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

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

One more on Gagarin

Bill, Pete,

In keeping with historical events, I have enclosed a few snap-shots from the 1961 Pittsburgh Press dated Wednesday, April 12, 1961.
Yes, a few of us recall that very day. I had filed this newspaper in my Scrap Book back then. It was a bitter sweet thing, to read for most, as we hoped the U.S. to be first but none-the-less, we smiled anyway because, it proved a person could go into space and return. (Flight Breaks Barrier to Space Travel). I was very enthusiastic about Rockets, Travel and current events. I built my own capsule in the rafters of my parents home and spent all day up there in the tiny confines as I launched my own secret adventures into Outer-Space.

Hope you enjoy the photos. I can provide a better set of copies if you are interested.

73's

Harv - WA3EIB
Idaho Falls, ID

Harv:   I converted a small closet into what I saw as an excellent simulator of the Apollo 11 Command Module.  Bill


Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Cosmonautics Day Follow-up

Mark, K6HX, took a break from Hummingbird photography and captured some of the images streaming down from the International Space Station on Cosmonautics Day (April 11):  http://brainwagon.org/2015/04/11/sstv-from-the-iss/  
Very cool Mark (and I think the bird pictures are just as cool!)

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

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). 


Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Happy Cosmonautics Day! Yuri Gagarin Images (SSTV) from Space This Weekend

http://m0dcm.co.uk/?tag=sstv

From the ARISS Web Site:

http://www.ariss.org/news.html

Latest NewsApril 6, 2015

ISS Slow Scan TV Expected Weekend of April 11
In celebration of Cosmonautics Day, Russian ARISS SSTV activity is planned for the second week of April.

Cosmonautics Day celebrates Yuri Gagarin’s famous flight on April 12, 1961 becoming the first human to reach space.

The SSTV event is planned for Saturday, April 11, beginning at 10:00 UTC and continuing until 21:00 UTC. All transmissions will use the high resolution SSTV mode PD180. Transmissions will be at 145.800 MHz. If similar to past events, 12 different photos will be sent through the weekend with 3 minute off periods between transmissions.

To receive the images in real time, all that’s required is a 2 meter radio receiver and a computer to convert the receiver’s audio to image form. The software to do this is available as freeware on the internet at sites such as http://hamsoft.ca/pages/mmsstv.php.  Received images can be uploaded and viewed at the ARISS Image gallery found at http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/index.php .

Those capturing images are encouraged to upload them to http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/submit.php

Uploaded images may be viewed at http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/

Please be advised that situational demands on crew time could result in postponement or cancellation of any ARISS activity. Please pay attention to the possibility of any change in scheduling.

 

 

 Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

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.  

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Termination Insensitive BITX Amps

 Back in 2009 Wes Hayward and Bob Kopski designed a termination insensitive amplifier block for use in BITX-like transceivers. Farhan urged me to use it.  The advantage of this design is that the input impedance stays at 50 ohms no matter what you hang off the other end.  That's very helpful, especially when you start trying to get specific impedances at the ends of crystal filters.   I'm planning on using this circuit in my next BITX.   This morning I was playing around with it in LTSPICE.  The "mirror" feature in that program is quite helpful when you are working on circuits like this!

Here is the article by Wes and Bob that describes this great circuit:
http://w7zoi.net/bidirectional_matched_amplifier.pdf

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Transcontinental Recording of My BITX 17

I had a nice QSO with Duke, NA1A, out there in Irvine, California on Sunday.  Duke has a deep interest in the quality of SSB signals -- he is part of the ESSB group.   So I was pleased when he said my BITX 17 sounded good.    He recorded a little bit of my transmission. Click below to listen to the BITX 17 tran-continental,  with some help from my CCI amplifier (120 W PEP) and my 17 meter Moxon antenna. 

Thanks Duke!

http://soldersmoke.com/Recording by NA1A.mp3


Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Chuck Adams' Secret Recipe for Muppet PC Boards (and lots of other homebrew tips)

A few days ago I shared an e-mail from John N8RVE on his re-build of the SW-40.   John used a "Muppet" board, Muppet being a combination of Manhattan and Ugly techniques.  But there is nothing ugly about it really.  I joked in the title of the blog post that the beauty of this technique is almost enough to get a homebrewer to abandon the Manhattan technique.  Now, I was born on Manhattan island, and I went to Manhattan College, and I have been using the Manhattan technique for many years, so there is a lot of homebrew inertia at work here.   But that SW-40 looked good.  John mentioned that Chuck Adams K7QO has a series of YouTube videos on how to make Muppet boards.   This morning as I waited for the bands to open up, I  decided to take a look. 

Wow, they are really great.  I couldn't stop watching them. I kind of "binge watched" the whole series. Chuck Adams is a really great teacher.  There are lots of great homebrew tips in those videos, and not just about the boards. I NEED one of those new G3UUR crystal testers, the version that also gives you ESR!  I WANT a laminator, an infrared thermometer, some Krylon clear, and pool chemicals!  And a harmonica reed tuner!

I've been sort of planning my next rig.  It will be a version of the BITX.  But having recently built two BITXs using the Manhattan technique, I kind of feel the need to do something different.  I am planning to use some different circuitry (termination insensitive amplifiers) and MAYBE an Si5351.  Perhaps plug-in filters.  But now I want to also move forward in terms of building technique.  I want to Muppet!

Thanks Chuck! 

Here is the link to part one of Chuck's excellent video series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6AmT1trO60


Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

VK3MO's 20 Element Monobander for 20 Meters!

 

Ian VK3MO was booming in from Australia this morning. No wonder: he has a 5 over 5 over 5 over 5 array on a rotatable tower.  He can get a 3 degree takeoff angle with this antenna and I think I heard him say that he is working on another so that he can get a one degree takeoff angle. He was also using a using a Collins 30L1 linear.  Lots of soul in that old machine!

 

At one point in our QSO, I turned off my .12 kW amplifier.  He said I was still 58-59 with 3-4 watts. 

 

And Ian is a homebrewer!   He has built a number of transceivers and has another one in the works.  I told him about the BITX and he printed out Farhan's article (to read later).   He tells me that he has heard Peter Parker, VK3YE, on the air. 

 

In this QSO, Ian was using a modern commercial rig, but wouldn't it be great if we could get him to connect a homebrew sideband rig to that big antenna.  Go for it Ian!

More on Ian's antenna here: http://vk6ysf.com/vk3mo_visit.htm


Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Our New Sponsor: HOMEBREW 4 U! 家釀的你

                                             家酿的你

As I mentioned in the last podcast, we've been in some pretty serious negotiations with a new sponsor that I think is going to bring some MAJOR changes to the podcast.

"Homebrew 4 U"  家釀的你   is an innovative new company based in Fakeszuhow, China.  Up until now they  specialized in custom circuit board manufacturing, but they recently contacted us with an expansion idea that we found very interesting.  They have been listening to the podcast, reading the ham radio magazines, and monitoring the U.S. amateur frequencies (especially 75 and 40).  They noticed some things:

Most hams DO NOT build their own gear.... but many seem to feel vaguely guilty about this. They seem to react with unease when they encounter a ham using a homebrew rig.  They grow defensive and scornful.  The jealousy is quite palpable. Obviously there is an exploitable niche in those sentiments!

Many hams express a DESIRE to build gear but then follow-up and say they "have no time" (what with all the contesting, video games, NASCAR, and golf!) 

Other hams say that they really want to build their own gear, but don't know anything about electronics (even though they are Extra Class -- how did that happen?) and they don't really want to learn.

Some hams say they would really like to build their own gear but find parts of the process quite distasteful.  Like winding toroidal coils. Or reading schematics. And then there's all that soldering!  But they insist that in spite of all this distaste for actual building, they really DO want to join the ranks of the homebrewers.

So.... Homebrew 4 U is developing a FANTASTIC product line that meets the needs of these guilty, busy, knowledge-free, toroid hating,  solder-averse homebrew wannabes!

On April 1, 2016, Homebrew 4 U will roll out a line of GENUINE homebrew radios. To bolster their genuiness, they will henceforth be referred to not as radios but as "RIGS" (nice touch, don't you think?)  

Unless the buyers select the optional "really build" option (see below), each "rig" will be complete and ready to operate.  And here is the beautiful part:  it will be a genuine homebrew rig, BECAUSE the company is doing all their work in an actual HOME in Fakezuhow! Pretty great huh?  So you WILL be able to proudly announce on 40 meters that you are running a homebrew rig (Remember: rig, not radio!)

Each of the H4U rigs will share some common features, all designed to provide the proud buyer (I mean homebrewer) with opportunities to remind people that he is running a genuine homebrew rig:

-- They will drift a bit.  Not too much, but enough to provide you with the chance to mention that your "rig" is "homebrew." Prepare to be envied my friends! 
 
-- The frequency readout will be set up to put you automatically on "wrong" frequencies. 
Like 7.162.025 instead of the "correct" 7.162.000000000000000000000000000000000000.  Again, another opportunity to gloat. Pretty neat, huh?
 
-- The audio quality on SSB will be SUPERB.  EXCELLENT.  This will provide some wonderful opportunities to compare signals with the Enhanced SSB gang.  Yours will sound as good or better than theirs, and you can follow-up by telling them that you are using a Radio Shack electret mic element, a one transistor mic amp, and NO EQUALIZER.  They'll love it!

REALLY BUILD OPTION:   For those wanting to enhance the truthiness of their on-the-air homebrew experience, for just a few dollars extra, H4U will leave one part UNCONNECTED.  You will then be able to make that critical final connection (don't worry, it won't be a toroid, and the connection will be via alligator clips -- if you've gone this far we know you don't own a soldering iron!).  You will thus be able to tell your envious interlocutors about the happy day when you "finished" your radio.  I mean rig.  You know what I mean.

Pete is heading out to China this week to supervise the manufacturing (I mean the homebrewing).  Thanks Pete!  Skype in OM!

So remember, the roll-out is set for April 1, 2016.  Watch out Yaesu! 
  

 Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20