Thinking about getting this

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Originally Posted by KKM

OK.. I see they have a 40 and 20 meter version. I'm leaning toward 20 meters. What do you all think? Which band would you choose? I'm mostly interested in doing PSK with people I know stateside, but DX also interests me.

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Welcome back.

My understanding is that 20 meters is a hotbed for PSK, so if you have to pick one band, that's a good one.

Welcome back, Kelli!

We talked to the purveyor of those kits at Dayton. IIRC, they had a 3-band (40/30/20M) version and if I was going to operate a lot of PSK, that would be it as far as a purchase is concerned.

An area ham friend has a different setup based on a Softrock. Start here:

http://www.wb5rvz.org/ensemble_rx_ii/

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Originally Posted by KKM

http://www.qrpkits.com/bitx20a.html

I'd roll my own from scratch but quite frankly I just don't have the time anymore. I don't really enjoy building stuff THAT much, especially when I have a full-time job where that's pretty much what I do 40 hours a week. I do however, like kit building because I know I'm not gonna have to screw around tweaking and twiddling and hunting down hard-to-find parts to make it work (hopefully).

Anyone have any experience with these? It'll do 20 meter phone (QRP) and of course, PSK.

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WB :D

I built one of these, http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bitx-Version...item20d6999e1f

It took a little bit more fiddling to get working than the usual kit, but it works well. I haven't cased mine up yet, it on the to-do list. A lot cheaper than the qrpkits version, but of course more work to do. It comes with a PSU/5W amplifier, which can do more with higher amp voltage and has its own regulated supplies so no mods required to do more power. You'd have to select a transformer, you probably have something suitable kicking around in a box somewhere. It would certainly end up bigger than the qrpkits version. It also has an LCD display with frequency locked huff'n'puff controller. There is some annoying work to do setting up the VFO to work as you want it, I used a 10 turn resistor and a load of varicaps to get the tuning range required.

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Originally Posted by mw0uzo

WB :D

I built one of these, http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bitx-Version...item20d6999e1f

It took a little bit more fiddling to get working than the usual kit, but it works well. I haven't cased mine up yet, it on the to-do list. A lot cheaper than the qrpkits version, but of course more work to do. It comes with a PSU/5W amplifier, which can do more with higher amp voltage and has its own regulated supplies so no mods required to do more power. You'd have to select a transformer, you probably have something suitable kicking around in a box somewhere. It would certainly end up bigger than the qrpkits version. It also has an LCD display with frequency locked huff'n'puff controller. There is some annoying work to do setting up the VFO to work as you want it, I used a 10 turn resistor and a load of varicaps to get the tuning range required.

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I was looking at this same kit last night and asked a question about it. Tell me about the VFO. It says they don't supply the parts for a VFO but it comes with a circuit board for it. I'm wondering how hard the parts are to find. Of course, I will likely hack whatever I get to pieces and make it multiband. If I could do 20, 30 and 40 I'd be tickled.

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Originally Posted by N8YX

Welcome back, Kelli!

We talked to the purveyor of those kits at Dayton. IIRC, they had a 3-band (40/30/20M) version and if I was going to operate a lot of PSK, that would be it as far as a purchase is concerned.

An area ham friend has a different setup based on a Softrock. Start here:

http://www.wb5rvz.org/ensemble_rx_ii/

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Thanks Fred. Interesting kit and something else to consider. Looking it over right now.

You might also want to look at getting into JT65. It's the up & coming mode as of late, or so I hear.

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Originally Posted by KJ3N

You might also want to look at getting into JT65. It's the up & coming mode as of late, or so I hear.

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Yep, I see that. Well I've decided... I'm going with what Fred suggested. Everything I've seen looks really good, but QRP on an SDR radio is intriguing and I can always add an amp if I want more power. I'm going to test it with my laptop but will likely switch to using a Raspberry Pi.

This is what I'm getting: http://fivedash.com/index.php?main_p...&products_id=7

I can use it on 20/30/40. I'm going to put up a vertical for 20 and possibly for 30. For 40 I will probably just use the 20 meter vertical and tune it.

Cool.

Whattarya gonna use for a transmitter?

Edit:

OK, the linkies were confusing, I presume you mean this kit:

http://fivedash.com/index.php?main_p...&products_id=7

SoftRock RXTX Ensemble Transceiver Kit

http://fivedash.com/images/large/rxtx-ensemble_LRG.jpg

"I'm going to put up a vertical for 20 and possibly for 30."
As a broadcast engineer you know the advantages of a half wave vertical. You have three choices, a dipole that requires neither a tuner nor radials, an end fed that requires both and a grounded vertical folded monopole that again requires both. The grounded folded monopole if you've been following my recommendations is an electrical half wave a tad shorter than a quarter wave high so that's the way to go if you lack a high support or room for guys.

Room for guys... and I had to say that to a YL??? EEK!

Hey, if you have the formula for that one please pass it along. I saw it in the back of an old Collins broadcast transmitter catalog a long time ago but that's another thing that went bye bye when I lost my tech library and a bunch of other irreplaceable stuff in a flood... RATS! (They swam for their lives...)

Vertical dipole. I like my GAP antennas, quite a bit. Need to put 'em back up.

Home brew is easy-peasy on higher frequencies. Use yer hat.

http://users.skynet.be/on4bai/VDIPHA...ivhatdip40.png

http://users.skynet.be/on4bai/VDIPHAT/4BAIVHAT_bis.htm