uBITX V6 turns up the heat!

Huge sales of the uBITX around the globe is one kit that has certainly raised the profile of Amateur Radio. An HF radio kit which got many back and involved in the hobby, with many interested in construction once again. It has proved easy to put together for most, with a pretested PCB, along with a simple set up procedure. Ashhar Farhan and his small company HF Signals, have been credited with a huge success story of uBITX sales, on top of his now retired BITX40 single band 40m kit. It has kept a small team in employment back in India and that  is also a good thing.

Where could he take the uBITX from here?

Well you have only got to blink these days and things always get updated very quick!

The new V6 uBITX could be the wolf that eat the cat meooow!

Gone is the two line 1602 display, a new 2.8" LCD touch screen is it's replacement. No soldering required is part of the new uBITX sales statement, is this a rig that now plugs together like lego? Gone are connections that once had to be soldered with wire to the 3.5mm sockets for mic, key etc. These are now attached to the new V6 PCB, along with the variable resistor for the volume control, even the encoder doesn't need a soldering iron anymore it comes already attached and soldered up with a plug ready to push into the revised board.


There are two flavours of kit, as before you can just buy the tested PCB kit with raduino, display, hardware and stuff it in a box of your choice (Basic kit) . Or there is now a second choice of a professional predrilled case, (Full kit) which really takes the uBITX to retail standard and looks the part. Both kits, even come with a fist microphone ready to plug in and a speaker for those that purchase the full kit.

Those that have purchased V5 PCB can upgrade to the 2.8" display and update the Raduino firmware, and should read these notes:

For those who are using the 16x2 display and you would like to upgrade, you will have to do three things:

1. Add a heatsink to the 7805 of the raduino

2. Buy https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32815224002.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.3b9548336X8T43 and hook it up as per http://www.hfsignals.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/raduino_tft.pdf

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

I also found the displays are available on ebay.

Further details on it all read this thread here

Head down to HF Signals here for full details about the kit. 

A 100MHz Handheld Oscilloscope for £54

We have never got enough toys in our cupboard. Dave Jones down at EEVblog always turns up with a few exciting bits of test equipment at times, that could be useful to our hobby. The FNIRSI-5012H that might be another good catch from one of his recent tech videos?

Sold as a Single channel 100MHz Scope for less than $80 with what does come with a few flaws, feebles and bugs, which makes it really a 20MHz workable unit. But it does go to show the Chinese are hot, and going places, where manufactures in the West would never enter a market for such a bargain price.

I did a bit of research afterwards and Banggood sell what appears to be the same model as the Dainu ADS5012H for less than £54 UK!! link here.



 




 

New excellent links added.

There are some very good Ham Blogs and websites out there if you are prepared to take the time to search them down.

One person that always inspires me with his enthusiasm for Real HF Mobile radio, is Dave G4AKC.

Dave often takes off to the front of Blackpool promenade, on either his bike, or his recent electric trike towing a trailer load of equipment behind him, that puts most shack's to shame. His late night shift on the cold sea front, or early mornings well wrapped up, quite often produces some long path and rare DX surprises that you wouldn't get from the home QTH, due to a good signal bounce off the sea water and the advantage of the lower noise floor being out in the open making reception far easier.

The G4AKC website https://www.g4akc.co.uk/  where you can learn more about his exploits has now been added to my Blog  right hand panel "Sites that do it for me links".

Another good Blog link EI7GL from Ireland has also been updated in "My Blog List" link again on the right hand panel.

Antuino support group

The Antuino the new tool for radio amateurs from HF Signals, which I blogged about a few days ago.

Now it has it's own dedicated support group to help with problems, modifications and improvements, sign up here.


 

Mini VSWR indicator as reviewed by QST Sept 19

Steve Ford WB8IMY reviews the mini SWR indicator in this months QST. I do wonder when he purchased it, because they are at least $10 cheaper now on ebay?

What could be a handy little tool, but it pays to do your homework and research across all selling platforms before you open your wallet.

Check out this link for the lowest price I can see at the moment Here

The Antuino from HF Signals

HF Signals the small company in India headed by VU2ESE, that has recently brought us lots of fun with the BITX40 and the uBITX HF radio kits, has now done it again with the launch of the Antuino.

His headline for the device is: A compact Radio Lab for Antennas and Radio circuits.

I would like to think of it as a mini Radio Test Set that can help us understand what is going on up the antenna, as well as being a useful tool to help analyse what is happening within the radio or what problems exist within the RF signal it outputs. The plus of course it is hackable, so anyone can join in the fun and improve it with addons or make it's firmware better.

At $99 this is sure going to be another useful instrument to any Amateur's test equipment toolbox.

For a better understanding pop down to HF Signals:  http://www.hfsignals.com/index.php/antuino/

Still here!

Just a quicky from me to thank you all for your recent  best wishes you sent, some that reached me via email. The same problems still exist, but I am still around, and the Blog maybe quiet while I tackle the stranglehold, but I will be writing some more in the weeks or months to come or even later today, it will not become a dead ended Blog.



All the best to you all!


73 Steve

The SZ-70 cross needled SWR movement.

There is a twin SWR cross needled 100uA meter movement, doing the rounds from our friends in China . All you have to do is build a sense circuit and some passive electronics around it.

Who is the first to buy one and do a nice project feature:

From Banggood where I seen it first

https://www.banggood.com/SZ-70-Panel-Dual-SWR-Forwad-Reflected-VU-Meter-100uA-p-1247920.html?rmmds=search&cur_warehouse=CN

Also various suppliers on ebay, but this is the cheapest I have seen from the cuckoo shop:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SZ-70-Panel-Dual-SWR-Forwad-Reflected-VU-Meter-100uA/113183353089?hash=item1a5a40e901:g:zcwAAOSwSwVaU7HK

Have fun!!

Radcom didn't show?

Over the last few years I have started to lose magazines I subscribe to that are delivered by Royal Mail.

This month it was Radcom's turn, the April edition didn't show it's face. At least a week had gone by after despatch to the membership. One has to be on the ball, it would be easy for the month to pass and the next month to roll in and the copy might not be missed if I was busy. I seem to remember it was about this time last year that Radcom had gone missing, the year before that it was QST, do I have someone snaffling my post?

Anyway a quick call to the RSGB office and there was one sent out in a plain brown envelope very quick! But I had missed the window of opportunity for persusing members ads, which you have to be quick if one is on the lookout for a bargain. 

SK Rev George Dobbs G3RJV.

For sometime I have known that  G3RJV had not been too well, I have not made much noise about it on here, as I think he would of wanted it that way.


I understand George Passed away in the early hours of this morning, "my birthday" how am I ever going to live that one down every March 11th.

For sure George is never going to be forgotten by the GQRP club which he started back in 1974 and continues to flourish by an ever growing active membership, along with Sprat the magazine which he edited until his last 12 months. All the QRP books he written and co wrote, along with his monthly pages with Practical Wireless "Carrying on the Practical Way", encouraging those from a start, to where they actually understood the basics of radio, developing from a simple diode to using a couple of transistors, that made something that really worked and was useful. Of course my first contact with George Dobbs was when I built his 3 transistor radio from the Ladybird book back in the mid 70's.

How shall I remember him, well he will be up there with the greats of QRP, the Sudden is one radio that comes to mind, a design that showed all the basics of radio with minimum parts. Oh yes his encouragement, if he thought you had got it, he bent over to help, endorsing my Blog in it's early days The Reverend reviewed. I guess he liked what I had written, even though I may be a bit slow at times. The references to G3RJV's work will never be forgotten and won't, and must be brought to the forefront for new audiences to see and understand, helping them to learn the basics from the start.

To George's Wife and family, I send out my sincere condolences, he will be really missed!

Where I am now

Just a quick note before I move on to more important things:

There is a lot of sad things going on in my life at the moment, that is one big major reason I am not fulfilling the full potential of this blog with what I set out from the begining to do.

This will stagger on in this same way for sometime into the future, most of my Amateur Radio antics has been on hold for the last 18 months or so, I  see no light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks to you all that visit,  I know you are looking in.

A Blog a day: The Daily Antenna

While it takes me on average about a month to think up and produce One blog that doesn't bore the pants off someone.

The maestro of the Ham Video VK3YE , writer of a growing Amateur radio book collection, along with his superb website to support his hobby vk3ye.com, has done it again, and now come up with a new challenge a new daily Blog called The Daily Antenna.

The idea is to produce One blog per day on antennas, accessories and related topics.

I don't know how Peter finds the energy and time to fit it all in, but I certainly will be dropping in and reading from time to time, and wish him well with his new venture

I will also drop the link into "My Blog list" on the right handside, because I know it will be a very valuable source of material.