Re: [Flexradio] RX2 / HFRIO board
Very interesting. I had to change my Firewire cable about 6 months ago from my nice, expensive Granite Digital cable (I think that's what it was) to a cheaper cable I had lying around somewhere. At the time, I thought the cable had gone bad. Maybe it was the TSB41AB2 that was flakey. I'll need to try the good cable again. I am in the process of building one of these to shut off the RX2 input port when transmitting: http://www.ad5x.com/images/Articles/SeperateTRant.pdf I've got all the parts and picked up the tools needed to make it. Now I just need to spend an hour and put it together. I plan on leaving the TX port terminated and just use it to shut off the beverage when I transmit. However, it sounds like I need more work on my ground system. I think the first thing is an easy way to disconnect all of the antennas when they're not in use. I don't do this anywhere near as much as I should. Thanks everyone for your input. 73 KA1GEU Chris -Original Message- From: Tim Ellison [mailto:telli...@itsco.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2011 8:27 AM To: Chris; flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: RE: [Flexradio] RX2 / HFRIO board The TSB41AB2 is your 1394 (Firewire) physical controller IC and is not on the HRFIO board. The PE4259 are RF switches. My first guess would be that your issue is not transmitting 100 watts with a beverage nearby, but it is possible. I would suspect an EMP from a near lightning strike or a power surge from another source. The ICE lightning arrestors are *very* good. The DC drain feature is a big plus. I have them on every antenna I have entering the shack. They are all well bonded to an electrical /RF grounded bulkhead coax connector before they enter the house. Next in line on the coax, I have ununs or common mode RF chokes to shunt RF currents on the coax to ground at the same grounding point. That keeps RFI out of the shack as well as giving me some level of EMP protection too. I live in central NC and we have a lot of bodacious (yep, that is a southern word) lightning storms here. Night before last was one in that category. The house across the street, which is lower in elevation than mine has been hit twice in the past 16 years. I have not had any equipment (PC or radio) damage in that time (knock on wood) and I have a lot of metal in the air much higher in elevation than the neighbor's house. Also, if you are not using a good AC surge protector, and I am not talking about those MOV power strips, for connecting your PC and radio's power supply, you should consider that. In addition to the "whole house" surge protector installed by the power company, I use a Tripp Lite line conditioner to deal with over and under voltage situations (as well as "noise" filtering) along with their surge protectors for additional filtering. I also have a small UPS to maintain constant AC power during the frequent, but short duration (less than 3 seconds) power outages that I experience. This keeps the PC from powering off and wreaking havoc on Windows. In the grand scheme of things, the investment is good insurance. The NC setting for an antenna in PowerSDR, I believe shunts it to ground inside the radio, but I'd have to look at the HRFIO board schematic. I would not rely on this setting for any EMP protection. -Tim -Original Message- From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz [mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz] On Behalf Of Chris Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2011 7:09 AM To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: [Flexradio] RX2 / HFRIO board I have my Flex 5000A back from the VU upgrade (I guess its time to look for VHF/UHF antennas) and my HFRIO board has been fixed. I didn't realize how much I'd miss the radio. The RFIO board problem has me a little concerned. This is the second time in a year that it needed repairs. This time it needed 3 PE4259 SSRs and a TSB41AB2 IC. Does that give anyone an idea of why it failed? I understand that muting RX2 when you transmit doesn't disconnect the RX2 antenna in the radio. Maybe that's the problem. I routinely listen on a beverage (RX2) while transmitting on a dipole. The beverage is located below the dipole. When the board went south I was generally running 100W of power. I now have a 1 KW amp. I don't dare try my combination with the amp. Of course, the board may have been damaged by nearby lightning. I have purchased some ICE arrestors and will have them installed before the spring thunderstorms come along. So, I have two questions for you experts out there. 1. Do you think the board fried because of too much of my power getting into RX2 or because of nearby lightning strikes? 2. If I switch RX2 to NC in the Antenna Selection window, will that physically disconnect the antennas from RX2? Thanks for the bandwidth. 73 Chris KA1GEEU ___ FlexRadio Syst
Re: [Flexradio] RX2 / HFRIO board
On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 5:12 PM, Bill Diaz wrote: > Brian, > I now have the TS480 "remote port" PTT output connected to the > FlexWire PTT in. The PowerSDR Antenna form, Transmit is set to XVTK/COM > (with 50 ohm load). When I key the TS480 the Flex panadapter shows no > visible evidence of a transmitted signal. Works well using semi-break CW > on the TS480 too. Problem solved, CAT not needed for TX/RX switching > anymore. > Very good! You got the problem solved. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.931.492.6776 (USA) (+1.931.4.WB6RQN) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] RX2 / HFRIO board
Brian, I now have the TS480 "remote port" PTT output connected to the FlexWire PTT in. The PowerSDR Antenna form, Transmit is set to XVTK/COM (with 50 ohm load). When I key the TS480 the Flex panadapter shows no visible evidence of a transmitted signal. Works well using semi-break CW on the TS480 too. Problem solved, CAT not needed for TX/RX switching anymore. See below for other comments. -Original Message- From: br...@lloyd.com [mailto:br...@lloyd.com] On Behalf Of Brian Lloyd Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2011 18:10 To: Bill Diaz Cc: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: Re: [Flexradio] RX2 / HFRIO board On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 9:12 AM, Bill Diaz wrote: I wrote an application to simultaneously control/monitor PowerSDR and the TS480. Since 2.0.19RC 1 came out, it can now switch the 1500 antenna to the XVTR port automatically when the application detects the TS480 transmitting and back to the PA port when transmission ceases. Can't you have your application key the TS480 and let the application sequence PTT? That way the application could switch the antenna on the 1500 and then key the TX480. This would require having a PTT button in the application which the user would access with the mouse or keyboard. Also would have to inhibit TS480 transmit ability to ensure the user did not key the radio with the Mic or key etc. User could not use the TS480 hand Mic until the application allowed it. Semi-breakin CW operation would not be possible under this scenario unless the key was interfaced to the PC and this would, IMO, not be practical. Well, I was thinking of a box into which one would plug one's microphone. The PTT line on the mic would not directly key the radio but would be a digital input to the computer. You could use a parallel port line for input. The parallel port could produce several outputs which would drive keying transistors or relays to sequence all the various devices, including keying the HF transceiver. In addition, I would probably put various microphone connectors on the box to make it easy to switch mics. There could be 8-pin, RJ-45, .208 TRS (aircraft, Collins), 4-pin, etc. Yes, would be very versatile. The .application was designed to allow the user to transmit with the TS480 at 100 watts and to receive with the Flex 1500. QSY's, can be performed either via PowerSDR or the TS480 tuning knob. Interconnection only requires a single serial cable and VSPMgr or similar. All transmit functions expected to be performed with the TS480. Pretty basic. I understand. I guess I was thinking about something a little more comprehensive and general that would work for a lot of things. Keying the 1500, 3000, or 5000 can be handled through CAT and you wouldn't even need to connect up the PTT lines in the radio at all. Just thinking out loud. I have found that CAT commands sent to PowerSDR take some time to process and latency may be an issue in some cases. It is certainly noticeable with my P4 3ghz, 2 GB, XP Pro SP3 system with PowerSDR currently using about 20% of my CPU capacity. When QSY'ing the TS480 and PowerSDR with the VFO knob, there is no way PowerSDR can keep up as you spin the TS480 VFO knob. This is an issue even when the TS480 CAT baud rate is set to 4800 bps. Of course PowerSDR running on multi-core processors may have reduced latency, but I think it will still be an issue. PowerSDR is doing a tremendous amount of processing, no doubt about it. Note that using CAT commands to simply key the Flex radios for Phone and digital modes will likely not be affected much by latency, but CW is another matter entirely. The CW improvements provided by 2.0.19RC1 are likely to garner quite a bit of notice from the brass pounders. It seems there is a need for a box to manage PTT for several devices. Not really familiar with flexwire, but the manual indicates it has both a PTT in port and PTT out port. Seems like the PTT in port could be used to switch the 1500 antenna connection when external PTT is asserted. Latency could still be an issue though, since I don't know if the Flex 1500 antenna switching capability is handled in hardware or software. Everything is actually handled in software or firmware. The 1500, 3000, and 5000 have small internal processors that manage all the signals and do the actual rig keying. Yes, appears to work exceptionally well.. In any case this would eliminate the need for an external box to manage PTT but would require a hardwired PTT connection between the external radio and the flexwire port. The user could then use the mic and key or keyer connections of the TS480 as originally intended. Will have to look into this, thanks for making me rethink the keying issues. In some ways it is both more complex and simpler at the same time. ;-) I prefer the simpler approach. Getting too old and cranky
Re: [Flexradio] RX2 / HFRIO board
On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 9:12 AM, Bill Diaz wrote: > I wrote an application to simultaneously control/monitor PowerSDR >> and the TS480. Since 2.0.19RC 1 came out, it can now switch the 1500 >> antenna to the XVTR port automatically when the application detects the >> TS480 transmitting and back to the PA port when transmission ceases. > > > Can't you have your application key the TS480 and let the application > sequence PTT? That way the application could switch the antenna on the 1500 > and then key the TX480. > > This would require having a PTT button in the application which the > user would access with the mouse or keyboard. Also would have to inhibit > TS480 transmit ability to ensure the user did not key the radio with the Mic > or key etc. User could not use the TS480 hand Mic until the application > allowed it. Semi-breakin CW operation would not be possible under this > scenario unless the key was interfaced to the PC and this would, IMO, not be > practical. > > Well, I was thinking of a box into which one would plug one's microphone. The PTT line on the mic would not directly key the radio but would be a digital input to the computer. You could use a parallel port line for input. The parallel port could produce several outputs which would drive keying transistors or relays to sequence all the various devices, including keying the HF transceiver. In addition, I would probably put various microphone connectors on the box to make it easy to switch mics. There could be 8-pin, RJ-45, .208 TRS (aircraft, Collins), 4-pin, etc. > > The .application was designed to allow the user to transmit with the > TS480 at 100 watts and to receive with the Flex 1500. QSY's, can be > performed either via PowerSDR or the TS480 tuning knob. Interconnection > only requires a single serial cable and VSPMgr or similar. All transmit > functions expected to be performed with the TS480. Pretty basic. > > I understand. I guess I was thinking about something a little more comprehensive and general that would work for a lot of things. Keying the 1500, 3000, or 5000 can be handled through CAT and you wouldn't even need to connect up the PTT lines in the radio at all. Just thinking out loud. > > It seems there is a need for a box to manage PTT for several devices. > >Not really familiar with flexwire, but the manual indicates it has > both a PTT in port and PTT out port. Seems like the PTT in port could be > used to switch the 1500 antenna connection when external PTT is asserted. > Latency could still be an issue though, since I don't know if the Flex 1500 > antenna switching capability is handled in hardware or software. > > Everything is actually handled in software or firmware. The 1500, 3000, and 5000 have small internal processors that manage all the signals and do the actual rig keying. > In any case this would eliminate the need for an external box to manage PTT > but would require a hardwired PTT connection between the external radio and > the flexwire port. The user could then use the mic and key or keyer > connections of the TS480 as originally intended. Will have to look into > this, thanks for making me rethink the keying issues. > > In some ways it is both more complex and simpler at the same time. ;-) -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.931.492.6776 (USA) (+1.931.4.WB6RQN) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] RX2 / HFRIO board
Brian, See below: -Original Message- From: br...@lloyd.com [mailto:br...@lloyd.com] On Behalf Of Brian Lloyd Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2011 09:41 To: Bill Diaz Cc: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: Re: [Flexradio] RX2 / HFRIO board On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 7:21 AM, Bill Diaz wrote: I wrote an application to simultaneously control/monitor PowerSDR and the TS480. Since 2.0.19RC 1 came out, it can now switch the 1500 antenna to the XVTR port automatically when the application detects the TS480 transmitting and back to the PA port when transmission ceases. Can't you have your application key the TS480 and let the application sequence PTT? That way the application could switch the antenna on the 1500 and then key the TX480. This would require having a PTT button in the application which the user would access with the mouse or keyboard. Also would have to inhibit TS480 transmit ability to ensure the user did not key the radio with the Mic or key etc. User could not use the TS480 hand Mic until the application allowed it. Semi-breakin CW operation would not be possible under this scenario unless the key was interfaced to the PC and this would, IMO, not be practical. The .application was designed to allow the user to transmit with the TS480 at 100 watts and to receive with the Flex 1500. QSY's, can be performed either via PowerSDR or the TS480 tuning knob. Interconnection only requires a single serial cable and VSPMgr or similar. All transmit functions expected to be performed with the TS480. Pretty basic. It seems there is a need for a box to manage PTT for several devices. Not really familiar with flexwire, but the manual indicates it has both a PTT in port and PTT out port. Seems like the PTT in port could be used to switch the 1500 antenna connection when external PTT is asserted. Latency could still be an issue though, since I don't know if the Flex 1500 antenna switching capability is handled in hardware or software. In any case this would eliminate the need for an external box to manage PTT but would require a hardwired PTT connection between the external radio and the flexwire port. The user could then use the mic and key or keyer connections of the TS480 as originally intended. Will have to look into this, thanks for making me rethink the keying issues. Bill KC9XG -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.931.492.6776 (USA) (+1.931.4.WB6RQN) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] RX2 / HFRIO board
On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 7:21 AM, Bill Diaz wrote: >I wrote an application to simultaneously control/monitor PowerSDR > and the TS480. Since 2.0.19RC 1 came out, it can now switch the 1500 > antenna to the XVTR port automatically when the application detects the > TS480 transmitting and back to the PA port when transmission ceases. Can't you have your application key the TS480 and let the application sequence PTT? That way the application could switch the antenna on the 1500 and then key the TX480. It seems there is a need for a box to manage PTT for several devices. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.931.492.6776 (USA) (+1.931.4.WB6RQN) ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] RX2 / HFRIO board
I have similar concerns while using my Kenwood TS480 transmitter with my Flex 1500 receiver. Have tried it using a horizontal loop for receiving and a vertical for transmit, with about 100' of horizontal separation. The 1500 indicates a signal around -7dbm when transmitting with the TS480 at 5 watts on the same frequency with the TS-480 and different antennas. Not sure this is the correct value since the noise floor on the 1500 also jumps 20db or so and I see quite a few spikes up to about -20dbm at other locations on the panadapter. Have also tried it with the MFJ-1708 T/R switch and a single antenna with somewhat similar results. I wrote an application to simultaneously control/monitor PowerSDR and the TS480. Since 2.0.19RC 1 came out, it can now switch the 1500 antenna to the XVTR port automatically when the application detects the TS480 transmitting and back to the PA port when transmission ceases. The 1500 received signal level drops to about -65dbm after switching to the XVTR port. Still nervous about the RF level encountered during the detection and transition time period which may be in 10's of milliseconds. I have not used it in a QSO or at the 100 watt level due to these concerns. Bill KC9XG >-Original Message- >From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz >[mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz] On Behalf Of Chris >Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2011 06:09 >To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz >Subject: [Flexradio] RX2 / HFRIO board > > >I have my Flex 5000A back from the VU upgrade (I guess its >time to look for >VHF/UHF antennas) and my HFRIO board has been fixed. I didn't >realize how >much I'd miss the radio. > >The RFIO board problem has me a little concerned. This is the >second time >in a year that it needed repairs. This time it needed 3 >PE4259 SSRs and a >TSB41AB2 IC. Does that give anyone an idea of why it failed? > >I understand that muting RX2 when you transmit doesn't >disconnect the RX2 >antenna in the radio. Maybe that's the problem. I routinely >listen on a >beverage (RX2) while transmitting on a dipole. The beverage is located >below the dipole. When the board went south I was generally >running 100W of >power. I now have a 1 KW amp. I don't dare try my >combination with the >amp. Of course, the board may have been damaged by nearby >lightning. I >have purchased some ICE arrestors and will have them installed >before the >spring thunderstorms come along. > >So, I have two questions for you experts out there. >1. Do you think the board fried because of too much of my >power getting >into RX2 or because of nearby lightning strikes? >2. If I switch RX2 to NC in the Antenna Selection window, will that >physically disconnect the antennas from RX2? > >Thanks for the bandwidth. > >73 >Chris >KA1GEEU > > > > > > > > >___ >FlexRadio Systems Mailing List >FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz >http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz >Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ >Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: >http://www.flexradio.com/ ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] RX2 / HFRIO board
Tim, et al., I must admit to being surprised a few weeks ago when a tremendous crack of thunder awoke me from my usual stupor. Normally, in the months from late March to November, all antennas are disconnected unless I am actually operating. And even then the door is often opened and the sky scanned carefully. The shack has no windows. Tim's feelings on this subject closely parallel those of my own. In my shack, in addition to that power master disconnect switch, there is a one farad capacitor (with additional .01 across that). If you examine the copper lined "cubby" where the 5000A resides, you will now find a value-switched 80 dB attenuator "first in line" with RX2 thence to a six position (I wish I had 12) selector switch to support all the sources I want to play with. This is a recent addition. I guess I was just getting too nervous about separation between my antennas. While I hate to say it, I do believe it is unreasonable to expect these wonderful Flex radios to take unlimited abuse. That said, when I first got my "V/U upgraded" radio back from Texas I accidentally sent full output from my D-700 into the 2M BNC connector. After recovering full mobility when I realized what I'd done I could scarcely control myself while I set up to test for damage. I couldn't find any, once again a testament to the ruggedness of the 5000A, but after Gerald expressed satisfaction with my good luck he commented that Flex couldn't recommend that I repeat that! If you don't know what is meant by "ground field" or "perimeter ground" I strongly recommend you browse a bit and download at least one of the several really good "How to protect" papers that are out there! 73 Lee K9WRU - Original Message - From: "Tim Ellison" To: "Chris" ; Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2011 7:27 AM Subject: Re: [Flexradio] RX2 / HFRIO board The TSB41AB2 is your 1394 (Firewire) physical controller IC and is not on the HRFIO board. The PE4259 are RF switches. My first guess would be that your issue is not transmitting 100 watts with a beverage nearby, but it is possible. I would suspect an EMP from a near lightning strike or a power surge from another source. ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] RX2 / HFRIO board
I have done all that too. When I opened my 8KW ICE arrestor it was all black inside. 10 kohm resistor and the light duty neon lamp were gone. There is not prober gas discharge tube inside unfortunately. Yes I changed three or four of those PE4259s. All were in line with RX1 Out BNC. Timo, OH5KW At 13:27 + 2/3/11, Tim Ellison wrote: The TSB41AB2 is your 1394 (Firewire) physical controller IC and is not on the HRFIO board. The PE4259 are RF switches. My first guess would be that your issue is not transmitting 100 watts with a beverage nearby, but it is possible. I would suspect an EMP from a near lightning strike or a power surge from another source. The ICE lightning arrestors are *very* good. The DC drain feature is a big plus. I have them on every antenna I have entering the shack. They are all well bonded to an electrical /RF grounded bulkhead coax connector before they enter the house. Next in line on the coax, I have ununs or common mode RF chokes to shunt RF currents on the coax to ground at the same grounding point. That keeps RFI out of the shack as well as giving me some level of EMP protection too. I live in central NC and we have a lot of bodacious (yep, that is a southern word) lightning storms here. Night before last was one in that category. The house across the street, which is lower in elevation than mine has been hit twice in the past 16 years. I have not had any equipment (PC or radio) damage in that time (knock on wood) and I have a lot of metal in the air much higher in elevation than the neighbor's house. Also, if you are not using a good AC surge protector, and I am not talking about those MOV power strips, for connecting your PC and radio's power supply, you should consider that. In addition to the "whole house" surge protector installed by the power company, I use a Tripp Lite line conditioner to deal with over and under voltage situations (as well as "noise" filtering) along with their surge protectors for additional filtering. I also have a small UPS to maintain constant AC power during the frequent, but short duration (less than 3 seconds) power outages that I experience. This keeps the PC from powering off and wreaking havoc on Windows. In the grand scheme of things, the investment is good insurance. The NC setting for an antenna in PowerSDR, I believe shunts it to ground inside the radio, but I'd have to look at the HRFIO board schematic. I would not rely on this setting for any EMP protection. -Tim -Original Message- From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz [mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz] On Behalf Of Chris Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2011 7:09 AM To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: [Flexradio] RX2 / HFRIO board I have my Flex 5000A back from the VU upgrade (I guess its time to look for VHF/UHF antennas) and my HFRIO board has been fixed. I didn't realize how much I'd miss the radio. The RFIO board problem has me a little concerned. This is the second time in a year that it needed repairs. This time it needed 3 PE4259 SSRs and a TSB41AB2 IC. Does that give anyone an idea of why it failed? I understand that muting RX2 when you transmit doesn't disconnect the RX2 antenna in the radio. Maybe that's the problem. I routinely listen on a beverage (RX2) while transmitting on a dipole. The beverage is located below the dipole. When the board went south I was generally running 100W of power. I now have a 1 KW amp. I don't dare try my combination with the amp. Of course, the board may have been damaged by nearby lightning. I have purchased some ICE arrestors and will have them installed before the spring thunderstorms come along. So, I have two questions for you experts out there. 1. Do you think the board fried because of too much of my power getting into RX2 or because of nearby lightning strikes? 2. If I switch RX2 to NC in the Antenna Selection window, will that physically disconnect the antennas from RX2? Thanks for the bandwidth. 73 Chris KA1GEEU ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/ ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/ ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-
Re: [Flexradio] RX2 / HFRIO board
The TSB41AB2 is your 1394 (Firewire) physical controller IC and is not on the HRFIO board. The PE4259 are RF switches. My first guess would be that your issue is not transmitting 100 watts with a beverage nearby, but it is possible. I would suspect an EMP from a near lightning strike or a power surge from another source. The ICE lightning arrestors are *very* good. The DC drain feature is a big plus. I have them on every antenna I have entering the shack. They are all well bonded to an electrical /RF grounded bulkhead coax connector before they enter the house. Next in line on the coax, I have ununs or common mode RF chokes to shunt RF currents on the coax to ground at the same grounding point. That keeps RFI out of the shack as well as giving me some level of EMP protection too. I live in central NC and we have a lot of bodacious (yep, that is a southern word) lightning storms here. Night before last was one in that category. The house across the street, which is lower in elevation than mine has been hit twice in the past 16 years. I have not had any equipment (PC or radio) damage in that time (knock on wood) and I have a lot of metal in the air much higher in elevation than the neighbor's house. Also, if you are not using a good AC surge protector, and I am not talking about those MOV power strips, for connecting your PC and radio's power supply, you should consider that. In addition to the "whole house" surge protector installed by the power company, I use a Tripp Lite line conditioner to deal with over and under voltage situations (as well as "noise" filtering) along with their surge protectors for additional filtering. I also have a small UPS to maintain constant AC power during the frequent, but short duration (less than 3 seconds) power outages that I experience. This keeps the PC from powering off and wreaking havoc on Windows. In the grand scheme of things, the investment is good insurance. The NC setting for an antenna in PowerSDR, I believe shunts it to ground inside the radio, but I'd have to look at the HRFIO board schematic. I would not rely on this setting for any EMP protection. -Tim -Original Message- From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz [mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz] On Behalf Of Chris Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2011 7:09 AM To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: [Flexradio] RX2 / HFRIO board I have my Flex 5000A back from the VU upgrade (I guess its time to look for VHF/UHF antennas) and my HFRIO board has been fixed. I didn't realize how much I'd miss the radio. The RFIO board problem has me a little concerned. This is the second time in a year that it needed repairs. This time it needed 3 PE4259 SSRs and a TSB41AB2 IC. Does that give anyone an idea of why it failed? I understand that muting RX2 when you transmit doesn't disconnect the RX2 antenna in the radio. Maybe that's the problem. I routinely listen on a beverage (RX2) while transmitting on a dipole. The beverage is located below the dipole. When the board went south I was generally running 100W of power. I now have a 1 KW amp. I don't dare try my combination with the amp. Of course, the board may have been damaged by nearby lightning. I have purchased some ICE arrestors and will have them installed before the spring thunderstorms come along. So, I have two questions for you experts out there. 1. Do you think the board fried because of too much of my power getting into RX2 or because of nearby lightning strikes? 2. If I switch RX2 to NC in the Antenna Selection window, will that physically disconnect the antennas from RX2? Thanks for the bandwidth. 73 Chris KA1GEEU ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/ ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] RX2 / HFRIO board
Last summer my Flex5k went deaf because of lightning. I have almost everything protected. Only RX1 OUT was not having lightning arrestor. There is not gas discharge tube inside the radio too. So, my theory is that lightning overvoltage got inside through RX1 OUT BNC. 73, Timo OH5KW At 7:08 -0500 2/3/11, Chris wrote: I have my Flex 5000A back from the VU upgrade (I guess its time to look for VHF/UHF antennas) and my HFRIO board has been fixed. I didn't realize how much I'd miss the radio. The RFIO board problem has me a little concerned. This is the second time in a year that it needed repairs. This time it needed 3 PE4259 SSRs and a TSB41AB2 IC. Does that give anyone an idea of why it failed? I understand that muting RX2 when you transmit doesn't disconnect the RX2 antenna in the radio. Maybe that's the problem. I routinely listen on a beverage (RX2) while transmitting on a dipole. The beverage is located below the dipole. When the board went south I was generally running 100W of power. I now have a 1 KW amp. I don't dare try my combination with the amp. Of course, the board may have been damaged by nearby lightning. I have purchased some ICE arrestors and will have them installed before the spring thunderstorms come along. So, I have two questions for you experts out there. 1. Do you think the board fried because of too much of my power getting into RX2 or because of nearby lightning strikes? 2. If I switch RX2 to NC in the Antenna Selection window, will that physically disconnect the antennas from RX2? Thanks for the bandwidth. 73 Chris KA1GEEU ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/ ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
[Flexradio] RX2 / HFRIO board
I have my Flex 5000A back from the VU upgrade (I guess its time to look for VHF/UHF antennas) and my HFRIO board has been fixed. I didn't realize how much I'd miss the radio. The RFIO board problem has me a little concerned. This is the second time in a year that it needed repairs. This time it needed 3 PE4259 SSRs and a TSB41AB2 IC. Does that give anyone an idea of why it failed? I understand that muting RX2 when you transmit doesn't disconnect the RX2 antenna in the radio. Maybe that's the problem. I routinely listen on a beverage (RX2) while transmitting on a dipole. The beverage is located below the dipole. When the board went south I was generally running 100W of power. I now have a 1 KW amp. I don't dare try my combination with the amp. Of course, the board may have been damaged by nearby lightning. I have purchased some ICE arrestors and will have them installed before the spring thunderstorms come along. So, I have two questions for you experts out there. 1. Do you think the board fried because of too much of my power getting into RX2 or because of nearby lightning strikes? 2. If I switch RX2 to NC in the Antenna Selection window, will that physically disconnect the antennas from RX2? Thanks for the bandwidth. 73 Chris KA1GEEU ___ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
