Horrible "birdies of death" all bands

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K0ATV
 

Posts: 3
Joined: 30 May 2022, 04:54

Horrible "birdies of death" all bands

Post by K0ATV »

I've had my unit for about a little over a month now. Bought preassembled from one of the "authorized vendors" from this site. I have used it in the field multiple times and at home hooked up to my regular antennas. One thing I cannot get over is that there are horrible birdies all across 20/40/80. Not your regular type, but so bad it kicks in the AGC. My worst offenders that I found are 14.287, 7.200, 3.670 (this is just a sampling). There are others, up and down the band. Not all are the AGC triggering type, but bad enough to make it horrible to listen to (headphones = pain) / impossible to use said frequency. These "birdies of death" also exist while hooked up to a dummy load as well. I've been able to work around these on a few POTA/SOTA activations and have had some very fine QSO's across the country with this unit. Impressed to say the least. But... The "birdies of death" haunt me everywhere I go and I have to try and work in between them. Does anybody have any insight into what the heck could be going on? I just can't believe that this is normal. I have seen nor heard of any mention of a similar situation in my travels. I would love to do a kit group buy for our club, but at this time just cannot with the current scenario. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Please help me figure this out.

I found another post describing this same scenario. Didn't come up in my initial search query. My situation seems a little worse than what that poster described. I have noise up and down the 20m band where I mostly work. Would love to hear more about what can be done to fix this.

Derek / K0ATV
pe1nnz
 

Posts: 50
Joined: 30 Dec 2021, 19:29

Re: Horrible "birdies of death" all bands

Post by pe1nnz »

Hi Derek,
Thanks for reporting this.

Yes, I can confirm the two birds around 14.287 and 3.670 MHz, and this indeed can be disturbing when tuning over the band and yes it affects the AGC around these frequencies.

We will need to analyse this to find the source of this spur generation. It could be the si5351 or the 328/340. In the case of si5351 a software fix could help, in other cases we need to see if a hardware fix help.

A quick analysis shows that the spur generation is linked to 20MHz atmega328 clock domain. That would suggest that an immediate software patch to fix this spur is unfortunately out of reach.

I will keep posted on this topic in this thread when we know more.
K0ATV
 

Posts: 3
Joined: 30 May 2022, 04:54

Re: Horrible "birdies of death" all bands

Post by K0ATV »

Thank you for the quick response. I look fwd to any information as it comes out and in the meantime I will continue having fun with my unit and just try and tune around the tones. I still think this is an amazing piece of kit!

73, Derek / K0ATV
n8jjo
 

Posts: 9
Joined: 12 Aug 2022, 02:24

Re: Horrible "birdies of death" all bands

Post by n8jjo »

Just received my (tr)usdx today from uellyqh. I too have a huge spur at 14.287KHz.

Any updates on resolving this?

73 John N8JJO
storyofyouandme
 

Posts: 54
Joined: 03 Jan 2022, 15:30

Re: Horrible "birdies of death" all bands

Post by storyofyouandme »

In fact, in USB mode, 705014270, 10.1 and 7023 have noise points. In LSB mode, 7023 and 7023 have noise points. Different versions of firmware are slightly different. I hope the new version of firmware can improve.
K7KS
 

Posts: 1
Joined: 22 Sep 2022, 17:02

Re: Horrible "birdies of death" all bands

Post by K7KS »

Same here - my assembled device from Uellyqh - lots of birdies, looking for any assistance. thanks
KG7ABM
 

Posts: 3
Joined: 25 Oct 2022, 03:14

Re: Horrible "birdies of death" all bands

Post by KG7ABM »

Just got an assembled device from the approved eBay seller. I also have many "birdies".

I've not transmitted, or even adjusted the frequency (so quoting exact frequencies is of little value). No antenna is of no help, nor is a dummy load. Listening in CW mode, just on the 40 meter band, I hear at least 10 "major" ones, and numerous more "minor" ones (very audible above noise floor, but kick up the S meter negligibly). Noise floor is reported as about -101 dBm at bottom of band, -98 at top. The "major" ones kick up to as high as -80, though most are closer to -92. There is also a "click" at a couple of points tuning back and forth in 500 kHz steps. They appear running on the shack MFJ switching power supply and also on a USB battery with the MFJ power supply & other radios shut down.

If I took the time to understand the radio, I think I could guess the sources, as they have different behaviors. Some come up slowly and naturally in pitch as you tune across them, while others dramatically rise and then fall in pitch over only about 200 or 300 Hz of tuning.

I'd expect some birdies in a radio of this kind, but their ubiquity seems excessive. Please let me know what others commonly experience, so I can set my expectations appropriately, enduring what cannot be cured, but investigating what is unique to my radio.

Thanks & 73 - John KG7ABM
diskilly40
 

Posts: 1
Joined: 05 Dec 2022, 20:31

Re: Horrible "birdies of death" all bands

Post by diskilly40 »

Hi all,

I decided to post here cause I think that also get birdies inside the unit I bought two weeks ago at agreed vendor.
Anyway, running on 80m band I got one at 3637 Mhz, coming slowly around that freq. but did not take time to check other frequencies or bands at this time, will do for sure.
That's why I'm also interested in any improvment to get rid of!
Home Manuel, guido or else could fine soon...
The rig is fantastic, though! Keep working on team!
All the best and 73 DE DIDIER F4ISC
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