue.

My new kit seems more temperature stable than the first one I built. of course the crystals may vary, but as mine now is, I have gone against good practice and used quite long leads just to make it possible to plug it into sockets on the board. i know that RF circuits need short leads, but I wanted to experiment and can plug and unplug both the PA transistor / transistors and all frequency affecting capacitors in the oscillator and in the LP filter. Funnily enough, this one works better than the first one I made. i think it may be because both the crystal and the caps around it are further off the board and are thus kept away from heat generated in the PA.

If you download this photo you will be able to look at it in full resolution and see the headers and sockets I used to make connections to the board and to mount some components in a way that lets me swap them without soldering and desoldering. I don't claim this to be good practice in RF building, I'm no expert anyway, but it is working very nicely for me and lets me play around with component values without ruining the board.


Image file full res:



--- In QRPLabs@..., "paulwijnand" <paulwijnand@> wrote:

Hello Tony,

Thank you for your answer and your findings!
This helps to understand better what the little thing is doing hi.


Yes here, (UQRSS 30 M v 1.04 firmware) I did a quick temperature compensation with
C4 22pF with N750 and C5 15 pF also N750.
C3 is still 22pF N0.

Did a quick test with C3 22 pF N750, but that was far too much.
So put it back C3 22pF and N0, the original Capacitor.

I have now a drift of about 5 Hz between 20 and 29 degrees in the shack.
That is not bad , but in due time it can be made better using a bit of negative temp coefficient for C3, perhaps 18 Pf N0 and parallel 4,7 pF N750.
Did not mount the Xtal to close to the PCB, but can place it at a bit more distance.
Not sure if this is the only reason for drift...
Can place a Xtalheater (DB6NT precision heater) but will try first a natural way of drift compensation.

Would be nice to run this small UQRSS station in wintertime in my shed at the gardenhouse.
Have to make a kind of isolated box with a small heating element inside.
Not winter yet though....

Ah well, I am very pleased with this kit ! and tonight VK4TMH recieved me again with WSPR at 15690 Km at 17.22 UTC.
(Indoor Magnetic Loop of 150 by 150 cm square, made of 22 mm coppertube)

2012-09-07 17:22 PA0OCD 10.140169 -27 -1 JO22li +23 0.200 VK4TMH QG56fj 15690 9749

So just let the little TX run and who knows what we will see next?


Cheerio es 73

Paul, pa0ocd

PS: Would be nice to have 2 kits running on 30 M , one on QRSS/FSKCW and the other on WSPR in a time slot so they do not byte each other.

Perhaps something for V1.05 firmware upgrade to have running 2 or more kits, even switching antennas?....





--- In QRPLabs@..., "TONY_VOLPE" <tony.volpe.1951@> wrote:

Interesting findings Paul.

I have found that the oscillator frequency is very prone to temperature changes. I have two kits and this is more noticeable in one of them than in the other. I think the reason for the difference is that one has very short crystal leads allowing heat transfer from the board through the base of the crystal, while the other is plugged into header sockets and has longer leads so it is thermally separate from the board.

When the frequency moves from the one you set up the kit with (Freq setting and FSK.ADJ) the width of the wpsr modulation changes. This is part of the nature of the kit. The frequency, FSK.ADJ value and actual width of the modulated signal are all intimately connected. This is due to the fact that the characteristics of the red led being used as a varacter diode are not linear. The capacitance/voltage characteristics are not in a straight line. Because of this, when the set FREQUENY differs from the real frequency, the effect of the micro-controller trying to adjust the frequency alters the fsk width.

By keeping my kit in a stable temperature (no direct sunlight shining on it, or diurnal temperature changes) it stays very stable both in its frequency and in the width of the wspr signal as long as it was properly set up in the first place.

I don't worry about minor changes in signal width. If it is within about 5 htz to 8 htz you will get very many reports if your antenna is OK. Obviously it is ideal for it to be 6 htz, but the receiving stations seem to be tolerant of some deviation.

I have also seen the wrong LOCATOR on the LCD screen for a while, but the kit was transmitting the correct data. I am not certain how often the screen updates if your GPS loses lock and for a time a wrong LOCATOR is on the screen. The kit can correct its LOCATOR, transmit the right one and still show the wrong one on the LCD until the Menu button has been pressed.

In starting up from cold, I find it best if using the GPS NOT to go straight into WSPR transmit mode. Often there is a spurious LOCATOR at start up and the WSPR transmit process can not start until this is corrected (if the value of LOCATOR is an illegal one). Once in this condition, the kit will continue to refuse even if you go through the menu list and press the right button to start. All the while, it seems inhibited from updating the wrong LOCATOR value. Instead of getting into this mess, I usually start up my GPS connected kit in TEST mode for a few minutes. Two or three minutes in TEST mode and the kit gets all of the data correct, and is ready to operate properly. I then initiate WSPR mode and it goes on fine.

I have noticed on two UQRSS kits that I have built that the oscillator frequency when in non TX mode during wait periods is about twenty htz higher than when the TX ON period starts. This may be because in WSPR the processor tries to steer the oscillator to match the FREQUENCY you entered into the kit's FREQUENCY parameter. Whether the processor controls the oscillator or not at a particular time, depends on the mode in use. Read Hans's comments about how the GPS controls the frequency.

In WSPR the frequency is controlled in between transmissions only.

In QRSS, FSKCW and DFCW modes, frequency stabilisation only occurs when the RF output is ON, and the FSK is zero. Maybe this explains what you have observed about the changes of frequency between different modes and transmit states.

73s

Tony G0BZB


--- In QRPLabs@..., "paulwijnand" <paulwijnand@> wrote:

--- In QRPLabs@..., "paulwijnand" <paulwijnand@> wrote:

Hello all,

Build the UQRSS for 30 M a few days back and started without the use of GPS.
Nice kit to build! Thanks QRP-kit team!

Changed the capacitors C4 for 22 pF N750 and C5 for 15 pF N750.
Looks it stays better on QRG using N750 then N0.
Have to experiment with C3 with a N750, see what it brings in Temperature compensation.
But that is a long process, will take a few weeks...

Anway I started with WSPR, in the menu put in the Time (hours and minutes) and hit the button there when at a DFCC clock the seconds jumped from 59 seconds to 00.
It seems that in this way the DT is nor far off in WSPR, about 1 second.

Results were fabulous running 0.2 Watt on my Indoor magnetic loop of 1.5 by 1.5 meter.

2012-08-28 06:52 PA0OCD 10.140179 -23 -1 JO22li +23 0.200 KC9NBV EM69oe 6775 4210 .

So a 6775 km is not bad hi.

The time without use of GPS stayed very precise! during a day or so.
But have seen in the messages here, that it will stay longer precise.
I monitored WSPR on a second notebook and a precise homebuild transceiver locked on a double oven OCXO 10 Mhz standard.

After that I used GPS to see what that brings.


I have a old GPS Jupiter T Firmware V1.80 and used 10 K pull up resistors from the +5 volt from the Data and 1 PPS line. This one uses an extern antenna and has for both the module and antenna + 5 volt powersupply via the UQRSS. Without the use of these pull-up resistors the UQRSS goes wild in adjusting the QRG hi

The other GPS is an EM-406A also using 10 K pullpup resistors and has a internal antenna. Nice little module and with a very high sensitivity. Also +5 volt power supply.

Used them both.

For WSPR it is with firmware UQRSS 1.04 nice to see the right QTH locator and precise timing.

After that I put on FSKCW3 with Frame 10 and Start 1 at 10.140.080 with a shift of about 6 Hz. In the menu GPS ON.

Let it run for a few days and could see my signal on the grabber of Bill W4HBK (Tks Bill!), also a nice distance of about 7522 km...No stacking of the pictures needed yet.

The GPS adjustment was nice to see and was soon withing 1 Hz.
The timing was also good. The first Character was send after
a 3-5 seconds (about) after the startminute (Start 1).

BUT:

A: After a few hours, the display showed a not changing time of 12.28.36 or 05.28.36 or 08.28.36..... The character being send were not showed any more...
This was the case with both GPS modules.

The GPS adjustment an timing were still ok! and the characters were still being send. (hi)

After starting the FSKCW3 mode 2 times , not one time!, all was running well and the time showed ok in the pause when the message had been send (PA0OCD JO22) and the start of the minute 1.
(Frame 10 Start 1).
This time it stopped at 11.18.36 (put it on at 10.24 utc)...


B: Then I removed the powersupply and put it on after a while.
The FSKCW 3 started automatically BUT not at the right time and the display was also not showing the right time.
After starting (with the powersupply on) the FSKCW3 2 times all was
well again.
Perhaps I had to wait a bit longer then 10 minutes to see if the Time was right again by itself...

I still have to test the other modes.

That was my experience up to now.

Will build the other UQRSS modules, but perhaps with 1 display, not sure if I can switch the display between the other modules while they are running...


73

Paul, PA0OCD

Hello all,

In my former message I mentioned using WSPR without and with GPS.

I had first used WSPR without any connection to a GPS unit:
(later on I only connected GPS in mode WSPR to see if the QTH locator and time were right, but did not test WSPR GPS further then.....)

This use, without connection to a GPS unit worked well both for QRSS/FSKCW and WSPR, and the adjusting of the FSK shift (Fskadj) in Testmode was also good for running WSPR:

First C-8 had to be tuned to the QRG which was set in the Menu of UQRSS.
After that the FSKadjust had to be right using a shift FSK of 4 (or 5 Hz).
Then choose Mode Test or FSKCW with a low speed, say 009, and Frame 00 and Start 00.

After a lot of adjusting the FSKadj was found, let us say 00,800.

For WSPR the Frame had to be set then on 10 and Start on 0,2,4,6,or 8.
I choose Start 02.
After setting the Time using a pretty precise Clock, all was running well in WSPR and also the other modes QRSS, FSKCW.

BUT:

After I connected with these adjustments above, the GPS unit ( EM-406A with 10 K pull-up resistors from the +5 Volt to both the Data and 1 PSS line), and after powering up the UQRSS and the connected GPS unit, some strange things happened:

(BTW: Use the Start in the menu a few times after powering up the QRSS with the connected GPS !, so that the Time on the UQRSS display is in sync on the precise Second with a DCF77 Clock or precise Internet Time....)

The QRG dropped now on WSPR TX not only about 25 Hz ( in my case from 10.140190 to 10.140.165) but also the Shift had gone up !
This was now for WSPR about 7.1 Hz. ( had to be around 5.9 Hz).
In the Menu the QRG was still 10.140.190....and FSKadj still 00.800...
Of course no detection of my to wide WSPR signals on the WSPRnet.org.

So now I tried first to set QRG in the Menu to the new QRG 10.140.165 (no change of C8!) to see if the Shift was back again around 5.9 Hz.
But on TX now the "real" TX QRG dropped even further down hi.
This was not the way!

So I put the QRG in the Menu back to 10.140.190 and tuned the C-8 up to 10.140.190.
Now even more strange things happened.
On TX the QRG shifted regulary about 100 Hz up and down like a warning signal hi and of course no good WSPR was being send.

So I put with C8 the QRG back on 10140.165 ( in the Menu still 10.140.190) and adjusted
the FSKadj to a smaller value (from 00.800 to 00.730).
This adjusting took a lot of time but finally I got on WSPR the 5.9 Hz using Argo Speed 10.

Why not use Test for shift adjustment with the connected GPS and Menu GPS ON?

Aha: In Test mode with te connected and running GPS unit the Shift is a bit more then in mode WSPR … so best is to adjust FSKadj in mode WSPR.


Use Argo Speed 10 and aim at the middle of each 2 most outside WSPR tones to see if it is around 5.9 Hz.

Yes once you know the trick it is not difficult anymore. Hi.

BTW: I tried another GPS unit ( Jupiter T) but the result was about the same.
Changed both IC1 and IC2 the result was the same.
Had ordered a few more...for other bands.


Hope it helps others a bit.
It was nice doing it and with very good results.

73

Paul, pa0ocd


Nice result now with WSPR:

VK4TMH at 15690 KM with 0.2 Watt on the Indoor Magnetic Loop


?2012-09-05 16:12?
?PA0OCD?
?10.140169?
?-25?
?-1?
?JO22li?
?+23?
?0.200?
?VK4TMH?
?QG56fj?
?15690?
?9749?

Hi Paul

PS: Would be nice to have 2 kits running on 30 M , one on QRSS/FSKCW and the other on WSPR in a time slot so they do not byte each other.

Perhaps something for V1.05 firmware upgrade to have running 2 or more kits, even switching antennas?....

There is already a v1.05, see

What I can do for v1.06, is to use one of the spare I/O pins (labelled
F0/F1/F2 on the connector) as an indicator of when the kit is
transmitting a frame. This signal could then be used to switch a
relay, to connect the kit output to the antenna. This way, you could
have multiple kits running different modes and even, different bands.
As long as the frames were set up so that they were transmitting at
different times, you could make this work quite well.

73 Hans G0UPL

From: Stephen Farthing <squirrox@...>
Subject: [QRPLabs] A guide to setting up Argo can be found
To: QRPLabs@..., "* KNIGHTSQRSS" <knightsqrss@...>
Date: Saturday, September 8, 2012, 2:31 AM





























here?.
I hope this helps those of you who are just starting off in
the wonderful world of QRSS.?


73s Steve

Hello Tony,

Thank you for your answer and your findings!
This helps to understand better what the little thing is doing hi.


Yes here, (UQRSS 30 M v 1.04 firmware) I did a quick temperature compensation with
C4 22pF with N750 and C5 15 pF also N750.
C3 is still 22pF N0.

Did a quick test with C3 22 pF N750, but that was far too much.
So put it back C3 22pF and N0, the original Capacitor.

I have now a drift of about 5 Hz between 20 and 29 degrees in the shack.
That is not bad , but in due time it can be made better using a bit of negative temp coefficient for C3, perhaps 18 Pf N0 and parallel 4,7 pF N750.
Did not mount the Xtal to close to the PCB, but can place it at a bit more distance.
Not sure if this is the only reason for drift...
Can place a Xtalheater (DB6NT precision heater) but will try first a natural way of drift compensation.

Would be nice to run this small UQRSS station in wintertime in my shed at the gardenhouse.
Have to make a kind of isolated box with a small heating element inside.
Not winter yet though....

Ah well, I am very pleased with this kit ! and tonight VK4TMH recieved me again with WSPR at 15690 Km at 17.22 UTC.
(Indoor Magnetic Loop of 150 by 150 cm square, made of 22 mm coppertube)

2012-09-07 17:22 PA0OCD 10.140169 -27 -1 JO22li +23 0.200 VK4TMH QG56fj 15690 9749

So just let the little TX run and who knows what we will see next?


Cheerio es 73

Paul, pa0ocd

PS: Would be nice to have 2 kits running on 30 M , one on QRSS/FSKCW and the other on WSPR in a time slot so they do not byte each other.

Perhaps something for V1.05 firmware upgrade to have running 2 or more kits, even switching antennas?....





--- In QRPLabs@..., "TONY_VOLPE" <tony.volpe.1951@> wrote:

Interesting findings Paul.

I have found that the oscillator frequency is very prone to temperature changes. I have two kits and this is more noticeable in one of them than in the other. I think the reason for the difference is that one has very short crystal leads allowing heat transfer from the board through the base of the crystal, while the other is plugged into header sockets and has longer leads so it is thermally separate from the board.

When the frequency moves from the one you set up the kit with (Freq setting and FSK.ADJ) the width of the wpsr modulation changes. This is part of the nature of the kit. The frequency, FSK.ADJ value and actual width of the modulated signal are all intimately connected. This is due to the fact that the characteristics of the red led being used as a varacter diode are not linear. The capacitance/voltage characteristics are not in a straight line. Because of this, when the set FREQUENY differs from the real frequency, the effect of the micro-controller trying to adjust the frequency alters the fsk width.

By keeping my kit in a stable temperature (no direct sunlight shining on it, or diurnal temperature changes) it stays very stable both in its frequency and in the width of the wspr signal as long as it was properly set up in the first place.

I don't worry about minor changes in signal width. If it is within about 5 htz to 8 htz you will get very many reports if your antenna is OK. Obviously it is ideal for it to be 6 htz, but the receiving stations seem to be tolerant of some deviation.

I have also seen the wrong LOCATOR on the LCD screen for a while, but the kit was transmitting the correct data. I am not certain how often the screen updates if your GPS loses lock and for a time a wrong LOCATOR is on the screen. The kit can correct its LOCATOR, transmit the right one and still show the wrong one on the LCD until the Menu button has been pressed.

In starting up from cold, I find it best if using the GPS NOT to go straight into WSPR transmit mode. Often there is a spurious LOCATOR at start up and the WSPR transmit process can not start until this is corrected (if the value of LOCATOR is an illegal one). Once in this condition, the kit will continue to refuse even if you go through the menu list and press the right button to start. All the while, it seems inhibited from updating the wrong LOCATOR value. Instead of getting into this mess, I usually start up my GPS connected kit in TEST mode for a few minutes. Two or three minutes in TEST mode and the kit gets all of the data correct, and is ready to operate properly. I then initiate WSPR mode and it goes on fine.

I have noticed on two UQRSS kits that I have built that the oscillator frequency when in non TX mode during wait periods is about twenty htz higher than when the TX ON period starts. This may be because in WSPR the processor tries to steer the oscillator to match the FREQUENCY you entered into the kit's FREQUENCY parameter. Whether the processor controls the oscillator or not at a particular time, depends on the mode in use. Read Hans's comments about how the GPS controls the frequency.

In WSPR the frequency is controlled in between transmissions only.

In QRSS, FSKCW and DFCW modes, frequency stabilisation only occurs when the RF output is ON, and the FSK is zero. Maybe this explains what you have observed about the changes of frequency between different modes and transmit states.

73s

Tony G0BZB


--- In QRPLabs@..., "paulwijnand" <paulwijnand@> wrote:

--- In QRPLabs@..., "paulwijnand" <paulwijnand@> wrote:

Hello all,

Build the UQRSS for 30 M a few days back and started without the use of GPS.
Nice kit to build! Thanks QRP-kit team!

Changed the capacitors C4 for 22 pF N750 and C5 for 15 pF N750.
Looks it stays better on QRG using N750 then N0.
Have to experiment with C3 with a N750, see what it brings in Temperature compensation.
But that is a long process, will take a few weeks...

Anway I started with WSPR, in the menu put in the Time (hours and minutes) and hit the button there when at a DFCC clock the seconds jumped from 59 seconds to 00.
It seems that in this way the DT is nor far off in WSPR, about 1 second.

Results were fabulous running 0.2 Watt on my Indoor magnetic loop of 1.5 by 1.5 meter.

2012-08-28 06:52 PA0OCD 10.140179 -23 -1 JO22li +23 0.200 KC9NBV EM69oe 6775 4210 .

So a 6775 km is not bad hi.

The time without use of GPS stayed very precise! during a day or so.
But have seen in the messages here, that it will stay longer precise.
I monitored WSPR on a second notebook and a precise homebuild transceiver locked on a double oven OCXO 10 Mhz standard.

After that I used GPS to see what that brings.


I have a old GPS Jupiter T Firmware V1.80 and used 10 K pull up resistors from the +5 volt from the Data and 1 PPS line. This one uses an extern antenna and has for both the module and antenna + 5 volt powersupply via the UQRSS. Without the use of these pull-up resistors the UQRSS goes wild in adjusting the QRG hi

The other GPS is an EM-406A also using 10 K pullpup resistors and has a internal antenna. Nice little module and with a very high sensitivity. Also +5 volt power supply.

Used them both.

For WSPR it is with firmware UQRSS 1.04 nice to see the right QTH locator and precise timing.

After that I put on FSKCW3 with Frame 10 and Start 1 at 10.140.080 with a shift of about 6 Hz. In the menu GPS ON.

Let it run for a few days and could see my signal on the grabber of Bill W4HBK (Tks Bill!), also a nice distance of about 7522 km...No stacking of the pictures needed yet.

The GPS adjustment was nice to see and was soon withing 1 Hz.
The timing was also good. The first Character was send after
a 3-5 seconds (about) after the startminute (Start 1).

BUT:

A: After a few hours, the display showed a not changing time of 12.28.36 or 05.28.36 or 08.28.36..... The character being send were not showed any more...
This was the case with both GPS modules.

The GPS adjustment an timing were still ok! and the characters were still being send. (hi)

After starting the FSKCW3 mode 2 times , not one time!, all was running well and the time showed ok in the pause when the message had been send (PA0OCD JO22) and the start of the minute 1.
(Frame 10 Start 1).
This time it stopped at 11.18.36 (put it on at 10.24 utc)...


B: Then I removed the powersupply and put it on after a while.
The FSKCW 3 started automatically BUT not at the right time and the display was also not showing the right time.
After starting (with the powersupply on) the FSKCW3 2 times all was
well again.
Perhaps I had to wait a bit longer then 10 minutes to see if the Time was right again by itself...

I still have to test the other modes.

That was my experience up to now.

Will build the other UQRSS modules, but perhaps with 1 display, not sure if I can switch the display between the other modules while they are running...


73

Paul, PA0OCD

Hello all,

In my former message I mentioned using WSPR without and with GPS.

I had first used WSPR without any connection to a GPS unit:
(later on I only connected GPS in mode WSPR to see if the QTH locator and time were right, but did not test WSPR GPS further then.....)

This use, without connection to a GPS unit worked well both for QRSS/FSKCW and WSPR, and the adjusting of the FSK shift (Fskadj) in Testmode was also good for running WSPR:

First C-8 had to be tuned to the QRG which was set in the Menu of UQRSS.
After that the FSKadjust had to be right using a shift FSK of 4 (or 5 Hz).
Then choose Mode Test or FSKCW with a low speed, say 009, and Frame 00 and Start 00.

After a lot of adjusting the FSKadj was found, let us say 00,800.

For WSPR the Frame had to be set then on 10 and Start on 0,2,4,6,or 8.
I choose Start 02.
After setting the Time using a pretty precise Clock, all was running well in WSPR and also the other modes QRSS, FSKCW.

BUT:

After I connected with these adjustments above, the GPS unit ( EM-406A with 10 K pull-up resistors from the +5 Volt to both the Data and 1 PSS line), and after powering up the UQRSS and the connected GPS unit, some strange things happened:

(BTW: Use the Start in the menu a few times after powering up the QRSS with the connected GPS !, so that the Time on the UQRSS display is in sync on the precise Second with a DCF77 Clock or precise Internet Time....)

The QRG dropped now on WSPR TX not only about 25 Hz ( in my case from 10.140190 to 10.140.165) but also the Shift had gone up !
This was now for WSPR about 7.1 Hz. ( had to be around 5.9 Hz).
In the Menu the QRG was still 10.140.190....and FSKadj still 00.800...
Of course no detection of my to wide WSPR signals on the WSPRnet.org.

So now I tried first to set QRG in the Menu to the new QRG 10.140.165 (no change of C8!) to see if the Shift was back again around 5.9 Hz.
But on TX now the "real" TX QRG dropped even further down hi.
This was not the way!

So I put the QRG in the Menu back to 10.140.190 and tuned the C-8 up to 10.140.190.
Now even more strange things happened.
On TX the QRG shifted regulary about 100 Hz up and down like a warning signal hi and of course no good WSPR was being send.

So I put with C8 the QRG back on 10140.165 ( in the Menu still 10.140.190) and adjusted
the FSKadj to a smaller value (from 00.800 to 00.730).
This adjusting took a lot of time but finally I got on WSPR the 5.9 Hz using Argo Speed 10.

Why not use Test for shift adjustment with the connected GPS and Menu GPS ON?

Aha: In Test mode with te connected and running GPS unit the Shift is a bit more then in mode WSPR … so best is to adjust FSKadj in mode WSPR.


Use Argo Speed 10 and aim at the middle of each 2 most outside WSPR tones to see if it is around 5.9 Hz.

Yes once you know the trick it is not difficult anymore. Hi.

BTW: I tried another GPS unit ( Jupiter T) but the result was about the same.
Changed both IC1 and IC2 the result was the same.
Had ordered a few more...for other bands.


Hope it helps others a bit.
It was nice doing it and with very good results.

73

Paul, pa0ocd


Nice result now with WSPR:

VK4TMH at 15690 KM with 0.2 Watt on the Indoor Magnetic Loop


?2012-09-05 16:12?
?PA0OCD?
?10.140169?
?-25?
?-1?
?JO22li?
?+23?
?0.200?
?VK4TMH?
?QG56fj?
?15690?
?9749?