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Dear QRPLabs Members, ? In my last message I invited all QRSS and WSPR stations to join the Las Cruces QRSS Mafia to operate with us on New Year’s Eve.?? Well, today is December 9th and we have about 21 days left to get our stuff ready to operate from 0000Z 31 December to 2400 1 January 2018.?? It is 48 hours and the purpose is to Celebrate the forward movement of the Amateur Radio QRSS Operation by filling all the Grabber stations with signals.?? The more signals the better.? Don’t worry about stepping on each other a little bit.? Just get a signal in there wherever you can.?? Mother Nature’s Propagation will scramble it even worse, so it won’t really matter.??? Some collisions of signals at one grabber will not be perceivable at another.? So in the end it doesn’t matter.?? What really matters is that you got on the air and you contributed to the massive whiteout of the grabber.? There is a way for the WSPR crowd to join us by programming their U3S’s to do both WSPR and the rest of the 10 minute give QRSS some time with another 2 DFCW QRSS signal and still put a WSPR transmission out every 10 Minutes.??? So get your program manual out and try something new.? We would also love to see you call sign on our screens. ? My contribution this year as a multi-band grabber in New Mexico.? It is presently operating on 30M and 40M? 24/7 in the test mode.? (I may have to take it down for some additional tweaks to improve its operation) but for the most part it will be up. Between now and New Year’s Eve, I plan to add 80M and 20M to it and have them operational.? The Website is ?and this is my test bed for building an all Amateur Radio Band Grabber for 2200M through 10M grabber at This location? by next New Year’s Eve.? Each grabber band consists of a QRPLabs QCX transceiver operating as a receiver, a raspberry pi 3B operating as a spectrum analyzer, and a usb sound card of the inexpensive variety.? It is working well and I am learning lots of new things about it as I keep peeling the onion.? But the one thing I do know for sure.? An inexpensive quality QRSS grabber is within reach for anyone who wants to experiment with these units.? ? If anyone would like to know more about my “experiment” let me know.?? Go to the website and look at my grabs.? Start planning your own setup.? ? Take care and have fun.?? See you on New Year’s Eve.? Get your ?QRSS TRANSMITTERS ready to go on the air.? New Year’s Eve will be here before you know it.? (In case you have forgotten, New Year’s Eve comes right after that jolly old man called Santa Claus or Saint Nicholas or whatever he is called in your country,? and right after New Year’s day come the credit card bills for all the new radio equipment you bought. ) ? Take care and have fun.? Hope to see you on my new Grabber.? QRSS is a BLAST, even at mW’s Merry Christmas, 73 Dave Hassall WA5DJJ? Las Cruces, New Mexico Website: http://www.zianet.com/dhassall/ ?
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Dave,
I'll give it a try!? Am I correct, each symbol is 6 seconds? Sorry, this is all very new to me!
ATM, the message line I use for a CW ID at the end of my WSPR transmission and my message line is "#CS". I take it we need to program several DFCW QRSS segments all on the same frequency in order to get any kind of repetition.?
I guess my question is this: If I understand correctly, would it be better to:?
1. Program my message as something like: callsign<space>callsign<space>callsign<space>...etc. with less Tx'd segments but drop the CW-ID segment,
2. Keep the #CS, maybe add a space, and add more Tx'd segments,
3. Just type out the callsign<space?>, add more Tx segments and keep the CW-ID segment?
Thanks!!
--Al
WD4AH
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Dear? Al,
The way I do it is to setup TxS screens to about 6 or so.?? Then you program each MODE TRANSMISSION SCREEN for each frequency you want to transmit on.? You also need to set DIT to 005 (for 5 second dit length)? and I set FRAME START to 10 00 (this puts all the mode transmissions in a 10 minute period so they can be stacked).
Then set the mode transmission screen 0 for the first frequency (Most combination operators who work WSPR and QRSS USE THIS 0 SETTING FOR WSPR AS IT TAKES 2 MINUTES)
Then set the mode transmission screen 1 for the second frequency for your first QRSS transmission (make sure you put the proper filter selection for this frequency) Then select MODE to be DFCW, Then power 23 and my auxiliary output is 0.? Running WSPR 1st and then you can squeeze in at least 2 and maybe 3 other QRSS transmissions before you run out of the remaining 8 minutes after your WSPR transmission.?? It will take some experimentation in this area as each call sign gives a different time consideration.?? But almost everyone can do at least 2 DFCW transmissions in 8 minutes.? So now you can transmit WSPR in the first 2 minutes and two QRSS transmissions in the last 8 minutes? of a 10 minute period.?? Turn all the different mode screens on after you program them (make the little bars go away).? Hook it up to your antenna and watch the grabbers and your WSPR? signals and see if you start showing up on a QRSS GRABBER.?? It takes a bit of? fiddling with the programming parameters but you will eventually get it going.??
I hope this helps.? There may be others that have a better way of explaining this.? If so, go to it.
73 Dave WA5DJJ
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Dave, I'm just finishing a U3S and would like to join in.? I'm General class though.? Is anyone looking at the alternate, non Extra class QRSS spots?? I can only go down to 7025 Khz on 40M I believe.
Bob
WA1EDJ??
On Sat, Dec 9, 2017 at 11:47 AM, David R. Hassall WA5DJJ <dhassall@...> wrote: Dear QRPLabs Members, ? In my last message I invited all QRSS and WSPR stations to join the Las Cruces QRSS Mafia to operate with us on New Year’s Eve.?? Well, today is December 9th and we have about 21 days left to get our stuff ready to operate from 0000Z 31 December to 2400 1 January 2018.?? It is 48 hours and the purpose is to Celebrate the forward movement of the Amateur Radio QRSS Operation by filling all the Grabber stations with signals.?? The more signals the better.? Don’t worry about stepping on each other a little bit.? Just get a signal in there wherever you can.?? Mother Nature’s Propagation will scramble it even worse, so it won’t really matter.??? Some collisions of signals at one grabber will not be perceivable at another.? So in the end it doesn’t matter.?? What really matters is that you got on the air and you contributed to the massive whiteout of the grabber.? There is a way for the WSPR crowd to join us by programming their U3S’s to do both WSPR and the rest of the 10 minute give QRSS some time with another 2 DFCW QRSS signal and still put a WSPR transmission out every 10 Minutes.??? So get your program manual out and try something new.? We would also love to see you call sign on our screens. ? My contribution this year as a multi-band grabber in New Mexico.? It is presently operating on 30M and 40M? 24/7 in the test mode.? (I may have to take it down for some additional tweaks to improve its operation) but for the most part it will be up. Between now and New Year’s Eve, I plan to add 80M and 20M to it and have them operational.? The Website is ?and this is my test bed for building an all Amateur Radio Band Grabber for 2200M through 10M grabber at This location? by next New Year’s Eve.? Each grabber band consists of a QRPLabs QCX transceiver operating as a receiver, a raspberry pi 3B operating as a spectrum analyzer, and a usb sound card of the inexpensive variety.? It is working well and I am learning lots of new things about it as I keep peeling the onion.? But the one thing I do know for sure.? An inexpensive quality QRSS grabber is within reach for anyone who wants to experiment with these units.? ? If anyone would like to know more about my “experiment” let me know.?? Go to the website and look at my grabs.? Start planning your own setup.? ? Take care and have fun.?? See you on New Year’s Eve.? Get your ?QRSS TRANSMITTERS ready to go on the air.? New Year’s Eve will be here before you know it.? (In case you have forgotten, New Year’s Eve comes right after that jolly old man called Santa Claus or Saint Nicholas or whatever he is called in your country,? and right after New Year’s day come the credit card bills for all the new radio equipment you bought. ) ? Take care and have fun.? Hope to see you on my new Grabber.? QRSS is a BLAST, even at mW’s Merry Christmas, 73 Dave Hassall WA5DJJ? Las Cruces, New Mexico Website: ?
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I'm in - I'll be QRSS on 30m. As with some others, it'll be the first time I've used my U3S for anything other than WSPR so thanks for the puch!
73,
John AE5X
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David,
Thanks for your tips on setting QRSS up on the U3S! I've got mine going on 30m and over the last couple of days have been trying one FSKCW transmission after a WSPR sequence. I've attached a screen grab from a locally running copy of Argo. As you can see it's looking a little ragged and this is about the way I show up on several grabbers. I've been admiring those ops who are getting nice sharp edges to their transmissions. I'll probably be switching over to DFCW05 for the New Year's Eve event.?
Again thanks for your help and running? your grabber!
--Al
WD4AH
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Are you using as switched mode power supply, the logic in the U3S likes clean dc supply preferably from an analogue supply.?? Just my observations.? Cheers and 73.
On Tuesday, 12 December 2017, 13:18:57 GMT, Al Holt <grovekid2@...> wrote:
David,
Thanks for your tips on setting QRSS up on the U3S! I've got mine going on 30m and over the last couple of days have been trying one FSKCW transmission after a WSPR sequence. I've attached a screen grab from a locally running copy of Argo. As you can see it's looking a little ragged and this is about the way I show up on several grabbers. I've been admiring those ops who are getting nice sharp edges to their transmissions. I'll probably be switching over to DFCW05 for the New Year's Eve event.?
Again thanks for your help and running? your grabber!
--Al
WD4AH
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Planning to run my U3S on at least 30m FSKCW6 and WSPR, but got curious on the receiving stuff. I run Debian linux in my shack and have tested Baudline for qrss viewing. Almost everyone talks about Argo, but has anyone tried this under wine or is there better options for linux ? I've not had much luck with glfer as it uses OSS, and I haven't figured out how to make pulseaudio work with this yet.
Any tips are welcome (:
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Hi Daniel,
Argo works fine under Wine. QRSS-VD is quite good but is a little more involved to get running. SpectrumLab works ok under Wine and is another good option to try.
73 Simon G0FCU.
On 13 December 2017 at 12:24, Daniel Ekman SA2KNG <knegge@...> wrote: Planning to run my U3S on at least 30m FSKCW6 and WSPR, but got curious on the receiving stuff. I run Debian linux in my shack and have tested Baudline for qrss viewing. Almost everyone talks about Argo, but has anyone tried this under wine or is there better options for linux ? I've not had much luck with glfer as it uses OSS, and I haven't figured out how to make pulseaudio work with this yet.
Any tips are welcome (:
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John Blackett,
Yes, it's a switcher. I'll give it a try with a linear one and repost. 73.
--Al
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Here's a comparison between two power supplies running FSKCW on my U3S (Single band, w/ 5W PA kit outputting 2W TPO). Top image is with a switching supply (Radio Shack 19A). Bottom image is with homebrew 3A linear supply with KD1JV's regulator circuit. (). Linear looks not as ragged with a lot less noise.
?Switcher PS:???
Linear PS:? ? ???
Cheers!
--Al
WD4AH
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Al what is your signal look like with the?5 watt PA out of line. Is it possible to disco it and just run your U3S barefoot. ? I am no expert for sure but I have?never seen a signal such as yours?from a U3S ...besides being ragged looking it wanders considerably up and down in frequency. ? Vernon? ? On 12/13/17 11:23 AM, "Al Holt" <grovekid2@...> wrote:
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Yes, I'll see what I can do.
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Vernon Matheson said: "Al what is your signal look like with the?5 watt PA out of line. Is it possible to disco it and just run your U3S barefoot."
Vernon, here is my U3S barefoot outputting 200mW and received locally on SDRplay RSP1 and piped into Argo. AGC is off in the RSP1. I did reduce the sensitivity of Argo to get a bit cleaner trace. But, it looks about the same as with the amp. :-(?
--Al
WD4AH
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Dear Al,
That has all the indications that your power supply isn't giving you enough current for the transmitter.? Another hint is to glue a 4-40 Nut to the crystal can of the 27MHz Crystal.? What happens is the can temperature changes the crystal frequency abruptly.?? The nut glued on the top of the can changes its temperature profile and it quits Jittering.?? If you can find a better 5 Volt power supply that has about 2 amps regulated and glue the nut on the 27MHz crystal can in the oscillator board I think you too will have nice straight lines.?? I have similar pictures on my grabber of your signal.? They were weak and with the noise and the wobble. I couldn't decode the call sign.?? So you are getting out.? It is just very hard to read.?
Good luck,?? If I can help further, Just ask.
73,
Dave WA5DJJ
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On Sun, Dec 10, 2017 at 10:36 am, Bob wrote:
Is anyone looking at the alternate, non Extra class QRSS spots?? I can only go down to 7025 Khz on 40M I believe.
I understand from another messages here that the current 40m frequency is 7.040mHz minus up to 200Hz, well within General privileges.? The old 7,000mHz frequency has apparently been deprecated.
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7040 is a long established QRP calling frequency probably a good choice!
On December 15, 2017, at 5:54 PM, TrueBlue <44-40@...> wrote: On Sun, Dec 10, 2017 at 10:36 am, Bob wrote:
Is anyone looking at the alternate, non Extra class QRSS spots?? I can only go down to 7025 Khz on 40M I believe.
I understand from another messages here that the current 40m frequency is 7.040mHz minus up to 200Hz, well within General privileges.? The old 7,000mHz frequency has apparently been deprecated.
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OK, I'm probably just being silly, but I'll be a sport and try to do this, though the only grabber in the western US is in NM, which is usually beyond my 40m range.? The grabber up in BC is probably more likely, but is only on 30m, it appears.
I've got my U3S set up as follows:
Frequency:? 7.039.825
Mode:? DFCW06
Message: _TEST CW #CS _
It seems to be working.? I have it programmed after a WSPR run and it manages to get done with less than two minutes left, plenty to calibrate, but not much left over.? WA5DJJ does not appear to be picking me up on 40m, which is really no surprise.? On 20m, maybe, when that gets up.
Does this look right so far?
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On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 03:55 pm, David R. Hassall WA5DJJ wrote:
Dear Al,
.............Another hint is to glue a 4-40 Nut to the crystal can of the 27MHz Crystal........?
Thanks for the suggestions! I have read about the nut on crystal solution. In another project, SoftRock Lite, you solder a ground wire to the crystal case. Now, that shows the case can take solder in small dabs. That leads me to think that maybe a small strip of copper could be soldered to the 27mHz crystal's case and become a more effective heat sink than gluing the nut. I haven't looked too closely at the scope of the project, and maybe there's just not enough room for that type of solution. On the PS question, would you say that anyone using a LM7805 type regulator (typically 1A capable) would experience the same issues as me on QRSS? I did try another '7805 PS board, but with no heat sinking of the IC, and got pretty much the same results. Another thought is to power the PA separately from a different PS as a way to lighten the load during TX intervals. But, barefoot the U3S draws relatively little power a 1A supply should be enough, IMO. Once the U3S is put into transmit on FSKCW it's drawing current continuously through the cycle and the frequency shift shouldn't cause that much of a load change on the PS. But, we're talking just a few Hertz, so limitations in the PS shouldn't be swept under the carpet. Well we've still got time to play! Thanks again for your help and support of QRSS!! 73, --Al
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On Sun, Dec 10, 2017 at 09:11 am, David R. Hassall WA5DJJ wrote:
Then select MODE to be DFCW, Then power 23 and my auxiliary output is 0.
If I'm understanding you correctly, I think this is actually wrong, as AFAIK the "power" setting only applies to WSPR.? That same two-digit entry on DFCW and other modes determines which of perhaps many delimiter-defined saved messages you wish to send.? If there is no message 23 in this case, it defaults to message 00...which is what I think you have going on here.? The possible library of 00-99 messages is one of the most useful features of the U3S and I'll bet a lot of users aren't even aware of it.? I believe the available character storage exceeds 500.? If your fingertips hold up (and that's a big "if"), you can program some pretty chatty and informative messages, especially using some of the shortcuts like #CS, etc.
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Daniel Ekman SA2KNG
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TrueBlue