Tag Archives: Pete (WB9FLW)

Announcements, Kits, News, Product Announcements, QRP

uBITX v6 QRP transceiver now available for $150/$199 US

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Many thanks to QRPer, Pete (WB9FLW), who notes that Ashhar Farhan (VU2ESE) has recently announced the availability of the uBITX v 6.0–as Pete notes, “just in time for the Holidays!“

Pete shared the following message from Farhan:

Here is what [the uBITx v 6.0] looks like :

And of course, you can buy it on hfsignals.com. The shipping will happen from Tuesday onwards. We have a limited supply of the first 200 boards. The rest is for after Christmas.

The most important thing about this revision is that the Radio circuitry is almost unchanged. We have incorporated the connectors on the PCBs. So, this kit needs none of the confusing soldering. You snap in the TFT Raduino onto the main board, plug the power and antenna from the back, snap on headphones, plug in the mic (supplied with the kit) and off you go!

It is offered in two kits now : The basic kit (150 USD) is without the box (like old times) but with a microphone and two acrylic templates for the front and back panels.

The Full kit (199 USD) has the box with speaker, mounting hardware etc. Both are described on the website.

Now, about the TFT display:

For those who are using the 16×2 display and you would like to upgrade, you will have to do three things:

Add a heatsink to the 7805 of the raduino

Buy [here] and hook it up as per [this article].

Grab the new Arduino sketch from https://github.com/afarhan/ubitxv6

Background:

I have been hacking away at adding a TFT display for the Arduino for sometime. Finally, I managed to do this with a really inexpensive 2.8 inch TFT display that uses a controller called the ILI9341. The display update is slow but, clever guy that I am, the display very usable. it uses the same pins that earlier connected to the 16×2 LCD display. This display is available everywhere for a few dollars.

Many thanks, Pete, for sharing this announcement. The price was simply too attractive to me, so I just purchased the full kit for $199 US. (Thanks for being the good enabler you are, Pete!)

I’ll post an update when I receive the transceiver and assemble it. I do hope this is a workable little radio–it would be pretty amazing for newcomers to the hobby to be able to get on the HF bands for a mere $200 US. I also love the fact that this is all based on open-source, hackable technologies.

FT8, Kits, News, Product Announcements, QRP

QRPGuys new DSB Digital Transceiver kit

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Many thanks to QRPer, Pete (WB9FLW), who writes:

QRPGuys has just introduced a new Multiband DSB Digital Transceiver for FT8.

QRPGuys DSB Digital Transceiver Kit

At $40 it introduces a new price point for such Rigs as it includes band modules for 40/30/20 Meters! For those wanting to experiment with different Bands extra bare boards are available for sale.

The rig as it comes is crystal controlled for FT8 but fear not the main board includes connections for an external VFO. As an example one could use one of the very popular Si5351 VFO Kits and be able to QSY to operate the different modes available to the Amateur Community today.

Let the fun begin 🙂

Pete WB9FLW

Thanks so much for the tip, Pete! What a great little project!

Click here to check out the DSB Digital Transceiver at QRPguys.

FT8, Homebrew, News, Software Defined Radio

The Hermes-Lite SDR: an open source QRP transceiver based on a broadband modem chip

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Note: This is a cross-post from the SWLing Post.

Many thanks to Pete (WB9FLW), who shares the following:

Don’t know if you are familiar with this project, a full blown 5 watt HF SDR Transceiver for less than $300!

No sound cards, DUC/DDC architecture.

Here’s the project description by Steve Haynal via YouTube:

The Hermes-Lite is a low-cost direct down/up conversion software defined amateur radio HF transceiver based on a broadband modem chip and the Hermes SDR project. It is entirely open source and open hardware, including the tools used for design and fabrication files. Over 100 Hermes-Lite 2.0 units have been successfully built.

The FOSSi Foundation is proud to announce Latch-Up, a conference dedicated to free and open source silicon to be held over the weekend of May 4th and 5th in Portland, Oregon, USA. Latch-Up: a weekend of presentations and networking for the open source digital design community, much like its European sister conference ORConf. Produced by NDV.

Click here to view this presentation on YouTube.

Fascinating! Thank you for sharing, Pete!

FT8, Kits, News, Product Announcements

FT8 transceiver kit: CR Kits taking orders

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The CR Kits DSB Transceiver prototype (Source: CR Kits)

Many thanks to Pete (WB9FLW) who writes:

Thomas,
Adam of CR Kits is now taking orders for his FT8 Transceiver Kit and the price is very reasonable.

From Adam at CR Kits:

FT8 transceiver kit

Folks,
I start to take email order now. The introductory price is 39 USD for kit including shipping to worldwide. As in the introductory period, you will get audio cable options for free. The earliest possible shipment date is now improved to May 13.

You can directly PayPal to [email protected] and let me know 40m or 20m (80m not ready yet). I will ship based on the sequence of receiving your payment. I may delay shipment for one week or two due to workload.

This is the spec so far:

Summary: Crystal controlled single frequency DSB transceiver for 20m (14.074MHz), 40m (7.074MHz) or 80m (3.573MHz), other frequencies could be added per requestPower supply: 10-14V DC regulated power supply or battery pack, 12V is recommended, center positive, reverse polarity protection availableCurrent consumption in RX: about 15mA at 12VCurrent consumption in TX: about 300mA at 12VRF output: about 1W for 40m band at 12V, and a bit less for 20m bandSpurious suppression: no worse than -50dBcAntenna connector: BNC connector, 50 ohmAudio in connector: 3.5mm mono, at least 600mV to activate VOX, connects to headphone connector at PC sound card, no dedicated PTT connector is requiredAudio out connector: 3.5mm mono, connects to microphone connector at PC sound cardAmber LED: TX statusGreen LED: RX statusFrequency accuracy: -600 Hz ~ + 200 HzFrequency stability: Okay for FT8 mode per test. If the optional heater resistor R20* is added, after warm up, long term frequency stability in 10 min will be improved at the cost of acceptable short term frequency stability sacrifice in 30 sec.
Thanks, Adam

Click here to check out the FT8 DSB Transceiver via CR Kits.

Homebrew, Kits, News, QRP

How To Convert QRP Labs QCX Transceiver to SSB

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Many thanks to Pete (WB9FLW) who shares the following:

This is truly amazing, Guino PE1NNZ has converted the QRP Labs $49 CW Transceiver to SSB.

Not much to add, a ATMEGA328P plus some firmware and a few component value changes and you’ve got a $50 SSB Transceiver!

(Source: GitHub)

This is a simple and experimental modification that transforms a QCX into a (Class-E driven) SSB transceiver. It can be used to make QRP SSB contacts, or (in combination with a PC) used for the digital modes such as FT8. It can be fully-continuous tuned through bands 160m-10m in the LSB/USB-modes with a 2400Hz bandwidth has up to 5W PEP SSB output and features a software-based full Break-In VOX for fast RX/TX switching in voice and digital operations.

The SSB transmit-stage is implemented completely in a digital and software-based manner: at the heart the ATMEGA328P is sampling the input-audio and reconstructing a SSB-signal by controlling the SI5351 PLL phase (through tiny frequency changes over 800kbit/s I2C) and controlling the PA Power (through PWM on the key-shaping circuit). In this way a highly power-efficient class-E driven SSB-signal can be realized; a PWM driven class-E design keeps the SSB transceiver simple, tiny, cool, power-efficient and low-cost (ie. no need for power-inefficient and complex linear amplifier with bulky heat-sink as often is seen in SSB transceivers).

An Open Source Arduino sketch is used as the basis for the firmware, the hardware modification bypasses the QCX CW filter and adds a microphone input in-place of the DVM-circuit; the mod is easy to apply and consist of four wire and four component changes and after applying the transceiver remains compatible with the original QCX (CW) firmware.

This experiment is created to try out what can be done with minimal hardware; a simple ATMEGA processor, a QCX and a software-based SSB processing approach. It would be nice to add more features to the sketch, and try out if the QCX design can be further simplified e.g. by implementing parts of the receiver stage in software. Feel free to experiment with this sketch, let me know your thoughts or contribute here: https://github.com/threeme3/QCX-SSB There is a forum discussion on the topic here: QRPLabs Forum

Click here for full project details via GitHub.

73, Guido [email protected]

Wow! What a brilliant modification, Pete! Thank you for sharing.

Kits, News, Product Announcements

The CR Kits FT8 DSB Transceiver: Some preliminary information

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Many thanks to Pete (WB9FLW) who notes:

Adam BD6CR of CR Kits is getting close to releasing the FT8 DSB Transceiver. Below is some preliminary information:

D4D: A simple QRP transceiver for FT8

Adam Rong, BD6CR

D4D stands for DSB transceiver for Digital modes. It is a Double Sided Band transceiver kit designed for digital modes, especially for FT8. If have chance to try FT8, you will be amazed by the strong decoding capability offered by the communication protocol, digital signal processing and software. I still remember clearly a YouTube video by W6LG who communicated with bulbs. I started to think how much the transceiver could be simplified if you have a moderate antenna like a full sized dipole or EFHW.

A DSB transceiver is much simpler than a usual SSB transceiver, however it was never used for FT8 as far as I know. I did some experiments on my Choc perf board. I started with a direct conversion receiver for FT8 and it worked okay. Then I made a DSB transmitter and the transmitted signal can be decoded. By referring to the designs of AA7EE, VK3YE and ZL2BMI, I combined them using only one NE602 and a PTT switch and it gave me success to make a few FT8 QSO’s.

Personally I really enjoyed it because a manual PTT switch will save power consumption and circuit complexity, but you will need to well sync with computer, although it was not really a problem for me. Per request from a few hams, I found a VOX control circuit and modify the hold time to be compatible with FT8, and I put them together and made a few improvements on the signal purity and frequency stability, and it became our D4D. Do we have to worry about the unwanted Lower Side Band? Maybe, but for a transmitter of 1-watt, it is not really a big problem. Is it just a toy for a transmitter of 1-watt and only half of the power will be effective? Not really, as I can easily make a few QSO’s as far as 1500 miles range for 40-meter band.

Here is the brief specifications I have measured (subject to change without notice):

Summary: Crystal controlled single frequency DSB transceiver for 20m (14.074MHz), 40m (7.074MHz) or 80m (3.573MHz), other frequencies could be added per request
Power supply: 10-14V DC regulated power supply or battery pack, 12V is recommended, center positive, reverse polarity protection available
Current consumption in RX: 15mA
Current consumption in TX: about 260mA(?) at 12V, and about 300mA at 13.8V
RF output: about 1W for 20m band at 12V, a bit more for lower bands like 40m and 80m
Spurious suppression: no worse than -50dBc
Antenna connector: BNC connector, 50 ohm
Audio in connector: 3.5mm mono, at least 600mV to activate VOX, connects to headphone connector at PC sound card, no dedicated PTT connector is required
Audio out connector: 3.5mm mono, connects to microphone connector at PC sound card
Amber LED: TX status
Green LED: RX status
Frequency stability: Okay for FT8 mode per test. If the optional heater resistor R20* is added, after warm up of about 3 min, long term frequency stability in 10 min will be improved at the cost of acceptable short term frequency stability sacrifice in 30 sec.

Let us briefly go through the circuit: The input audio will activate the VOX circuit of D2 (1N4148), Q5 (2N3906), Q6 (2N3904), Q7 (2N3904) and Relay. The relay is a DPDT type and controls both antenna and power supply. The LPF consists of L2, L3 and surrounding capacitors, and it is switched to either transmitter output or receiver input. The power supply is polarity protected by D1 (1N5817) and switched to either receiver circuit or transmitter circuit. The receiver circuit is only for audio amplifier consists of Q1 (2N3904) and optional heater resistor R20*, while the transmitter circuit is for RX muter Q8 (2N3904), TX driver Q3 (2N3904) and TX final Q4 (BD139). X1 is a filter in the receiver front end to help eliminate strong broadcast interference, and X2 is the crystal for the built-in oscillator in U1 (NE602). U2 (78L05) is the 5V regulator for U1, and Q2 (2N3904) is a buffer amplifier in the TX chain.

Thanks for sharing this, Pete! What a simple transceiver concept!

We’ll post updates as they become available.

Click here to view CRkits.com.

FT8, Homebrew, News

A Simple and Low Cost FT8 Transceiver

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Many thanks to Pete (WB9FLW) who writes:

Adam Rong BD6CR has designed a simple DSB Transceiver for FT8. Crystals are available for 7.074 MHz. and 14.070 MHz (which can be “pulled” with a trimmer to 14.074 MHz).

Using only 4 Transistors, 2 IC’s, 3 Toroids, 5 Diodes/LED’s and a handful of resistors and capacitors this one watt wonder will get you on the air in no time.

Click to enlarge.

One could build this on Perfboard (see above), or use Ugly/Manhattan style construction. There are no plans for a circuit board.

Adam posted this on groups.io crkit:

“I built this 7074 DSB 1-watt radio and made 6 FT8 QSO with JA stations in 15 mins last weekend. It is fun to operate by switching PTT manually to keep it simple and lower current consumption.”

For more info check out crkits groups.io.

Wow! Thank you for sharing this Pete. I’ll have to give this a go myself!

Kits, Morse Code, News, QRP Radios

Four State QRP Group announce the Hilltopper 40

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Many thanks to Pete (WB9FLW) who notes that the Four State QRP Group is now shipping the Hilltopper 40 transceiver.

Here are details from the Four State QRP Group website:

Dave Benson K1SWL, founder of the renown Small Wonder Labs, listened to you and has designed a 40 meter version of his winning Hilltopper design. Four State QRP Group is honored to have been selected to kit the new transceiver. The Hilltopper is a high performance CW transceiver for the 40M meter band. It is the perfect solution to your portable operation needs – small, lightweight, wide 40 meter frequency coverage and low current drain, extending the life of your portable power source. The receiver is adapted from K1SWL’s SW+ Series with minor modifications. The front-end circuitry was revised to replace the now-vanished 10.7 MHz IF transformers. The receiver output is suitable for headphone use.

The transmitter strip is a proven design using three BS170 transistors for the PA. The frequency source for both transmitting and receiving is a DDS VFO employing a Si5351 PLL module. Control for the rig is provided by an Atmel ATmega328P. This runs both the frequency control and the full-featured CW keyer.

A custom silk-screened PCB enclosure is included with the kit. No drilling or cutting required!

There are two pre-installed SMT ICs on the board, but the remainder are ALL THROUGH HOLE parts, and all jacks and connectors are board mounted, the combination making this kit very easy to assemble with no external wiring needed.

Click here to check out the Hilltopper 40.

News, Product Announcements

The HobbyPCB IQ-32: A general coverage portable QRP transceiver with color touch screen now shipping

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Many thanks to Pete (WB9FLW) who shares the following information regarding HobbyPCB’s much-anticipated portable transceiver which is now shipping.  The price is a competitive $529.00.

The following information comes from the HobbyPCB website:

The IQ32 is 5W output, 80-10M Amateur Radio transceiver with powerful 32 bit processing providing high-end features at an entry level price. The IQ32’s 3.2″ color LCD touch-screen display and dual control knobs provide an enjoyable operating experience in a robust package.

Available for immediate delivery!

Introducing the HobbyPCB IQ32 HF transceiver, based on the high performance RS-HFIQ RF system, the receiver in the IQ32 consists of 5 band-pass filters to reject out-of-band signals, an LNA with frequency dependent gain and a conventional quadrature down-converter. The transmitter features a Class A, 5W power amplifier with individual low-pass filters for each band to exceed FCC requirements for spectral purity.

The IQ32 features a large, color, touch-screen display providing an enhanced user interface and informative spectrum and waterfall displays found on radios costing much more. With a powerful STM-32 DSP processor, the IQ32 transceiver has variable filtering, multi-mode AGC, memory functions, built-in PSK encode/decode with keyboard support.

5W not enough power? Add a HARDROCK-50 to your station to boost up to 50W. The IQ32 and HARDROCK-50 seamlessly integrate together for a powerful mobile/base station!

Simple upgradeable firmware, no connection to a computer required, no drivers, no cables. Simply insert a thumb-drive with the appropriate file and the IQ32 updates its own firmware.

Specifications

  • Frequency Range: 3-30MHz (performance guaranteed on 80/60/40/30/20/17/15/12/10M ham bands)
  • Sensitivity: MDS < -128 dBm on 80M dropping to < -135 on 10M
  • Noise Figure: < 8 dB
  • TX Power: 5W typical, 4W minimum
  • LO Feed-thru: < -50 dBc @ 5W output
  • Spurious and Harmonics: < -50 dBc typical
  • DC Power: 13.8VDC, 2 amp max
  • Size: 172mm x 105mm X 75mm
  • Weight: < 700 grams
  • Display: 3.2″ Color LCD Touchscreen
  • Modes: USB, LSB, CW, PSK 31
  • DSP Processor: STM-32, 32 Bit

Click here to download the manual.

Pete also notes:

If one already has the RS-HFIQ board fear not an upgrade kit is available:

https://hobbypcb.com/products/hf-radio/iq32-upgrade

Thank you for sharing this, Pete!

I may see about grabbing an IQ-32 to evaluate. I’m very curious how its receiver might stack up to the Elecraft KX2, the CommRadio CTX-10 and the LnR Precision LD-11. (Please note that these links lead to my other radio site, the SWLing Post.)

It doesn’t appear that the IQ-32 has an AM mode, but I would still like to see how it might handle broadcast listening on the shortwave meter bands using ECSS.

Video

Check out WA2EUJ’s IQ-32 presentation at the 2018 Hamvention on YouTube:

Click here to check out the IQ-32 product page at HobbyPCB.

Have any readers purchased the IQ-32?  Please comment!

News, Product Announcements, QRP, QRP Radios

N6QW introduces the Sudden QRP SSB Transceiver

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Many thanks to Pete Eaton (WB9FLW) who writes:

From the fertile mind of QRP Hall Of Fame Pete N6QW comes a new Radio Project, the Sudden QRP SSB Transceiver. If you have never Scratch Built such a Rig and would like to N6QW’s latest offering deserves close inspection.

Using only readily available (and cheap) components (and few of them) one can build a Full Blown SSB Transceiver for either 40 or 20 meters. The Radio’s Design will be featured in 2 installments of GQRP’s Sprat Magazine. The 1st being in the Fall issue (Receiver/LO) and the second part with come in the Spring 2019 issue (Transmitter).

http://n6qw.blogspot.com/2018/09/2018-year-of-ssb-transceivers_14.html

Pete is also providing extensive documentation on his Website:

http://www.n6qw.com/Sudden.html

One use for the Rig is on the Digital Modes, to that end he has design a simple Digital Adapter (which is also described on n6qw.com). One possibility is for a dedicated FT8 Transceiver!

Even if you do not intend to build the Rig take a moment to check out his Web Page. There you will find a wealth of information on designing and building such Transceivers.

Pete WB9FLW

(not to be confused with Pete N6QW 🙂

Thanks for the tip, Pete! How exciting! This looks like an innovative little rig and I love the concept of only using accessible components–in the end, that will give this little rig some longevity.