Assembly

Assembly of the µBitx transceiver typically takes between  8 and 20 hours.

The majority of the time is spent on selection of the enclosure, knobs and power supply,  and in creating holes for insertion of components on the front and back panels of the enclosure.   Most time is likely to be spent on creating the hole for the display.

Wire up is normally pretty quick (from one to five hours depending on your skills).

The following guides will help you in selecting:

Important wiring instructions

Make sure you read these instructions:

IO BITX20 Group Members have contributed to an assembly guide on the group Wiki:

https://groups.io/g/BITX20/wiki/UBITX-Assembly

If your Raduino display is dark or has bright blocks showing, this may require contrast adjustment – the blue preset potentiometer on the Raduino board.

Clark Martin  KK6ISP says “You should twist related wires together. For example, all three wires of the volume pot (3 wires), the speaker output (2), key (2), power (2 or 3), encoder (4), mic(3).  By twisting, what gets induced in one twist tends to get canceled out in the next.  And vice versa with regards to a cable emitting a signal.  But don’t twist together unrelated wires, those which you wouldn’t want crosstalk on.”

Items required to assemble your uBITx

At a minimum, the following items are  required to make the transceiver functional:

  • the uBITx kitset
  • a 12v regulated power supply capable of delivering at least 4 amps
  • an enclosure (it is possible to use the plastic shipping case though!)
  • knobs for the encoder and volume control
  • a marker pen  or some other means to apply labels to your enclosure (particularly to identify the three 3.5mm jacks)
  • some basic hand tools.

Tools required

The following tools are likely to be required:

  • hand or electric drill and drill bits (to make holes in the enclosure)
  • a reamer or perhaps a hole saw or nibbler (to make larger holes if you don’t have bits big enough and let’s face it – most of us don’t!)
  • a wide flat file (to finish up the hole for the display panel)
  • a medium sized philips head screwdriver (to assemble the stand-offs for the main board)
  • a small flat screwdriver (to help prize out cables from the female connectors)
  • an adjustable spanner (to tighten the encoder and volume control nuts)
  • pliers (to tighten the nuts on the 3.5mm stereo jacks)
  • a soldering iron and solder to solder up all the components and wires.