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Hi all SSB firmware was released into beta on 17-Mar-2025 after 9+ months of development. Many thanks to everyone who bravely helped test it and patiently provided their feedback and observations. There are now quite a few YouTube videos, forum reports and other social media mentions about on-air successes with QMX SSB. Now that it has been at least 6 weeks in beta and I believe most of the issues have been resolved, it's time to promote it to an official version. I have called this version 1_02_000 and published it on the QMX page http://qrp-labs.com/qmx where I have also published the updated operating manual, which grew from 111 pages to 134 pages. The main changes are: SSB (obviously!) including CESSB, TX Equalization, Mic AGC, VOX, Pre-distortion and and and... Addition of up to two more USB Virtual COM serial ports (up to three total). All of the hardware tests such as RF and SWR sweep, and Diagnostics, are now available on the LCD too. New CAT commands for LCD contents, S-meter, AGC-meter, Power meter, SWR meter, SSB source Complete list (relative to 1_00_027 the previous official version): SSB modes added (USB and LCB), with CESSB, TX Equalization, Mic AGC, VOX, Phase pre-distortion and more Rationalization of menus, grouped into CW, Digi and SSB submenus (now Keyer and Decoder are submenus of CW) Added up to two more USB Virtual COM serial ports (configurable) LCD versions of AF, RF, Image, LPF, Test ADC I/Q sweeps (miniature graph on LCD) New function PA mod. test to check operation of amplitude modulator Diagnostics screens are now available on the LCD interface too Now remembers previous menu location on ALL menus regardless of nesting level Add way of forcing factory reset, press Menu (left) button during power-up Change TX color in diagnostics screen from red to blue, to avoid confusion since red things are errors Added CAT LC command to retrieve LCD contents Added CAT commands SA (AGC meter), SM (S meter), PC (Power meter), SW (SWR meter) Added CAT command SS (get/set SSB input source) Bug fix: PTT P did not work properly Bug fix: Incorrect PA voltage display on the Diagnostics screen 73 Hans G0UPL http://qrp-labs.com https://www.buymeacoffee.com/g0upl
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QMX short during SSB calibration?
4
Hello all, Recently completed a mid band QMX build. First serious electronics kit build and I'm a bit out of my depth for sure. But after correcting a few mistakes during the build I powered on the QMX with a current limiting PSU and ran through hardware test last night on a dummy load. All appeared well, or at least the sweeps matched what the manual describes and what others have posted. CW transmit into the dummy load was no problem and between 4-5W on all bands. This morning I decided to try SSB Calibration. Hooked up to the benchtop PSU and a dummy load and let the QMX run while I did some computer work. About a third of the way through I heard a faint crackle and looked up to see 1.5A draw on the power supply and 7V. QMX was still trying to perform calibration. I shut down the PSU and smelled some hot electrical components. Disassembled and do not see anything obviously wrong. I decided to power it back up and this time connect to the terminal diagnostics. QMX powered up but right after the firmware splash screen it immediately began drawing 1.5A again. I quickly connected to the terminal application and as soon as I did the increased draw went away and the diagnostics screen showed normal readings. The moment I disconnected the terminal app the draw came back. Hot electronics smell persists. This is where I don't know enough to continue to track down the issue and am looking for help. Any advice would be great. Thanks, Mike KR4CNM
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WA3TFS with Ultimate relay-switched LPF kit
With the help of this group, I was to implement PTT-keying of my WA3TFS amplifier. Thanks to all who helped, that worked out very well. WA3TFS states that the 20M version can also be used on 30M and 17M. I have noted a significant power drop-off on 17M which I attribute to roll-off of the WA3TFS LPF and avoid that. Additionally, it would be nice if the amplifier was as band agile as my mid-band QMX. Then I saw the recent thread about the QRP Labs LPF relay board which got me to thinking about using that to make those improvements. The QRP Labs relay kit with band-specific filters for 40M (and 60M), 30M, 20M, 17M and 15M should improve the WA3TFS greatly. I plan to bypass the WA3TFS LPF and just use the five filters on the QRP-Labs relay board. Since the relays handle the amplified RF path and are activated using +5V, I was planning to use a band switch to activate the appropriate relay. I realize that this manual approach increases the risk of operator error and high SWR if the amplifier is not switched to match the QMX band. Has anyone done this with the WA3TFS amplifier or similar? I am a novice at this, so is there anything that I am overlooking in thinking that this would work (for example, impedance matching between WA3TFS PA and QRP Labs LPF)? -- 73, Jim - AE5JE
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U3S andLPF Relay Sw board
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Hi all, This is my first post here so I hope it lands in the right place. A while back I purchased the U3S kit and having constructed it found it to work perfectly on the single band . I have just added the LPF relay board to provide an additional 5 bands. The U3S board has the relay fitted and diode along with the LPF and I have removed the 2 relevant wire links. I must be programming the U3S board incorrectly as the unit only transmits on Band 0, that is it will only show its transmitting on band 0 even though I have set the 5 new bands with band 1 being the highest in frequency. Can anyone shed some light on what I could have missed, Thanks. -- Steve Shuff.
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QMX suddenly no power output, factory reset helped
Recently, I observed some strange QMX behaviour. I returned from SOTA, all was OK, and I stored QMX to the drawer. After some time I took it from the drawer and upgraded firmware to 1_02_000. I wanted to do SSB calibration, but I checked SWR first and I observed that SWR sweeps were very noisy and were varying from SWR 2.0 to cca. 10.0 even when on dummy load. LPF sweeps also showed some strange curves with 0 dB on the both min/max. I deduced there is no power output from the QMX and the diagnostic tools are reading only noise (IMHO it could show error message in such case). I validated with the external wattmeter that there is no power output from the QMX. I opened the case, finals were OK, filters connections also looked good. Firmware downgrade to 1_00_027 didn't help. Power off/on cycle and unplug from the power supply also didn't help. Finally, I tried factory reset and viola then it started to function normally and outputs power. Does anybody experience anything similar? This behavior was quite unexpected to me.
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QMX Alternate Bands
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Has anyone tried 80-15? LPF0: 80m LPF1: 40m LPF2: 20m, 17m, 15m BPF0: 80m BPF1: 40m BPF2: 20m BPF3: 17m, 15m 73, Robert VE7ZN
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(Right: Gerald Youngblood, Flex Founder) They launched their new product "Aurora", 160-6m, 500W transceiver that uses polar modulation just like QMX Hans: "So they visited me to admire QMX and I visited them to admire Aurora" https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Brw3LK9zY/ 73 DE muhsin TA1MHS
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RIT in N1MM
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I still use TS 480 for the setup of N1MM. When I am in Run and press the up or down key the QMX + changes to RIT .- .030 but cannot be modified then. I have to exit from that on the QMX+. It would have been perfect, if the QMx+ would follow the RIT in run. any suggestions ? -- Martin DK3UW
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PSK31 with QMX + Digipan
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Hi all, just some hints how to configure QMX and Digipan. QMX: - SSB Menue: Mic AGC ON; Input: USB; MIC Gain 50; Compression 0 USB Gain: Adjust for 50% power on idle PSK Signal. (I am using USB Gain 5) - VOX: ON - CESSB: ON Make sure your antenna SWR is ok. If "Protection" is on it might stop your TX. (Its not the fault of Digipan, hi) DIGIPAN: Set your Serial port (where QMX is connected), no RTS/DTR as we are using VOX. Soundcard: Type: "Computer soundcard"; Input/ Output: "digital interface QMX"; sample rate: 11025 Thats it. Ready to make first PSK contacts! Good DX and hope to work you in PSK. 73 Mat DF2OF
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How to enable transmit for winlink
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Hi folks I have read most of the info on setting up with li k and the qmx...I seem to be able to control the radio and get a receive sig al shown in the vara waterfall. However, when I try to connect, you can see the pauses or bla k portio s on the waterfall, but the rig does not go I to tx mode. Appreciate hearing g what I might be missing. I have tried setting radio to flex and kenwood...same results Cheers Scott
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Hi, When running the various diagnostic sweeps I find all bands except 160m seem reasonable similarities to those shown in the manual. But the 160m seems way off. Any ideas what may be causing this and what I should be checking? I'll include screenshots of the sweeps. Many thanks Ian
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T507 Continuity across all legs
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#qmx
#troubleshooting
Need a sanity check here: Just built and installed T507 and as I was checking continuity between A-A, B-B, etc. I noticed that every pin would show continuity between each other (A shorts to BCD, B shorts to ACD, etc). Looking at the traces in the instructions and my limited understanding of the schematic, this is nominal and all 4 wires should connect to ground either directly or indirectly. is that correct?
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QMX 40-10 Follow up
I posted here before about building a 40-10 qmx. I did a little more looking and thinking. Looking at AI6XG's mod: https://www.ai6xg.com/post/a-40-10-meter-qmx#viewer-cl0z424097, it seems to preform well and has motivated me to go out and buy a QMX. However there are some questions that I have that I want to confirm/ask. In the blog, he mentions: "According to simulation, adding 100pF to the already installed C402 56pF should lower the peak frequency to about 11MHz. I found that adding 150pF instead, for a total of 206pF, provides good results" In the conclusions, he says to use a 210pF capacitor in C402. However, such a capacitor does not seem to exist. There are plenty of 200pF and 220pF capacitors on the likes of digikey and mouser, however I can't find a 210pF capacitor. Since he says adding 100pF should work, would a 150pF, 180pF, or 200pF capacitor work in the place of a 210pF one?
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When Elecraft introduced the KH1 a year ago, I was immediately enthusiastic about the concept. A small and lightweight shortwave radio with an integrated telescopic antenna. This means that, weighing less than 400g, it can be used in any suitable location on shortwave. So I wanted to build something myself. I immediately began my own experiments with telescopic antennas for 7-30 MHz. This confirmed that a counterweight is absolutely necessary. This wire, which is a quarter of the wavelength long, contributes significantly to the radiated energy. So the idea arose to forgo the telescopic antenna and experiment with end-fed wires twice the length. Of course, it makes sense to stretch the wire as high as possible. But I also got respectable reports with EFHW lying on the ground or in bushes. In this place the antenna may detunes itself, so a tuner is necessary, as well as the standard 1:64 transformer (Unun). The tried-and-tested resonance circuit (Fuchs Kreis) performs both tasks. Once the antenna issue was resolved, QRP Labs brought out the QMX. The ideal TRX for my projects, and now even capable of SSB. Now all that was missing was a suitable housing with an integrated battery and a speaker with an amplifier. Then a paddle for CW as a contactless touch key directly on the device. And the QMX Carrot was finished. But it wasn¡¯t that simple, because everything had to be as small and light as possible. It now weighs 340g and measures 15x8.5x3.0 cm. I¡¯m happy with that. 73 Chris https://youtu.be/0kksiWVOtnQ
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I am just having some fun in the King of Spain contest . AGC is giving me some trouble. apart from vy strong stns overpowering the Rx the AGC is too slow to recover. Can anyone direct me what settings to change to ge a quick AGC ? - Martin DK3UW
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Hi, I¡¯ve had my QMX+ for a number of months and had tested the then beta now regular SSB firmware with good results except pretty low output power in SSB. As I had never gotten around to fine tune the LPFs when building it I decided this was the logical next thing. So I fiddled with spreading and compressing turns on the toroids and managed to get all bands to between 4 and 5w output for CW except 160m that was already at 6w. Running 12.0v input and build for 12v Being happy with results I then first tested resetting to factory defaults, and then tested SSB output power. Still max 2-2.5w according to the Bird. I then decided to run the SSB calibration again. Worked fine til perhaps 12m or 10m phase. I then heard some terrible noise from the speaker and saw the QMX crashing with all blocks in the display and turning itself off. I tried powering on again, but won¡¯t start now. Just blank display and current protection on PSU kicks in due to over current. I suspect maybe finals are fried with internal short as result? Jonas 7 maj 2025 kl. 23:12 skrev Stan Dye via groups.io <standye@...>: ? On Wed, May 7, 2025 at 01:38 PM, Wiggle Pig wrote: It¡¯s D503 and D504 These are placeholders for diodes that could be placed across the BS170 outputs, as was commonly done with QDX. Hans included them in the design, but has not encouraged installing the diodes, which he believes are unnecessary for QMX. They may suppress spikes, but they also add additional capacitance to the PA, which may affect it adversely in other ways. There were many posts on this list regarding this topic a year or so ago. Stan KC7XE
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How to enable the internal mic on QMX+ 1.00.02
2
There are three menu choices for enabling mic input, 1-ext mic on paddle jack, 2-internal sound card audio (digi modes) and 3-two tone test audio. How do I enable the internal mic on the front panel? I'm new to this, just built the radio yesterday, I apologize if I'm not following protocol here. THANKS! -- Larry N2AJX
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Lu7AA Tracking website question
I have a question about the LU7AA picoballoon tracking website. In both the first and second transmission there is a header listing for: Rgrid, Km, Az. In the first transmission I assume they relate to the reporter of that spot My confusion is what do they refer to in the 2nd transmission. I posted in the "picoballoon" website with no response. Is there a guide to LU7AA website by any chance? Thank you for any help Tom K1FQY
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QRPLabs kits Ultimate relay-switched LPF
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Pleading ignorance, please tell me where to find how to use one of these things. What does it fit in what other device? Is tthis part of a WSPR beacon? -- 73 Karl KI4ZUQ
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CW offset & sidetone in 1_02_00 (QMX)
4
Installed the latest firmware. I prefer a lower sidetone, so tried setting both offset and sidetone freq to 600. Normally run 580Hz, but it looks like 600 is the minimum value. This does not seem to persist, when I go back into the menu, I see it has changed back to 700... On my QCXs I just set sidetone freq to 580 and all is good. Any ideas pls ?
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Sat 8:39am
Sat 8:39am