As I wrote in Part 1 of the BITX40 Rebuild Part 1, my own love affair with the BITX40 goes back to December 2016 when a gift from my wife arrived from India in the form of a BITX40v3 from HF Signals, Ashhar Farhan’s company that at the time produced just the BITX40v3.
Also mentioned in Part 1 were many of the mistakes I made. I killed my BITX40 while trying to troubleshoot problems with the power amplifier. That was 5 months ago, and I’ve not written a thing about it since, although I have been working on the project now and then. I’ve been quite busy with some other projects.
You’ve seen all the posts about the QCX Mini and that certainly curtailed work on the BITX40. There was also the QRP L-Match article that I wrote for QRP Quarterly and then the YouTube Videos about another QRP L-Match that used a homebrew variable capacitor. That was a fun project, and negated the need for an expensive air variable, or a compromise varicon variable capacitor.
I have some other projects I’ve been working on and I’ve shared those on YouTube, so if you’d like to get a jump on things, head over to the MiscDotGeek YouTube channel and subscribe, and check out the latest. I’ll be posting about them here soon, all the same.
Where’s the Rebuild info?
In short: YouTube! I’ve been documenting the changes all on YouTube in video from. Why? Because it’s fun! I’ve been having a blast making videos and explaining things as I go. I hope you enjoy them. Below is the first video in the play list, which so far contains 9 videos over 5 topics:
- Part 1: Project Review and SSB Filter Change
- Part 1.1: Crystal Filter Replacement
- Part 2: 4:1 Transformer Install
- Part 3: VFO Beginnings and Building/Calibrating a QRP Labs Synth Kit
- Part 3.1: VFO Code Review, Construction, and Consternation
- Part 3.2 VFO Construction Completed
- Part 4: Radio Sound and DC Blocking Capacitors (and some blown up parts…)
- Part 4.1: Receiving SSB and more crystal filter surprises
- Part 5: Filtering and PA Driver Test
Rather than link to each part, just click the playlist icon in the top right of the embedded video below, and you can go straight to YouTube to check out each part.
One More Thing!
I’ll post more about this soon, but due to the generosity of a viewer of one of my YouTube series (which I haven’t posted about here, yet), this happened:
Thank you to Joel Caulkins for making this happen. It’s a New-In-Box 35mhz dual trace analog scope! I have to admit that I haven’t a clue as to how to use it, but I’ll be getting a clue soon, and you’ll be seeing it in This Space for sure. Thanks for reading and 73 🙂
3 comments
Ryan, that’s will become a nice serie of video’s about you Bitx40 rebuild.
And that are some very nice donations you got there. Those will going to
help you big time.
Ryan,
I have been following you for years. I also have a 60 mHz scope I bought a few years ago and need instruction on how to use it. Will be waiting for that series.
Dave K8WPE since 1960
I’ll have to check those vids out (though, if I’m honest, I much prefer to read about projects like this, as I absorb the info better and it’s easier to go back and refer to when making my own modifications).
I, too, have a much modified BITX40, and your site has been instrumental in many of those changes. Right now I’m running an interesting sketch on my Radruino (VK6MN’s BitXUltra: https://github.com/ChocolateFrogsNuts/BitXUltra) which gives some nice-to-haves, like channel memory, up to 26 VFOs, a unique take on CAT control, SWR meter and antenna analyzer, etc. Of course, that required some specific changes to the BITX, but that’s part of the fun, right? Next up is adding more bands, using your pages as a tutorial, if my BFO and LFOs from QRP Labs ever show up.
So, again, thank you!