Mastodawn

The radio weekend comes to a nice end, two quick videos and a blog post about the #zbitx #wrp radio are up: https://ham.bharathpalavalli.com/posts/20260502144921-making_the_zbitx_field_worthy/.

USB PD trigger is at: https://tilvids.com/w/tsKhLFmZhTBzje7MFSNZ9s
zBitx case mod is at: https://tilvids.com/w/tkTbZraFVJZihiyRD9zgWC

#amateurradio #ham

Making the zBitx field-worthy

Figure 1: Labour day well spent with modifications to the zBitx and powering it using a USB-C PD trigger This promises to be yet another long post, so please bear with me1! And as always, the TLDR; version: Challenges I have with the zBitx -Modifications I would like to make

Getting On The Air

Bharath M. Palavalli May 1

I'd say #LabourDay well spent, finally got around to powering the #zBitx from a powerbank and some bug fixes on the HAM Clock using an #esp32 CYD to get it up and running. A few more fixes and I'm all set for the next field day in better conditions :-).

#amateurradio #ham #qrp

Show thread

Bharath M. Palavalli Dec 31

It was fun to activate the park, managed to get 36 QSOs on FT8, and Rx the HF Nets in India. Managed to make a QSO with stations as far away as Samoa & Poland in under 4W on the #zbitx. Lots of things to plan for the next #pota. I’ll hopefully write up a detailed report.

Not to mention, spotted half a dozen tigers, a leaped and a merry number of birds! A good way to end the year!

#birding #qrp #amateurradio #hamradio #tiger

Bharath M. Palavalli Dec 25

I will be attempting my first ever #pota, IN-0067, tomorrow with a QRP setup (given the flight restrictions, etc.), seem to have ticked most boxes with the prep. I'll be on 80m-10m on SSB and #FT8, using an EFHW and a #zbitx. It goes upto 5W. I had previously tested the EFHW during an impromptu trip (https://ham.bharathpalavalli.com/posts/20251014143716-my_first_field_ops/), but haven’t ever tested the zbitx. Given the quirks on it, would be interesting.

#amateurradio #ham #hamradio #tadoba #tigerreserves

cc:@ParksOnTheAir

Bharath M. Palavalli Dec 16

Around the world in 7.2Mhz…

#radio #amateurradio #lamakaan #hamradio #homebrew #qrp #zbitx

Shawn Rutledge K7IHZ / LB2JK Oct 13, 2025

Another SOTA hike yesterday. This one was relatively easy for being a 4-pointer: not steep, not even terribly long, just a bit of a drive to get there, and I paid a lot of road tolls through Eggedal, to have a look. https://sotl.as/summits/LA/BU-062 Such a stiff breeze that not only was I a bit cold, but even the #zbitx managed to stay cool. I used the /P suffix this time: maybe I always should have. The software handled it fine. Had to start separate logbooks on LOTW and QRZ.

Shawn Rutledge K7IHZ / LB2JK Sep 29, 2025

I finally got back to SOTA activation of Gyrihaugen yesterday https://sotl.as/summits/LA/BU-027 after trying last spring and failing to get the #zbitx battery polarity right that time (fried a PCB trace, had to fix it). Much better results this time: pskreporter said I was also heard in Australia and North America, just didn't have any QSOs with them. Not bad for 3-4 watts. But it's a rather tiring hike for a mere 2 points. I doubt that I will repeat that one very often.

Shawn Rutledge K7IHZ / LB2JK Sep 29, 2025

At the Chicken meetup I showed https://github.com/ec1oud/sbitx/tree/sbitxd on #zbitx with both clients: Plan 9 https://git.sr.ht/~ecloud/sbitx-9p-client and Qt on Linux (not pushed anywhere yet). Both immature and off-topic: not using Chicken (yet). But tangentially related to the 9sg project that sortof does use Chicken in some cases. Instead of describing a UI with a 9p filesystem, I just expose the radio's functionality as a 9p filesystem that the UI "discovers". Realized afterwards: my first IOTA contact was HG8LXL on FT8 😀

Shawn Rutledge K7IHZ / LB2JK Aug 25, 2025

A couple of #zbitx related thingies: a battery holder for 3 LiFePO4 cells https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7123780 And my fan https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7015499 is smaller now. So it's surviving for portable use. Still a power hog though: I get around an hour from the 3 cells, if I'm transmitting the usual amount to get some FT8 QSOs. FT4 would be more efficient; and ft8_lib can do it; so, some day...

Shawn Rutledge K7IHZ / LB2JK Aug 25, 2025

I set up the #zbitx on the beach in Jūrmala (my wife's favorite vacay spot) a couple of weeks ago with a telescoping 5M vertical whip from AE, on two different mornings, and had a few QSOs. It was a chance to test the support for prefixed callsigns in ft8_lib (I was YL/LB2JK). The original author lives in Riga, and I had a meeting with him while I was there to discuss those changes, which he's just integrated upstream: https://github.com/kgoba/ft8_lib/commit/9fec6ca39886edbf96f4f5e71edc76da5074e871 (I didn't mean to squash all those patches though)