Big News! BITX 40 Module Gets Digi Side Car! Raduino!

A very nice Christmas present from Farhan in Hyderabad!   An Si5351/Arduino Nano VFO for the ALREADY AWESOME BITX 40 Module.   I'm really glad Farhan kept the digital stuff on a separate board -- it just seems like the right way to do it. 

Details on http://hfsigs.com

Great Homebrew Interview on "QSO Today"

This week Eric 4Z1UG has a really nice interview with Jim Veatch WA2EUJ.  Jim is the three time winner of the ARRL Homebrew Challenge.  There is a very interesting discussion of Arduinos, SDR, the technology behind automatic antenna tuners, and even some Raspberry Pi.   Jim's first receiver was a Halli S38 and his first rig was a Heath HW-7. 

Listen here:

http://www.qsotoday.com/podcasts/WA2EUJ

Thanks Jim.  Thanks Eric.

Colin M1BUU's New Receiver Project

Hi Pete,

Just checking in :-)

I have actually been melting solder recently. I decided to build a little CW receiver. I love my regenerative RX that I built as a teenager, but after all these years, I'm tired of constantly tweaking the controls!

My project is a 20m CW only superhet receiver with a 9MHz home brew filter. I'm using the SI5351 for the oscillators. I originally thought I would cover multiple  bands, but for now I have the parts for 20m coverage. I might tinker with other bands at a later point.

I'm using your LBS code on the Arduino, the one for 20m with 9MHz IF. I haven't applied power to the rig yet but it's not far off fully built. I tweaked the Arduino sketch using my Uno and tonight I have successfully transferred the code to a Pro Mini. (Code went into Pro Mini on first attempt - amazing!).

73 for now,

Colin M1BUU

ZL2CTM's Teensy SDR SSB Superhet -- Very Cool

Hi Bill

I thought I would drop you a quick line to show you something I have been playing around with for the past couple of weeks. It's a SSB superhet using a PJRC Teensy 3.1 microcontroller (YouTube link below), and a great audio library by Paul Stroffregen. Suffice to say I'm really happy with it.

There is a direct conversion front end, albeit using a VFO 15kHz down from the incoming RF. The 15kHz IF is then fed into the Teensy audio line in which can handle up to 22kHz. From there everything is in software. First is a 2.4kHz BPF tuned to the LSB, followed by mixer with a 15kHz BFO. Finally, there is a 2.4kHz LPF. Next step is to add both CW-wide and CW-narrow filters which can be selected during run time.

As you can tell from the video, my antenna is not the best and I have quite a bit of QRM in the shack. I really need to think about a better antenna, but that's another story.

https://youtu.be/9-rA-VAdrZA

I have been following your R2 endeavors with interest, and as I said to Pete I will attempt to replicate the R2 on a Teensy. I will try and use the divide by 2 arrangement you tried as the logic looks right.

I will also be adding in a transmitter. For that I'll use the microphone input and then take the audio from the line out straight to the RF pre/power amp. 

I must admit that I really enjoy homebrewing hardware/software hybrids as you get the best of both worlds. As i say that, I wonder how much ADCs cost these days to directly digitize RF...  Now that would be interesting.

I'll say again that I really enjoy following the podcast. I have loved electronics since I was a small boy when my parents bought me a battery, switch and light bulb. This age of cheap DDSs, microcontrollers and the like is amazing, and I get so much enjoyment putting them all together to make functioning ham radios. I hope more get into the homebrew field as the entry barrier is dropping fast.  

Keep up the good work.

73s

Charlie

ZL2CTM

A Snow Day Well-Spent: Chris Modulates an AD9850

Feb 10 at 7:40 AM
Hi Bill and Pete,
My work is closed today due to the snow so I wanted to show you what I've been up to.
I built sort of a test fixture a while back for those cheapie EBay AD9850 boards based on AD7C's DDS circuit using an Arduino Uno as a controller.
Last summer someone posted a link to Analog Devices App note AN-423 on QRP-Tech I think.
It was always on my list of things to try.
Armed with a schematic of the eBay DDS gleaned from Doug Pongrance's website, I got to work. It involved cutting a trace or two on the DDS board using an X-Acto knife.
Two outputs of the DDS chip are fed into a wideband transformer as in the app note's second page and I hung a scope probe off the secondary of the transformer.
Basically you are removing the Rset resistor on the DDS board (marked R6 on mine) and using a 2N7000 MOSFET as an electronic version variable resistor and modulating the MOSFET.
This lead to much frustration over the afternoon. No output on the scope!! Did I make an error or connect something up wrong? I was using the 600 ohm output of my HP652A audio generator. I thought about it during lunch and decided to try the 50 ohm output. Bingo!! At the 3V RMS range setting on the generator I now have some kind of signal. Not a nice sine wave shaped AM output but at least something resembling a clipped sine wave. The circuit is really touchy as far as needing a hefty audio signal in. The output of my iPhone at max volume doesn't turn on the DDS chip.
I set the DDS for 1200 kHz and can listen to it on a Radio Shack portable radio. Varying the audio generator varies the received tone on the radio just like I was expecting.
I just need to figure out what's up with the audio levels.
Chris
KD4PBJ

Feb 11 at 7:53 AM

I did manage to reduce the audio a little and get clipping to go away. I'll send another set of oscilloscope shots tonight. 

The only thing I don't get is why the audio level needs to be so high. The app note said 1 V peak to peak should be enough but I am having to drive it with 7 V p-p audio to get a decent waveform with 0.8 V p-p RF. 

I did cut the traces going to pins 12,20 and 21 to the DDS chip rather than pick up the signals elsewhere in the board. This was because once the traces go into vias down in the board, I'm not sure what else they connect to. 

Chris

Feb 11 at 1243 PM

Found the original email from May of last year about the app note. It was on the EMRFD list. After hearing you guys lately talking about AM it has me excited about an AM transmitter. 

I just got a thought over lunch that I'm going to try tonight and that is biasing the 2N7000 gate with a couple of volts to see if I can get the transistor on. Then maybe I don't need as much audio. I'll definitely put a series cap in though to my audio source so I don't fry my iPhone!!!

More to come this evening!

Chris

Feb 11 11:23 PM

I'm so excited!!

That's exactly what I needed to do-bias the gate of that 2N7000 so I'm not depending on the audio to turn it on, only to modulate it. 

I hooked up a 9v battery across a 10 k trim pot and connected the wiper to the gate of the fet. A 10 uF cap is in series with my audio line as not to feed DC back into my source. 

I have audio and now the output of a small radio or iPhone modulates it fine. 

So this is a great proof of concept! Those cheapie DDS modules from China can be AM modulated. 

I need a mic amp now, filter (surgery to the board disabled the on board LPF, but yes Steve I'll install one right away), buffer amp and some kind of linear RF amp to get a few watts. 

Chris 

Here's a video of Chris's project:

 

 

Arduino Problems -- Back from the Ledge

As I was struggling through this, someone -- who will remain nameless -- told me that because of all the technical problems resulting from the many Arduino IDE "upgrades," suicide prevention hotlines now answer all calls with an automated question:  "If you are calling about an Arduino problem, press 1 for assistance."

It got pretty ugly but with the help of Tom up in NYC I managed to get through it. First he convinced me that it is indeed POSSIBLE to upload the latest version of the IDE -- the dreaded 1.6.7.   I just had to REALLY get rid of earlier versions.  This got me past the horrible Bundled Java Runtime Environment problem (who thinks up these names?).

We then worked with the libraries needed to upload the AD9850 code of Richard AD7C.  You see, I work on Arduino stuff.   Then I stop.  18 months pass.  I forget all I learned.  Then I start over.  The pain begins again.  In an effort to break this cycle, I am now taking notes (in the inside cover of Mario Banzi's book).

I am using the AD9850 with a Kanga Arduino shield designed by Paul M0XPD.   It takes the AD9850 output, divides by 4 and puts it out as 2 square waves in quadrature.  I use this with my R2 phasing receiver.   The problem was that the display on the Arduino showed a freq 4 times the actual tuning freq.  Believe me, this gets old fast.  I considered just getting a San Jian freq counter and supergluing it on the top of the DDS box.  I was going to connect this to the square wave output.  That would have given me one readout with the actual receive freq, and another (on the Arduino) showing the (4X) freq coming out of the AD9850.  But that would have been too much of a Kludge. Tom talked me out of it and modified the code so that the Arduino display shows the actual receive freq.   Thanks Tom.  

Armed with the new IDE and with my knowledge of Arduino basics refreshed, I was able to reload the LA3PNA Si5351 code into my 40 meter DIGI-TIA.  But not before having to swap out the Arduino that drives the Si5351.   One Arduino happily accepted the code, another did not.  Why?  Who knows?  It is a digital mystery.  Those little 1s and 0s are fickle you know.

The Radio Gods rewarded me for all this.  At about 5:45 AM today I was listening to a very friendly SSB roundtable on 160.  The guys were getting ready to sign off.  The last one ended the conversation by asking the others to "Be kind.  Smile at your neighbors."  Nice.
Then WFAX AM started the broadcast day at 6 am, wiping out my 160 meter reception.  Next project:  High-Pass filter at 1.7 MHz.

A Good Radio Morning at N2CQR

The Radio Gods were smiling upon me this morning.  I started out on 17 meters and had three nice contacts with European stations:  OH5CZ, a young fellow near Helsinki;  HB8DQL; then RM2D in Moscow. FB.

Then Pete showed up on the Skype. As he has said on his blog, he is still struggling with a family medical emergency, but I am happy to report that he is coping well, making good use of his can-do project manager background and his good sense of humor.  It was great to see him.

Inspired by my talk with Pete, with 40 meter AM playing in the background, I turned to my R2 FRANKENSTEIN phasing receiver.  Last night I completed the 90 degree phase shift network.  This is built around two quad op-amp chips and is designed to take the audio output from the two DC receivers and create a 90 degree phase difference between them.  I tested this stage by sending the same audio into each set of op amps.  I then put one scope probe in the output of one chain of op amps, and the other probe on the output on the other chain.  Wow.  Bingo.  90 degrees of phase shift across the 300 -- 3000 Hz audio spectrum. 

Emboldened by this positive result, I put the completed stages together this morning.  They passed the smoke test.  Then I tuned to 40 meters.   Wow again!  As promised, opposite sideband rejection without resort to crystal filters.  But as luck would have it, I ended up with a configuration that suppressed the Lower Sideband.  For 40 meters, obviously I needed to suppress the other side of zero beat.  But all I had to do to remedy this was to reach into the DDS box and switch the I and Q jumpers on the M0XPD/Kanga UK Arduino AD9850 shield.  This switch put me on LSB.  Very cool.

Here is a view from above:

The AD9850/Arduino DDS box is in the bottom center.  Above that, near the center of the picture,  is the board (from N6QW) with the two SBL-1 mixers and the initial AF amp stages.  The small green board above that is the IC phase shift network.  At the top of the picture you see the 3000 Hz low pass filter. Below that, the board with the little blue pot has an IC AF amplifier and a 300 HZ high pass filter.


I still have to build the audio amplifiers prescribed by the designer, Rick Campbell KK7B.   But obviously I am already having a lot of fun with phasing.  Here is the QST article on Rick Campbell's R2 receiver:
https://www.arrl.org/files/file/Technology/tis/info/pdf/9301032.pdf

N8NM: Thermatron Meets Silicon (Part II or III)

Steve N8NM has been pushing the limits of radio hybridization.  In this receiver he has 12AX7 thermatrons running alongside an Arduino and a Si5351.  Somehow I find this both very appealing and deeply disturbing.  Many of you will know what I mean. But FB Steve -- keep them coming.  Put these unique rigs on the air and strike a blow against the Yaesu-Icom-Kenwood monotony!   

Bill:

Here's a pic of a Thermatron-Meets-Silicon receiver that I've been working on.  Tubes are 12AT7 mixer, 2x6BA6 IF amps, 2x12AX7 (product detector, AGC amp and 1st AF) and 6AQ5 audio out.  An Arduino controlled Si5351 provides the LO and BFO as well as handling all of the switching, and the mixer and product detector use variations on Dr. Pullen's dual-triode circuit.  I've had this one on the air, but the hardware and software still need some, um, refinement.  And painting the panel has to wait until spring as my XYL doesn't share my affinity for paint fumes.

73 - Steve

November 2015 QST -- Wrist Radios, Phase Noise, and a 1958 BITX!

A Early BITX

I liked this issue.  Highlights:

Page 30.  Glen Popiel's article on the Arduino.

Page 33.  I know this may come as a surprise, but in spite of my admitted Ludite tendencies, I found the article on High-Speed Wireless Networking to be very intriguing.   

Page 38.  Hey!  Mike Aiello N2HTT has an article about an Arduino-based CW recorder.  FB Mike!

Page 54.  Review of LNR LD-5 QRP Transceiver. "The LD-5 is actually an SDR in a box with switches and knobs..."  They give a phase noise graph.

Page 58.  Review of Synthesizer upgrade for the Elecraft K3.  Uh-oh.  Phase noise again.  The review says the upgrade results in a reduction of phase noise, but the graphs seem to show an increase in transmitted phase noise on 20 meters as soon as you go 10 kHz from the transmit frequency.  I guess this is a tradeoff for a larger decrease in close-in (less than 1 kHz spacing) phase noise?  But if the objective on the transmit side is to deal with "a major problem with multiple operators in the same band segment in close proximity" resulting from transmitted phase noise,  is this a good trade-off?   Also, it would  have been interesting to know if the reviewer could detect -- by ear -- any improvement in the received signal.  

Wayne Burdick, N6KR, of Elecraft e-mailed us to let us know that there was an error in this QST article.  The original graph in the article showed an improvement in phase noise at close-in frequencies, but it also showed a significant worsening of the phase noise beyond 10 kHz.  THIS CHART WAS INCORRECT.    The Upgrade does, in fact, improve the phase noise performance.  A corrected version of the article appears here:

    http://www.elecraft.com/K3/QST%20KSYN3A%20revised.pdf

 

Here is the corrected graph:

 

 

Page 71.  My nightmare.  The WristRig.  The Apple Watch on 40 meters.  Sorry Steve, Dick Tracey did not have The Knack, and tackling the "Apple Watch challenge" is not an indication of "homebrew chops."  Software coding chops yes, but homebrewing is, for me, a different thing.   (But, as we always say, too each his own... And thanks to Steve for the interesting article. )

Page 82.  Ross Hull.  Very interesting article, especially the part about OM Ross's untimely death by electrocution.

Page 100.  "The Cosmophones" by Joe Veras.  Cool pictures (as always) from Joe.  And I loved the first lines:  "What in the world is a bilateral transceiver?  Byron Goodman, W1DX, posed that question in his June 1958 QST review of  the Cosmophone 35."    Wow, four months before my birth By Goodman was writing about BITXs in QST!

Rocketry with Arduinos -- Update on Carbon Origins

I wrote earlier about these students and their cool Apollo telemetry device.  Here is an update. 

http://makezine.com/2015/07/21/carbon-origins-space-chase/


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Interview in China with Arduino's Massimo Banzi: "Be nice!"

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Two Party Balloons, an Arduino and an Si5351 FLY! ALOFT! UP IN THE AIR!

http://www.qrp-labs.com/ultimate3/balloon.html

Farhan alerted me to this.  This is clearly the coolest use so far of the Dynamic Duo (Arduino+Si5351).

It took me a moment to get my head around this.  It is so fantastic.  Let me break it down for you:

You take two party balloons.  You build a little payload consisting of an Arduino Nano, an Si5351 board, a GPS module and a battery.  You load the Nano with firmware that will take the GPS info and transmit it via WSPR and JT9.   Then you release the whole thing and sit back to receive the telemetry packets that tell you where the thing is.  Very cool.  Very cool indeed.  

THE Si5351 SERVES AS THE WHOLE TRANSMITTER.  It connects to the antenna.  (Steve Smith will, I'm sure,  insists on a low pass filter, even here!)

Here is a similar project: 

http://picospace.net/

And be sure to stop by the QRP Labs online store.  Lots of good stuff there:

https://shop.qrp-labs.com/

I've been interested in balloons for a long time.  A few years ago Billy, Maria and I released a party balloon over Northern Virginia with a note requesting that the finder send us an e-mail (It landed about 10 miles away, across the Potomac river, in Washington D.C.).   Here is a picture of a paper-mache hot-air  balloon that we built and flew near Lavallette, New Jersey (Ocean Beach Unit III) sometime around 1969.  Many of the kids in the picture are my cousins:

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BITX DIGI-TIA Build Update #3 Video of Receiver in Operation

A few things I forgot to mention in the video:

That USB port on the front panel has already come in handy.  I needed to switch the tuning increment from 1 kHz to 100 Hz.   I just went into the Arduino program, removed one zero, and then re-uploaded the code.  

I also put to use the sideband inversion rule-of-thumb:  My IF is at 9 MHz.  I want to receive signals in the 7.2 MHz range, and I want the VFO running ABOVE the IF frequency.  So obviously the VFO will be running at around 16.2 MHz.  So, rule-of-thumb time:  Will I be subtracting the frequency with modulation from the frequency without modulation?  Yes I will!  So, there will be sideband inversion.  This tells me where to position my BFO frequency.   The signals on 40 start out as Lower Sideband.  But as explained above, by the time they get to the filter they will be inverted and will be upper sideband signals.  So I need to put the BFO slightly BELOW the filter passband so that I can tune the signals in such a way as the sidebands fit into the filter passband and have the proper frequency relationship to the BFO to allow for demodulation. I put it at 8.9986 MHz.  With the Si5351, changes to the BFO and VFO frequencies are very easy.

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VK2YAC's Yard-long, In-The-Yard, Bidirectional, Backyard Si5351 Rig

Alf, VK2YAC, wrote to Pete thanking him for the inspiration provided by the LBS project that Pete and Ben launched via QRP Quarterly.   Alf has obviously taken to heart Pete's recommendation re using a BIG breadboard.  

On his web page Alf writes: "Build your homebrew station and join the revolution, it's lots of fun!"   We're with you Alf! 
Alf has more great pictures of his BBR-40 rig and short descriptions of the sub-circuits he has used.  Note Si5351 with Arduino Pro-Mini for BFO and VFO.

http://qsl.net/vk2yac/Page2.html 


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"Basta Blues" with Pete Juliano on the Guitar

What makes this short video special is the fact that the music was all completely designed (composed) and homebrewed (played) by Pete himself.

From Pete:

In Italian when one has finally had enough --the Hue and Cry is BASTA! I have been having some Basta Moments in trying to make Arduino 1.6.3 work with sketches developed in Version 1.0.5.

So for some comic relief I decided to program a 240X320 Color TFT with a random pattern generator using the word Basta! Of course is was done in Arduino 1.0.5!
Pete N6QW

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SolderSmoke, ArduinWoes, and BrainwagonBastas!

It might not be apparent, but I have it on good authority the guy with the blue face pulling the Brainwagon was saying "BASTA!" when this drawing was made,  probably after an evening spent with Arduinos and their fascinating I2C libraries. 

Mark, K6HX, kindly offered to help us with our ArduinWoes (painful details are available in SolderSmoke Podcast #175).   Mark went to the trouble of getting the display and I2C backpack that have been giving us trouble, and then went and did a lot of testing to find the origins of the problems.   He has written this all up in two brilliant blog posts: 

http://brainwagon.org/2015/04/21/a-not-entirely-simple-lcd-display-for-the-arduino/

http://brainwagon.org/2015/04/22/using-a-sainsmart-lcd-panel-with-the-arduino-1-6-3-ide/

You will notice that Mark has made quite liberal use of the word "basta."   As Pete has noted, in order to get the full effect of this very therapeutic Italian word, you have to make use of the correct hand gesture.  Veronika nails it at about 1:28 in this video  (WARNING: VERONIKA CAN BE QUITE EXPLICIT):



Thanks Mark for all your help on this.  I'm not sure if we are entirely out of the woods yet, but it is reassuring that we are not the only ones screaming...
 

. 

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Progress! Si5351 VFO/BFO Working

 

I got the Si5351 portion of the new rig going today.  I used an Arduino program from Thomas LA3PNA.  It is relatively barebones, without a lot of bells and whistles, but it does just what I need:   it puts out a fixed BFO frequency and a variable VFO frequency, and displays the resulting transmit frequency.   Thanks Thomas, and thanks to Jason, NT7S, for his work on the Arduino libraries that make this all possible.

 

 

It is very simple:  Just an Arduino Uno with the Si5351 board sitting above it on a proto board that Pete sent me (thanks Pete!).  You can see the rotary encoder on the panel, and the 10K pot to set the brightness of the back-lit display.   I put the Arduino USB port on the front to make it easier to update the software, change the BFO freq. etc.    I'm going to use another cigar box wooden box for this projects, so the VFO/BFO front panel board was sized with that box in mind.  

 

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SolderSmoke 175 Mellow Audio, Pete in China, JBOM&BITX, ArduinoWoe, BFOVFO Chip, Chuck Adams, Mailbag

SolderSmoke Podcast #175 is available:

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke175.mp3

18 April 2015

-- Some enhanced audio testing (Mellow, with Presence!)
-- Pete's trip to Fake-shu-out, China
-- My visit to the National Academy of Sciences
--Bench Reports:
   Pete's JBOM Re-born
   Bill's plans for a new SSB Transceiver
-- Arduino Woes   BASTA!!!!!!!!!!!
-- Si5351 VFO/BFO development 
-- Chuck Adams, Tribal Knowledge, and Muppet boards
-- KX3 QRO?
-- What antenna for Pete?
MAILBAG

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Once again, into the digital morass...

Well, it has happened to me yet again:  After a somewhat happy period of stubborn luddite rejection of digital technology, yesterday I decided to jump into the fascinating world of Si5351 PLL chips.  I don't have to tell you who is responsible for this decision.  But he is of Italian descent and lives in Southern California.

I'm working with an Arduino Uno board and a prototyping shield sent to me by the same Italo-Californian gentleman.  The physical wiring of the Si5351 was remarkably easy -- just four connections.  Wow, I thought, this is going to be easy.  WRONG. 

Lady Ada's sketch and library compiled and uploaded without difficulty and the little device was simultaneously spitting out 125 MHz, 13 MHz, and 10 kHz energy.  Pretty cool.

But I got into trouble when I tried to load some of the VFO circuits out there.  Most of the trouble was caused by my errors in managing all the libraries and such.  But as I was telling Billy, it really seems to me that the folks who work on this stuff are using another language. And the problem is that it is a NON-HUMAN LANGUAGE.   If it were French or even Chinese, it would probably be easier. But you end up getting error "messages" like "U-int-8 has not been declared!"   Oh, I see.  I found myself thinking back fondly to my recent problems on 40 meters with the screeching amp and the helpful ESSB guys.  Ah, the good old days.

So, I'm not going as far as declaring microcontrollers to be demonically possessed (remember the regens?)  But I do suspect extraterrestrial involvement in these little devices. 

In the end, I got several of the VFO sketches working.  You get a sense of how new the Si5351 VFO work is when you find yourself using code that was written last week or last month.  Thanks to Lady Ada, Pete N6QW, Jason NT7S, Tom AK2B, and Thomas LA3PNA.  All of these folks are doing great work, moving the radio art forward (even if they are working with ET). 


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The Slaughter of Inductors, Capacitors, and Crystals Continues...

 

Oh the humanity!  Pete Juliano has turned his digital attention to previously completed projects.  Perfectly fine rigs -- whose only crime was that they used LC or crystal (VXO) oscillators -- are now being ARDUINOED by the maniacal Dr. Juliano.  Not even Huff and Puffs will be spared.  This is like the French Revolution!   We hear that Pete has even mastered the art of cutting the square holes that are needed for his "displays," so there is no stopping him now.  

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