Small daffodils

Spring about to spring

LoRa APRS tracker

Boxed up another LoRa 439MHz APRS tracker.

External power, GPS antenna and menu control for multiple IDs on this one.

Lovely little bump 🙂

Fairly sure that is Long Knoll G/SC-007 🙂

They are not too bad to replace but don't want to do them that often 🙂

My mistake hadn't noticed the tuner drop into "auto-mode" and try to be " helpful" 🤬

A LDG AT-100 Pro II btw. I know did read not to use one because low power........

Not always possible.

Replaced the electret insert to one suitable for a QMX+

Now I've got a suitable electect insert for the microphone I'm pleased with the SSB contacts I've had.

Note to self; don't ever use a QMX+ with a "tuner" in "auto-mode"!

It will destroy at least one of the BS170s, cause a short and blow a fuse!

BHI speaker and QMX+

Found a nice combination. A BHI noise cancelling speaker for my QMX+. 3d printed a mount for them.

20m WSPR tx/rx

20m WSPR tx/rx

20m WSPR tx/rx

Left the QMX+ WSPRing on 20m.

Struggling to get SSB working properly, lower power out than I'm expecting (< 0.5W). Probably the mic insert I'm using is not quite right. Not a great amount of information about microphones for it. Need to obtain the electret described in the manual

Fun though 🙂

40m WSPRs

80m WSPRs

Left the QMX+ monitoring 80 and 40m WSPR over night. WSJT-X was controlling the QMX+ alternating between both bands in its band hopping mode.

Going to leave monitoring 20, 17, 15 and 10m during the day.

SSB tx next job.

Had wondered if I'd missed it somehow but it dropped through the door this morning.

No, they were my poor joints 🙂

QMx+

QMX+ had to be disassembled 🙁

Low gain on 40m tracked to poor joint on L403.

A display corruption issue started to happen. Resolved by reflowing all the joints that are difficult to get at. If you've build one you'll know which ones!

All looks very good now 🙂

After building 2 QDX digital transceivers (one low and one high HF), and having no problems, I didn't expect issues with the QMX+.

QMX+

Calibration tests underway on the QMX+. All seems to match specified parameters so far.

Nice easy build. Just read through the instructions before you start to make sure you know which ferrites they have sent. My set had the odd yellow. You'll know what I mean 🙂

QMX+ main board

Progress has been made. QMX+ main board with all coils fitted.

First set of coils and pa in place. Surface mount components were already on the board. The unit will be a QMX+ transceiver.

Its that time of year when you can wind 🙂 New Year kit building.

Nearly ready to play Catan. Printed from shared files on Prusa Core One and decorated by me 🙂

I'm very new to 3D printing so have no previous experience with either printers, filament or software. Impossible to give a recommendation. However, I've been very pleased with the Core One. I jumped in at the deepend by buying the kit version as a first printer.

Getting ready for bed 🐦 💤

Yes, a Prusa Core One

Upgrading a favourite game.

New, to me, FreeDv mode, RADE, works very well. Updated this morning and reception is leagues way from previous versions which were always disappointing with marginal signals. The audio is far more natural. Also like the report functions to see where stations are and their reception levels.

I couldn't get it to work, what am I doing wrong?

First big failure. Still learning about how to do things 🙂

Christmas tree baubles.

Simple gifts for Christmas nice idea. I've been printing baubles as experiments. Different filaments and settings.

Blue Tit roosting.

Blue Tit has been roosting in the bird box most nights for the last week. It really doesn't like the loud fireworks. Looks very unsettled when they go off 🙁