Email me at harry@zachtek.com referencing this thread and we will see what to do. I am thinking the PA is dead and I can send you a new PA IC (sits in a socket) as a first step. If that doesn't work you can send it for repairs but let's see if we can avoid that as it takes forever to get to me and back. 73 //Harry

Yes if you have a proper connection to the device and the TX LED do not light up in signal gen mode then chances are the PA is dead.. When you used the configuration software, did the GPS time update and the correct device was displayed in the status window etc? //Harry

yes, if you upgrade to the latest 1.xx firmware you will get band coordinated schedule. 73 //Harry

Hi Greg. the first thing to check is the TX LED. On the later units with a green TX LED It detects RF so if the power amplifier is OK it should light up if you start the signal generator and run the device with no antenna. If the TX LED is red then it is an older unit and you can not determine if there is RF out by looking at it. If the TX LED is green (I changed over at hardware model 2.07 I think) but does not light up when using the signal generator then the Power Amplifier might be bad - it is more or less the only thing that goes bad in these devices. In that case it can be replaced easily if it is in a socket like in later models, open the lid and check. The PA IC is a 74AC244. If it is surface mounted it requires a hot air station to replace so it can be tricky, alternatively it can be sent to me for repairs. In that case email me for instructions. If you determine that the PA is bad and it's the type that sits in a socket - let me know and I will send you a replacement. 73 //Harry

The Low Pass filter for 6m filter is good for 8m as well so if you have a Desktop 40to10 or other model that has a 6m filter you can use that. The firmware will pick the correct filter for all frequencies so if you would like to get on 8m now you could modify the firmware so that the definition for the 6m frequency is 40MHz instead of 50MHz. You would essentially have replaced the 6m band with 8m and would pick the 6m band in the configuration. This is a quick workaround if you want to try it out, it requires a one line change in the firmware and recompile/upload. To use 8m and 6m in the same device you will have to wait for a future firmware that supports user defined bands/frequencies. 73 //Harry

I second Robs recommendation on the WSPR.ROCKS site. Here is the link to compare two RX or TX stations https://wspr.rocks/head2head/ 73 //Harry

Thank you for reporting Mike. First cable that is bad in a few thousands sold, not a bad percentage. Well not bad except for you that got the bad one 🙂 Looking forward to read more in "The Communicator" in January. 73 //Harry

Hi Don. To fix this I would probably have to replace the transmitter for you as it sounds like the problem is in the transmitter GPS chip. I do test every device for GPS reception before I put them in my stock but something might have happened before it reached you. One test you could do is to measure if you have 3.3V out on the center pin on the GPS connector. If not that could be your problem. Other than that I suggest you email me referencing this thread and I will replace it for you. harry@zachtek.com 73 //Harry

Hi Nate. I haven't measured the max power it can withstand but I intend to do so in the near future and put in the documentation. The next batch should be available in about three weeks (if we are lucky in time for Black Friday) I am waiting for delivery of a special kind of film caps that i use in the receiver chain and there is just one manufacture for them. These Caps should help it cope with strong signals without it casing to much unwanted mixing as they don't change their capacitance value with variable voltage like the ceramic types do. Well that is the theory at least, I need to measure the IMD values with and without these caps to be sure they do any good as they are pretty expensive but for now I am using them. When I get some spare time I will check and perhaps cost optimize the receiver. 73 //Harry

That is great to hear. The Griffin iMic is actually a pretty decent Sound card, especially in Line input mode. I have used it when developing and testing a lot of sound based applications and for my WSPR receiver as well. It has les noise than the standard Chinese USB sound adapters and it also well supported on most Operating systems. Watch out for changing sound cards in WSJT-X whenever you plug in a new card WSJT-X will drop the existing one even if you have specified a specific sound adapter, it does this in both Linux and Windows. Very annoying. Restarting WSJT-X fixes the problem in Windows, under Linux you might have to fiddle a bit. This is not a big problem if you don't change the sound cards but it has bitten me several times as I use a KVM and the HDMI monitor is it's own sound device so whenever I switch in out out from the Computer running WSJT-X It might change the sound card. This problem is worse on Linux than on Windows, I got so feed up with this that I purchased a separate computer to run my ICOM radio on and put Windows on it instead of trying to fix the problem on my main Linux computer. //Harry

One thing to be mindful of is that the Pi Zero 2 might not have enough CPU power to process all the stations within two minutes, the decode time is dependent on how many stations it finds in the waterfall so it will vary with bands and time of day. I don't know what happens if the decode takes more than 2 minutes, it might be discarded. //Harry

Hi, did you get this to work or do you still se no TX Light when using the Signal generator or WSPR Beacon? //Harry

I am behind on the documentation on this product Schema here: https://github.com/HarrydeBug/1058-QRP-Automatic-RX-TX-Switch/blob/main/Documentation/Schema/%231058-QRP-Automatic-TX-RX-switch%20V1R2.pdf Second relay should be possible if you use a 5V type. I haven't measured maximum power yet, I am guessing 2 Watts should be OK. You can not run it on 12V as circuit and relays are max 5V types. Isolation between RX and TX port is frequency dependent (se diagram on Github) -80dB at 1MHz, -45dB at 50MHz. this is in receive mode, should be much better in TX mode as the RX port is connected to ground in TX mode but I haven't measured this. 73 //Harry

No problem with high SWR, the transmitter will not be damaged. I have transmitted in to a dead short followed by a TX in to open circuit, each test for 20 minutes and there was no damage to the test unit. 73 //Harry

Hi Bruce. Restart the config software. Do you really get the same error message when using webinterface??? That seems incredible. Can you postva screenshot of that and if possible a screenshot that show all settings in my config?

It should not be 0v over the second cap. Bad solder or cap wrong orientation?

That is great to hear Don. As a reminder the factory configuration software that can be downloaded from github will show what band is connected to what A,B,C and D filter slot. Second - if if you click the deBug view option it will enable a way for you to manually pick any filter you want, useful for trouble shooting. Third - if a filter is defect you can replace it with a wire and in the factory config pick the "link" option. The firmware will now use this wire for bands that are higher than the highest fitted filter (like 6m) You will then get unfiltered RF out that you can filter externally with your own filter (or perhaps my HF filter board with SMASMA that has all filters from 80m to 6m) Anyway glad you were able to get most of it going 👍😊

Hi Don. The GPS going greay at WSPR transmission is normal. It's to busy generating the WSPR moduklation so it will stop updating the GPS data. I indicate that by turning it greay in the Config software. So everytning is just fine I would say. The modulation is hard to hear, its moves a maximum of 4Hertz I belive and on a 1500Hz signal that is hard to make out.. Do you get spoted? 73 //Harry

What product is it? WSPR TX Pico? If yes, it should blink the White LED at startup , it takes about 10 seconds for the super caps to charge up before you see it. Pluged in correctly or up-side down perhaps? Can you measure the voltage over one of the Caps and see what you get? 73 //Harry

Yes that should work. The transmitter can accept infinite SWR without taking damage so don't be afraid to experiment. 73 //Harry