30 septembrie 2018

New QRP-uBITX in the shack - I - Welcome preparations

A while ago, a friend asked me to fix his uBITX.
I started to search information about this little radio and found amazed that is very close to what I proposed myself to make! So close that the IF are the same to my personal project!

So, after I fix that radio and test it I was very impressed and foresaw some improvements. Both software and hardware...
But, before software, we have to make a workable hardware platform.

Before I had my own board of uBITX, I searched in my shack for some suitable box. And found one from a radio modem (AX25) in the early days of digital communications. I had two cases but only one survived :-)









I made two panels, one for the front and one for the back of the radio from some FR4 pcb board and sprayed with three layers of primer. The colour was the same as the cases so I was very pleased about the result.

After that I made some cosmetic pieces in 3D CAD, printed them and also painted with the same primer.
Right now, when I write this I think to play with some olive green paint! To give it a "camo" look!

Here are some quick tests to see how it looks!









And, "tha day" hase finally came! The uBITX was on my desk!



I couldn't resist and make a quick test to see how it receives...
The firmware is from KD8CEC as I already playied with it with the previous radio.



A big list of mods has to came. I just can say that, at this moment, it is working in progress!!!

Here is a preview of the next post about this radio:


Finished uBITX - YO3HJV


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